瞬  間

——趙綺婷作品展序

“瞬間”其詞意通常是形容極短的時間，或者說一眨眼的工夫。用它作為綺婷深圳首次個展的主題，是因為她的作品正是通過對事物瞬間形象和場景的捕捉，來表現香港青年藝術家對AI時代的事物和人的認識與感受；也是基於我對她在繪畫的技巧、形式、風格與主題層面的多方面的瞭解。在AI時代，技術為我們帶來便捷和創新，而藝術更賦予了技術内涵與溫度。綺婷這個AI時代的青年藝術家，面對全新的人工智慧生成圖像的世界，面對數字圖像生成技術的的挑戰，激發了她對虛擬數字圖像生成與架上繪畫的筆觸、肌理等繪畫語言和風格的交融與探索。
 

綺婷善於從不同的城市空間和時間瞬間中擷取靈光，在AI時代語境下，表現出年輕一代在審美上新的追求和探索。其作品不僅從現實層面展示了多元文化交融的城市瞬間和片斷，更揉入了自已內心情感與體驗。在具體的創作中，綺婷一方面堅持對筆觸、肌理等等繪畫固有的物質性的運用，另一方面面對正在飛速迭代的虛擬數字圖像生成技術的挑戰， 她則嘗試在二者之間，探討架上繪畫在AI時代存在的價值和意義。她通過獨具一格的數字像素和繪畫塊面構成的類似馬賽克的繪畫語言，解構當代城市景觀、街道和商業招牌的視覺韻律，探索AI時代城市景觀中傳統與現代、虛擬和現實的關係，探尋城市、社會和人文的變化與平衡。她的很多作品通過對城市景觀進行解碼，並將抽象化的數字像素元素，融入到繪畫塊面中，使每個塊面都代表著不同的力量和內涵。同時，正是這種通過類似馬賽克的數字像素和繪畫塊面的手法，減少對具體的城市景觀的描摹，也使她的畫面呈現出一種虛幻的感覺，讓觀眾可以迅速地感受到不同作品的靈性與魅力，給觀者一種恰到好處的畫外意象。
 

自文藝復興以來，曾出現了無數城市景觀畫家。在他們的作品中，人們看到了城市的變遷與文明的演進，在這些作品中需要刻畫具體的城市景觀、描繪具體現實的城市生活，城市景觀是一個重視具體細節的主題。但綺婷的城市景觀作品與此不同，如果確要把她的創作風格加以定義的話，我認為綺婷正在探索一種AI時代語境下獨具特色的、旨在消除細節的，帶有當代表現主義色彩的抽象現實主義繪畫風格。

 

                                            

陳湘波

中國工筆劃學會副會長

澳門城市大學博士生導師

廣東省美術家協會副主席

深圳市美術家協會主席

2024年5月23日


 

MOMENTS

——A Preface of Elaine Chiu’s First Solo Exhibition in China

 

A moment is commonly used to describe a point in time or a fleeting instantaneity. I have chosen it as the title of artist Elaine Chiu's first solo exhibition in Shenzhen based on my understanding of her technique, format, style and theme. Her work captures different points of time in things and scenes around her. It expresses and represents the voice of the younger generation of Hong Kong artists in the time of AI. 

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In the AI era, technologies bring about convenience and innovation. Art, in return, empowers technology with meaning and warmth. As an artist of this new age, Elaine faces a new world constructed by AI-generated images and challenged by booming technological intelligence. This phenomenon inspires her to explore the intertwined painting languages of the traditional and the virtual, experimenting with her brushstrokes and textures. 

Elaine excels in capturing inspiration from different urban spaces and timely moments. Under the context of AI, she introduces a new aesthetic pursuit and exploration of her generation. Her work displays not only the moments and fragmentations of multicultural urban integration from an observational perspective but it also incorporates her inner emotions and experiences. 

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In her practice, on one hand, Elaine insists on utilising the inherent materialities of painting, which is evident in her brushstrokes and textures. Facing the challenges of the rapidly evolving generative AI technology, on the other hand, Elaine attempts to explore the meaning and value of traditions and AI in her paintings on canvases.

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Her unique mosaic visual language composed of digital pixels and painting blocks deconstructs the visual rhythm of contemporary urban landscapes, streets and signboards. The relationship between tradition and modernity, virtuality and reality in the AI era are explored in her work, showing the changes and new balances of cities, society and humanity.

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The approach of decoding urban landscapes into abstract digital pixels encapsulates each painting block with different powers and DNA. Her method of extraction reduces the naturalistic and descriptive details of any specific urban landscape, giving her pictures an illusory feeling. It allows the audience to quickly feel the charm and spirit of her work, entering the imaginative area as she takes us.

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Since the Renaissance, there have been numerous urban landscape and history painters. In their works, we can view the changes in cities and the evolution of civilisation. These artworks must be painted in a naturalistic manner to visualise a point in time. To them, urban landscape is the theme as well as the subject matter that requires attention to specific details. However, in Elaine’s urban landscapes, it becomes different. If I have to define her style, in my opinion, she is painting her unique abstract realism language with a touch of contemporary expressionism, that aims to eliminate details under the AI era and her time.

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Chen Xiangbo

Vice President of China Gongbi Painting Society

Doctoral Supervisor, City University of Macau

Vice Chairman of Guangdong Artists Association

Chairman of Shenzhen Artists Association

May 23, 2024