“家不是一个地方，而是一种感觉。”群展“The Heart of Home”于4月8日在位于洛杉矶的4C Gallery开幕。展览呈现了华裔流散艺术家对于“家”不同角度的理解和解构，从文化背景出发，展现群体的生活状态和精神世界，体现了4C Gallery对于艺术理念的专注以及对于流散群体的人文关怀。“何以为家”，对于在美国离家千里的艺术家来说，在文化和语言的双重壁垒下，他们的作品很难被美国主流画廊给予足够的重视。因此，4C Gallery的宗旨是为处于中美文化夹缝中的华语艺术家和观众提供值得信任的空间，培育属于自己的文化土壤。
在“The Heart of Home”开幕式上，到场艺术家、艺术从业者和爱好者进行了热烈的讨论交流，艺术家展示作品、讲解艺术理念，与观众们进行互动。在为艺术家和作品提供展示机会的同时，更促进了当地的艺术文化交流。4C Gallery抱着这样的理想，将在洛杉矶为华语艺术家提供一个连续的、专业的艺术展览空间，组织各种文化活动，并搭建一个特殊的“家”。
"Home is not a place, but a feeling." The group exhibition "The Heart of Home" opened on April 8th at the 4C Gallery in Los Angeles. The exhibition presents the diverse perspectives and deconstructions of the concept of "home" by Chinese diaspora artists, showcasing their collective living conditions and spiritual worlds based on their cultural backgrounds. It reflects 4C Gallery's dedication to artistic concepts and its humanistic care for the diaspora community. "Where is home?" Living in the US, artists are thousands of miles away from their homes, facing both cultural and linguistic barrier that make it difficult for their work to gain the attention they deserve in mainstream American galleries. Therefore, the mission of 4C Gallery is to provide a respectable platform for Chinese artists and audiences caught between two cultures, nurturing their own cultural space.
At the opening ceremony of "The Heart of Home," attending artists, art practitioners, and enthusiasts engaged in lively discussions and exchanged ideas. Artists showcased their works, explained their artistic concepts, and interacted with the audience. By providing opportunities for artists and their works, the event also promoted local art and cultural exchanges. With this ideal in mind, 4C Gallery will provide a long-term, professional art exhibition space for Chinese-speaking artists in Los Angeles, organizing various cultural activities, and building a unique "home."
开幕现场
在艺术团体达菲搭建的实验型家庭空间中，“家”不再由血缘关系定义，而是以友情，以共享的生存空间。家庭成员包括几个人和几只猫，24小时中的活动轨迹在同一张图中呈现。在观众讨论、试图辨认这些轨迹来自谁、如何产生时，他们也在探索一个家的叙事。这样非亲缘的选择性家庭在流散群体中再常见不过，在一个个成员的路线产生交集的瞬间，也有温情流动。
In the experimental family space created by the Dafei art collective, "home" is no longer defined by blood relations but by friendships and a shared living space. Family members include several people and a few cats, with their 24-hour activity trajectories presented on a single map. As the audience discusses and attempts to identify who these trajectories belong to and how they are formed, they are also exploring the narrative of a home. Such non-blood-related, chosen families are common among the diaspora community, and moments of warmth flow when the individual paths intersect.
达菲 Da Fei，Kitchen Choreography
谢彦仪同样以日常的角度切入“家”的主题，在《13小时》中，她将父母在中国给自己拍摄的日常视频、自己在美国的生活片段以及与父母的视频通话剪辑在一起。当我们看到父母生涩却又真实的拍摄视角时，我们都会被她十分私人的叙事触动，联想到自己的父母、家庭。这部作品讨论的是通过信息手段连接、延续的亲情和家，跨越时间和空间。
Yanyi Xie also approaches the theme of "home" from a daily perspective in her work 13 Hours. She combines her parents' daily videos shot in China, her own life footage in the United States, and video calls with her parents. When we see the parents' awkward yet genuine filming techniques, we are all touched by her deeply personal narrative and reminded of our own parents and families. This piece discusses the continuation of affection and home through communication technologies, transcending time and space.
时差 13 Hours，谢彦仪 Yanyi Xie，影像
刘雅菲的《Goldfish》探讨了唐人街作为“人工故乡”的熟悉和陌生感。在纽约的华人区法拉盛，她“感觉自己仿佛在看着一个充满光滑塑料鱼缸里的金鱼”，法拉盛的景象虽然源于植根于内心的文化，却只是一个人造乐园，一切都成了观赏的对象。如同恐怖谷效应，这个近似却又虚假的“家”无法给人带来慰藉，却只有恐慌、孤独和疏离。
Yafei Faye Liu's Goldfish explores the familiarity and strangeness of Chinatown as an "artificial homeland." In Flushing, the Chinese district of New York, she feels as if "looking at goldfish in a shiny plastic aquarium." Although the scenery in Flushing seems extremely familiar to someone of Chinese origin, it is merely an artificial utopia where everything becomes an object of observation. Like the uncanny valley effect, this seemingly familiar yet fake "home" fails to bring comfort but only triggers panic, loneliness, and alienation.
Goldfish，刘雅菲 Yafei Faye Liu，艺术书、插画e
这与石若宜的作品系列《One Precise Hug》的概念有相通之处。艺术家在美国生活的初期，对于英制单位十分不习惯。她想起她的父亲十分喜爱故乡的一棵树，而她记得这棵树刚好是双臂环绕、中指相碰的维度。于是，她创造了一个新的测量单位，“one precise hug（一个精准的拥抱）”。她在美国寻找与“父亲的树”相同大小的树，并找到了许多符合标准的树。在创造一个人性化、富有温度的度量系统时，她的作品促使我们思考这些问题：两棵树度量相同是否意味着同一性？拥抱大小相同的树是否能带人回到家的那棵树前？家是否是可复制的？
This idea resonates with Shi Ruoyi's multi-media series One Precise Hug. At the beginning of the artist's life in the United States, she was unfamiliar with the imperial measurement system. She recalls her father's fondness for a particular tree in her hometown, and she remembers that the tree was the exact size of her arms wrapped around it with her fingertips touching. Thus, she created a new unit of measurement, "one precise hug." She searched for trees in the United States that were the same size as "her father's tree" and found many that met the standard. As her work creates a humanized, humanistic measurement system, it prompts us to consider these questions: Does the same measurement of two trees imply their sameness? Can embracing a tree of the same size bring one back to the tree at home? Can a home be replicated?
One Precise Hug，石若宜 Ruoyi Shi，装置艺术
于承添的影片《Tri-obscure: Venice-Pasadena》来自于他每周乘公共交通从威尼斯海滩到帕萨迪纳的旅程。回家沿路的风景成为了幻象，失真的影像和类似早期电子游戏的音效中，记忆、视觉、听觉和身体感受混为一体，变得扭曲。通过两个小时的冥想和观看，艺术家思考“家”的虚实，从起点、归途到终点，又回到起点，周而复始的旅程模糊了始与终的绝对概念。
Chengtian Jason Yu 's film Tri-obscure: Venice-Pasadena is based on his weekly journey by public transportation from Venice Beach to Pasadena. The scenery along the way home becomes an illusion, and in the distorted images and 80s-game-like sound effects, memory, vision, hearing, and physical sensations blend and intertwine. Through two hours of meditation and watching outside the window, the artist contemplates the intangible and tangible aspects of "home." From the starting point, the journey home, to the destination, and back to the starting point, as the cyclical journey blurs the absolute concept of beginning and end.
毛雨的《秘密空间》是一个私人回忆的角落，伴随着温州话方言与童谣的背景音。在个人的叙事中，她同样也关注集体性，即包括艺术家在内的年轻一代并不能像父母一辈那样说一口流利的方言，具体化于一门语言的掌握中的概念“家”正慢慢消逝。
Mao Yu's Secret Space is a corner of personal memories, accompanied by the background sound of Wenzhou dialect and nursery rhymes. In her personal narrative, she also pays attention to the collective aspect, as the younger generation, including the artist, cannot speak the dialect as fluently as their parents. The concept of "home" rooted in the mastery of a specific language is slowly fading away.
秘密空间 Secret Space，毛雨 Yu Mao，装置艺术
张依然同样从个人化的行为表演中展现更宏大的抽象主题。艺术家摔碎一块豆腐，然后尝试将其用针线缝合，豆腐不断又碎裂。她借这一西西弗一般的徒劳暗喻修复关系的徒劳以及人类感情不可避免的脆弱性，画面全程是静默、冷峻的。可什么样的家是完美无缺的呢？
Yiran Zhang also presents more abstract themes from a personal performance perspective. The artist shattered a piece of tofu and then attempted to sew it together with a needle and thread, but the tofu continued to break. She uses this Sisyphean futile metaphor to convey the futility of repairing relationships and the inevitable fragility of human emotions, with the entire scene being silent and austere. What kind of home is perfect and flawless anyway?
张早早的装置作品以女巫神话的叙事，给在家庭中受到禁锢、销声匿迹的女性以爆发性的宣泄。火山、女性身体和神树的图腾进行巧妙的组合，充满力量和活力的超现实图像都宣称着这是一个独属于女性的空间。镜面的表面映照着观众的眼睛，仿佛女神的注视。在王易有关母女关系的作品中，母女之间是亲近又疏离的，不禁让我想起加缪《局外人》中的主人公和母亲。“妈妈，我又不是住在你心里。”无论亲子之间多么亲密无间，彼此都是独立的个体，孩子也终究要长大。血缘关系的“家”是坚固的，又是抓不住的。
Zaozao Echo Zhang's installation work uses the narrative of witch mythology to provide explosive catharsis for women trapped and silenced in their families. The intricate combination of volcano, female body, and divine tree totems creates powerful and dynamic surreal images that declare this space to be exclusively for women. The mirrored surface reflects the audience's eyes, as if under the gaze of the volcanic goddess. In Yi Wang's work on mother-daughter relationships, the bond between mothers and daughters is both close and distant, which reminds us of the protagonist and his mother in The Stranger by Albert Camus. "Mom, I don't live in your heart." No matter how close the parent-child relationship is, they are still separate individuals, and children eventually must grow up. The blood-related "home" is both solid and elusive.
火山神女与水晶吊灯 Volcanic goddess with Chandelier， 张早早 Zaozao Echo Zhang，雕塑
李若曦的作品通过对“女书”的文化和历史研究展现了家庭空间内的女性声音。家不仅仅是亲情存在的空间，长期以来更是族权、父权、夫权主导的领地。物品摆放由男性决定是男权的缩影，而绘画作品前几乎是遮挡视野的实体桌子将画面空间具像化成为展览空间的一部分，提醒我们男权压迫的无处不在。女书以及其他图腾化图像与压迫性的图像结合，是对于思想控制的反抗和自我空间中的疗愈。
Ruoxi Rosie Li's work, through the study of the culture and history of "Nüshu" (women's script), showcases the female voices within the family space. Home is not only a space where affection exists but has long been a territory dominated by clan power, patriarchy, and husband power. The placement of objects decided by men is a microcosm of male dominance, while the nearly vision-blocking physical table in front of the paintings transforms the pictorial space into a part of the exhibition space, reminding us of the omnipresence of male oppression. The combination of Nüshu and other totemic images with oppressive images represents resistance to thought control and healing within one's personal space.
“Girlism”-home，李若曦 Ruoxi Rosie Li,装置艺术
在孙若昕的《I Don’t Know What I Know》中，新改造的城市部分被她从地图上用橡皮抹掉，成为她认识的原本的模样。地图是对于物理空间的虚构投射，而艺术家擦除一部分地图的行为类似一种徒劳的、试图使城市恢复原状的仪式，也是对于被抹去的城市记忆的追悼。刘欣桐的摄影系列《A nail pinned in time》由农村老房子的一颗钉子展开，仿佛将属于农村的记忆永久地固定在了某分某秒。久久无人居住的空房，早已锈迹斑斑的老镜子，曾用于社交聚会、已经破败的厨房。这一系列由个人家庭故事出发，由小及大地探讨了城镇化给农村群体以及每个家庭带来的影响，同时也是中国传统中对于废墟的迷恋情结的回响。
In Ruoxin Sun's I Don't Know What I Know, the newly redeveloped parts of the city are erased from the map by her, revealing the original appearance she recognizes. The map is a fictional projection of physical space, and the artist's act of erasing part of the map is like a futile ritual trying to restore the city to its original state, as well as a tribute to the lost urban memories. Xintong Blady Liu's photography series A nail pinned in time is based on a nail in an old rural house, as if permanently fixing the memories of the countryside at a specific moment. The photos feature the long-uninhabited empty rooms, the rusty old mirrors, and the dilapidated kitchens once used for social gatherings. This series, starting from personal family stories, explores the impact of urbanization on rural communities and individual families on a larger scale, and echoes the fascination with ruins in Chinese tradition.
I Don’t Know What I Know，孙若昕 Ruoxin Sun，装置艺术
在冀思言的摄影系列中，她的故乡大庆作为一个荒废的工业城市、一个“鬼城”出现。她问身边的人想到大庆时会想到什么，并以此作为基础创作。而她脑海中弥足珍贵的回忆则是与父亲放烟花的场景。通过叙事性的画面，她探索个人家庭记忆以及集体环境之间的微妙连接。在创作时，她也从卡尔维诺《看不见的城市》中得到灵感。正如卡尔维诺所说，“记忆既不是短暂易散的云雾，也不是干爽的透明，而是烧焦的生灵在城市表面结成的痂，是浸透了不再流动的生命液体的海绵，是过去、现在与未来混合而成的果酱，把运动中的存在给钙化封存起来：这才是你在旅行终点的发现。”时过境迁时，“家”早已不是一个可触摸的实体，而是一条流淌的河、一座雾里的远山，或是一束坠落的烟花。
In Siyan Camille Ji 's photography series, her hometown of Daqing is presented as an abandoned industrial city, a "ghost town." She asked people around her what they think of when they think of Daqing and used their responses as a basis for her creation. The most precious memory of the city is setting off fireworks with her father. Through narrative images, she explores the subtle connections between personal family memories and collective environments. During the creation process, she also drew inspiration from Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities. As Calvino wrote, " Not the labile mists of memory nor the dry transparence, but the charring of burned lives that forms a scab on the city, the sponge swollen with vital matter that no longer flows, the jam of past, present, future that blocks existences calcified in the illusion of movement: this is what you would find at the end of your journey." As time goes by, "home" is no longer a tangible entity, but a flowing river, a distant mountain in the mist, or a falling firework.
Distant Echoes，冀思言 Siyan Camille Ji，摄影
在故乡的千里之外，流散美国的艺术家们用自己独特的感知和表达方式，通过回忆、信息交流媒介、特定的地点或是特征，重构“家”的概念。在群展“The Heart of Home”中，影片、装置、行为、绘画等不同媒介的作品都传达着艺术家们对于“家”的理解，以及对于一系列衍生概念的诠释：回忆、爱、亲子关系、乡村城镇化、女性权力、陌生感……一个个碎片拼凑在一起，构成了个人和群体记忆的交融。
Far away from their hometowns, dispersed artists in the United States use their unique perceptions and expressions to reconstruct the concept of "home" through memories, communication media, specific locations or characteristics. In the group exhibition "The Heart of Home," works of different media including film, installation, performance, and painting convey the artists' understanding of "home" and their interpretation of a series of relevant concepts: memories, love, parent-child relationships, urbanization of rural areas, women's rights, strangeness... All pieces come together to form a blend of personal and collective memories.
参展艺术家：
Chengtian Jason Yu 于承添
Dafei 达菲
Rosie Li 李若曦
Ruoxin Sun 孙若昕
Ruoyi Shi 石若宜
Siyan Camille Ji 冀思言
Wang Yi 王易
Xintong Liu 刘欣桐
Yafei Liu 刘雅菲
Yanyi Xie 谢彦仪
Yiran Zhang 张伊然
Yu Mao 毛雨
Zaozao Zhang 张早早
展期：2023.4.8 - 2023.4.29
开幕：2023.4.8 6-9 PM
地址：4C Gallery,160 W Valley Blvd, San Gabriel, CA 91776
