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​Painting and Ceramics of Nature

August 12, 2021 -

October 8, 2021

Fly Away
Home

FROOTS Shanghai

Artists: Fei Huang 黄飞,Abid Javed 阿比德·贾维德,Avital Avital 艾维塔·艾维塔,Einat Cohen 艾娜特·科恩,Noam Dover and Michal Cederbaum 诺姆·多弗 与 米哈尔·塞德鲍姆,Yair Levi 雅耶尔·列维

"I wanted to know what time the wild geese took off early in the morning, but what I found in the search was this film: Fly Away Home."

---Fu Kai'e, WeChat Moment

Since the previous year, Jingdezhen ceramic artist Huang Fei has been stranded in Canada due to a car accident. Last June, a painting posted by his wife, Fu Kai'e, who is also a ceramic artist, caught the attention of the  curators of FROOTS. It was a traditional Chinese painting sketch, with an adult intent but a child's brushwork. Fu Kai'e began to share the paintings created during Huang Fei's recovery from surgery. When he was still very unskilled with his hands, he made a sketch of a rectangular body and a jar. Was that a ceramic work taken out of the packing box, where thoughts of ceramics were consoled and paintings were made to show the joyful feeling?

Contemporary artists have long suggested that the (creative) process is the artwork. In the WeChat Moment to follow the continuous release of Huang Fei's paintings for more than a year, for the curators, is the appreciation of the creation process of a work of art. It is a multi-dimensional work. In the dimension of time, along with Huang Fei's day-to-day paintings and Fu Kai'e's photography, the curator's eyes are drawn to the Canadian sky, the lake and the treetops, which should be considered as also spatial dimensions - gradually, we step into the depths of the two artists' lives. This exhibition presents this work in the exhibition hall to share with more friends.

The myth that "man is made of clay" suggests that man and ceramics share a commonality. Originated from nature, both human and ceramics are becoming more and more distant from nature today, almost forgetting their roots. Huang Fei says, "Painting makes me happy and makes me forget the sadness of the car accident, especially when I am sketching in nature. Facing the flowers and plants over here, I can get very close to the birds in the wild. At the same time, their colors and sounds make me marvel at the creation of nature." How many of today's flower and bird painters have seen the birds they paint in person? Huang Fei's paintings are full of birds that cannot be named, all alive and interesting; he also captured the scene of a flock of finches chattering in the grass, the moment when a flock of geese landed on the water in turn ...... 

Stephen Graham, an English writer and traveler, wrote: “As you sit on the hillside, or lie prone under the trees of the forest, or sprawl wet-legged by a mountain stream, the great door, that does not look like a door, opens.”

We can also feel from Huang Fei's paintings that a doorway of nature has opened to him. Will this experience of living close to nature influence Huang Fei's future ceramic creations? We invited four international ceramic artists to discuss with Huang Fei the relationship between nature and the creation of contemporary art. These artists all discovered the treasure of ceramic art after a period of trekking and exploration on their life paths; and the particular paths each took led them to different portals to nature. 

Studio Noam Dover & Michal Cederbaum in this exhibition is located on the Mediterranean coast of Carmel, where the Phoenician culture  where glass originated, and the ancient culture of amphora meet. The glass works on display highlight the use of high technology as a tool for design (e.g. 3D printed ceramics) on the one hand, and on the other hand, the raw materials, the glass blowing process and the shape of the work are closely related to the natural and social environment, history and tradition in which the studio is located. By deliberately making the surface of the glass clearly show the texture of the special mold, the artist symbolically expresses that the artwork is a record. It reminds the viewer of the birth of the work and draws our attention to its origins.  On whether they can still find their way back home in the future, the attempt of Studio Noam Dover & Michal Cederbaum is an inspiration for ceramic artists in Jingdezhen, or craft artists in other fields.

“本想知道大雁一早几点钟起飞的,结果搜索到的是这样一部影片 Fly Away Home (《返家 
十万里》)”
— 符开娥,微信朋友圈
 
前年至今,景德镇陶瓷艺术家黄飞因车祸滞留加拿大。去年六月,他同为陶瓷艺术家的妻子符开娥在朋友圈上发的一幅画吸引了 FROOTS 策展人的注意。那是一幅国画写生作品“蒲草白鹭”,构图用意是成人的,笔触却是孩童的。她开始不间断地分享黄飞手术后康复治疗中的绘画作品。刚开始用手还很不熟练的时候,他画过一幅素描,一个长方体和一个罐子。那是从包装箱取出一件陶瓷作品,对陶瓷的思念得以慰及,作画以示欣喜之情吗? 

当代艺术家们早已提出,(创作)过程即艺术作品。关注符开娥分享黄飞绘画的一年多时间,对策展人来说,是对一件艺术作品创作过程的欣赏。这是一件多维度的、多侧面的作品。在时间维度上,随黄飞一日日的画作、符开娥的摄影,策展人的视线在空间的维度上,被引向加拿大的天空、湖面和树梢——逐渐地,我们走进了两位艺术家的生命与生活的深处。此次展览将这件作品再现于展厅当中,与更多朋友共享。 

“人是用泥土做成”的神话,暗示人和陶瓷具有共通性。源于自然的人类和陶瓷,今天都距离自然越来越遥远,几乎将自身的根遗忘了。黄飞说:“绘画让我快乐,让我忘记车祸带来的悲伤,尤其在自然中写生的时候。在这边面对花草,能很近距离地靠近野外的鸟儿们。同时,它们的色彩、声音让我感叹自然的创造。” 今天的花鸟画家,有几位亲眼见过自己所画的鸟儿?黄飞的画里,有许多叫不出名的鸟儿,都活生生,很有趣;他也捕捉到一群雀儿草里叽喳唠嗑的场面,一队大雁依次降落水面的瞬间...... 

英国作家、旅行家 Stephen Graham 写道:“当你坐在山坡,趴在森林树下,或湿着腿平躺在山溪边,一扇巨大而无形的门敞开了。”从黄飞画里我们也可以感到,大自然的一扇门户向他打开了。 

这段亲近自然的生活经历,是否会影响黄飞未来的陶瓷创作呢?我们邀请了四位国际陶瓷艺术家与黄飞共同讨论自然与当代艺术创作的关系。这几位艺术家都是在人生路上经过一段跋涉探索,才发现了陶瓷艺术这个宝藏;而每个人所走过的特殊路径把他们引向了不同的通往大自然的入口。 

这次参展的 Noam Dover & Michal Cederbaum 工作室,坐落在地中海的卡尔迈尔海岸,是玻璃的起源腓尼基文化和古老的双耳尖底陶罐文化的交汇处。此次展出的玻璃作品,一方面突出用高科技作为工具进行设计和模具研发制作(如3D打印陶瓷),另一方面,无论从原材料,玻璃吹制工艺和作品外形,都紧扣工作室所处的自然环境、社会环境、历史和传统。通过特意使玻璃表面清晰地展现特殊模具的纹理,艺术家象征性地表达:该作品是一个记录。它提醒观者关注该作品诞生的经过,也把我们的注意力引向它的源头。对景德镇陶瓷艺术家,或其他领域的工艺艺术家,是否在前行中仍可找到归途,Noam Dover & Michal Cederbaum 工作室的尝试,或是一个启迪。 

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