... 追求…
亚洲艺术研究所（RHAA）学术主持、艺术家和芝加哥艺术学院绘画系、史论系教授蒋奇谷先生近日介绍，《… 追求… 》大型中美女性艺术家作品展即将于今年9月开幕。
《… 追求… 》是亚洲艺术研究所（RHAA）画廊与共步（Co-Pro）画廊联合举办的一次大型中美女性艺术家作品展。本次展览汇集了多位具有代表性的中美女性艺术家，她们运用如视频、数码、绘画、装置及表演等不同的艺术媒介创作，以此展示她们不同的社会文化视角的观察，回应当今世界所面临的迫待解决的女性问题。同时，这将是一次关于世界女性问题的交叉和跨学科探索。展览联合策展人Shannon Lin就广泛女性问题进行归纳并提出四个主题，以八个分议题进行讨论，它们是：生育/繁衍（Fecundity & Fertility）、家庭/时运（Fortune & Family）、幸福/组构（Form & Felicity） 、自由/未来（Freedom & Futurism）。
本期呈现的是参展艺术家郭桢的乳房系列作品和创作理念。
不可否认的存在
郭桢
“爱情, 善良, 激情, 欲望 ” 织物和混合材料 250cm x 600cm x 30cm 2020 郭桢
“Love, Kindness, Passion, Desire” Fabric and mixed media 250cm x 600cm x 30cm 2020 Zhen Guo
在我们的生活中，我们无法避免自身的肉体，也无法否认自己的性别。
我遇到过很多女性艺术家，她们强烈的否认自己的性别，并解释她们的理由是：不承认自己是女性艺术家，以避免被艺术主流社会边缘化。在中国，没有关于女性的学术研究，也罕见关于女性主义艺术的批判性系统性书籍，因此中国女性在创作时不会从性别角度进行创作，因为没有词汇可以从批判性角度评价她们的艺术。她们的艺术创作只能通过她们的创造力水平和创作本身的才能来判断。她们自欺欺人地认为，能通过作品将性别从中移除，她们可以避免被男性主导的结构边缘化。为了保护自己免受边缘化，她们避免从女性的角度看待自己的世界，并失去了这种洞察力。她们避免将自己视为女性艺术家，避免从女权主义的角度看待世界。通过个人对性别认同的回避，我们最终集体无声无息。这种由众多个体导致的“集体的失声”，使许多优秀的女性艺术家进入了一种慢性死亡的状态。结果，中国女性的社会地位非但没有进步，反而在倒退。
我不太擅长通过概念来解释我的作品。但我相信，虽然个人历史可以被修饰，但一个人的艺术史是无法改变的。一旦作品完成，它就完成了。我的作品是我的灵魂、我的情感、我的感受和我的心，展示了我对这个世界的体验，展示了这个世界如何影响了我以及我如何改变了这个世界。这是艺术家在社会中的重要作用。集体沉默的情况是一个社会问题，也是一个文化问题。例如，那些为女性而写的经典著作《女儿经》等，是用封建道德传统的声音来规范和促进对女性的思想指导。这种指导渗透到女性的意识中，像幽灵一样栖息在女性的身体里，时刻在提醒和规范女性面临家庭、事业和自我的选择。传统女性的行动规则主要不是为了自己，而是为了他人的利益。她们知道，最终女性会为家庭和社会牺牲自己。她们被告知这是女性必须为社会做出的最终牺牲。
左：“原色” 织物和混合材料 200cm 400cm x 25cm 2019 郭桢
Zhen Guo Primary Colors 2019 Fabric and mixed media 200cm 400cm x 25cm
右上：“women” 布类织品 102cm x 60cm，2017；右下：“母亲的心” 织物和混合材料 300cm x 225cm x 15cm 2016
“Mother’s Heart” Fabric and Mixed Media 300cm x 225cm x 15cm 2016 Zhen Guo
历史腐朽传统的巨大压力迫使我们不能思考。在无法思考的情况下，我们轻率地接受了男性驱动的训条，不知不觉地放弃了自己的观点，放弃了定义女性在社会中的位置—我们自己的位置—的能力。然而，那些追随男性观念的人却牺牲了自己。每当她们面对被抛弃或虐待的现实时，她们将自己的苦难归咎于男人，因此，将世界视为男人原罪与女人牺牲命运的相互作用，完全忽视了女人的独立意识。最糟糕的是，这种情况不仅存在，而且已经成为常态，因此人们对它变得麻木不仁。出于这些原因，我的女权主义艺术旨在唤醒女性，让她们更加意识到自己独立的人性，能够承认和接受在这个世界中自己作为女性的弱势社会身份以及自己应努力去争取得到的平等的社会权益。
在我的女性主义艺术作品中，我的软雕塑使用了女性身体中最容易辨认的身体部位——乳房，它与女性最相关。除了哺乳之外，女性的乳房还有许多不同的用途。她为之而感到非常自豪，并为之珍惜。它们展示了她的年轻和健康，亦揭示她的衰老。它们是她的力量和她的脆弱。这个身体部位充满了情感、亲密和敏感，但同时也承受着最多的痛苦和退化的悲伤。我用五颜六色的布料、昂贵的丝绸和不起眼的亚麻布组成了一面乳房墙，展示了来自不同社会阶层、不同性格、不同责任的女性，她们都拥有美丽、优雅、性感的乳房。有时我也会用巨大尺寸的作品来唤起乳房的形象及其力量，以此提醒人们注意女性的力量。这不仅是为了让人们认识女性的美丽、柔软和善良，更要以女性的力量、韧性和她们存在的价值和意义的无限灵活性来震撼观者。
“沙袋” 装置，织物和混合介质每个约 183cm X 60cm x 60cm 2017 郭桢
Zhen Guo Punching Bags at SVA Brooklyn campus 2018 Fabric and mixed media Each piece 183cm x 60cm x 60cm
这里我要特别声明：
没有人可以否认，人类的痛苦是由女性延续的。她们承受着最基本、最原始的痛苦—分娩。所有人都需要记住，我们可能没有女儿或姐妹或妻子，但这个世界上每个人都有母亲。
女权主义是唯一能够拯救女性争取平等的理念。因此，女性主义艺术以最大规模的方式保存着最真实的美，为女性的权益而发声。我认为，作为一名女性艺术家是有著义不容辞的社会责任，去承担帮助社会理解和明确女性自我价值和女性的社会价值的重要性及合理性。
The Undeniable Existence
Zhen Guo
In our lives, we cannot avoid the physicality of our body and we cannot deny our gender.
I have met many female artists who deny their gender forcefully and explain their reasoning as not admitting that they are female artists to avoid being marginalized. In China, there is no scholarly research about females and there is no critical library on feminist art, and therefore when Chinese women create, they do not work from their gender perspective as there is no vocabulary to evaluate their art from this critical perspective. They make their art so as only to be judged by their level of creativity and talent in the creation itself. They fool themselves by thinking that by removing their work from their gender they avoid the marginalization by a male-dominated structure. Attempting to shield themselves from marginalization, they avoid looking at their world from their perspective as women and lose this insight. They avoid seeing themselves as female artists and avoid seeing the world from a feminist perspective. Through the individual avoidance of gender identity, we end up collectively voiceless. As a result, the social status of Chinese women, instead of progressing forward, is moving back.
 左：“鏡像” 不锈钢和黄铜 28cm x 43cm x 18cm 2019 郭桢
“Resemblance”，Stainless steel and brass 28cm x 43cm x 18cm 2019 Zhen Guo
右：“丑女”，纸浆、石膏亚克力、墨水 36cm X 20cm X 15cm 2016 郭桢
“Hard Breast” 2016 Papier Mache Acrylic Lacquer Ink 36cm x 30cm x 10cm
I’m not very good at explaining my work through concepts，but I believe that while a personal history can be cosmetically touched-up, the history of one’s art cannot be changed. Once work is done it is done. My artwork is my soul, my emotions, my feelings, and my heart, displaying my experience of the world, showing how the world has affected me and how I have changed the world. This is the important role of the artist in society. The situation of collective silence is a social issue as well as a cultural problem. For example, the classic works such as the "Daughter's Classic" written for women use the voice of the feudal moral tradition to regulate and promote the ideological guidance of women. This kind of guidance penetrates into women's consciousness, inhabiting women's bodies like ghosts, constantly reminding and regulating women's choices about family, career and self. Traditional women's rules of action are not primarily for themselves, but for the benefit of others. They know that in the end women will sacrifice themselves for their families and society. They were told that was the ultimate sacrifice women had to make for society.
The magnitude of historical momentum forces us not to think. Without being able to think, we thoughtlessly accept the male-driven philosophy, unconsciously giving up our own perspective, and relinquishing our ability to define the position of women – our own place -- within society. However, those who went along with the male concepts sacrificed themselves. Whenever they face the reality of abandonment or abuse, they blame their hardships on a man and, therefore, see the world as the interaction of man’s original sin and woman’s destiny of sacrifice, totally overlooking women’s independent existence. Worst of all, this situation doesn’t just exist but has become the norm, so people have become blind and numb towards it. For these reasons, my feminist art is meant to awaken women and make them more aware of their independent human nature, able to recognize and accept their disadvantaged social status as a woman this world and the equal social rights which they deserve，that they should strive for.
My soft sculpture uses the most recognizable body part of the female body, the breast, which is most associated with women. A woman’s breast has many different uses beyond nursing. She is very proud of them and keeps them secret. They demonstrate her youth and health and disclose her aging. They are her strength and her vulnerability. This body part is full of emotion and intimacy and sensitivity but at the same time, they bear the most pain and the sadness of deterioration.
“Mother and Earth” Six Panels Ink and mixed media on rice paper 600cm x 200cm x16cm 2022 Zhen Guo
《母亲与大地》 六展板, 宣纸水墨及综合媒材 300cm x 200cm x 16cm 2022 郭桢
I use colorful cloth, expensive silk, and humble linens to compose a wall of breasts to show women from different social classes, different personalities, and different responsibilities all with beautiful, graceful, voluptuous breasts. I use ink to draw male and female symbols, barely shown through the ink tones. Sometimes I also use huge works to call upon the image of the breasts and their power to alert people’s consciousness to the power of the female gender. These are not only meant to have people recognize the beauty, softness, and kindness of the female, but also to shock the viewer with females’ power, resilience, and limitless flexibility of the value and meaning within their existence.
Especially here I want to state:
Nobody can deny it is women through whose pain humans are continued. They bear the most basic, most original, primitive pain of creation – childbirth. We all need to remember that we may not have a daughter or sister or wife, but everybody in this world has a mother. Feminism is the only idea that can save women to fight for equality, therefore feminist art preserves the truest beauty on the greatest scale to fight for women's voices to be heard. I believe that being a female artist has an incumbent social responsibility to assume the importance and rationality of helping the society understand and clarify women's self-worth and women's social value.
展览时间：9月30日 – 10月19日
开幕式：9月30日下午：7 – 9点
地点：3217-3219-21 South Morgan Street. Chicago, IL 60608 |