Footnotes

Provenance
Private Collection, Asia

黃宇興
所有的人都相同
壓克力 畫布
2013 - 2016年作

簽名：HUANG Yuxing 2013-2016（左下）；HUANG Yuxing 2013-2016（背面）

來源
亞洲私人收藏

Rendered in electrifying, iridescent colors, Huang Yuxing's psychedelic paintings are poetic metaphors for the ephemerality of time, the vicissitudes of life, as well as the complex hypocrisies of reality. Under the artist's dexterous brush, the dazzling hallucinogenic hues alternately overlap, intermingle, and coalesce with a poised, quiet elegance that is paradoxical to the strident jarring exuberance of his chosen colors. As the disparate tones and shapes meet, interact, negotiate, and eventually co-exist in hauntingly beautiful paradises, the painting slowly gains an inherent, self-built self-sufficiency — one where mutually contradictory elements remain free, alive, and viable. Whether rivers, forests, treasure islands, or bubbles, Huang Yuxing's paintings combine vibrant color with a singular process that reflects his experience of creation — which in turn reflects the experience of contemporary existence.

To create his iconic, instantly recognizable works, Huang Yuxing applies thin swathes of paint repeatedly, gradually building up layer upon layer of resplendent, intensely vivid yet translucent hues imbued with spatial depth. As each tone vies for the spotlight, Huang Yuxing skillfully maneuvers contour, color, and saturation, balancing intentional interplays of juxtaposing hues and inherent uncertainties in color combinations to arrive at complex, vibrant three-dimensional fields. Underlying Huang Yuxing's extraordinary practice is his training in traditional Chinese realist technique, 'Gongbi Zhongcai', which infuses his works with a meticulous technicality. Alternating between acrylic and oil, Huang Yuxing achieves a unique consistency of fluorescent paint while leaving visibly conspicuous brushstrokes to achieve a high level of veinous detail. The final scene appears at once fantastical and phenomenologically real; by maintaining a laborious and thoughtful process of applying color, Huang Yuxing breathes life and tension into the painting.

The present work, a rare painting to have been created over an extended number of years from 2013-2016, is a transitional piece encompassing many of Huang Yuxing's core motifs. An extension from the "River" series as well as the "Bubbles" works, the pictorial space in the present work features luminous sacs of different colors and sizes drifting and jostling along the convulsing stream of time, emanating a spiritual ethereality. Peering from beneath—or within—the translucent pods are hints of anonymous faces whose almost abstract features hover at the brink between ambiguity and recognition. Infused with a taut buoyancy, the sacs convey an undeniable life force, and yet an ambiguous undertone and mute tension lurks beneath the bright colors and shrouded, illegible faces. As evidenced by the present work, which straddles geometric abstraction, figuration, and landscape, Huang Yuxing charts an utterly unique path between Chinese Zen and Eastern philosophy and the Western tradition of painting.

In an interview, Huang Yuxing once described the uncanny inhabitants within these sacs as representative of spirits or life in general: "They may not strictly be children. They may be fragile spirits encased in crystallized bubbles flowing down the river of time. They recall my previous series of works, titled "River", which was about the representation of time [...] Perhaps these beings are waiting to be born — waiting for the pain of being birthed into the world." If Huang Yuxing's "River" painting are about time and temporality, the "Forests" about evolution, growth, and life, and the "Treasure Island" works about wisdom, perhaps the present work focuses on fear and courage — the experience of co-existing with fear. Indeed, in 2016, the year the present work was created, Huang Yuxing chose the following title as the title as his solo exhibition: And ne forhtedon ná, which means "be not afraid" in old English. Taken from the epitah of 20th century Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges, the mantra of "be not afraid" serves as a creative and meditative inspiration for Huang as one of the most accomplished Chinese painters of our generation today.

黃宇興的繪畫如夢似幻，其燦爛的色彩總讓人心神蕩漾，這些作品既是對時光飛逝、人生悲歡離合，亦是對現實的複雜虛偽所做的詩意隱喻。在他嫻熟的畫筆下，迷幻的色彩彼此重疊、交織、結合，令人目不暇給，優雅之中帶有沉穩而安靜的氣質，牴觸著藝術家衝突劇烈、繁花盛開的調色盤。當截然不同的色彩和形狀相遇、碰撞、妥協，最後在醉人的美麗天堂中共生共存，作品逐漸獲得一種與生俱來、怡然自得的姿態；於此，矛盾的元素自由自在，不僅生氣勃勃，並且欣欣向榮。河流、森林、金銀島、泡沫......繽紛的色彩與獨特的創作過程在黃宇興的繪畫中相輔相成，藝術家的創作狀態表露無遺，繼而映照當代人的生命際遇。

黃宇興的作品識別度極高，在創作這些標誌性作品之時，他會在畫布上反覆施以薄薄的顏料，逐一疊加鮮豔的半透明顏料，製造出深邃的空間。萬紫千紅爭奪觀者的目光，與此同時，線條、顏色和飽和度經過巧妙的安排，水乳交融的對比色，以及難以名狀的色彩組合，兩者在取得平衡之後構築出複雜、生動的三度空間。黃宇興的藝術是如此地與眾不同，這可歸因於他在「工筆重彩」此一中國傳統寫實技法上的訓練，因此作品極其講究細節。黃宇興時而採用壓克力顏料，時而採用油彩，除確保螢光顏料濃淡適宜之外，同時留下明顯的筆觸以強調細緻紋理，終成就出既奇幻又真實的畫面。通過費力而嚴謹的上色過程，黃宇興為作品注入了生命力和張力。

本作品是一幅罕見的畫作，歷經 2013 年至 2016 年的悠長歲月繪製而成，為黃宇興創作過渡時期的作品，內容涵蓋許多他的核心命題。本作品延續「河流」及「泡沫」系列，畫面空間中，大大小小的七彩光泡在時間的洪流中載浮載沉，呈現空靈飄渺的意境。仔細詳端光泡下方或內部，不知名的面孔若隱若現，其近乎抽象的五官似曾相識。這些泡沫飽滿的浮力，傳達無可忽視的生命力；在鮮豔色彩和遮蔽、模糊的面孔下，卻隱藏著弦外之音和悄然的緊張感。這幅畫橫跨幾何抽象、具象和風景等類別，證明了黃宇興在中國禪宗、東方哲學與西方繪畫傳統之間開闢一條全然獨特的道路。

在一次採訪中，黃宇興表示泡沫中的神祕人多少象徵了精神或生命：「它不一定僅僅是小孩，可能是一個包裹在結晶體中的脆弱的人的靈魂，在河水中流動。這很像我之前一個系列的作品，叫《河流》，是關於時間的描述。〔......〕在生的場合等待降生的過程。就好比是你說的未出生之前、等待陣痛的機會。」倘若黃宇興的「河流」系列在探討時間和短暫，「森林」與演化、成長和生命有關，「金銀島」和智慧有關，那麼此作品旨在描述恐懼和勇氣，即與恐懼共存的經驗。在創作此作品的2016年，黃宇興不也曾將一次個展取名為：And ne forhtedon ná？為古英語「莫害怕」之意，出自20 世紀阿根廷作家豪爾赫．路易斯．博爾赫斯（Jorge Luis Borges）的墓誌銘。作為當今我們這一代頂尖的中國畫家，黃宇興認為此箴言為啟發他創作和思維的靈感來源。