The Devil, Probably｜也許是魔鬼​

Opening 開幕
2015.12.19, 5pm-8pm

Exhibition Period 展期 
2015.12.19－2016.1.31

Observation Society
觀察社

Shop 102, No. 8, Road 1, Suihua Xincun
Haizhu District, Guangzhou ​
廣州市海珠區
穗花新村一巷八號102房
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The Devil, Probably

Ghosts and demons appear with great frequency in the art of Oscar Chan. They reflect the artist’s interest in representing images of fear and sin in art – things that only exist in the human mind. These images of non-existents come from Oscar’s everyday reality – where even falling asleep and going out are enough to make him feel scared. According to Oscar, this sensitivity he has towards fear is related to his own near-death experience when a deformed blood vessel once burst in his brain. He was fortunately saved but the surgery left him with a long and obvious scar along his forehead.

But I didn’t know this in the beginning. I first learned about Oscar’s art works, and later I heard about his life story.

As a young artist freshly graduated from art school, Oscar did not rush to define his practice with a certain medium or style. With an ability to occupy and transform a large space and with the use of obscure yet unpretentious imagery, his best works reveal a sense of intriguing mystery that is like nothing else. Now, I am able to infer the origins of this quality of his sensitive mind. And although he often says that he will get fevers, stomachaches and insomnia due to his anxiety, I have never really seen any practical bad effects that these problems have caused within him. He must have long ago reconciled his own fears, learnt to live with them, and even found the pleasure of observing and feeling them. Apparently, being a coward and being able to feel the horror in everything are two different issues, and to Oscar the latter has become a ‘gift’ in terms of his artistic creations.

The principle of this exhibition was for us to explore the fears that torture us, and the sins in human nature that compel us to make mistakes. The artist recognizes these things that cannot be rationalized or eliminated as “devils”, and therefore the original idea of this exhibition was to create a temple dedicated to these devils. But we soon realized that no formality or ritual is useful when communicating with these formless devils living within an artist’s mind, and thus all additional things became redundant in this temple. The only thing that remained was an intense, primitive and boundless conversation.

(text: Anthony Yung) 
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也許是魔鬼

陳翊朗的作品中經常出現鬼和妖怪，它們反映了他對在藝術中呈現恐懼和罪這些只存在於人的頭腦內的東西的興趣，這些烏有的形象來源於陳翊朗的日常真實 － 生活中，連睡覺和外出都足以令他害怕，他認為他對恐懼的敏感跟他十歲時前額畸型血管爆裂而幾乎喪命的經驗有關，那次幸好救了他命的手術在他的額頭留下了一道顯眼的長疤痕。

但是開始時我並不知道這些，我認識他的生活故事要比我認識他的作品要晚一些。

作為一個剛從藝術學校畢業不久的年青藝術家，陳翊朗並沒急於將自己的創作局外於任何一種媒介或方法，但通過佔據和轉化較大空間的能力和晦暗卻沒有故作隱藏的意象，他最好的幾個作品都流露出一種無人雷同的神秘感。現在，我可以將這種品質的源由理解為他敏感的心。而儘管他經常說他因焦慮而發燒、肚子痛或徹夜失眠，我卻從未看出這些痛苦對他有什麼實際的壞影響 － 他定必早已與他的恐懼和解，甚至樂於在生活中觀察和感受它。明顯地，膽小和能夠感受到無處不在的恐佈不是同一回事，而對於陳翊朗而言後者已經成為了他的藝術創作的「天賦」。

這次展覽的要旨在於探討那些折磨我們的恐懼和促使我們犯錯的人性的罪。藝術家將這些無法理喻又難以消滅的東西認作魔鬼，所以展覽的最初概念是一座祭祀這些魔鬼的廟，但我們很快便意識到，要與藝術家頭腦內千變萬化的魔鬼溝通，任何形式和儀式都是不合用的，所有東西對於這座廟來說都是多餘的，剩下的只有一場緊湊、原始、不設邊界的對話。

(文：翁子健)