LINSEED将于2024年1月6日至3月2日展出艺术家卢君意 (b.1996, 中国) 首次个展“小心有刺” (Watch Out, Kiddo)，呈现艺术家近期一系列绘画、装置、雕塑等多元媒材的新作。此次展览以虚构自传体式的叙事展开，跟随着来自过去“家”的片段，回溯艺术家童年的记忆、亲密关系、移民经历及不断萌发的独立意识。
卢君意 Lu Junyi
过来 Come Here, 2023
布面油画、丙烯与彩铅，布料，铝丝
Oil, acrylic, color pencil, fabric, and aluminum wire on canvas
101.6 × 121.9 cm
此次呈现的绘画作品中，暧昧混沌的生命体、欲言又止的手、流窜在城市中的动物、怀旧破碎的布料边角、形状稚拙的房屋和带有独特忧伤情绪的风景被筛选、拼凑，这些被回望的碎片仿佛成为了艺术家童年珍贵记忆的遗物，被微妙的笔触与构图、随性的拼贴和缝线珍藏。埋藏于潜意识里的欲望、困惑和脆弱，在这一刻被释放和消解。雅克·拉康（Jacques Lacan）在其凝视（gaze）理论所阐述，“在整个世界的视角里，我们都是被观察的生物。[1] 相反，当我们在凝视时，被观看的客体也会以某种方式回望着我们。[2]” 幼时的寄宿经历、家庭关系和社会道德的规训，普世对“完美小孩”的想象如幽灵般萦绕在艺术家的成长过程中，但与之而来的是内心不断生长的复杂情绪，和回应期许的欲望。而其自发联想出的特定情境里，自我（ego）与本我（id）持续无意识地拉扯。
卢君意 Lu Junyi
噢，影子 Oh Sombra, 2023
印花棉布面油画、丙烯与彩铅，羊毛，布料
Oil, acrylic, color pencil, wool, and fabric on calico
183 × 102 × 4 cm
直觉性的痕迹在其作品中留下记号，创造出一种既陌生又熟悉的荒诞混合体。艺术家在雕塑作品中使用的皮毛、蜡、陶泥和粘土等材料与情感经验分享一种相似的特质——柔软、亲密、脆弱。尤其是蜡和陶土的暂时性及其不完美的浇筑过程，仿佛在隐喻着若即若离的依恋关系。像是寄居于城市中个体的缩影，她的作品流露着渴望建立亲密关系又难以言说的无力感；将自己置于被凝视的客体，也引导着观众在反复窥探的同时，回望暗藏于记忆缝隙深处的隐秘情愫。
卢君意 Lu Junyi
梦话 二 Gibberish II, 2023
陶土，氧化铜，釉料 Copper oxide and glazes on terracotta
11.5 × 12 cm
“对于长期伴侣的想象，来自所谓的 ‘拍档’ 一词——如同盟友、协作者等一齐解决问题的伙伴——为解决人类挥之不去的孤独感而存在。这种近乎偏执的长期关系被某种情感的纽带紧紧地连结在一起，机械又强势。它们也像是寓言一般，充满着具有魔力的情节和关系，又极具目的性，引导着我们理解伴侣存在的意义，叮嘱着我们：‘小心，孩子’。这些故事时常套用关于未来伴侣或令人心跳的浪漫情节，但隐含的是长辈的喃喃自语，是对不确定的未来难以言喻的恐惧。
卢君意 Lu Junyi
最孤独星球 The Loneliest Planet, 2023
布面油画、丙烯与彩铅，纽扣，手工缝线
Oil, acrylic, color pencil, cotton thread stitching, and buttons on canvas
160 × 120 × 4 cm
我想起爷爷拍摄的家庭录影带——我一边走来走去，一边模仿并重复着妈妈的话：‘来，吃点芒果，小心牙签’。所有这些言语和思绪如影随形，到处萦绕，潜藏在公寓、阁楼、仓库里，静静地等待着它们飘散的一刻。
对，我们已经提醒过你了。
那个艺术家，紧贴路旁静止的车辆骑行，飞驰而过。一种满足感随之而来，就像刹那间不经意的擦肩而过。你会与许多人交错，并悄悄地反复体验着这种快感。你觉得自己是个上道的通勤者，没有头盔和骑车装备，正经而又自在。
人行道上偶尔会有几只狐狸从垃圾桶后面悄悄爬出来，默默地看着你经过。我们都是城市动物；你就这样前进着：闪烁的灯光，即将耗尽的电池，沉重的呼吸。我看你花了很长时间学习如何照顾自己。”（卢君意，2023年12月8日）
参考文献：
[1]Bredekamp, Horst. Image Acts: A Systematic Approach to Visual Agency. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110725827
[2]Felluga, Dino. "Modules on Lacan: On the Gaze." Introductory Guide to Critical Theory. http://www.purdue.edu/guidetotheory/psychoanalysis/lacangaze.html
关于艺术家
卢君意 Lu Junyi
完美之人 四 A Perfect Human Being IV, 2023
布面油画、丙烯与石墨，纸，手工框架
Oil, acrylic, paper, and pencil on canvas with artist’s frame
21 × 31 cm
卢君意1996年出生于中国广州，2018 年于马里兰艺术学院（Maryland Institute College of Art）获艺术学士学位，并于 2023 年在斯莱德美术学院（Slade School of Fine Art）获硕士学位，目前生活工作于伦敦。卢君意的创作涉及绘画、雕塑和写作，将个人记忆、民间传说和社会科学研究交织在一起，以虚构自传体式的形式回应当代生活的经历。其作品所呈现的视觉符号像是诡秘飘忽的幽灵，以传统仪式的器物、建筑、后末日叙事及仿生形态，构建出仿佛是失落未来的城市图景。画面中看似不经意的编排及朦胧虚幻的色调给观者不确定感和孤独感，显现出一种想要逃逸的困境；囿困于居所中的身体容纳着难以言喻的矛盾情绪，表达了年轻一代正在经历的对家庭、亲密关系及独立意识的困惑及欲望，这些不断涌现又挥之不去的情绪及对幻想家园的向往所形成的冲突让人无计可施，只好在现实与想象之间摇摆。
完美之人 三 A Perfect Human Being III, 2023
布面丙烯、彩铅与黑板漆，布料，大头针，手工缝线，手工框架
Acrylic, pencil, fabric, cotton thread stitching, blackboard paint, and pin on canvas with artist’s frame
36 × 21 × 5 cm
其近期展览项目包括: “Volatile Futures”，2023，Unit 1 Gallery，伦敦；“Slide a Glance”，2023，ASC Gallery，伦敦；“SPIIIIINELESS”，2022，UCL Art Museum，伦敦；“Era 2022”，2022，Crypt Gallery，伦敦；“In Our Image，After Our Likeness”，2021，Gajah Gallery，日惹。她于2022年获伊丽莎白·格林希尔茨基金会奖。
LINSEED is delighted to present LU Junyi’s (b.1996, China) first solo exhibition “Watch Out, Kiddo” from January 6 to March 2, 2024, featuring a series of new works in painting, installation, sculpture, and mixed media. Unfolding through an autofictional narrative, with fragments from the past "home", the exhibition traces back the artist's childhood memories, intimate relationships, immigrant experiences, and the emerging consciousness of independence.
卢君意 Lu Junyi
完美之人 二 A Perfect Human Being II, 2023
布面油画与丙烯，手工框架
Oil, acrylic on fabric with artist’s frame
25 × 25 cm
In this exhibition, ambiguous and chaotic living beings, hesitant hands, straying animals in the city, nostalgic and broken fabrics, childishly shaped houses, and melancholic landscapes are sifted and pieced together in Lu’s paintings. These retrospected fragments seem to have become relics of the precious memories from her childhood, delicately sealed by the subtle brushstrokes and compositions as well as the spontaneous collages and stitching. The desires, confusions, and vulnerabilities buried in the subconscious are released and dissolved at this moment. According to Jacques Lacan in his theory of the gaze, in the spectacle of the world, we are creatures who are observed [1]. Conversely, when we are gazing, we sense that the viewed object looks back at us in some way [2]. The idealized image of the "perfect child” fantasized by Chinese families has haunted the artist’s experience of growing up—the boarding schools, family relationships, and societal moral standards, accompanied by an expanding complexity of emotions and a desire to respond to expectations. The ego and the self (id), or the self conducted by the external world and the instinctual self, continue to engage unconsciously in Lu’s spontaneously imagined sceneries.
卢君意 Lu Junyi
梦话 三 Gibberish III, 2023
陶土，氧化铜，釉料 Copper oxide and glazes on terracotta
11.5 × 12 cm
Intuitive compositions of handmade traces leave marks in Lu’s works, creating an eerie compound of both the strange and the familiar. In her sculptures, materials such as furs, wax, ceramics, and clay share similar characters with emotional experiences—soft, intimate, and fragile. The temporary nature of the wax and clay with their imperfect casting process alludes to an elusive attachment. Echoing the individuals dwelling in cities, her works reveal the conflicted powerlessness incurred by one’s difficulty in expressing longing for intimacy, despite its intensity. By placing herself as an object of the gaze, they guide the viewer to peer through recurrently, and retrace the unspoken feelings sewn and hidden deep in the cracks of memories.
“The imagining of a long-term partner, termed by the word ‘partner,’ suggests allies, collaborators, or some sort of collective problem solvers. And the biggest problem is always loneliness. These obsessive bonds clutch so tightly that no water can seep through. They are dry and mechanic, masculine. They are also folklore, full of magic and purpose. We come to understand the meaning of partners through survival stories of fantasy—the childhood tales predict our misfortunes and say ‘watch out, kiddo’. Frankly, they are less about future partners or heart-beating romance than really the murmuring fears of our parents, as the old couples warble behind our backs, too intimidated to spell it out.
I think of the family DV tape grandpa took, where I was walking around performing and repeating after my mom: ‘Here have some mango. Be careful of the toothpick’. All these words and thoughts are diligently contained in various houses, flats, lofts, apartments, condos, and warehouses, patiently waiting for the moment they crumble.
Yes, we have warned you.
Then there is the artist, who is like a kind of cyclist riding very close to the cars parked on the side. It brings a sense of satisfaction like an unhappened touch through split seconds. You pass numbers of them and get to experience the high repeated, secretly. You think you’re a skilled commuter, with no helmet of cyclist gear—formal but casual.
Some foxes on the sidewalk occasionally creep out from behind the garbage bins and watch you pass by in silence. We are the city animals. And so you go: flashing lights, dying batteries, heavy breathing. I see you’re spending a long time learning how to take care of yourself.”（Lu Junyi, December 2023)
Notes：
[1]Bredekamp, Horst. Image Acts: A Systematic Approach to Visual Agency. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110725827
[2]Felluga, Dino. "Modules on Lacan: On the Gaze." Introductory Guide to Critical Theory. http://www.purdue.edu/guidetotheory/psychoanalysis/lacangaze.html
About the Artist
LU Junyi was born in Guangzhou, China, in 1996. She received her BFA degree from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2018 and her MFA degree from the Slade School of Fine Art in 2023. She currently lives and works in London. Lu’s practice involves diverse materials and media, encompassing paintings, sculptures, and writings. Employing the method of storytelling, her fictional autobiographical projects respond to contemporary living experiences, interweaving memories, folklore, and social science research. Reflecting hauntological themes, the personal symbols in her work carry a sense of collective unsettlement toward a lost future. The seemingly unintentional arrangement of the images and the hazy, unreal color palette give the audience a sense of uncertainty and loneliness, revealing a predicament of wanting to escape; the body trapped in the dwelling contains unspeakable contradictory emotions, expressing the young generation's ongoing confusion and desire for family, intimacy, and consciousness of independence. The conflict between these ever-present and lingering emotions and the longing for a fantasized home leaves one with no choice but to oscillate between reality and imagination.
Her Selected Group exhibitions include: “Volatile Futures”, 2023,Unit 1 Gallery, London; “Slide a Glance”, 2023, ASC Gallery, London; “SPIIIIINELESS”, 2022, UCL Art Museum, London; “Era 2022”, 2022, Crypt Gallery, London; “In Our Image, After Our Likeness”, 2021, Gajah Gallery, Yogyakarta. Lu was a recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant award in 2022.
