回路 Return Passage

Skills: 展览 Exhibition

ACENTRICSPACE新展

驻地艺术家群展

回路

开幕时间：2024年3月30日（周六）下午3点

ACENTRICSPACE Upcoming Exhibition

Resident Artist Group Exhibition

Return Passage

Opening: March 30th (Saturday) 15:00, 2024

艺术家 Artists

Rachel TonThat

Emerald Repard-Denniston

吉麟 Webson Ji

前言 Introduction

《回路》展示了Rachel TonThat、Emerald Repard-Denniston和吉麟三位艺术家的驻地作品，这三位艺术家利用在ACENTRICSPACE的驻地机会重新找回了自己的中国根源。美国出生的艺术家兼作家 Rachel TonThat通过与家乡马萨诸塞州塞勒姆的贸易探索了她与中国的家庭关系，并使用基于丝绸、陶瓷和棉花等传统贸易商品的材料实践来考虑真实性、复制性和工业化。Emerald Repard-Denniston是一位从湖南省被收养的加拿大艺术家，她的作品以嫦娥和后羿神话的萨福版本为基础，作为审视她自己的文化和性别身份的框架。在美国学习和工作了六年后，中国艺术家吉麟利用这次回国之行，在他正在进行的系列作品《黑水》和《造雨》中获得了新的视角，《黑水》评估了美国梦的现实，《造雨》则提供了新的视角。为失望的人提出充满希望的建议。他们多元化、多学科的作品共同展示了多种回归途径。

“Return Passage” showcases the work of Rachel TonThat, Emerald Repard-Denniston, and Webson Ji, three artists who have used their residency at ACENTRICSPACE to reconnect to their Chinese roots. American-born artist and writer Rachel TonThat explores her family ties to China through its trade with her hometown of Salem, Massachusetts, and uses a material-based practice of traditional trade goods such as silk, ceramic, and cotton to consider authenticity, reproduction, and industrialization. Emerald Repard-Denniston, a Canadian artist adopted from Hunan Province, presents paintings based on a Sapphic version of the myth of Chang’e and Hou Yi that serve as a framework for examining her own cultural and sexual identity. After six years of studying and working in the US, Chinese artist Webson Ji uses this trip home to gain a new perspective in his ongoing series, “Black Water,” which assesses the reality of the American Dream, and “Make Rain,” which offers hopeful propositions for the disenchanted. Together, their diverse, multidisciplinary works illustrate the many pathways of return.

部分参展作品 Selected Works

Rachel TonThat

Rachel TonThat的作品结合了实践艺术和概念艺术。她的雕塑和绘画参考了我们周围的环境—自然景观、元素和时空模型—探索工艺如何在地理、文化和时间上将我们联系起来。在驻留期间，她一直在拟像、侨民和第四次工业革命的背景下研究中国的工艺史。

Rachel TonThat’s work combines practice-based art and conceptual art. Her sculptures and paintings reference the environments around us—natural landscapes, elements, and models of space-time—to explore how craft links us geographically, culturally, and temporally. During the residency, she has been researching the history of craft in China in the context of simulacra, diaspora, and the fourth industrial revolution.

无题#3 Untitled #3

墨，棉，丝绸刺绣 ink, cotton, and silk thread on silk

135×225 cm

2024

拓扑学莫比乌斯环 Topology, Möbius Band

陶土和麻绳 ceramic and hemp rope

可变 variable

2024

拓扑学解开 Topology, Unknot

陶土和棉绳 ceramic and cotton rope

可变 variable

2024

Emerald Repard-Denniston

在我的新系列《没有更好的颜色》中，我通过重新想象中国经典故事“嫦娥和后羿”来探索神话。我对故事情节做了一些改动，把它变成了一个蓝宝石的爱情故事。这种对传统的背离不仅反映了爱与欲望不断变化的景观，而且强调了渴望、转变和追求永恒之爱的主题。

在这部重述中，后羿和她心爱的嫦娥面临着古代中国的社会限制。当十个太阳灼烧大地时，两人勇敢地击落了九个，从而获得了长生不老的灵丹妙药。她不愿吃掉它，害怕分离，就把它托付给嫦娥。但当一个狡猾的学徒威胁到他们的关系时，嫦娥喝下长生不老药，登上了月亮。伤心欲绝的后羿每晚都望着月亮，渴望她归来，渴望再次与她在一起。

参考和灵感图像来源于《蓝色》（2002）和《使女》（2016）等电影中的场景，以及互联网上找到的图片。

In my new series “No Better Colour,” I explore mythology by reimagining the classic Chinese tale of Chang’e and Hou Yi, a well-known Chinese myth associated with the Mid-Autumn moon cake Festival. I take liberties with the storyline, transforming it into a sapphic love story. This departure from tradition not only reflects the evolving landscape of love and desire but also underscores the themes of longing, transformation, and the pursuit of eternal love.

In this retelling, Hou Yi her beloved Chang’e faces societal constraints in ancient China. When ten suns scorch the land the two valiantly shoot down nine, earning an elixir of immortality. Reluctant to consume it, she entrusts it to Chang’e, fearing separation. But when a deceitful apprentice threatens their bond, Chang’e drinks the elixir, ascending to the moon. Hou Yi, devastated, gazes at the moon each night, longing for her return, yearning to be with her once more.

Reference and inspiration images are sourced from scenes from films such as “Blue” (2002) and “The Handmaiden”(2016), as well as archival photos found on the internet.

蓝色 Blue (2002)

布面油画 Oil on Linen

11”x14”

2024

长生不老药 Elixir of Immortality

布面油画 Oil on Linen

11”x14”

2024

十个太阳 10 Suns

布面油画 Oil on Linen

11”x14”

2024

吉麟 Webson Ji

我的创作主要以项目制的形式进行，充分运用综合材料和多媒介的创作手法去对我不同人生阶段的思考进行一种自我的表达。这种表达一方面结合了我当下所处的社会语境，另一方面也源自我对不同材质、媒介和手段的研究。

这次驻地我主要将我的项目《黑水》做了一个阶段性总结，并同时延伸了项目《造雨》。《黑水》这个项目启动于2018年的美国，是我由个人经历激发的对“美国梦”这个概念的思考，在“真实”和“谎言”，“梦想”和“造梦”，“种族”和“平等”等种种冲突中的不断思考。在这个项目中，我从对材质、媒介的探索中转移到一种本能的抒发。这种表达不追求技法或工艺，甚至不去过多的思考画面语言的修饰，由心而生，将我所看所感非常“直球式”喷射在画面上。不同形式的绘画或平面作品一方面来源于长期艺术训练的潜意识辅助，另一方面我也在平衡这种工具使用思路上的“惯性”。在这个项目中，完成度不再是我追求的目标，我希望能将这种原生态的“朴素”直白地传递给观众。

《造雨》这个项目则是我近些年在海外对亚裔创意社群不断贡献的一个记录。过去的四年时间我将大量时间和精力放在了社群工作上，个人艺术创作的时间相当有限，我也因此放慢了创作的频率。这次驻地项目我有幸将过去这些年的一些思考重新捡起，记录在艺术作品中。在项目《造雨》中，我不断地删减并简化视觉语言，以最简单的组成成分去表达一种力量的可能性。正如我2018年在作品《如何制造一场雨》中描绘的那样：我们每个人就像一滴水珠，落在水面上绽放出一朵涟漪。只要我们有人愿意去发出自己的声音，影响到身边的人，那么每个人绽放的涟漪将会形成一场倾盆大雨，震耳欲聋。

My artistic practice has primarily taken the form of project-based endeavors, utilizing a variety of materials and multimedia techniques to express reflections on different stages of my life. This expression combined the societal context in which I resided at the time with my exploration of various materials, mediums, and disciplinaries.

During this residency, I focused primarily on reflecting on my projects “Black Water” and extending the “Make Rain” project. Project “Black Water” was started in the United States in 2018, inspired by personal experiences that provoked contemplation on the concept of the “American Dream” amidst conflicts of “truth” and “lies,” “dreams” and “fabrications,” “race,” and “equality.” In this project, my exploration of materials and mediums evolved into an instinctual outpouring in a “straight ball” fashion, eschewing technicality and excessive consideration of visual language in favor of raw, unfiltered expression. While drawing from subconscious influences honed through extensive artistic training, I also sought to balance habitual approaches to tool usage. In this project, achieving perfection was no longer my goal; rather, I aimed to convey this innate simplicity directly to the audience.

“Make Rain” documented my contributions to the overseas Asian creative community over recent years. With much of my time and energy dedicated to community work, my personal artistic practice was switched to a slower pace. This residency program offered me an opportunity to revisit my thoughts from these past years and incorporate them into art creations. Within the “Make Rain” project, I continuously refined and simplified this visual language, expressing the potential of a singular force through basic components. As depicted in my 2018 work, “How to Manufacture the Rain,” where each of us was like a droplet, causing ripples upon the water surface. If some of us are willing to speak up and influence those around them, the collective ripples would culminate in a pouring rain, resounding and impactful.