纯真的线条蹦跳般的在靛蓝的墙面上跃动，地面上鼓起的形象在它们最饱满的时刻被捕捉。欢迎来到《穷山恶水》 赵涛、张秀良、张萌萌与社会敏感性研究所联合呈现的神秘世界。 《干, 活》系列在箭厂空间的最新展出中，工业生产线上的物料被作为了表达的方式而不是实用的结果。赵涛用工业发泡胶和油漆释放了一份谵妄的想像，发泡胶膨胀后的球根状形态诠释了家乡的山区景观，对于他这也是一个与漫长冬季狩猎有关的刺激戏法。而张秀良在墙上的钓鱼绘画则象征了一种与“对抗”有关的冥想，在女儿张萌萌的帮助下，他的速写描述了在一个时间暂停之地的软流荡漾 超越着日常生活的种种需求。生动的靛蓝色墙壁留有他们生产线上成品的线索。赵、张寓言式地描绘了狩猎和捕鱼这类传统劳作，在当代背景下，这些古老的构成农业社会的劳作令人联想到童年记忆和闲适的状态。作为一种对非人性化工业生产方式的有趣颠覆，赵、张在对自然的田园体验当中重新装配出这些现代化工业的“副产品”。《穷山恶水 探求在周而复始的不休劳作中，将过去与传统置放于当下，精简到一种纯净的空间中，在那里工作和愉悦相互盘绕。
2011年李山在生产电动阀门执行器的北京伯纳德控制设备有限公司成立了一个艺术家驻留计划－社会敏感性研发部 通过艺术家和伯纳德员工之间的互动实现了众多特定场地的艺术项目。近期社会敏感性研究所在与赵天汲的合作下开始鼓励员工进行自主的艺术创作。《穷山恶水》是《干, 活》系列的第三个项目，它将工厂车间里萌生的想法带到箭厂胡同的环境中，试图模糊生产和生活，艺术家和工人，观众和创作者之间的关系。《干, 活》系列探讨了创造性过程的变革潜力和尝试作者身份的替代定义。
赵涛 (1987年生于河北张家口) 在伯纳德公司工作了两年。他的工作包括在流水线上给阀门驱动器上漆和员工培训《穷山恶水》这个标题源于赵对他家乡村子的评述，他目前打算回到村里竞选村长，希望在村子荒芜之前去拯救他的家乡。
张秀良 (1985年生于黑龙江齐齐哈尔) 在伯纳德的流水线上工作了五个月，他的主要工作是装配阀门驱动器。他的女儿张萌萌今年九岁。 |
Badlands
Work, Live Series, Project #3
Zhao Tao, Zhang Xiuliang and Zhang Mengmeng / Social Sensibility Institute
Aug 12-Sept 15, 2016
Innocent line drawings scamper on electric blue walls as billowing foam is caught suspended at its peak. Welcome to Badlands, the esoteric world of Zhao Tao, Zhang Xiuliang and Zhang Mengmeng in conjunction with the Social Sensibility Institute. In this latest installment of the Work, Live Series at Arrow Factory, tools from an industrial assembly line are co-opted for expressive rather than pragmatic ends. Zhao Tao unleashes a delirious rendering of industrial foam and paint. The bulbous forms re-interpret the mountainous scenery of Zhao’s hometown, conjuring for him the thrill of an extended winter hunt. On the walls, Zhang Xiuliang’s fishing imagery symbolizes a meditative act of resistance. With the help of his daughter Zhang Mengmeng, the Zhang’s sketches depict soft rippling streams in a place where time is suspended, just beyond the demands of daily life. Vivid indigo walls take their cues from the finished products coming off the factory line. Zhao and Zhang’s allegorical escapes depict traditional forms of labor, hunting and fishing, actions that constitute “work” in agrarian societies. Reframed in a contemporary context, these ancient activities are associated with childhood landscapes, memories and leisure. A playful subversion of the apparatus of de-humanized industrial labor, Zhao and Zhang reconfigure the by-products of the modern factory into their own idyllic experiences of nature. Hinting at ever-evolving notions of labor, Badlands layers past on present, traditional on contemporary, and truncates into a rarified space where work and pleasure entwine.
Since 2011 Alessandro Rolandi has facilitated the Social Sensibility Research and Development Department, an artist-in-residency program embedded at Bernard Controls, manufacturer of electric actuators for valve automation. The department has realized numerous site-specific projects through interactions between artists and Bernard Control’s staff members. Now, collaborating with Tianji Zhao, the newly christened Social Sensibility Institute has evolved to empower the company’s employees to make original creations. Badlands is the third project in the Work, Live Series, which brings nascent ideas from the factory floor out into Arrow Factory’s hutong context, blurring the divisions between work and private life, artist and worker, audience and creator. The Work, Live Series explores the transformative potential of creative processes and experiments with alternative definitions of authorship.
Zhao Tao (b. 1987, Zhangjiakou) has been working at Bernard Controls for two years. His job on the assembly line consists of painting valve actuators and training new employees. The title, Badlands, is derived from Zhao’s sardonic description of his home village. Zhao intends to return and run for village chief with the hope of saving his hometown before it becomes desolate.
Zhang Xiuliang (b. 1985, Qiqihar) has been working for five months on the assembly line at Bernard Controls. His main job is to assemble valve actuators. His daughter, Zhang Mengmeng, is nine years old. |
