|
The Flowers of Coromandel
|
Following his large-scale screen installation presented at Art Basel last year, artist Su Meng-Hung returns this May with a new solo exhibition The Flowers of Coromandel at Tina Keng Gallery, in collaboration with American curator Barbara Pollack. The exhibition focuses on his ongoing folding screen series and large-scale paintings, taking “Coromandel” as a conceptual thread to revisit the mechanisms through which images are produced across history, trade, and cultural circulation through the lens of Pop-inspired silkscreen practices. Originally referring to a trading region along the southeastern coast of India, “Coromandel” later became a European term for Chinoiserie lacquer screens, carrying with it an imagined vision of the East. Su’s recreated screens exemplify the notion of “inauthentic beauty.”
For Su Meng-Hung, the Coromandel screen is also a product of imagination. He first encountered such screens in a photograph of Coco Chanel’s Paris apartment, which became the starting point of his exploration. Adopting the Bientu technique, he combines Eastern craft processes with Pop Art concepts, repeatedly sampling and layering images from diverse cultures and time periods. Through successive layers of silkscreen printing, sanding, and polishing, these images are gradually erased and fused. The universality of floral imagery forms another key inquiry, allowing viewers from different cultural backgrounds to recognize and engage with the works.
Within the gallery, Su constructs a “garden” that invites viewers to move through and experience the works spatially. As the curator notes, For Su, the collision between the authentic and the fake is evident in each work’s vital originality. Extending from his earlier exhibitions Xiang Nai Er and Self-Exoticism, this exhibition further proposes that culture is not a fixed essence, but something continuously produced through acts of viewing, translation, and circulation. The “flower” in The Flowers of Coromandel does not exist; it is a symbol generated through international exchange. Within the screens, viewers are invited to project their own experiences and cultural imaginaries.
For Su Meng-Hung, the Coromandel screen is also a product of imagination. He first encountered such screens in a photograph of Coco Chanel’s Paris apartment, which became the starting point of his exploration. Adopting the Bientu technique, he combines Eastern craft processes with Pop Art concepts, repeatedly sampling and layering images from diverse cultures and time periods. Through successive layers of silkscreen printing, sanding, and polishing, these images are gradually erased and fused. The universality of floral imagery forms another key inquiry, allowing viewers from different cultural backgrounds to recognize and engage with the works.
Within the gallery, Su constructs a “garden” that invites viewers to move through and experience the works spatially. As the curator notes, For Su, the collision between the authentic and the fake is evident in each work’s vital originality. Extending from his earlier exhibitions Xiang Nai Er and Self-Exoticism, this exhibition further proposes that culture is not a fixed essence, but something continuously produced through acts of viewing, translation, and circulation. The “flower” in The Flowers of Coromandel does not exist; it is a symbol generated through international exchange. Within the screens, viewers are invited to project their own experiences and cultural imaginaries.
甫於去年巴塞爾藝博會發表大型屏風裝置後，藝術家蘇孟鴻於今年五月，攜手美國策展人芭芭拉．波拉克，於耿畫廊呈現全新個展「科羅曼德之花」，聚焦近年持續發展的屏風系列與大型繪畫，並以「科羅曼德」作為線索，從絹印版畫的普普藝術概念回望圖像在歷史、貿易與文化流通中的生成機制。「科羅曼德」原指印度東南沿岸的貿易區域，後來成為歐洲稱呼中國外銷款彩漆器屏風的專有名詞，承載對東方的想像。蘇孟鴻所再製的這些屏風，正是其「不真實之美」概念的體現。
科羅曼德屏風對蘇孟鴻而言，本質上亦是想像的產物。藝術家最初在Coco Chanel巴黎公寓照片中看見這種屏風，由此產生靈感，借用「變塗」方法，以東方工藝製程結合普普藝術觀念創作，將來自不同文化與時代的圖像反覆取樣與疊合，並在層層絹印、打磨與拋光下逐漸消除與融合。花卉圖像的普遍性亦為核心議題，使不同文化背景的觀者皆能辨識與理解。
蘇孟鴻在耿畫廊內建構一座「花園」，使觀者得以在空間中行走與觀看。策展人指出，其作品在真實與虛幻之間建立新的張力，重新界定當代藝術的可能性。延續「香·奈·兒」與「異己國情調」的創作脈絡，本展進一步提出：文化並非固定本質，而是在觀看、轉譯與流通中不斷被生成。因此，《科羅曼德之花》中的「花」並非真實存在，而是在國際交流中所生成的符號，觀者亦可在屏風之中投射自己的經驗與想像。
科羅曼德屏風對蘇孟鴻而言，本質上亦是想像的產物。藝術家最初在Coco Chanel巴黎公寓照片中看見這種屏風，由此產生靈感，借用「變塗」方法，以東方工藝製程結合普普藝術觀念創作，將來自不同文化與時代的圖像反覆取樣與疊合，並在層層絹印、打磨與拋光下逐漸消除與融合。花卉圖像的普遍性亦為核心議題，使不同文化背景的觀者皆能辨識與理解。
蘇孟鴻在耿畫廊內建構一座「花園」，使觀者得以在空間中行走與觀看。策展人指出，其作品在真實與虛幻之間建立新的張力，重新界定當代藝術的可能性。延續「香·奈·兒」與「異己國情調」的創作脈絡，本展進一步提出：文化並非固定本質，而是在觀看、轉譯與流通中不斷被生成。因此，《科羅曼德之花》中的「花」並非真實存在，而是在國際交流中所生成的符號，觀者亦可在屏風之中投射自己的經驗與想像。
|
|