Doris Wong

Doris Wong
Flyers of Portland art spaces and museums
Acrylic on paper
Size varies
2008
黃慧妍
波特蘭藝術空間和博物館的單張
塑膠彩、紙
尺寸不等

To write about Doris Wong’s work entitled “Flyers of Portland Art Spaces and Museums” is rather like reviewing copied paintings by the skillful workers in Dafen Village, Shenzhen. Familiar assessments of craft, style, and originality seem useless here. The painting is neither so skillfully rendered that we are amazed by the artist's craftsmanship, nor so imperfect as to suggest the artist's authorship. They seem to be a product of manual labor rather than gestural expression. And yet what can one possibly say?

We should not be mistaken, however, as the work should not be taken at face value. Doris frequently engages in pure reproductions in her “creation”, but they are actually complex and multi-layered. Throughout the years, the artist continues to develop her familiar technique of copying images and objects, and creates obsessively crafted and wickedly humorous work. From an insider’s view, she challenges the authoritative structure of the art world by questioning art’s fundamental definitions and uncovering the absurdity of art production to the audience.

For the “Reverse Reality” exhibition, Doris reveals a selection of contemporary art publications that she grasped from the art spaces, galleries and the museum during her residence in Portland, the United States. Stretching across the wall, the publications are neatly framed in various sizes, and are divided into two reciprocal pairs with each pair juxtapose symmetrically along the axis. Upon a closer look, you will realize that one of the pairs is mirror-like painted reproductions that are made by the artist.

The essence of this work lies in its contradiction in nature. Rather than being a means to elucidation, it tends to foster obscurity. The contrast between “meaning and meaningless” becomes significant while perceiving the work. What at one glance seemed to us to have a meaning, we then see something completely meaningless. The artist disrupted things, and brought new orders and ideas through disharmony. The suspension between fact and fiction, real and counterfeit, sense and nonsense, has manifested itself as a state of wonder, or as a deeply unsettling condition. Doris’s work aptly deals with this uncertainty.

Another interesting feature is the subtle interplay between real and counterfeit, original and reproduction in the work. Today, counterfeit industry has bloomed in the global trade. Counterfeit art, on the other hand, is of no exception. Thousands of shipping containers leave Hong Kong for the United States, packed with products made in China, following numerous scandals between the world’s biggest consumer and producer. Among them, Chinese copy artists in one village export around five million paintings a year, presumably playing the role of the world's biggest exporter of counterfeit art.

Being an unusual Chinese “copy artist”, Doris, however, does not intends to examine the aesthetics of copying in the contemporary art context. What interests me is that a fake or a reproduction becomes “real” in the artist’s creative endeavor. Strictly speaking, the artist doesn’t really “create”, she reproduces in a process of “cultural recycling” (Nicolas Bourriaud, Postproduction, 2002). Artists revive objects, reactivate forms, pirate copyrights, and manipulate existing social, cultural and economic systems. The recycling of existing objects or ideas, even fake or reproduced ones, eventually lead to unique art ventures. It also reminds us the famous Venetian casino where everything is a simulated copy: gondola, canal, historical building, sky and daylight. The irony is, the simulated scenery absurdly leads to a “real” experience.

For those who have seen the original exhibition in Portland, the re-staging of the show in Hong Kong is perhaps a reproduction or a replica. Likewise, the writing of this text inevitably differs from the first-hand experience of the original artwork. It aimed to be true to the artist’s practice and attempted to provide the reader with the primary evidence of the artist’s concepts and ideas. Yet, the text remains a secondary, if not a reproduced narrative of the original artwork by slipping into the cultural recycling “spin” after all.

Stella Fong



書寫關於黃慧妍的作品《波特蘭藝術空間和博物館的單張》就像審視深圳大芬村油畫技師所繪畫的複製品一樣。從一般審視作品的角度來看，作品的技術、風格、或是否富原創性似乎都毋庸考究。黃慧妍的繪畫，固然並非務求表達令人讚嘆的工匠技術，更不在於強調藝術家的創作者身份。她的繪作看似是人手精工製作出來的產物，並無情感表達可言。那又教人如何說起？

然而，這作品絕不在於表面的價值衡量。黃慧妍多次採用純複製的方法「創作」，當中意義多重而複雜。過去多年，她一直嘗試複製影像和物件，創作出風趣又幽默的作品。從藝術家的內行人角度出發，黃慧妍藉質疑藝術的基本定義，向觀眾揭示藝術生產過程的荒誕，並挑戰藝術世界的權威架構。

於是次「逆向‧現實」的展覽中，黃慧妍選擇了一些在美國波特蘭逗留期間在博物館、畫廊和藝術空間收集到的當代藝術印刷品，然後進行複製。它們每幅的大小和裝裱不一，分成兩組在展牆上左右對稱地懸掛著。但仔細一看便會發現，右邊的一組作品只是左邊展示印刷品的手繪複本，由藝術家仿製而成。

這作品的特別之處在於自身存在的矛盾。當我們接觸這作品時，發現它不以解說作為手段，反而彰顯其含渾性，彷彿藝術家將「曉有意義」和「不知所云」這兩種相反元素一併放進作品中，加以對比，成了作品重要的一環。那一刻間，作品看來富有意義的，當下一刻卻似乎全沒意義。藝術家將物件及其語境一一拆解，從不協調中尋找出新的秩序和意念。遊走於事實和虛構、真實和假裝、有意義與無意義之間，產生一種懷疑和不安的狀態。黃慧妍的作品正玩弄這種意義的不明確。

另一有趣的地方是，這件品體現了真實與假裝、原作與複本之間微妙的互動。今天仿製工業在全球貿易大行其道。藝術複製品也不例外。成千的貨櫃船盛載著中國製造的產品由香港駛往美國，令世界兩大消費者和生產者的醜聞接踵而至。其中，中國每年出口五百萬幅藝術複製品，想必成為世界上最大出口複製藝術的國家。

作為非一般的中國「複製」藝術家，黃慧妍無意審視當今藝術界的複製美學。我認為她將膺品或複製品轉化成「真跡」的創作手法尤為耐人尋味。嚴格來說，藝術家並沒有進行「創作」，反而活現整個「文化循環再用」的過程（歐布西，《後期製作》，2002年），是當代藝術的嶄新手法之一。一方面，藝術家將生命力重新注入物件，令它的形態活靈活現﹔而另一方面，她又甘冒剽竊版權之名，嘲弄現有的社會、經濟、和文化制度。黃慧妍的作品也讓我想到著名的威尼斯人賭場。那兒的貢多拉、河道、歷史建築、藍天及陽光…種種事物都是栩栩如生的複製品。諷刺的是，這模擬的場景卻又成了荒謬的「真實」經驗。

對於曾經在美國波特蘭看過此展覽的人而言，是次展覽將展品在香港再重現或許也是一種再造的複製品而已。同樣，本文書寫也無可避免有別於對藝術作品的親身經歷。文章以忠於藝術家的創作方向為要務，旨在提供第一手資料，讓讀者得以瞭解藝術家的創作概念與思考。無論如何，文本即使不算是對這作品的模仿，也是一種對該作的二手陳述，隨時又被捲入文化循環再用的漩渦。

方詠甄(翻譯:丁穎茵、何翠芬)