TEXT BY文字提供：ART.ZIP
IMAGES COURTESY OF 圖片提供：HAYWARD GALLERY 海沃德畫廊
Spanning the past 25 years, The Human Factor will bring together major works by 25 leading international artists who have fashioned new ways of using the figure in contemporary sculpture. In addressing the body, the most frequently revisited subject in art’s history, these artists confront the question of how we represent the ‘human’ today. Figurative sculpture may be almost as old as the human body, but it is also as fresh and vital as whatever new approaches, materials, techniques and ideas artists apply to the subject.
《人本要素》彙聚了25位全球頂尖藝術家的作品，為觀眾呈現了縱覽過去25年間在當代雕塑領域中藝術家們是如何用新的表達方式來塑造“人”的形象的。對人類肢體形象的表達是藝術史中非常重要的一個課題，此次參展的藝術家面對的問題是如何呈現當下“人”的形象。具象人體雕塑的歷史可能和人類本身一樣古老，但藝術家們通過不同的製作工藝、新奇的材料、科技亦或者是不同的觀念上的創造一直讓這種藝術形式保持了鮮活的生命力。
The Human Factor focuses on sculpture that explores a variety of social, political, cultural and historical concerns and incorporates diverse references ranging from science fiction to war monuments, from popular photography to art history. The exhibition comprises uncanny images of historical and political figures including Adolf Hitler, John F. Kennedy, Dick Cheney and Jesus, as well as hauntingly familiar archetypes and enigmatic symbols of consumer culture. Many of these works also pointedly revisit classical and archaic models of art as well as modernist sculpture and Minimalism. Ultimately, these artists treat the human body as a kind of rhetorical figure, a means for staging and exploring the ways that our society constructs identities, social positions and values.
《人本要素》展出的雕塑作品集中展現和探討了對各種社會、政治、文化和歷史問題的思考，同時展覽關照的範圍也極為寬泛，涉及了從科幻作品到戰爭紀念碑；從流行影像到藝術史等各個領域。展覽中展出了很多不同尋常的歷史和政治人物，比如阿道夫·希特勒（Adolf Hitler）、肯尼迪（John F. Kennedy）、切尼（Dick Cheney）和耶穌等形象，同時也展出了很多令人眼熟能詳的消費主義代表符號和圖像。很多參展作品都針鋒相對地審視了過往藝術史中那些已經成為經典的作品和觀念，比如像現代主義雕塑和極簡主義。歸根結底，這些藝術家是將“人體”作為一種修辭手段，以此來呈現和探索我們對社會框架的認知、進行對社會地位和價值體系的思考。
Mirroring the viewer’s own physical presence, these sculpted figures engage visitors in a kind of theatrical confrontation in the gallery. Whether they function as a surrogate for the spectator or as a fellow actor sharing the same stage, they create encounters that can be at once playful, thought-provoking and unsettling.
從觀者的角度來說，觀眾本身的物理存在與作品之間的映襯關係使展覽空間當中產生了一種極富戲劇性的對峙狀態，這些雕塑作品不論是作為被替代的觀眾或者是作為共享同一個舞台的演員，它們都營造了一種值得玩味、發人深省和忐忑不安的特殊體驗。
Tips 小貼士
展覽場地：HAYWARD GALLERY 海沃德畫廊
展覽時間：17.6.2014 – 7.9.2014
更多信息：www.southbankcentre.co.uk
