西蒙·林：无处
No.4, 165 Wuyuan Road, Shanghai
LINSEED 即将呈现西蒙·林（Simon LING, b.1968, 英国）的个人项目 “无处”（Nowhere），展期于2024年3月13日持续至4月20日。此次展览的两件大幅作品，艺术家在对图像与媒介的切割重组中，创造清晰又朦胧的空间，捕捉寄居在城市中被遗忘的角落，以写实镜头般的画面定格着这些“无名”的景观。隐秘的“暗物质”被艺术家带入现实的光明，将其个人视角驱动的观察和想象参与其中，形成一个充满感知力和故事性的物体。
西蒙·林 Simon LING
无题 Untitled, 2020
纸上丙烯 Acrylic on paper
9部分组成 9 parts
76 × 57.5 cm each
228 × 172.5 cm Overall
此次展览的作品乍看仿佛是带有时代痕迹的黑白老照片，随意捕捉着城市中或被忽视的碎片。大面积的灰白色颜料渲染着堆放在建筑外围的物品，描绘的场景由不同倾斜视角的画面拼接组合，与现实秩序失衡，散发出一种迷失方向和持续运动的视觉体验感。如同落日余晖一般闪烁着的橙色线条铺洒在作品中形成了光谱，为原本自然渲染的物体带来了新的视觉上的断裂，激活了艺术家覆盖于线条之上创建的场景。画面中不起眼建筑物和船舶成为了主角，其所表现的图像与主体结构之间充满了戏剧化的张力。或许艺术家藉此引导我们对世界的体验和感知，因我们观看的方式、移动的行为而逐渐变得具体。“这更关乎如何看待观察事物，而不是它本身” （西蒙·林与泰特美术馆策展人 Lizzie Carey-Thomas 对谈，2011年4月26日）。在林的作品中，看与看到是一种参与现实的行为，与他所回应的物或空间切身互动，其表达的故事性常隐藏于不为人知的细节之中。
西蒙·林 Simon LING
无题 Untitled, 2018
板面丙烯，喷漆 Acrylic on board, spray paint
3部分组成 3 parts
81.7 × 64.1 cm each
81.7 × 192.5 cm Overall
西蒙·林1968年生于英国布拉德福，毕业于切尔西艺术学院（Chelsea College of Art & Design）和斯莱德艺术学院（Slade School of Art），现生活工作于伦敦。“无名”之物是林日常所关注和观察的 —— 腐烂的木头堆、灌木丛、电路板、无关紧要的建筑以及被忽视的角落在艺术家微妙细节的失真描绘下组合成了超越平凡的景象。林的创作将室内与户外场景相结合，通过对周围特定事物及景观的观察，以记忆、模型或草图来重构场景，营造出一种供观者漫步其中的失衡的复合空间。
Towner Eastbourne, Eastbourne 伊斯特本
西蒙·林的作品曾在多个国际重要机构和美术馆中展出，其近期个展及双人展包括: “无处”，2024，LINSEED，上海；“Simon Ling and Karin Ruggaber”，2023，greengrassi，伦敦；“Simon Ling and David Musgrave”，2020，greengrassi，伦敦；“Simon Ling”，2018，伊斯特本托纳美术馆，伊斯特本；“The Showing Uv It”，2015，卑尔根美术馆，卑尔根。其近期群展包括: “Milk Carton Sculpture”，2024，Minnesota Street Project，旧金山；“The last thing you see is the first”，2023，greengrassi，伦敦；“L’Almanach 23”，2023，Le Consortium，第戎；“Contemporary Art Society”，2021，Mount Street，伦敦；“The Botanical Mind”，2020，卡姆登艺术中心，伦敦；“Slow Painting”，2020，The Lewinsky Gallery，普利茅斯；“A Sense of Place, from Turner to Hockney”，2019，香港艺术馆，香港；“The Noing Uv It”，2015，卑尔根美术馆，卑尔根；“Painting Now: Five Contemporary Artists”，2013，泰特美术馆，伦敦；“Head Wig (Portrait of an exhibition)”，2009，卡姆登艺术中心，伦敦；“Art Now: Beating the Bounds”，2009，泰特美术馆，伦敦；“Jean-Luc Blanc, Opera Rock”，2009，波尔多CAPC当代艺术美术馆，波尔多。
其重要收藏包括泰特美术馆 （Tate Britain，英国）、伊斯特本托纳美术馆 （Towner Eastbourne，英国）、英国文化协会 （British Council，英国）、威尔士国家博物馆（National Museum Wales，英国）、基斯特弗斯博物馆（Kistefos Museum，挪威）、莱里达索瑞格基金会（Fundació Sorigué，西班牙）、原美术馆 （Hara Museum of Contemporary Art，日本）、拉乔夫斯基住宅（The Rachofsky House，美国）等美术馆和机构收藏。
No.4, 165 Wuyuan Road, Shanghai
LINSEED is delighted to present Simon LING’s (b.1968, UK) solo project “Nowhere” from March 22 to April 20, 2024. In the two large-scale works in this exhibition, the artist creates a clear but hazy space in the cutting and rearrangement of images and media, capturing the forgotten corners of the city, and framing these “un-named" landscapes with a realistic lens-like scope. The hidden "dark matter" is brought into the light of reality by the artist, involving his personal perspective-driven observation and imagination to form an object full of sensibility and storytelling.
At first glance, the works in this exhibition appear like old black-and-white photographs with traces of the times, capturing random or neglected fragments of the city. The artist uses large areas of white and gray paint to form the piled objects on the periphery of buildings, depicting scenes assembled from different tilted perspectives, which are out of balance with the order of reality, exuding a sense of disorientation and continuous movement. Shimmering like the setting sun, orange lines create a spectrum in the work, bringing a new visual rupture to the naturally rendered objects and activating the scenes on top. As unassuming buildings and boats become the protagonists of the picture, a dramatic tension between the representations of images and compositions arises. Perhaps, the artist is thus guiding our experience and perception of the world, which gradually becomes tangible by the way we look at it and by the act of moving through it. “It is a question of how you see something, not what it is” (Ling in conversation with Tate curator Lizzie Carey-Thomas, 26 April 2011). In Ling's work, looking and seeing is an act of participation in reality, a deep engagement with the object or space to which he is responding, and the storytelling of its expression is often hidden in unseen details.
Simon LING was born in 1968 in Bradford, UK. He studied at Chelsea College of Art & Design and then at the Slade School of Art in London, current lives and works in London. Ling is interested in what he called the “un-named”, an ordinary but unidentified realm composed by rotting piles of wood, undergrowth, circuit boards, nondescript blocks of flats, and other overlooked corners, these are combined with the artist's subtly distorted depictions of details to create scenes that transcend the mundane. By combining studio-based and en plein air practices, he reconstructs scenes from his direct observation, memories, models, and sketches of his surroundings, generating a sense of disorientation and an unstable space for the viewer to wander through.
Simon LING‘s work has been exhibited in several international major institutions and art galleries, his recent solo/duo exhibitions include: “Nowhere”, 2024, LINSEED, Shanghai; “Simon Ling and Karin Ruggaber”, 2023, greengrassi, London; “Simon Ling and David Musgrave”, 2020, greengrassi, London; “Simon Ling”, 2018, Towner Eastbourne, Eastbourne; “The Showing Uv It”, 2015, Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen (Curated by Martin Clark). His selected group exhibitions include: “Milk Carton Sculpture”, 2024, Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco (organized by Vincent Fecteau & Jordan Stein); “The last thing you see is the first”, 2023, greengrassi, London; “L’Almanach 23”, 2023, Le Consortium, Dijon (curated by Éric Troncy); “Contemporary Art Society”, 2021, Mount Street, London; “The Botanical Mind”, 2020, Camden Arts Center, London; “Slow Painting”, 2020, The Lewinsky Gallery, Plymouth; “A Sense of Place, from Turner to Hockney”, 2019, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong; “The Noing Uv It”, 2015, Bergen Kunsthalle, Bergen (curated by Martin Clark); “Painting Now: Five Contemporary Artists”, 2013, Tate Britain, London; “Head Wig (Portrait of an exhibition)”, 2009, Camden Arts Center, London; “Art Now: Beating the Bounds”, 2009, Tate Britain, London; “Jean-Luc Blanc, Opera Rock”, 2009, CAPC Bordeaux, Bordeaux (Curated by Alexis Vaillant).
Simon LING’s works are held in notable collections including the Tate Britain, UK; Towner Eastbourne, UK; British Council, UK; National Museum Wales, UK; Kistefos Museum, Norway; Fundació Sorigué, Spain; Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan and The Rachofsky House, USA.
