艺术就是异形。— 徐震®
香格纳上海于2018年5月荣幸推出徐震® 展览 “异形”。展览展出了徐震® 针对香格纳空间制作的大型装置，与最新创作的绘画和雕塑作品。“异形” 延续了徐震® 在后全球化生态下对文明的改造、迭代与进化命题的兴趣，如同异形所建构出的一种来自未知且令人惊悚的印象一样，展览也将通过艺术激起人们对未来与原始性的想象。
品牌创始人徐震自1998年开始创作以来，已经历了20年的艺术生涯。从早期表现个体私密与情感，到直面社会现实，发展至近期对人类现实的立异与创造，他的艺术策略虽然几经转变，却始终朝着文化的能动性扩张。徐震® 所触及的，是关于艺术在面对时代之变时，如何创造可能性并提供新经验的问题。全球化的三个面向 “贸易—资本”、“冲突—战争” 与 “进化—变异” 在近年的创作中开始明晰，而三者的交织也逐渐形化为作品中的极端异化和超级变体。对徐震® 而言，“异形” 既是现实世界的表征，同时也是一部未来共同体的寓言。
此次展览将真实反映徐震® 的精神内核，这表现为其处理文化对象及其语境的方式，以及其借此触发与呈现的新的组合和方案。作为这个时代最具代表性的艺术品牌，徐震® 的背后运转着一个独一无二的没顶公司，在2008年的经济危机之后创建，没顶公司正象征着这样的可能性，将时代状况内化为创作的命题，并通过公司式的加速创作以应对全球化症候。
本次展出的两件作品《异形1》和《异形2》可追溯至2013年开始推出的 “永生” 系列，该系列将东西方经典文明中的形象以一种既冲突又融合的方式碰撞在一起。东西方永恒与精神性的美学象征，在对接的过程中造就了殖民历史、国际格局与全球化未来的丰富隐喻。《异形2》的形象分别来源于希腊神话中的 “雌雄同体” 神与汉代女女俑，二者呈现了如同 “永生–涅槃佛” 一样巧妙的并置。而《异形1》则将文化的解码与组合推向极致，通过对对象进行简单的颜色处理，“异形” 与其裹挟着的令人恐惧的力量被激发出来。徐震® 借此为观众营造了一个精神性互动装置，通过诱导观众进入一个敏感的历史时刻，意识形态符号带给人的巨大压迫感，将促使个体面临一个需要表态与选择的境地。展览的另一单元由绘画组成，其中绘画性作为装置的元素被徐震® 调用。开始于2017年的 “进化” 系列将距今近两千年的敦煌壁画与非洲面具共同绘制于油画布上，远古时代的文明与现代社会所保有的原始性交错并呈现出超越时间桎梏的美学面貌。“运气” 系列与 “进化” 系列发展于同一时期，徐震® 将新石器时代传承至今的礼器进行再造，而最终形成的画面则为徐震® 的产品开辟了抽象表现的路径。
正如 “文明迭代” 所宣称的，徐震® 的艺术以一种重复反馈的过程一步步逼近自身所需的目标。公司式的生产最终引发现实的漏洞——从逻辑与语词中抽身而出的不可知性，在展览中将呈现为蕴藏着丰富可能性的 “异形”。
“Art is alien.” — XU ZHEN®
ShanghART Gallery is pleased to present XU ZHEN®’s solo exhibition: “Alien” in May 2018. This exhibition presented the large-scale installations XU ZHEN® made especially for the ShanghART Gallery space, along with his recent paintings and sculptures. This exhibition extends XU ZHEN®’s persistent interest in subjects such as transforming, iterating and evolving the civilisation within the context of post-globalisation. As “Alien” is constructing an impression of the thrilling and the unknown, this exhibition will inspire the viewers’ imagination about future and primitivity.
As the founder of XU ZHEN®, Xu Zhen has made a career in art for twenty years since 1998. Initially expressing the intimacy and emotion of individuals, then shifting to social issues, Xu Zhen is recently focusing on the difference and creativity among human beings. While his artistic strategies have undergone several changes, it is always moving towards the dynamics of culture. XU ZHEN®’s art has reached issues such as how art deals with the passage of time, and how to create new possibilities while discovering new experience. The three main themes in globalisation, “trade and capital”, “conflict and war”, “evolution and variation” are gradually becoming sharp focused in Xu Zhen’s works. Accordingly, the collision among three topics results in the figures of “extreme alienation” and “super variant” in his works. For Xu Zhen, “Alien” is not only a representation of the real world, but also an allegory of the future community.
This exhibition will truly reflect the core of Xu Zhen’s art through exhibiting how he deals with cultural subjects and their contexts, as well as the new associations and plans he came up with under these circumstances. As the most representative art brand of the period, XU ZHEN® is running the one and only MadeIn Company. Established after the economic crisis in 2008, MadeIn Company is representing a kind of possibility by internalising current circumstances into ideas, and speeding up the art making process in the form of a company, in response to the “symptom of globalisation”.
The two pieces of sculptures, Alien 1 and Alien 2, can be traced back to the “Eternity” series of 2013, which combines classical figures of Eastern and Western cultures in a conflicting and integrating way. The aesthetic symbols of eternity and spirituality from the East and West has developed through rich metaphors of colonial history, international configurations, and the future of globalisation in the process of collision. Alien 2 in the same vein of Eternity-(Buddha in Nirvana) juxtaposes two sculpture figures: an “hermaphrodite” from Greek mythology and a servant figure from the Han Dynasty. Moreover, Alien 1 is decoding and recombining the cultural elements to its extreme by recolouring those sculptures, thus the ‘aliens’ and the terrifying power therein are released intensely. By these means XU ZHEN® created a spiritually interactive installation, directing the viewers to a sensitive historic moment; the pressure brought on by those ideological symbols will situate the viewers in conditions that force them to make a choice and a statement. The other section of the exhibition includes several paintings used by XU ZHEN® as installing elements. The “Evolution” series which started in 2007 combines the cultural elements from Dunhuang Mogao Cave paintings and African masks. By painting the ancient civilisation and primitivity still remaining in modern society on the canvas at the same time, this series of paintings create the beauty of harmonious blending across time. The “Fortune” series started from the same period of the “Evolution” series; these painting series, which reconstructs the Neolithic ceremonial jades, opens a path for XU ZHEN® towards abstract expressionism.
As “Civilisation Iteration” (solo exhibition in 2017) declares, XU ZHEN® is fulfilling his visions in a progress of repeated feedback. The corporate-typed art production will finally result in a leak in the reality – the unknown condition of getting away from logic and language. The aliens hidden in the exhibition will present infinite possibilities.