Slide

Sculpture on the Edge
邊緣雕塑

IS THE FAKE REAL? 靈境若真

Zhaobo Yang 楊兆博, Patrick Jones, Junchao Ren 任俊超 (SSG artistic team)

Yun ling Art, Jiangbei District, Chongqing 重慶鐵山坪雲嶺藝術中心

23/03-20/05/2024

 

Large scale projects often entail forms of collaborativon and this exhibition ‘IS THE FAKE REAL?’ consisted of the working relationship of Zhaobo Yang, Patrick Jones and Junchao Ren (SSG). This also implied a pooling of skills that includes fabrication techniques, drawing skills, conceptual planning, complex social negotiations, co-ordination with industrial producers, spatial planning, and documentation procedures. In short, a complex apparatus of sculptural production.

大型項目通常涉及各種合作形式,而此次展覽「 靈境若真」則由楊兆博,Patrick Jones和任俊超(SSG)合作完成。這意味著三位藝術家需要整合多種技能,包括製作技術、繪圖技能、概念規劃、複雜的社會協商、與工業生產者的協調、空間規劃以及文檔記錄程序等。簡而言之,這是一個複雜的雕塑生產系統。

 

In the installation ‘A Bridge to the Landscape’ there is a schematic representation of a steel bridge with ten moving image screens each of which depict moving images of water flowing in different directions. The bridge signifies a passage from a digital or virtual presentation of a landscape into a real space. It is a work that probes the deeper question of how the real is constructed. The question of the constitution of reality is thus turned into the question of what sculpture is. This question is predicated on being able to articulate a spatio-temporal flux which serves as a schema for the real.

在名為《通向風景的橋》的裝置藝術中,有一座具有象徵意義的鋼橋,橋上配有十個顯示動態影像的屏幕,每個屏幕展示了水流向不同方向的影像。這座橋象徵著從數字或虛擬風景展示到現實空間的通道。這件作品探討了一個更深層次的問題,即現實是如何被構建的。因此,在探討現實是如何被構建的過程中,這一問題自然延伸為對「什麼是雕塑」的探討。要探討現實和雕塑的本質,首先需要能夠描述一種時空的流動性,而這種時空流動性作為一個框架或模式,幫助我們理解和構建現實。

The work ‘Meta Ark’ poses the question of origins and the birth of new constellations. It is a structure that is portable so lingers on the edge of discovery. Where did it come from and where is it going to, is it welcomed or does it signify an unwanted intrusion. Whilst the fabrication points to a future yet to come, it also retains a memory of what is retained from archaic imagination. It is both a material structure based on advanced fabrication techniques and an image surfacing from the collective imaginary. It is both strange (detached) and familiar that mixes a constellation of images within its fabric.

作品《元方舟》則探討了關於起源和新星座誕生的問題。它是一個便攜式結構,因為它可以隨時移動,所以它總是有可能被新的人或環境發現,帶來新的發現和意義。它從哪裡來,又將去向何方?它是被歡迎的創新,還是被視為不受歡迎的干擾?它既是一個基於先進製作技術的物質結構,又是從集體想象中浮現出的形象。它既給人疏離感和陌生感,但同時又包含了熟悉的元素,通過其结构融合了各种影像,使觀者感到新奇又親切。

In ‘The Landscape Awaits (Meta Ark II)’, a structure is seen on its ascent into new pathways which define the way that city space consists of newly created trajectories, lines redrawn, zones established in which something is awaiting. This is a work that not only stages arrival but with this the sense of anxiety connected to the integration of unwanted strangeness. Sculpture is in this instance about the mixing of economies related to anticipated arrivals, emergence, and immanence. Something is seen to patrol the border regions of this state of flux. The materials are of late modernity, but the imaginary is part of the long wave constitution of modernist city space.
在《風景等待(元方舟II號)》中,作品呈現了一個上升的結構,象徵著進入新的發展路徑。這些新的路徑定義了新的城市空間,包括新創建的軌跡、重新繪製的路線和新建的區域,徬彿其中有某種未知的事物在等待著被發現或實現。這件作品不僅僅是關於到達或進入新空間的描繪,同時也反映了這種到達伴隨著不受歡迎的陌生感的焦慮和擔憂。在這種情況下,雕塑不僅僅是一個物質的藝術品,更是一個複雜的經濟混合體,包含預期到達、出現和內在存在的多重層面,並在這些層面上進行資源和影響的交互。在這種不斷變化的狀態中,可以看到有某種守護意味的巡視在這些邊界地區產生。使用的材料是後現代的,但想象力是現代主義城市空間長期發展和演變的結果。

The Landscape Awaits, installation view Yunling Art Centre, stainless steel, cabon fibre, pv fabic, resin, cord 180 x 57 x 180 cm, 2023

‘Dorsal Fin’ introduces the spectre of what lies within the deep. The shark emerges as a reminder of pre-human reality or a time before the human record of it. The emergence of the fin defines the relationship between the deep and the surface, between what is visible and what is retained within the invisible. Built within this, is the operation of the framing of the spectre and the real. Sculpture is here a recording machine like configuration that is capable of not only mediating upon the temporal flux but also determining a relation between what is fake or real.

Following the work ‘Dorsal Fin’, is the work ‘Navigating A Life.’ Life is here presented as a vast swimming pool that stands as a prescribed pre-ordained reality. Entry into the pool stands for the virtual pool of infinite possibilities in which floating within the possibility of bliss or escape. A shark’s fin is seen ascending from this pool, but it marks a double oblivion, the forgetting of the threat that a shark normally signifiers and the shark forgetting its nature to issue threat. The nature of this double order of oblivion presents a world drifting into loss of the sharp edges that formally defined the reality principle.

作品《背鰭》通過象徵鯊魚的背鰭,引發觀眾對深處隱藏之物的想象和思考,帶來一種神秘和未知的氛圍。鯊魚的出現提醒我們存在著一種先於人類存在的現實,或者是在有人類記錄之前的遠古時代。鰭的出現定義了深處與表面之間的關係,以及可見與不可見之間的關係。在此基礎上,包含了對虛幻和現實進行界定和組織的過程。在這裡,雕塑好比一台記錄機器,不僅能夠反映和處理時間的變化和動態,還能區分和揭示虛實之間的關係。

《背鰭》之後是作品《航行人生》。生命在這裡被呈現為一個巨大的游泳池,象徵著一種預先設定好的生活狀態。進入泳池,如同踏入無盡可能的虛擬海洋,在那無垠的水域中漂浮,或享受至福,或逃離現實。一個鯊魚背鰭從這個池子中浮現,但這標誌著雙重遺忘:一是人們忘記了鯊魚通常象徵的威脅,二是鯊魚也忘記了自己本身的威脅性。這種雙重遺忘的本質,展現了一個世界,正在逐漸漂向失落,那些曾經清晰定義現實原則的鋒利邊界,漸漸模糊消失。

In ‘Bamboo Forest’ three advertising screens stand in the midst of a fake forest. There is a ghostly image of a woman in a forest. The image draws us into the depth of the forest and the foundation of the image as an index of the real. Does the image afford escape between the binary of virtual and real or do we remain stuck of the loop that returns us endlessly into the binary code?

In the work ‘Step Into the Forest’ a laptop computer floats in front of a ‘man-made’ forest whilst a photograph of a real forest beckons. The structure is this work is one of folds and frames. A pathway through these different interfaces is seemingly offered but then this is accompanied by strangeness as we become trapped within the shift in the naming of the category.

《竹林》中有三塊廣告屏幕矗立於假森林間。一位幽靈般的女子影像引領我們走向森林深處,將影像作為真實的指引。這影像是讓我們在虛擬與現實的二元對立中找到逃離的路徑,還是讓我們永無止境地困於二元代碼的循環之中?

而在作品《步入森林》中,一台筆記本電腦漂浮在「人造」森林前,而一張真實森林的照片在遠處召喚。這個作品的結構由折疊和框架構成。儘管這些不同的界面似乎提供了一條路徑,但隨之而來的是一種陌生感,因為我們在類別名稱的轉換中迷失了方向,陷入困境。

Bamboo Forest, installation view Yunling Art Centre, Bamboo, concrete, steel, print, LED lights, sound, speaker 1000 x 300 x 300 cm, 2024

‘Stay on the Path’ depicts a section of the rail track that runs from Oruro, Bolivia. The imagine is a reminder of how lines are drawn into the landscape in the search for materials to extract through mining the earth. This shows the fold within the scanning process and the desire to dig deep into the reality of wanting to extract something as an outcome of the scanning process.

‘Geological Time’ is constructed around the image of a swinging stone that marks the passage of internal time. With each swing the illusion of a repeated self-same motions sustained but difference also lurks within the geological time frame. The gap between gallery time and the time locked in natural formations is allowed to come to the fore.

《留在軌道上》描繪了從玻利維亞奧魯羅出發的一段鐵路軌道。这幅图像提醒我们,为了寻找和开采地球资源,铁轨的線條是如何被「繪」在景观中的。這揭示了掃描過程中的多個層次和維度,以及對深入現實、渴望通過掃描獲取某種成果的慾望。

《地質時間》圍繞一塊擺動的石頭的影像展開,這塊石頭象徵著內部時間的流逝。每次擺動都製造出一種重復相同運動的幻象,但在地質時間框架內也隱藏著差異。畫廊時間與自然形成的時間之間的差距得以顯現。

A tension appears to run through these presentations namely focused on the difference between the fake and the real. ‘In the Future is Not Given’ transparent walls float over a construction of doors that refuse to open. This loss of passage stands for the loss of clear passage into the future.
這些作品似乎瀰漫著一種緊張感,專注於虛假與真實之間的差異。在《未來未定》中,透明的牆壁漂浮在一扇扇無法打開的門之上。這通道的消失象徵著通往未來的明晰路徑的喪失。

The Future is not Given, installation view Yunling Art Centre, olyester fibre print, neon light, 200 x 200 x 300 cm, 2023

 

A project that served as a forerunner of this exhibition was a large-scale work located within a remote landscape as part of the Art in the Fields exhibition at Junshan Island. The work was called ‘Playground of Building Block’ (2023) and was ten-meter high and was constructed out of the abundant bamboo and water reeds from the landscape. There was a fragility to the structure despite its imposing scale and this reflects ecological uncertainty. What is offered as a counterpoint to this instability is the offering of a playful way of playing with the elements through which reality is constructed.

在這個展覽之前還有一件重要的大型作品位於遙遠的風景之中,是君山島「田野藝術」展覽的一部分。這件作品名為《積木遊樂場(2023)》,高達十米,由當地盛產的竹子和蘆葦建造而成。儘管這座結構龐大,但它仍然顯得脆弱,反映了生態的不確定性。與這種不穩定性形成對比的是,這件作品通過以一種輕鬆、趣味的方式來處理構成現實的基本元素。

Playground of Building Blocks, installation view Art in the Fields, steel, bamboo and water reed, Dongting Lak China, 2023.

These two projects exemplify an ambitious relationship to both sculpture, but with this a way of thinking through what sculpture can become. The group are shaping a clear programme for working on public projects and are attempting to define a philosophical foundation for this undertaking. This defines a relationship between material fabrication and the articulation of structures of thinking. There is a defined use of commercial fabrication techniques that in turn heightens the relationship between objects in the world, and the imaginary possibility of sculptural presentation. A clearly defined set of narratives are woven into the visual works without collapsing the sayable into the seeable. The use of narrative finds its counterpoint in the strangeness of many of the objects. Of note is the attention to issues of temporality and virtuality. Each object is treated as a memory object in ways that offered textual density to the works. The figure of Walter Benjamin and his notion of the ‘Dialectical Image’ is a presence especially his idea of constellation. The structure of the main project reflects his aphoristic writing of his final text on the philosophy of history. He saw the past has offering not only the potential of redemption but also as a restoration of the past within the future. With SSG the textures of materials, language, and subjective investment all cohere into a constellation that is alive within their sculptural projection. The look of the work has a quality that might be understood as having the appearance of science fiction like objects. Connected to this is the erasure related to style or the sense of psychological investment in appearance. Thus, conceptual schemas are what become manifest. Clearly a method has been developed for a group ethos can prevail and it is this that provides the qualities of both inward and outward consistency.

We should be seeing much more from Zhaobo Yang and the group in the near future, because they have evolved a way of working within the public domain with issues that have a currency on a social level. The works themselves generates intriguing visual diagrams which can locate a chain of signifiers with which to do so. It is as though the works themselves can possess their own voice and sustain their own edge.

這兩個項目不僅展示了與雕塑之間充滿雄心的關係,同時也通過這種方式思考雕塑可以成為什麼。這個團隊(SSG)正在制定一個明確的計劃來開展公共項目,並嘗試為這一事業奠定哲學基礎。這種工作方式定義了實際的物質製作過程與抽象的思維結構之間的關係。明確採用的商業製造技術,進一步強化了世界中的物體與雕塑展示的想象可能性之間的聯繫。一系列明確的敘事被編織進視覺作品中,同時沒有將可說的內容簡化為可見的形式。敘事的運用與許多物體的奇異性形成對比。特別值得注意的是對時間性和虛擬性問題的關注。每個物體都被視為記憶之物,這種處理方式為作品增添了豐富的文本層次。沃爾特·本雅明及其「辯證圖像」概念在這些作品中有顯著的影響,尤其是他用星座來理解和呈現事物關係的理念。主要項目的結構設計受到了沃爾特·本雅明在其最後一部關於歷史哲學的作品中使用的格言式寫作風格的啓發。他認為過去不僅提供了救贖的潛力,還可以在未來中恢復過去。在SSG的作品中,材料的質地、語言以及主觀投入都凝聚成一個活生生的星座,展現在他們的雕塑之中。這些作品的外觀具有某種可科幻的特質。與此相關的是風格的消解或對外觀心理投入的淡化。因此,概念框架得以显现。顯然,他們已經發展出一種方式使團隊精神得以彰顯,這正是提供內在和外在一致性的品質。

在不久的將來,我們將會看到更多來自楊兆博和他的團隊的作品。他們已經在公共領域找到了處理社會熱點問題的新方法。這些作品自成一體,生成了引人入勝的視覺圖譜,通過符號鏈條傳遞信息。這些作品擁有自己的聲音,保持獨特的鋒芒和個性。

More about SSG

Zhaobo Yang (London, UK), Patrick Jones (London, UK), and Junchao Ren (Chengdu, China) began their collective Sing a Song on the Ground (SSG) while studying sculpture at the Royal College of Art, London. Since completing their MA’s in 2022, they have been busy expanding their collaborative work. Through 2023, they have shown their works internationally in London, China, Italy, South Korea and Tokyo, each time developing a new work which responds to the nomadic aspects of their multicultural practice. SSG’s work drifts between digital and physical manifestations as they explore our contemporary condition unbounded by the limits of any given medium. They often blur the distinction between the photographic and the 3D as they explore hybrid manifestations that drift from printed images to monumental sculptures. They play in the space between 2d and 3d, on the edge of order and disorder, digital and physical, where unpredictable events unfold, where form and colour emerge within the chaotic surface. The SSG team are passionate about the possibility of public sculpture to create new forms of intersectionality with the viewer and the local community to re-discuss the functionality of public sculpture for group cohesion. They focus on the social contradictions that public sculpture takes on and translate them into their own poetic language, expressed through sculpture and imagery.

 

 

Text by Jonathan Miles

Translated by Michelle Yu

Edited by Rinka Fan

Posted on 5th May 2024

                   

© 2011 ART.ZIP all rights reserved.  ISBN 977 2050 415202

Site by XYCO