AC exhibition｜Ivory Smiles and Fleeting Embraces双人展｜798三度半艺术空间

Ivory Smiles and Fleeting embraces

2024年6月1日下午，Ivory Smiles and Fleeting embraces（象牙色微笑与短暂的拥抱）双人展在北京798艺术区三度半艺术空间顺利开幕，本次双人展呈现了两位艺术家（苗智远&刘键骐）近期创作的重要作品，以全新的视角和语言讨论了知识、期待和爱在代际关系传递中遇到的挫折，损耗与美好。

Artist Interview

策展顾问

Paul Tebbs

展览前言

Text/ Paul Tebbs

每代人都应该关心这样一个问题：自己是否能够在有意或无意间将正确的问题传递给下一代，亦或是将他们引向许多错误且无益的道路。下一代往往面临着一系列截然不同的问题，需要他们自己去发掘解决方案。知识和爱在代际间的传递的确很少能够一帆风顺，沿途往往充满误解和挫折。

刘键骐和苗智远的展览“象牙色微笑与短暂的拥抱”指向了同一家庭不同代际间的相遇和关系建立，这个过程中困难时有发生。我们从精神分析理论中汲取了 "错过的相遇 "这一概念，尽管挣扎尝试已久，人们还是未能建立起联系，最终只得空虚而茫然地离去。许多此类"错过"发生的场所往往是家庭。在这个属于我们的特殊时代，家庭的概念正承受着多重压力和审视（它将以何种形式存在？它可以服务于某种目的么？哪些目的呢？），作家Sophie Lewis甚至主张废除家庭关系以便尝试“新的关系形式”。

“象牙色微笑与短暂的拥抱”用三个房间来构建这个代际难题。第一个房间简洁地揭示出问题，“你为什么生气，爸爸？” ，我们能看到一段童年是如何被父母的缺席和不满情绪所写就。

第二个房间将我们带入一个传统的相遇之地，借助一张大桌子提出问题：这个场景中的健全和不健全之处是什么？所有房间里都回荡着祖父如今已不幸缺席的灵魂以及喃喃自语之声，父母亦无法出席。你能注意到这些作品通过相互关联的真实性形成互文。

第三个房间展示了忙碌的家庭生活带来的一些后果，分别探讨了：被采取的生存策略、强烈的执念、“替代品”的位置、时光机、幻想，以及一个正在唱歌的孩子。虽然一切并不完美，整个展览展现了韧性和创造力。从作品《被打翻的牛奶》中我们了解到，这里所描述的影响力是复杂的、社会性的，或许在某种程度上是不可避免的……而我们每个人都在其中扮演着某种角色。正如精神分析师Donald Winnicott可能说过的，让我们至少尽可能做到“足够好”。

One of the concerns for every generation should be whether it (consciously or unconsciously) passes down the right questions to the generation that follows or whether it sets them off on many false and unilluminating paths. The next generation often have a very different set of problems and a need for their own solutions. The notion of generational transfer (of knowledge and love) is indeed rarely smooth with much misunderstanding and frustration along the way.

The title of Jianqi Liu’s and Zhiyuan Miao’s exhibition ‘Ivory smiles and fleeting embraces’ points to the sometimes difficult encounters between the generations of the same family. We take from psycho-analytical theory the notion of the missed encounter, where despite everything, people fail to connect and leave emptied and bewildered. The family is often the site of many such missed encounters. In this, ‘our’ particular historical moment the notion of the family is under significant pressure and scrutiny (what forms might it take? Is it fit for purpose? What are those purposes?) with writers such as Sophie Lewis even arguing for its abolition so that ‘new relations’ can be tried.

‘Ivory smiles and fleeting embraces’ is divided into 3 rooms which sets up this generational puzzle. The first room succinctly announces the problem, in short, why are you angry dad? and how is a childhood written through experiences of parental absence and discontent.

The second room takes us to a traditional place of encounter, with a large table raising the question: what is or isn’t wholesome here? Throughout all the rooms there are hauntings (and mumblings) with grandparents now sadly absent and parents unable to be present at all. You may notice the works talk to each other with their related truths. 

The third room plays out some of the consequences of hectic family living, probing at the strategies of survival that take hold, intense fixations, the place of the ‘substitution’, time machines, fantasy, the performances of a singing child. While all is not well, we witness both resilience and creativity in this exhibition. From the work ‘the spilled milk’ we understand that the forces described here are complex, societal and perhaps inevitable to some degree… and we all have a role to play. As the psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott might have said let’s at least be as ‘good enough’ as we can.