展期 Period：
2024.3.23—2024.5.26
艺术家 Artist：
策展人 Curator：
地点 Venue：
艺仓美术馆 Modern Art Museum Shanghai
展览介绍 Introduction：
展览《行于暗》呈现了艺术家罗宾·沃德最新的一系列绘画作品，并在沉浸式的空间氛围中向我们讲述了艺术家独特的游牧生活方式。罗宾通过抽象的视觉语言试图回应国家与个人的迁徙以及伴随而来的创伤:人们为什么要游走？永恒运动的后果是什么？如同艺术家创作的抽象本质那般，松散、游离、不稳定的情感变化往往抽象化了游牧背后更深层的原因，而展览中的作品则试图揭开那些被掩藏之物的面纱。行走于昏暗的展厅内，观众需要不断调整自身的观看姿态，以发现不易被察觉的细枝末节之美。
艺术家利用湿润而松散的笔触，在超大的画布上留下独特的痕迹，以天真的怀旧姿态讲述他的故事。画面的每一层都描绘了不同的时间片段，代表着艺术家真实的生活经验。穿梭在幽秘展厅的光亮阴影之间，我们将发现大量隐藏的心理、政治和情感意义。本次展览反映了艺术家有关混沌、迁徙、伤痛的个人经历，呼应当下错综复杂的社会环境，并从历史与当下两个维度进行发问。罗宾的创作触及了破坏与矛盾的议题，但更重要的是，它关乎于艺术家个人的生活，这种生活被一种永恒的运动感和一种持续的地理不安感所定义。
现在，让我们走近罗宾·沃德的艺术旅途，敞开心扉，在作品中捕捉心理张力的微妙之处，感受强烈的情感宣泄。在这些丰富的色彩与构图的倒影之中，将看见我们自己的身影。
Walking in the Dark features a series of newest painted canvases by Robyn Ward. Within the immersive atmosphere, these works speak to Ward’s nomadic lifestyle. Through his abstract visual language, Robyn tries to address the themes of migration and traumas - both national and personal - by asking the question of: why do people roam? What is the aftermath of perpetual movement? Like the abstracted nature of Ward’s artworks, a nomadic sensibility often abstracts the deeper reasons for such roaming. His work begets questions around what exactly Ward is veiling through his travels. Like the act of walking in the dark, viewing Ward’s work requires one’s eyes to adjust to see what would otherwise not be detected.
Using wet, loose brush strokes with distinctive markings on the oversized canvases, he tells his story through a nostalgic veil of innocence and naivety, revealing snapshots of the past while simultaneously obscuring or hiding others, with each layer depicting different fragments of time that are indeed screen-shots of the artist’s life. There is an abundance of hidden psychological, political, and emotional meaning to be discovered in Walking in the Dark, exemplified by the labyrinthine and shaded design of the space where the artworks are being shown.
The exhibition narrates a story that reflects the artist’s personal experience with chaos, migration, and violence, echoing the complicated social environment at present, and referencing to both historical and modern-day global disputes. While engaging with themes of destruction and conflict, Ward’s work addresses his own life, defined by a perpetual sense of movement and a constant feeling of geographical restlessness.
To embark on Ward’s art journey and see the subtlety of this ubiquitous psychological tension manifested in his work requires an openness to experiencing catharsis this impactful—of seeing one’s life in all its tensions and contradictions reflected through the artist’s creation.
