新游戏
NEW GAMES
Despite the ubiquity of General Tso’s Chicken in America and the fact that 99% of U.S. store-bought goods are manufactured in China, there remain vast differences between the two cultures.
Chinese-born artist Yefeng Wang (aka “Frank”) has been in America for several years now and his art often employs images that work through these cultural boundaries. Take for instance his latest work, titled New Games. It is a 3D animated video that uses Lego people to demonstrate a series of physically-impossible, not to mention absurd, games.
These include leap-frogging over tall buildings, peeing into the clouds, and bumper cars using 747 airplanes. (That last one may be possible, though not advised.) It all seems innocent and quite silly on the surface, though what Wang is really after is not laughs but a sense of what lies beyond convention.
Nothing is real here: from Wang’s use of Legos, to the action being filmed against green screen, to the absurdity of what the artist makes them perform. We find ourselves trying to comprehend the games as though they have some relationship to reality, even if, like animation or science fiction, that reality requires a suspension of disbelief. Wang’s characters, however, are not relatable because of the emotion they convey on-screen. They are ciphers for something more ingrained: competition.
As icons, the Legos/“athletes” are indelibly Chinese, for the regiment and desperation Wang puts them through stresses the notion that winning is inextricably linked to national pride. Yet there is also something American happening too.
Legos are manufactured in China, though nearly every child in America owns a set or has played with one at some point in their youth. They’ve become a symbol of wholesomeness in a country that prides itself on notions of freedom and equality--ideological forms also embodied in competitive athletics. The irony is that China’s great competitor for Olympic gold medals every four years is the United States.
Systems, however, have a way of marginalizing uniqueness regardless their ideological persuasion. American life, as we well know in the 21st century, is fraught with its own inconsistencies. On some level, Wang’s Legos look less like celebrated athletes that span two divergent governments and more like pawns in their game.
Brian Chidester
Critic/Writer
在当下美国虽然有无处不在的左宗鸡和九成以上的中国制造产品，但中美两地之间的文化差异却依然存在。
在中国出生长大的艺术家王业丰（Frank）现在已经在美国生活工作了多年，他的作品经常串联起源自不同文化疆域的图像，正如他最新的作品《新游戏》。在这件数码作品中，他为我们展示了一系列不止在生体上不可能实现，而且极其荒诞的……“游戏”。
在这些游戏中，包括有越过高楼的跳山羊，打落卫星的撒尿游戏，以及乘坐民航客机的碰碰车等等（最后这个游戏可能是可以实现的，但我并不建议你参与）。在作品中，所有这些内容表面上看来都有些无知、愚蠢和滑稽，然而艺术家真正寻求的不仅止于表面上的好笑，而更是那些只有越过常规才能探知的深层意义。
从王业丰所使用的类似“乐高”的玩具人形象，到参考绿频技术的动画动作摄制，到所有这些虚拟形象在作品中的“行为表演”，在这里显然没有东西是现实发生的。然而因为它与现实的某种关联，你会发现我们依然努力试图去理解这些游戏内容。即使是当你在接触某些动画或者科幻小说作品中，它们亦会要求你在欣赏时暂时收起你对“不现实”的怀疑。而在王业丰作品中的人物却是通过他们所释放出的情绪来做到这点。他们暗藏人类某种更原始及根深蒂固的密语——竞争。
这些类似“乐高”玩具的运动员形象，在王业丰的作品中以一个图标被使用。王业丰在作品中赋予他们的“团结”与“拼死竞争”等特质强调出“获胜”与“国家尊严”之间密切的关联。这种现象，即使是在美国也同样有所体现。
大众流行的“乐高”玩具是在中国的工厂被制造出来的，而在原产地美国，几乎每个人在童年的某一时间段都曾拥有过它。这种代表着美国文化的玩具，在那里已经被理解为一种有益成长和身心健康的符号。美国作为一个以自由和平等等精神自居的国家，意识形态却体现着竞争性的本质。讽刺的是，中美两国总是在每隔四年的奥林匹克运动会中，以互相之间的最大竞争对手的身份出现。
然而系统，以它自己的方式融合所有这些不同意识形态之间的独特性。21世纪美国的当代生活，众所周知的充斥着它自身的各种矛盾。而在王业丰的这系列作品中，他的“乐高”式的“玩具人”运动员形象，看起来并不像是跨越那两个有分歧的国家政府的明星，而更像是被置身在它们的政治游戏里的棋子。
作家 艺评人 布赖恩 · 齐德斯特
王业丰
www.wangyefeng.com yefengart@gmail.com us:1.415.568.8356
简介:
王业丰是一位媒体艺术家。1984 年出生于中国上海。2011 年夏天,业丰于美国芝加哥艺术学院取得纯 艺术硕士学位。继毕业后,他开始在该校的电影新媒体以及艺术与科技部门担任讲师并发展与数码艺术相 关的课程。他目前在美国罗德岛学院艺术部门担任助理教授,领导建设数字媒体项目。
业丰活跃于中美等地的艺术领域,并不断思考和研讨数字媒体的创作工作,作品的探索涉及实验三维 艺术、视频装置、虚拟实境和游戏艺术等。业丰与世界各地不同展场合作展览,其中包括美国芝加哥 Co-prosperity Sphere 文化中心,美国圣塔菲国际新媒体艺术节,美国曼哈顿先驱广场,美国纽约 Here 艺术 中心,中国徐州美术馆,中国鲁迅美术学院美术馆,美国芝加哥 Gene Siskel 电影中心,美国海德公园艺术 中心,香港 Art Projects 画廊等。2013 年夏天,业丰也是美国纽约 NARS Foundation 基金会的驻场艺术家。
Chiaroscuro,亚洲艺术研究所,美国芝加哥
- InVisible, Co-prosperity Sphere⽂文化中⼼心,美国芝加哥- Current 2012, 圣达菲国际新媒体艺术节,美国新墨西哥州- 百年, Gene Siskel 电影中⼼心, 美国芝加哥2011- 恶作剧, 美国海德公园艺术中⼼心- 时空, 芝加哥R&D 画廊- 亚洲青年艺术节, 韩国首尔弘益⼤大学- Videos on the Front, 美国纽约Interstate Projects画廊- Hypercapitalism – East Meets West, 美国纽约,曼哈顿哈罗德⼴广场- 芝加哥艺术学院研究院毕业展, 美国芝加哥萨利万画廊- Sexier,美国芝加哥周⽒氏兄弟艺术中⼼心- Communicative Commonality, 美国芝加哥艺术学院回旋镖空间- 错置, 33画廊, 美国芝加哥- Passive Wave, LG空间, 美国芝加哥2010- Channel, Channel, Channel, Channel, Channel, Channel, Channel, Channel, 美国芝加哥萨利万画廊 - 沸腾的条件, 美国芝加哥艺术学院X画廊- 复制的⼒力量,中国徐州美术馆- 笼中的战场, Adhocity, Op Shop, 美国海德公园2009- Bleeding Map, 33画廊, 美国芝加哥周⽒氏兄弟艺术中⼼心- Around the Coyote, 美国芝加哥2008- 春季⼤大展, 美国旧⾦金⼭山2007- 悟空的红装,青年美展, 中国上海
WANG YE-FENG
wangyefeng.com yefengart@gmail.com us:1.415.568.8356
Yefeng Wang is a Chinese media artist. Hewas born in 1984, in Shanghai, China. In summer 2011, he finished his MFA studies in Art and Technology Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), and has taught digital related courses in the Department of Film, Video New Media and Animation as well as Art and Technology Studies at SAIC as an instructor until 2013. He currently teaches in the Art Department at Rhode Island College as an Assistant Professor.
Yefeng actively pursues his artistic career in both China and America, and continues think and work critically across the medias among Experimental 3D, video installation, Performance in Virtual Environment, and Art Game. Yefeng has had extensive experience exhibiting and working in prestigious venues internationally, which include InVisible (Co-prosperity Sphere Culture Center, Chicago, IL), Currents 2012, Santa Fe International New Media Festival (El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM), Hypercapitalism – East meets West (Herald Square, NY), Power of Copying (Xuzhou Museum of Art, China), Impersonal - solo exhibition of Yefeng Wang (HEREarts Center, New York, NY), There is A Body On Screen! (The Museum of Luxun Academy of Art, Shenyang, China), Post-photography (99 Art Space of Shanghai University, Shanghai, China), Myth and Mutation (Reverse Art Space, Brooklyn, NY), solo exhibition – I-generation (Hong Kong Art projects Gallery, Central Hong Kong), etc. He was also a residency artist and juried panel member in New York Artist Residency and Studios Foundation in summer 2013 and 2014.
