Afterward ／ 後記
Among 80 artists in Euroart Studio, there is one Chinese artist called Wu Wen. After the interview with Clarke, we caught up a while with Wu at her studio. She gave a very poetic expression to her place – womb – that breeds her life and her art. For her, the current studio is perfect, safe, clean, and very well-organised.
Artist is always a dreamer, she said, many artists are facing financial struggles in this way or that, and they could only rent studios with affordable prices. Sarcastically, artist community is the one that brings vitality and freshness to the area, but it also results in rising property price. Artists have no choice but to move to other areas with lower rates. That’s how a vicious circle continues year after year. Artists fuel creativity and economic vitality, yet they have to confront hikes of rates whereas businessmen make the capital out of it.
Even though it sounds a bit helpless, Wu is far from being discouraged. Instead, she smiled, ‘we are men on the brink, but with joyous and exciting life.’
The area where Euroart sits has attracted more interests because of the artist community, it is well believed that within a short while, it will become another hippest place in London like Hoxton and Shoreditch.
在歐藝工作室進駐的80位藝術家當中，有一位中國女畫家，吳雯。結束了與洛林的訪談，我們便到她的工作室小敘。吳雯是一位很詩意的畫家，她把自己的工作室形容為“子宮”，在這裡孕育著她的生命，她的藝術。對於現在的工作室她非常滿意，這裡充滿了對藝術家的理解，安全、整潔、管理有序。吳雯也提到，藝術家是做夢的人，大多經濟上比較拮据，只能租得起很便宜的工作室，但藝術家的聚集總是會給當地帶來巨大的活力和生機，於是地價飆升，資本進駐，藝術家被迫又要遷徙到租金更低的地區，周而複始成為了一種惡性的循環，藝術家的創造力和活力催生了繁榮的經濟，但最後落得實惠的卻是手握資本的商人。吳雯雖然說的很無奈，但卻名沒有絲毫氣餒的意思，她說：“我們都是社會的邊緣人，但邊緣人才有意思。”
倫敦北部歐藝工作室所在的區域也正因為藝術家的聚集而被越來越多的人關注，過不了多久這裡可能也就變成像當下霍克斯頓（Hoxton）或者肖爾迪奇（Shoreditch）這樣炙手可熱的潮地了。
Find Out More:
www.clarke-art.co.uk
www.euroart.co.uk.
