展期 Period：
2024.3.24—2024.6.22
艺术家 Artist：
地点 Venue：
马凌画廊 Kiang Malingue（香港田湾）
前言 Introduction：
「疫情后的第一个夏天我来到香港，海上穿梭不断的各色货轮，路边公园摇曳生姿的花朵，街上川流不息的人群，一切如常，香港在历史的流变中仿佛一直不曾改变。但是当我在傍晚的夜风中散步的时候，香港的气息和路边亚热带的花朵却散发出更鲜活的味道。『你未看此花时，此花与汝同归于寂；你来看此花时，则此花颜色一时明白起来，便知此花不在你心外』。王阳明先生的『此花不在你心外』估计应该如此解读吧。当我思考和观看香港的植物与花时，我意识到我日复一日的劳作与不断地审视重构的画面之间也是如此，这些已经脱离于我而独立存在的画作在时间里既是凝固的也是灵动的，它们既在我心之外，也在我的心上，如那些让我驻足凝视的盛开在夜风中千姿百态的花一样」
——刘晓辉
马凌画廊呈现刘晓辉首个香港个展「香港的花」，展出艺术家在过去四年中创作的二十组油画作品及坦培拉绘画作品，其中多件作品是刘晓辉在2023年于马凌画廊空间进行驻留时创作的。众多尺寸或硕大或微小的绘画作品结合了艺术家在近年对花卉意象的兴趣、对劳动姿态的长期关注、对孑然一身女性背影形象的关注，以及因香港环境变迁有感的物我齐观体验。
刘晓辉曾在十年前检视花卉和自然等主题，以月季等花卉为题创作纸本绘画作品，并在2021年重新关注花卉主题，创作了一系列以朴素温和的木槿为题的画作。对于刘晓辉来说，如劳作一般长期持续的绘画实践在很大程度上影响了他在近年处理花卉型态及色彩的方式，也促使其将花卉视作是自然、不造作、本真姿态的象征——绘画笔触的姿态应效仿或映照花卉的自然状态。出现在「香港的花」展览中的花卉植物包括百合、红白两色木槿、绣球和蔷薇等；刘晓辉在不同规模的画面中反覆检视植物的型态特质，通过色彩反差和富有秩序感的空间安排描绘描绘花朵貌似恬静却又富有强烈生命力和个性的图景。
两幅以《百合》（2022）为题的近作延续了艺术家孤立检视瓶中花卉的作法，而《阅读与百合》（2021-2023）则以更复杂的构图精细地整合了刘晓辉多年来深入探索的元素：深邃、沉静的色彩；彼此叠加勾联的矩形结构；曲径通幽式的画面深度；不以正面示人的女性形象，以及灵动安详的猫。 《白色木槿》（2023）、《黑背景前的白色木槿》（2023）及《无题— 在红色木槿前》（2021-2023）等大尺幅作品的关系也是如此：归属于自然领域的花卉在有生活气息的环境中变成了尺寸硕大的「画中画」，如梦境幻影一般映照生活的真实感。精致的小尺幅油画《阅读和白色木槿》（2023）则更为朦胧混沌，打消了人物与背景的泾渭分明关系，让人想起戈雅铜版画作品中的迷离景象。
在「香港的花」展览中，《戴红色头巾的劳作动作》（2020-2024）及《工业大厦里的劳作》（2023）等聚焦于人物动态的作品重申了艺术家对劳作及身体姿态变化的兴趣，而《海岛》（2023）、《在海上》（2023）、《绣球与落日》（2023）等以多件小尺幅坦培拉绘画为一组展示的作品则呈现了碎片化的景物序列，通过复杂细密的元素铺陈连绵的叙事。此次「香港的花」展览由田军设计的展厅在工业属性空间中搭建了错落有致的布局，以富有亲密感和物质感的方式为多件绘画作品添加了尺度相宜的人造环境。
“When I visited Hong Kong in the first summer after the pandemic, seeing all the cargo ships plying the sea, the flowers swaying in the urban parks, and the crowds overwhelming the streets, it was as if Hong Kong had remained unchanged in the flux of history. But as I walked in the evening breeze, the smell of Hong Kong and the subtropical flowers along the roadside gave off an extraordinarily vibrant flavour. ‘Before eyeing this flower, the two of you remain in tranquility; as you come for a view of the flower, it is at once brightened and elucidated, and then you know that the flower is not outside of your heart’. One could read Wang Yangming's text on the immanent blossom through the flowers of Hong Kong. When I thought about and looked at flowers and plants in Hong Kong, I also realised that this flower-heart relationship is also comparable to my day-to-day artistic labour in relation to my constant review of the reconstructed images. These paintings, which have been detached from me and exist independently, are both frozen and animated in time, and are both outside and inside of my heart, just like those mesmerising flowers that made me stop as they danced in the night winds”.
—Liu Xiaohui
Kiang Malingue is pleased to present "Flowers of Hong Kong", Liu Xiaohui's first solo exhibition in Hong Kong, showcasing twenty sets of oil and tempera paintings. A number of the artworks in the exhibition were created when Liu was the artist-in-residence at Kiang Malingue in 2023. The recent paintings in various sizes combine the artist's newly found interest in flowers; long-term fascination with the human body in action; a focus on the solitary female figure, and an experience of identifying with the external world triggered by the environment of Hong Kong.
Ten years ago, Liu pondered the themes of flowers and nature with a number of depictions of the Chinese rose on paper. He revisited the subject in 2021 and created a series of hibiscus paintings, celebrating modesty and tenderness of the plant. For Liu, the continuous and laborious practice of painting has influenced the way he treats the forms and colours of flowers in recent years, and has also prompted him to regard flowers as a symbol for natural, uncontrived, and truthful gestures. Brushstrokes, therefore, should emulate or mirror the natural state of the flowers. Flowers and plants featured in "Flowers of Hong Kong" exhibition include lilies, red and white hibiscus, hydrangea, and roses; Liu repeatedly examines the individual plants, portraying in different scales the serene yet vivacious natural beings through contrasting colours and orderly compositions.
The twoLilies(2022) continues to isolate the flowers as the sole subject of representation, whileReading and Lilies(2021-2023) in a more complex arrangement integrates the various elements Liu has explored in the last two decades: subtle, quietly disturbing colours; overlapping, stacking rectangular structures and shapes; pictorial depth that is playfully hindered and mystified; a solitary female figure who turns away from the viewer, and a meek, graceful cat.White Hibiscus(2023),White Hibiscus With Black Background(2023), andUntitled – Standing in Front of the Red Hibiscus(2021-2023) are related to one another in a similar fashion: Liu's recontextualisation of flowers turns the natural beings into pictures-within-pictures that are larger than life, responding fancifully to the enumerated realness of the interiors. The nebulousReading and White Hibiscus(2023), on the other hand, confuses the figures in the foreground with the looming buds in the background, evocative of Goya's engraved fantastic scene.
In the exhibition "Flowers of Hong Kong", works focusing on the movement of the human figure such asLabor Movement With Red Headband(2020-2024) andLabour work at Industrial Building(2023) reiterate the artist's interest in labor and contortions.The Island(2023),On the Sea(2023),Hydrangea and Sunset (2023), and other groups of small-scale tempera paintings splice fragmented objects and scenes, laying out meandering narratives comprised of intricate and detailed sights. The exhibition space of "Flowers of Hong Kong", designed by Tian Jun, counterbalances the industrial atmosphere of the Kiang Malingue Tin Wan studio space by remapping the room, introducing an artificial environment that intimately and physically contextualises the paintings.
