当长河倒流之时
When The River
Turns Back




“人性并不是一部机器,按照一种模型组建起来,并被设定去精确执行已规定好的工作,人性毋宁像是一棵树,需要朝各个方面去成长与发展,并且是根据使它成为一个活体生命的内在力量的倾向去成长与发展。”

                                                                                ——John Stuart Mill 《论自由》

在改革开放的八十年代中国,集体主义下的个人迎来了第一次生长的间隙,空气中弥漫着前所未有的新鲜养分,似乎任何梦想都将触手可及,那是一次集体的思想解放。而40年过去,国家机器的专制让民主与自由悄然消退,回望越来越不可说的当下,长河正在倒流,高墙再次筑立,呐喊被迫无声......似乎宏大叙事淹没着每个个体,但夜空之所以闪耀, 是因为太阳愿点亮每一颗星星。

衣物,作为人的第二层肌肤,是个人意志的体现,每个人都可以通过穿着表达自我, 这种权力超越了阶级和时空,在当下的这个寒冷长夜,无数个体亦可以包裹进自由的衣物之中,重拾温暖。我用 8090 年代样式丰富的旧衣改造为象征着进步,开放,美好理想的不同物品,区别于物品原型的视觉上的整体性和单调,改造后的物品由不同的纹样布块拼接缝制而成,丰富多彩,如同多元的个体般。并由我在现实环境中演绎式地使用,用作为独立个体的我的身体和行为在现代都市和废弃工厂中去诠释不同物品的象征含义,以此想象 8090 年代的中国充满美好理想的社会氛围,试图呼唤个体与自由。










Young Ambition, 61cm×103cm, Recycling textile, Bamboo sticks, 2022








Young Ambition, 14’29”, Video, 2022









Migration, 45cm×60cm, Comprehensive Material, 2022









Migration, 45cm×60cm, Comprehensive Material, 2022









Migration, 45cm×60cm, Comprehensive Material, 2022









Commemoration, 78cm×55cm, Recycling textile, Plastic pots, Plastic leaves, 2022





















“Human nature is not a machine to be built after a model, and set to do exactly the work prescribed for it, but a tree which requires to grow and develop itself on all sides, according to the tendency of the inward forces which make it a living thing.”
                                                         
                                                          ——John Stuart Mill, On Liberty

In the reform and opening up of China in the 1980s, individuals under collectivism were given the opportunity to grow. There was an unprecedented dynamism in the social environment and it seemed that any dream was within reach. In a word, it was an liberation of the minds of all the people. Forty years have passed, the dictatorship of the state apparatus has made democracy and freedom to fade away, and looking at the unspeakable present, the river is flowing backwards, walls are once again being erected, cries are forced into silence...... It seems that grand narratives are drowning each individual, but as we all konw, the night sky shines because the sun is willing to light up every star.

Clothes, as the second layer of human skin, are the embodiment of individual will, and everyone can express themselves through what they wear. This right of wearing clothes transcends class and time, and in this long cold night, individuals can wrap themselves in the clothe of liberty and regain their warmth. I transform old clothes from the 80s and 90s China into different objects that symbolise progress, openness and ideals, and in contrast to the monotony of the prototypes, the transformed objects are made of colorful patterns of clothes, which are stitched together, just like the variety of individuals. These objects are interpreted by me in a realistic context, and through my body and performance in modren city and abandonded factories. I give expressions to the symbolic meanings of the objects, thus imagining a social atmosphere full of good ideals and trying to call for individuality and liberty.










Migration, 78cm×55cm×24cm, Recycling textile, 2022









Let the Sail Fly Again, 53cm×76cm, Recycling textile, Canvas, Nylon threads, Pins, 2022








I was here, 105cm×150cm, Recycling textile, 2022









I was here, 30”, Video, 2022









Commemoration, 78cm×55cm, Recycling textile, Plastic pots, Plastic leaves, 2022









Commemoration, 78cm×55cm, Recycling textile, Plastic pots, Plastic leaves, 2022







                     
All images and texts copyrights © 2024 Junwu Chen