Wu Yang

Wu Yang – Artist Biography

【Bu Xi】presents a group of works I created in the past three years, including oil paintings and installation works. These three years are special. The tension, entanglement, and even anxiety during the epidemic have made this group of works.

For a long time, I have been constantly looking for artistic breakthroughs, turning from exquisite decorativeism to thinking about human nature and self-examination, and taking this exploration as the main line of creation. The images in my works have never been simple visual records, but carriers for expressing emotions, emotions, and constructing false hopes.

Based on my deep thinking about individual experience; confusion about my own identity; questioning the authenticity of memory; blurring the real and illusory worlds…, I have completed a leap on my own artistic path. The name “Bu Xi” expresses wandering and searching, which shows that I am talking to my heart and seeking a balance between spirit and reality…

吴洋 – 简介

【不徙】呈现了我在过去三年中创作的一批作品，包括油画和装置作品。这是特殊的三年，疫情期间的紧张、纠结、甚至是焦虑成就了这批作品。

长期以来我不断地在寻找艺术上的突破、从画面精美的装饰主义转向对人性的思考和自我审视，并将这种探索作为创作的主线。我作品中的图像从来不是简单的视觉记录，而是表达情感、情绪、构建虚望的载体。

我这种基于对个体经验的深刻思考；对自我身份的困惑；对记忆真实性的质疑；对现实与虚幻世界的模糊处理⋯，完成了自身艺术道路上跨越的一步，＂不徙＂这一表述徘徊、寻觅的名字，表现着我在与内心对话、并寻求着精神与现实的平衡⋯

 

WU YANG (吴洋) – CV

Work Experience

1980-1984 Textile Designer, Printing Factory, Beijing, China
1989-1991 Teacher of Textile Design, Central Academy of Arts and Design, Beijing,
1996-2001 Owner and Fashion Designer, Fashion Design Company, Beijing China
2002-2005 Visiting Professor, Art Academy of Renmin University, Beijing, China

 

Education and Training

1977-1979 Textile Design, Beijing Design College, Beijing
1985-1988 M.A. in Textile Design, Central Academy of Arts and Design, Beijing
1992-1993 Fashion Design, Kingston University, London, UK
1993-1995 Fashion Design, London Centre for Fashion Studies, London, UK

 

Publications

2005-2006 published by Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, China
The Emperor Prays to Heaven
Who Wants to Travel the Great Wall with Me
Souls and Tombs
An Inspirational Tour of the Forbidden City
The Fleeting Splendor of Yuanmingyuan (Summer Palace)
One Woman’s Summer Palace

 

Exhibitions

2024 Solo Exhibition BU XI – Painting and Installation Art by Wu Yang, Lipont Gallery, Richmond, Canada
2022 Solo Exhibition Icarus Island – Lipont Gallery, Richmond, Canada
2022 Solo Exhibition Icarus Island – Art Couture Gallery, White Rock, Canada
2022 Solo Exhibition Enveloping the Mnemonics – True Color Art Gallery, North Vancouver, Canada
May 2007 Paranormal Stones participated in
Women Work 2007, Vancouver Biennial
Sep 2007 Paranormal Stones II participated in
The 13th Annual Exhibition of Chinese Canadian Artists Federation in Vancouver
Jan 2008 Red Tribe participated in
Red and Gold, Federation Gallery, Vancouver
Apr 2008 Sapphire Stones participated in
Still Life, Federation Gallery, Vancouver
Aug 2008 Salute to Great Masters participated in
International Juried Exhibition: The 6th Annual Painting on The Edge, Federation of Canadian Artists, Federation Gallery, Vancouver
Oct 2008 The Sun participated in
The 14th Annual Exhibition of Chinese Canadian Artists Federation in Vancouver
Nov 2008 My Palace participated in
Artists Choice Exhibition, Federation Gallery, Vancouver
Aug 2009 Crossing participated in
Small, Smaller, Smallest, Federation Gallery, Vancouver
Sep 2009 Desert, Autumn Scenery, Behind the Walls, In Former Time
participated in The 2nd Federation of Canadian Artists Members Group Show
Nov 2009 First Snow, Juried Awards Exhibition, Federation of Canadian Artists, Federation Gallery, Vancouver
Nov 2012 Avatar, Juried Awards Exhibition, Federation of Canadian Artists, Federation Gallery, Vancouver
Jun 2012 Salute to Greater Masters, Go UP, Wind and Cloud, Black and White
Participated in Luan Feng Qi Ming – Female Artists Exhibition, Tree Museum, Beijing
Sep 2013 Solo Exhibition Spirit of the Petal Stone – Paintings by Wu Yang
Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
Oct 2013 Participated in XII Biennale du Salon Artistique de L’AMOPA(Association des Membres de l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques’ Bieannle) La Garde, France
Mar 2014 Participated in THE LAND – Overseas Exhibition of Chinese Canadian Artists Federation in Vancouver
National Taiwan Arts Education Center, Taiwan
Sep 2014 Solo Exhibition WOW SHOW – Art by Wu Yang
Zezhong Gallery, Beijing, China
Mar 2015 Exhibition: Art by Wu Yang
Asia Contemporary Art Show Hong Kong 2015, Hong Kong, China
Mar 2015 Participated in Pretty Woman and Wonderful Epoque
Manet Art Museum, Beijing, China
May 2015 Exhibition: Art by Wu Yang, Art Beijing 2015
2015 Participated in the Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary Prominent Female Artists, International Art Gallery, Vancouver
July 2016 Participated in the Annual Exhibition of Chinese Canadian Artists Federation in Vancouver
Sep – Oct 2016 The Traveling Thoughts between Water and Mountain (游思·山水间) – Art by Yang Wu, Zezhong Gallery, Beijing, China
Oct – Nov 2016 Participated in From Lausanne to Beijing – 9th International FIBERART Biennale (Juried Show), Guan Shanyue Art Museum, Shenzhen, China
Dec 2016 – Jan 2017 Turn of the Year Contemporary Art Exhibition (扫一扫当代艺术跨年展), Riverside Art Museum, Beijing, China
Apr – May 2017 Participated in Art Beijing 2017, Booth C19, China National Agricultural Exhibition Center, Beijing, China
Jun – Aug 2017 The Flower Statement Series – New Paintings by Yang Wu, Richmond City Hall Galleria (managed by Richmond Art Gallery)
Aug 2017 2017 North American Artists Invitation Exhibition-A Leap Forward, Amerasia Bank, New York, NY
Aug 2017 North American Artists Invitational Exhibition – A Leap Forward organized by North American Artists Alliance, New York, NY, USA,
Sep – Oct 2017 Bridges & Friendships” Canada – Mexico – China (curated art exhibition), Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Vancouver, Vancouver, BC
Jan 2018, Charming Colors – An Exhibition of Chinese Contemporary Art, organized by China Cultural Center in Nepal, China Arts & Entertainment Group, presented by Beijing CIEA Danqing Exhibition Co. Ltd., Kathmandu, NEPAL
July 2018, participated in Art Fair in Hotel (AFIH2018), Beijing, venue: The Peninsula Beijing
Oct – Nov 2018, solo exhibition A Sea behind the Stone – Paintings and Installation by Yang Wu, ICI LABAS 艺栈 Gallery, Beijing 798 Art District.

 

BU XI – Paintings and Installation by Wu Yang

 

Opening Reception: November 26, 2024, 6-9pm

 

Lipont Gallery is thrilled to showcase ‘BU XI – Paintings and Installation by Wu Yang, a compelling exhibition of new works by Wu Yang, running from November 26, 2024, to January 3, 2025 (closed Dec 19 – 25 and Jan 1). This unique display features a series of paintings alongside three intricate installations, crafted during a reflective three-year period through the pandemic. These pieces delve deeply into Wu Yang’s introspective view on human nature and her exploration of female identity.

Wu Yang, a multifaceted artist whose career spans several decades and continents, first emerged from the prestigious Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts in 1988. Following a tenure in academia, she ventured to the UK in 1991 to study fashion design, later applying her skills at a fashion company. In 2000, Wu Yang returned to teaching at Renmin University of China’s School of Art, focusing on picture books and illustrations. Her move to Canada in 2006 marked a pivotal shift towards painting, leading to exhibitions across Canada and internationally.

In ‘BU XI,’ Wu Yang’s fascination with fabric—a material she perceives as embodying the virtues of softness, security, beauty, and warmth—resonates throughout her work. This exhibition weaves together themes of strength and vulnerability, juxtaposing hard stones with delicate lace fabric, and vibrant human forms entwined in floral motifs, encapsulated within stone. Through these contrasts, Wu Yang navigates her personal inquiries into identity, the elusive nature of memory, and the overlap between reality and illusion.

The title ‘BU XI’ originates from a phrase in the Tao Te Ching, translating to “no traveling” or “no leaving,” signifying a state of complete contentment with one’s life, requiring no change—a utopian ideal explored by Laozi and a concept that deeply influenced Wu Yang’s creative process during her times of anxiety within the pandemic.

Exhibition Details

Dates: November 26, 2024 – January 3, 2025 (closed Dec 19 – 25, Jan 1, and weekends)

Address: Lipont Gallery, 4211 No. 3 Road Richmond, BC

Hours: Mon-Fri 10 am to 5 pm, Tuesdays until 8 pm.

Admission: Free. Free parking available. Located near Canada Line Aberdeen Station.

 

Please visit https://www.facebook.com/lipontgallery and https://www.instagram.com/lipontgallery/ for more details and updates.

不徙 – 吴洋绘画及装置作品展

 

 

Meditation on the World and the Energy of Art –

Wu Yang’s BU XI Series of Paintings and Installation

 

When encountering artist Wu Yang and her extraordinary artistic creations, I think of a quote by a poet, “A great poet must first be a great poem themselves.” Indeed, artist Wu Yang is gifted. Her colourful life experience, solid literary accomplishment, well-grounded and rich artistic potential have developed her unique, contemporary artistic style, a style that is both calm and full. Appreciating Wu Yang’s works, whether paintings, pastels, illustrations, or installations, I feel a kind of delicate, strong, tough, thick, and gorgeous inner aura and tension through the appearance of the works.

“Xi” (moving, migrating) has multiple meanings. “Bu Xi” (not moving, not migrating) seems to be interpreted as not following the trend and not falling into a rut, “I think, therefore I am.” This is a question about psychological motivation, which is a question raised by artist Wu Yang and intended to be answered.

Since the pandemic, she has experienced anxiety, speculation, and exploration, and has opened a world of hope through artistic cultivation. Sometimes, migration is the beginning of a new life; sometimes, migration is the beginning of the unknown. Immigrant artist Wu Yang came to Vancouver from Beijing and traveled and created between the two cities. In recent years, she has created a series of works such as the Enveloping the Mnemonics installation series, the Icarus Island pastel series, the Résumé installation, and the BU XI series of paintings around themes such as survival, memory, the social role of women, and the function of environmental art, exploring and expressing her meditation on the world and her tireless practice of art.

Wu Yang’s works have never been separated from the use of surreal techniques and multi-media materials. From the early Spirit of the Petal Stone series of oil paintings to the BU XI series, soft textile patterns and hard stones are combined and personified. Stone is one of the oldest artistic media in the history of human civilization. The solid and eternal qualities of stone have made many historical and realistic artworks and buildings use stone as a carrier. Petrification is also the fate of the cursed in Greek mythology, being immobilized and imprisoned. In almost every oil painting of BU XI, there is a petrified body, like a monk, curled up in meditation, thinking hard, trying to become the initiator of his own destiny. Under Wu Yang’s brush, they seem to still have souls, communicate with the viewer and express their worries.

 

 

Wu Yang, The Rock is Me, I am the Rock, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in (91.44 x 91.44 cm), 2023

 

The Rock is Me, I am the Rock expresses the helplessness and struggle of women against self-imprisonment. Part of the reason for the self-imprisonment of the subject comes from the social environment and family education. Losing part of the personality will be frustrating. Can the self-consciousness be moved or not? Can the soul be free and bloom? Wu Yang once again uses the simple and heavy image of stone to metaphorically describe the situation and state of mind of women.

The stones are heavy and dull; the patterns are bright and complex. Accompanying the “stone body” are soft, brightly coloured arms wrapped in beautiful patterns protruding from it. They are hope born out of despair. They care for themselves and embrace themselves; they also seem to be searching for the truth in helplessness, tenaciously and irresistibly struggling to show the inherent tension of life. The beautiful pattern on the surface of the arm is a symbol of femininity. Pattern is logic, pattern is rhythm, pattern is tenderness. Patterns give viewers visual pleasure and spiritual pleasure. In Wu Yang’s works, pattern is a must. As a designer, Wu Yang follows proportions, plans carefully, uses colour schemes wisely, and introduces new ideas, which are the solid foundation of her artistic practice. Starting from the humanistic point of view, she speculates on the authenticity and virtuality of life scripts (fate), giving life to these stone protagonists and letting them tell the story of life. Her depictions of rock textures and rough sand are so realistic that they seem to indicate that life eventually will return to dust.

 

 

Wu Yang, Please Don’t Notice Me, oil on canvas, 36 x 30 inches (91.44 x 76.2 cm), 2022

 

Please Don’t Notice Me was created by Wu Yang during the pandemic in 2022. Anxiety about the unknown spread in her heart. The protagonist in the painting seems to be exhausted. During the migration, he arrived at a small ecological environment and faced a choice between the past and the future…

 

 

Wu Yang, Hello Mom (triptych), oil on canvas, 31.5 X 23.6 inches (80 x 60 cm) each, 2024

 

In Wu Yang’s paintings, the role of mother is heavy and humorous. Mothers work hard to raise their children and selflessly help their grandchildren. Mothers are the first teachers of their children’s lives and the instinctive guardians of their children’s growth. In Wu Yang’s paintings, the mother’s fragile body is transformed into a strong rock, carrying and supporting a heavy burden – the natural maternal love is so tenacious, so selfless, and so majestic! This should be the meaning that Wu Yang narrates.

 

 

Wu Yang, Woman, 82.7 x 90.55 inches (210 x 230 CM), 2024

 

 

Wu Yang, Two-Faced Person, 74.8 x 67 inches (190 x 170 cm), 2024

 

Woman and Two-Faced Person are two large-scale fabric installation works: graceful and unrestrained, straightforward and agile, chic and charming. Wu Yang, who was trained as a dyeing and weaving fashion designer, expresses the characteristics and spirit of women in a clear and confident way with her installations: “Women are not only orchids in the valley but also can be clang roses.” “Women are not only ocean water but also can be blazing flame.” Women are a hemisphere of life potential and an indisputable half of the world.

Wu Yang uses the power of art to break through obstacles, constantly explores, ponders the world, and uses her unique style to open a window of hope, allowing us to see new time and space, and new insights, wherever we look.

 

Toni Zhang McAfee

Director, Lipont Gallery 

November 2024 in Vancouver

世道冥思 · 艺门能量 —— 吴洋【不徙】绘画与装置

 

面对画家吴洋与她卓尔不凡的艺术创作时，我想起一位作家的一句话：“ 一个伟大的诗人必须首先是一首伟大的诗”。的确，画家吴洋天赋异禀，她多彩的人生履历、扎实的文学素养以及坚实、丰厚的艺术潜质，成就了她今日既沉静又饱满的独特艺术风貌！欣赏吴洋的作品，无论油画、粉画、绘本、装置，我都会透过作品表象感受到某种细腻、强劲，坚韧，厚实，华美的内蕴气场与张力。

“ 徙 ”，有多重涵义。“ 不徙 ”似可解读为不趋时势，不落窠臼，“ 我思故我在 ”。这是一个关乎心理动力的问题，是艺术家吴洋提出并意欲解答的问题。

疫情以来，她经历了焦虑、思辨、探索，并从艺术耕耘中开辟出希望的天地。有时候，徙是新生的开始；有时候，徙是未知的开始。移民艺术家吴洋从北京来到温哥华，并在两地往来和创作。近年来她围绕生存、记忆、女性的社会角色、环境艺术的功用等主题创作了【尘封】装置系列，【伊卡洛斯岛】色粉系列，【履历】装置，【不徙】绘画等系列作品，挖掘和表达她对世道的冥思和对艺术的不倦实践。

吴洋的作品一直没有脱离超现实的手法和多媒介材料的运用。从早期的【石沁花】系列油画到【不徙】系列，柔软的纺织图案和坚硬的石头被结合在一起并被拟人化。石头是人类文明史上最古老的艺术媒介之一。石材坚固永恒的品性，使历史与现实的大量艺术作品以及建筑物都用石头作为载体。石化也是希腊神话里面被诅咒者的下场——失去行动力、被禁锢。几乎每幅【不徙】油画中都有一个石化的身体，如僧道一般，蜷身苦修，冥思苦想，力图成为自己命运之路的启门人。在吴洋的画笔下，它们好似仍有灵魂，并与观者交流和表达着自己的忧思。

 

吴洋 【石头是我，我是石头】布面油画, 36 x 36 英寸 (91.44 x 91.44 厘米), 2023

 

【石头是我，我是石头】“表现的是女性对自锢的无奈和挣扎”。本体对自我的禁锢一部分原因来自社会环境和家庭教育。失去一部分个性会令人沮丧。自我意识能否做到徙，或不徙？是否能做到灵魂的自由和绽放？吴洋再次用石头这一简洁而沉重的表象比喻女性的处境和心境。

石头沉重、枯燥；图案鲜艳、复杂。伴随‘石身’的，是从中探出的柔软、色泽鲜艳的，被美丽图案包裹的手臂。它们是从绝望中生出的希望。它们自我呵护，拥抱自己；又似在无奈中探求真理，顽强地、不可遏制地奋力彰显出内蕴的生命张力。手臂表面美丽的图案是女性的象征。图案是逻辑，图案是节奏，图案是柔情。图案给予观者视觉的快感与精神的愉悦。在吴洋的作品中，图案是必须。作为设计师出身的吴洋，遵循比例，计划周祥，配色高明，推陈出新，是她艺术大厦的坚实基础。她从“人本”出发，思辨人生剧本的真实性和虚拟性，赋予这些石身主人公们生命，让她们讲述生命的故事。她对岩石纹理和粗粝沙尘的描绘又甚为逼真，似乎预示着生命将最终归于尘埃。

 

吴洋 【请不要关注我】布面油画, 36 x 30 英寸 (91.44 x 76.2 厘米), 2022

 

【请不要关注我】是吴洋在2022年疫情肆虐期间创作的。对未知的焦虑蔓延在她的心中。画中的主人公貌似心力交瘁，在迁徙途中抵达一个小的生态环境，面临对过去和未来的抉择……

 

吴洋【Hello Mom 哈啰 妈妈】三联画，布面油画，31.5 x 23.6 inches (80 x 60 CM/幅) 2024

 

在吴洋的画中，母亲的角色是沉重的，也是谐谑的。母亲辛劳地哺育子女，无私地扶助儿孙，母亲是孩子人生的第一位教师，是儿女成长的本能卫士。在吴洋的画面中，母亲柔弱的身躯幻化成坚强的石块，承载、支撑着千斤重负——天赋的母爱如此坚韧，如此无私，如此伟岸！这应是画家予以宣叙的涵义。

吴洋【女人】82.7 x 90.55 英寸 (210 x 230 CM) 2024

 

吴洋【双面人】74.8 x 67 英寸 (190 x 170 CM) 2024

 

【女人】和【双面人】是两件体量较大的布艺装置作品：婀娜舒展，率真灵动，潇洒娇艳。染织与服装设计师出身的吴洋，以其装置作品鲜明、自信地表达了女性的特质与精神：女人是空谷幽兰，是铿锵玫瑰；一半是海水，一半是火焰。女性是生命潜力的半球体，是无可争辩的半壁世界。

 

吴洋用艺术的能量冲破阻滞，不断探索，思辨世道，用独特的风格开辟希望之窗，让我们目光所及皆是新的时空和思悟。

 

张玥

温哥华力邦美术馆馆长

2024年11月于温哥华

Illusion and Reality: Spiritual Leaps in Dual Space

Tiehan Wu

In the summer of 2024, Wu Yang shared her latest installation “Two-Faced Person” with me thousands of miles away from Beijing. If you are familiar with Wu Yang’s works, you would know that she is good at using metaphors, and her works are often mystical. In “Two-Faced Person”, we see that when people explore their own humanity, when they try to find a way to escape the constraints of scientism and techno-politics, the world escapes from the rational order and is full of something unreasonable — including strange things that are incomprehensible and difficult to discuss in “normal” language. For these things, we can neither discuss them explicitly nor give reasonable explanations. As a result, human beings seem to live in a dual space — a rationalist “box” and an irrational field of freedom and existence. “Two-Faced Person” reveals the deep manifestation of this dual world.

 

Looking back at Wu Yang’s artistic explorations in the past three years (2022-2024), she created the work “Refuse to Breathe” in 2022, which conveys the “civilization crisis” faced by contemporary society. In fact, in the postmodern era, human beings are in a “civilization crisis”, and it is artists like Wu Yang who give us a new understanding of the reality. When we take a look at her works from 2022 to 2024, we can vaguely feel the pain and guilt, isolation and emptiness, and even suspicion and curse from her works. However, through the expression of these emotions, we rediscover the meaning of freedom, courage, inner truth and honesty. At the same time, we also see the transformation of society and human beings’ inner beliefs.

 

Wu Yang is an artist who explores the meaning of transcending reality. Her art is like a prayer, containing the breath of spiritual beauty, breaking the constraints of the material world. In 2023, she created the work “Destination”. This work shuttles between illusion and reality, metaphorically representing the intersection of reality and dream, consciousness and unconsciousness. In the work, a pair of hands stretch out from the stone, as if struggling to break through the bondage. The warm-coloured hands form a sharp contrast with the cool blue-green background, which not only creates a conflict visually, but also symbolizes vitality and hope in struggle, although they are surrounded by cold reality or insurmountable difficulties. The hard stone symbolizes the stubbornness of reality, while the gesture of the hand represents the human will to break through and break free. The small bed under the stone suggests a private, soft, and even fragile space, which implies a warm memory or attachment in the subconscious, while its tiny scale suggests that this warmth is insignificant in reality, like a distant phantom. The sinking feeling brought by water symbolizes the abyss of emotions and repressed memories, giving people a sense of spiritual isolation or a hard shell of self-protection. This work reminds me of her previous catalogue — “Searching for the Place of the Heart”.

Wu Yang’s works explore the struggle between reality and illusion, which reminds us that even if we are trapped by the indifference of reality, our spirit still longs to break free and embrace warmth and freedom. In this dual space, illusion and reality are intertwined, and the leap of spirit is interpreted in the contrast of warm and cold tones. I believe that as an artist, Wu Yang’s mission is to reveal the irrational secrets deep in reality and transcend the shackles of material. At the same time, she also shoulders the responsibility of interpreting the times and making prophetic insights into the major trends and significance that are taking place. And these, we need to savor and experience slowly in Wu Yang’s works.

幻象与真实：在双重空间中的精神跃动

文/吴铁汉

2024年夏日，吴洋远隔万里，从北京与我分享了她最新的装置作品《双面人》。熟悉吴洋作品的人都知道，她擅长运用隐喻手法，创作的作品常常带有神秘主义的色彩。在《双面人》中，我们看到人在探求自身人性时，试图找到一种途径以逃离科学主义和技术政治的束缚，世界从理性的秩序中逸出，充满了某种不合常理的东西——其中包含无法理解、难以用“正常”语言讨论的陌生事物。对于这些事物，我们既无法清晰讨论，也无法给予合理解释。于是，人类似乎生活在一个双重的空间——一个理性主义的“盒子”和一个非理性的自由与存在的领域。《双面人》揭示了这个双重世界的深层现实。

回顾吴洋在近三年间（2022-2024）的艺术创作，她在2022年创作了《拒绝呼吸》这一作品，作品传递了当代社会所面临的“文明危机”。事实上，在后现代，人类身处“文明危机”之中，而正是像吴洋这样的艺术家，使我们对现实境况有了新的认识。当我们观赏她在2022-2024年间的作品时，隐约能感受到痛苦与内疚、孤立与空虚，甚至怀疑与诅咒的氛围。然而，透过这些情绪的表达，我们重新发现了自由、勇气、内心的真实与诚实的意义。同时，也看到了社会和人类对内心信仰的转变。

吴洋是一位探究超越现实意义的艺术家。她的艺术如同一种祈祷，蕴含着精神之美的气息，超越了物质世界的束缚。2023年，她创作了作品《Destination》。这件作品在幻象与真实之间穿梭，隐喻着现实与梦境、意识与无意识的交汇。画面中，一双手从石头中伸出，似乎在挣扎着突破束缚。温暖的手与冷色调的背景蓝绿色形成了鲜明的对比，不仅在视觉上形成冲突，也象征了生命力和挣扎中的希望，尽管它被冰冷的现实或不可逾越的困境所包围。坚硬的石头象征着现实的固执，而手的姿态则代表了人类试图突破和挣脱的意志。石头下的小床暗示了一个私人、柔软、甚至脆弱的空间，似乎是潜意识中的温暖记忆或依恋，而其微小的尺度则暗示了这份温暖在现实中是微不足道的，宛如遥远的幻影。水的沉没感则象征着情感的深渊和被压抑的记忆，给人一种精神上的隔离或自我保护的坚硬外壳。这幅作品让我联想到她之前出版的画册——《寻找心灵的处所》。

吴洋的作品探索了人在现实与幻象之间的挣扎，似乎提醒我们，即便被现实的冷漠所困，精神依然渴望挣脱束缚，去拥抱温暖与自由。在这双重空间中，幻象与真实交织，精神的跃动在冷暖色调的对比中得到诠释。我相信，作为艺术家，吴洋的使命在揭示现实深处的非理性秘密，超越物质的桎梏。同时，她也肩负着解释时代的责任，对正在发生的重大趋势和意义做出预言性的洞见。而这些，我们需要在吴洋的作品中细细品味，慢慢体会。

 

2024年11月於温哥华

Persistence of Vision, Ark of Memory

Wu Yang’s Enveloping the Mnemonics Series of Installations

 

Toni Zhang McAfee

 

 

Wu Yang is a visual artist with a keen perception of the natural environment and human environment, careful thinking, continuous innovation, and loyalty to the material itself.

Wu Yang’s decades-long career as a dyeing and weaving artist and fashion designer has led her to gradually embark on the path of a painter and multimedia artist. Her passion for fabric and material culture, especially the repetition of patterns, has always been the source of her imagination and creation. Along the way, her creative forms involve dyeing and weaving, painting, installation, photography, video, and performance; the materials used are fibre, metal, plastic, and oil. Although the scope of her research is wide, each of her works has her creative vocabulary, which is patterns. Her most-used creative form in recent years is oil painting, and the output is quite large.

Until 2021, she made an unprecedented effort, by putting down the brush and leaving blank the oil canvases with which she was most comfortable, and using the space on the backs of the canvases to create installation art. The narrow space formed by the thickness of the picture frame contains the philosophy of “useless use.” The vacancy on the fronts of the canvases reflects the universe she created on the backs of the canvases.

In the Enveloping the Mnemonics Series, she spatializes patterns, materializes memories, and metaphorizes facts. As in all her previous works, patterns still play the role of the protagonist. The regularly arranged patterns on the sheets of freehand carved paper nets create the illusion of concave and convex space, or flatten the space, or fold the space, drawing the audience’s attention into the space on the backs of the canvases. Objects placed in the space include sketches, old objects, threads, watercolours, diaries and poems.  Personal memory is hidden, and the paper nets used to cover it arouse the viewer’s strong motives for myth, prying, searching and dispelling doubts.

The creation of the Enveloping the Mnemonics Series coincides with the second year of the COVID epidemic. The daily lives and careers of some artists have been irreversibly changed. The environment that everyone was once familiar with may be gone forever. Since the beginning of the epidemic, people may never have been so consistently concerned with daily data, and gradually formed various collective memories of this period. Humanities, economics, science and technology, art, education, and other fields are constantly researching and preserving the concepts of “mindset,” “feeling” and “memory.” The history and memory of all this eventually will become part of the collective memory. However, individual memories, whether permanent or fleeting, are more worthy of being displayed because they reveal more concretely the output of what humans call self-consciousness. The output methods chosen by artists are often more direct, sharp, or more subtle and metaphorical than those chosen by other people.

It is difficult to express memory in words because memory is a sensory signal, memory is an individual’s interpretation of one’s own experience, memory is even the continuation of life, so people use material carriers, such as diaries, audio recordings, videos, paintings, printing, etc. to try to preserve memory. Wu Yang constructed her various memories during the epidemic, sealed her cognition of her memories in the installation works through art, and then used the narrative potential and visual communication of images to extract the memories and pass them on to others.

In addition to patterns and grids, Wu Yang’s frequently used symbols are stones, such as the many oil paintings in her Spirit of the Petal Stone Series (“石沁花” 系列), and the round stone-shaped metal sculptures covered with weaving patterns, which are all inseparable from stones. Stone is one of the oldest artistic mediums in the history of human civilization. The excellent durability of stone has enabled many historical works of art and architecture to use stone as the medium. Stones are used to preserve culture and memory. Wu Yang uses stones to express the three concepts of preservation, memory, and eternity, and to add footnotes to the Enveloping the Mnemonics Series. Her cut-and-painted pebble-shaped drawings are part of this Series, reminding viewers that fragile and fleeting memories can be sublimated through time and matter.

Strictly speaking, memory storage and retrieval are simulations, but the emotions and states of mind that memories evoke are real. A work of art, although only visually lasting, can bring inexpressible energy to the soul. Wu Yang’s Enveloping the Mnemonics Series created a paradise of memory, an ark of memory, mapping her personal memory to the current social environment, and working with the viewer to generate, preserve and retrieve new memory and cognition.

视觉之暂留，记忆之方舟——吴洋《沉封》系列装置

张玥

 

 

吴洋是一位对自然环境和人文环境感知敏锐、思维缜密、不断创新、并忠于材料本身的视觉艺术家。

吴洋作为一位染织艺术家和时装设计师，有长达数十年的职业生涯，这使她逐渐走上了画家和多媒体艺术家的道路。对“面料和材料文化的热情，尤其是图案的重复性，一直是她想象力和创作的源泉。”一路走来，她的创作形式涉及染织、绘画、装置、摄影、影像、行为艺术等，使用的材料有纤维、金属、塑料、油彩等等，虽然涉猎的范围较广，但每件作品无不带有她的创作语汇——图案；而她近年来最常用的创作形式则是油画，而且产量颇丰。

直至2021年，她进行了前所未有的尝试，放下画笔，将她使用得最得心应手的油画布留白，用画布背面的空间创作装置艺术。画框厚度形成的狭窄空间蕴含着 “无用之用”的哲理。她在画布正面的空置，反衬出她在画布背面制造的乾坤。

她在《沉封》系列中把图案空间化，把记忆物质化，把事实隐喻化。和她以往所有作品一样，图案依旧发挥着主角的作用。一张张徒手雕刻的纸网上面规律排列的网纹，或制造出凹凸空间的幻觉，或把空间拉平，或把空间折叠，把观众的视线吸入画布背面空间里摆放的物件：手绘、旧物、绒线、水彩、日记、诗歌……个人记忆是隐蔽的，用来遮挡的纸网引发观者的迷思、窥探、求索和释疑的强烈动机。

《沉封》系列的产生恰逢新冠疫情的第二年。一些艺术家们的日常生活和创作生涯被不可逆地改变了轨迹。大家曾经熟悉的环境也许一去不复返。疫情开始以来，人类可能从未如此一致地关心着每天的数据，并逐渐形成这一历史时期的各种集体记忆。人文、经济、科技、艺术、教育等领域都在不断地把“心态”“感受”“记忆”这些概念进行研究和保存。这一切的历史和记忆终将归属于集体记忆的一部分；然而个人记忆，无论是永久的，还是转瞬即逝的，更值得被展示出来，因为它们能更具体地揭示人类所谓的自我意识的输出方式。艺术家选用的输出方式往往比常人更直白、尖锐或更含蓄、隐喻。

记忆很难用语言来表达，因为记忆是感官信号，记忆是个人对自身经历的解释，记忆甚至是生命的延续，所以人们借用物质载体，比如日记、录音、录像、绘画、印刷等等试图保存记忆。吴洋把自己对疫情期间的各类记忆进行构建，通过艺术形式把对自己记忆的认知封存在装置作品里，再用图像的叙事潜力和视觉传达提取记忆，并把记忆传递给他人。

除了图案、网格以外，吴洋常用的符号还有石头，比如《石沁花》系列的众多油画作品，和染织图案覆盖的圆石形金属雕塑等等都离不开石头。石头是人类文明史上最古老的艺术媒介之一。石头卓越的耐用性使历史留存的大量艺术作品和建筑都以石头为载体。石头被用来留存文化和记忆。吴洋采用石头表达保存、记忆、永恒这三个概念，给《沉封》系列加上注脚。她剪切和绘制的圆石形绘画参与在《沉封》系列装置里，提醒观者：脆弱的、转瞬即逝的记忆，会借助时间和物质得到升华。

严格意义上讲，记忆的存储和提取是模拟，但记忆唤起的情感和心态是真实的。艺术作品虽然只会在视觉上暂留，但却能够给心灵带来不可言喻的能量。吴洋的《沉封》系列创造了一片记忆的乐土，一个记忆的方舟，把她的个人记忆映射到现今的社会环境里，与观者一起催生、保存和提取新的记忆与认知。