exhibition | Su Hang「the sleepwalkers」@Cassoulet foundation | Hong Kong

蘇航：夢遊人

SU Hang：The Sleepwalkers

策展人：王惠子

Curator：Keiko Wang

2023年9月16日–10月20日

16 Sep - 20 Oct 2023

Cassoulet foundation | 香港黃竹坑道54號M Place 7樓

Cassoulet foundation | 7F, M Place, 54 Wong Chuk Hang Road, Hong Kong

 

Cassoulet foundation is pleased to announce the launch of artist Su Hang's first solo exhibition in Hong Kong, "Su Hang: The Sleepwalkers ", curated by curator Keiko Wang, from September 16 to October 20, 2023. This exhibition mainly gathers Su Hang's oil painting creations in recent years, focusing on showing the artist's method practice of painting, and then constantly exploring ways or languages that match his own creation.

 

The theme of the exhibition is "Dreamvisitors" from the Austrian writer Hermann Broch's novel - " The Sleepwalkers ", which is Bloch's first novel, divided into three parts: the first shows the decline of traditional values, but still certain; The second shows that values have been veiled and thrown into confusion, and man can only blindly hold on to everything he considers valuable; The third film shows that values have broken down and that people are at ease in a world that is not bound by values. Everyone has become a "dream visitor" who is searching but is confused and searching hard because they must face a cruel truth: the disintegration of the value centre.

 

In response, Su Hang seems to be waging a "war without a campaign, a guerrilla war of pictorial power, always inseparable from anger against The Times." -- Su Hang's own statement. His works cross many things that can be called "subject matter", and most of them enter from the perspective of modelling, symbols and images. With his own physical experience as the starting point of creation, he explores personalized emotional expression and perceptual clues and tries to respond to the artistic lineage and social evolution with his own heterogeneous practice clues.

 

"In earlier works, such as “Cautious”, Su Hang made up a picture when he sketched in the countryside: a security guard's rigid body watching the fluctuating water. The brushwork is rough, with some gouache texture. "But in retrospect, that was the most honest state of being, something that's easy to forget for a while amid the pros and cons of constantly training techniques." Su Hang frankly. Artists hope to use painting to show an attitude towards life, and even a little rough to define a certain course of action for themselves, in order to actively participate in the enthusiasm of "grand narrative". For example, in the works of "Fire on the Far Mountain", "Happy Forest", "Fire Worm Pit", "Harmonica Player" and so on, the artist combines banter with reality to reflect on the current social problems and examine himself and the surrounding environment, and tries to make the surreal image level in the painting action.

 

Su Hang believes that painting reflects the relationship between the creator and the work, and each stage is different. The transformation of the works from the studio to the exhibition space is cleaned and activated and then reassembled and illuminated. Through the exhibition, the artist once again makes himself embedded in real life and times. From this point of view, these paintings are extremely sincere and rich, a way to enjoy and possess a beautiful and rich world, a means to realize glory and dreams.

Finally, what the exhibition "Dreamvisitors" hopes to bring to the audience is not the transmission of ideas, but the throwing of problems, which is an attempt at Wittgenstein's "ineffable things": the situation of individuals, the fate of mankind, and the possibility of creation. There is no single answer to these three questions. There may be only hope. In Bloch's view, in the face of the errors of The Times, each of us is culpable and not innocent. As the last sentence of the novel "Sleepwalkers" says: it is the voice of people and crowds, the voice of comfort, hope and direct love - "Don't hurt yourself, we are all here."

 

Text | Keiko Wang

 

 

Artist Biography

Su Hang, born in 1996 in Changsha, now lives and works in Beijing. He graduated from the Third Studio of the Oil Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts and studied under Liu Shangying. His research direction is the concept and expression of contemporary painting. Su Hang's paintings take his own physical experience as the starting point of creation, explore personal emotional expression and perceptual clues, and try to respond to the artistic lineage and social evolution with his own heterogeneous practice clues. In the context of China, it mainly focuses on the relationship between art and politics through painting. At the same time, Su Hang hopes to develop different painting methods to practice according to different specific personal problem consciousness. He constantly finds a method or language that matches his own problem, without deliberately pursuing a certain constant style, recognizable personal symbol.

 

Recent solo exhibition: ”The Sleepwalkers", Cassoulet Gallery, Hong Kong (2023), etc.

Selected group exhibitions: "Little Red Book Youth Luminescent Art Exhibition", Shanghai Expo Creative Show, Shanghai (2023); "Signature Action", One Art Space, Shanghai (20 2 3); "Stars and Rivers" Young Artist Project, Shanghai Ranqi Contemporary Art Fair Space, Shanghai (20 2 3); "Our Generation -- The Art of the post-90s Generation", Shanxi Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanxi (2023), China; "Messing Up Spring", Tangul Slow Flash Art Museum, Beijing (2023); Keyhole Imaging, South Vision Art Museum, Nanjing (2023), China; "The Shadow of the Image: The Medium, System and Space of Contemporary Painting", Xie Zilong Image Art Museum, Changsha (2023), China; "Meet for the first time, See You Again", 798 Yue Art Museum, Beijing (2022); "Spirit Strikes" Central Academy of Fine Arts Graduate Works Exhibition, Meet Museum, Shanghai (2022); "On Boarding Art Star First Flight Graduation Exhibition", Tx Huaihai Young Power Center BIP.GALLERY, Shanghai (2022); "Academy Power", Jinbaohui Shared Art Space, Beijing (2021); "interyouth Art Exhibition", China Academy of Art, Hangzhou (2016).

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About Curator

Keiko Wang (Hong Kong, China) is a contemporary art writer, curator living and working in Hong Kong and Shanghai. She studied at the University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Baptist University, holds a bachelor’s degree in International Management and a Master's degree in Social Sciences, and studied Art Law and Business at Christie's and Sotheby's Institute of Art. Having worked for auction house, gallery, art foundation and Hong Kong's leading non-profit art organisation- Para Site, she has participated in curating contemporary art exhibitions, and she is interested in the value of art and its wider relationships with sociology. She is the author of the short story collection 「Dashed Flames」 and the art criticism collection 「Poking the Pink Bubbles」.

 

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蘇航：夢遊人

SU Hang：The Sleepwalkers

策展人：keiko wang

Curator：Keiko Wang

2023年9月16日–10月20日

16 Sep - 20 Oct 2023

Cassoulet foundation | 香港黃竹坑道54號M Place 7樓

Cassoulet foundation | 7F, M Place, 54 Wong Chuk Hang Road, Hong Kong

 

 

Cassoulet欣然宣布將於2023年9月16日–10月20日推出藝術家蘇航的首次香港個展 “蘇航：夢遊人 ”，由策展人Keiko Wang策劃。本次展覽主要匯聚了蘇航近幾年的油畫創作，集中展示了藝術家對於繪畫的方法實踐，繼而不斷探索找到與自身創作相匹配的方法或語言。

 

此次展覽的主題《夢遊人》出自奧地利作家赫爾曼·布洛赫（Hermann Broch）的小說——《夢遊人》，它是布洛赫的首部長篇小說，共分為三部：第一部展現的是傳統的價值觀開始衰落，但依舊是確定的；第二部展現價值觀已經蒙上面紗，陷入混亂狀態，人只能盲目地抓住一切他視為價值的東西；第三部展現了價值已然崩潰，人在不受價值束縛的世界中如魚得水，遊刃有余。每一個人都成為了在探尋卻是渾渾噩噩、苦苦求索的“夢遊人”，因為他們必須面對一個殘忍的真相：價值中心的瓦解。

 

作為回應，蘇航於繪畫而言，似乎像是對它們發動的一場“沒有戰役的戰爭，一種圖像力量的遊擊戰， 始終與對時代的憤怒不可分離。”——蘇航自述。他的作品橫穿很多可以稱之為“題材”的東西，大多以造型、符號、圖像角度進入，以自我的肉身經驗為創作起點，探索個人化的情感表達與感知線索，嘗試將自身的異質化實踐線索來回應藝術譜系脈絡與社會演變。

 

“較為早期的作品如《cautious》是蘇航下鄉寫生時所編想的一個畫面：一個保安僵直的身體註視著有波動的水面。畫面筆觸粗糙，帶有一些水粉畫質感。“但今天回想起來，那是最誠實的狀態，是在不斷訓練技術的優劣中容易短暫遺忘的東西。”蘇航坦言。藝術家希望利用繪畫來表明一種生活態度，甚至有點粗暴的要給自己規定某種行動路線，以積極投入參與“大敘事”的熱情中。又例如在《遠山的火》、《快活林》、《火蟲坑》、《吹口琴的人》等作品中，藝術家出於對當下社會問題的思考，以及對自我與周遭環境的審視，將戲謔與現實相結合，在繪畫行動中做超現實圖像層面的嘗試。

 

蘇航認為，繪畫體現創作者與作品的關系，每一個階段皆有差異性。作品從工作室到展覽空間的轉換，被清洗與被激活，再重新聚攏與發光，通過展示，藝術家再次讓自己嵌入到真實的生活和時代當中去。從這個角度上說，這些畫作無比真誠與豐饒，是通往享受和占有美好且豐富世界的途徑，是實現榮耀與夢想的手段。

 

最後，本次展覽《夢遊人》希望帶給觀眾的，並不是觀念的傳達，而是問題的拋出，是對維特根斯坦“不可言說之物”的一種嘗試：個體的處境、人類的命運，以及創作的可能性。而這三個問題，不存在一個標準答案。存在的或許只是希望。在布洛赫看來，面對時代的錯誤，我們每一個人都難辭其咎，都不是無罪者。正如小說《夢遊人》全書最後一句話所說：這是人和人群的聲音，是慰藉、希望和直接的愛的聲音——“不要傷害自己，我們都在這裏。”

 

Text | Keiko Wang

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關於藝術家

蘇航，1996年出生於長沙，現工作生活於北京。本碩先後畢業於中央美術學院油畫系第三工作室，師從劉商英，研究方向為當代繪畫觀念與表達研究。蘇航的繪畫以自我的肉身經驗為創作起點，探索個人化的情感表達與感知線索，嘗試將自身的異質化實踐線索來回應藝術譜系脈絡與社會演變。在中國語境下，主要圍繞藝術與政治的關系通過繪畫展開回應與探討。同時，蘇航希望根據不同的具體的個人問題意識，展開不同繪畫方法去實踐。他不斷找到與自身問題匹配的方法或語言，而不刻意追求某一種恒定的風格，可識別的個人符號。

 

精选個展：“夢遊人”，Cassoulet Gallery，香港（2023）等; 部分群展：“小紅書青年發光藝術展”，上海世博創意秀場，上海（2023）；“招牌動作” ，一條藝術空間，上海（2 0 2 3）；“星辰與河流”青年藝術家項目，上海冉起當代藝術博覽會空間，上海（2 0 2 3）；“我們這一代——90後的藝術”，山西省當代藝術館，山西（2023）；“搞砸春天”，檀谷 •慢閃美術館，北京（2023）；“小孔成像”，南視覺美術館，南京（2023）；“圖像的影子——當代繪畫的媒介、體制與空間”，謝子龍影像藝術館，長沙（2023）；“初次見面，後會有期” ，798悅美術館，北京（2022）；“銳氣來襲” 中央美術學院畢業創作精品展，遇見博物館，上海（2022）；“On Boarding 藝術新星首飛畢業展”，Tx淮海年輕力中心BIP.GALLERY，上海（2022）；“學院力量”，金寶匯共享藝術空間，北京（2021）；“Interyouth國際青年藝術展”，中國美術學院，杭州（2016)。

 

關於策展人

Keiko Wang（中國香港）是一位當代藝術寫作者、策展人，生活和工作於香港和上海。她曾就讀於香港大學與香港浸會大學，持有國際管理學學士學位與社會科學碩士學位，並於佳士得美術學院和蘇富比美術學院進修藝術法律與商業。曾任職於國際拍賣行、畫廊、藝術基金會及香港非牟利藝術機構Para Site，曾參與策劃組織大型當代藝術展覽項目，並對藝術的價值及其更廣泛的社會學關系感興趣。著有小說集「虛線火焰」、藝術評論文集「戳一下粉紅泡泡」。