GALLERY FUNC 于盛夏之际，即将欣然呈现90后艺术家石榴⾸档于国内的个展“缠绕”，展览将于2024年6⽉7⽇开幕。展名“缠绕“出自学者马建波撰写的历史研究著作《缠绕：历史中的科学与基督教》。依据书中的线索，科技及人类信仰并非二元对立，而是在历史的发展中互为动因、同时相互抑制。
石榴的作品正是在这样的概念下产生。当我们试图在探索科学与技术之间的异与同，将看见艺术家基于个人长期在科技产业与相关议题发展的关注，试图构建出自己对未来第三次工业革命后世界的推理与想像，厘清自己坐落于当代时空，串接、贯穿古今之际的时空。在艺术家的观念中，未来是一个合集，囊括了未来、现在、过去等多个时空所遗留下来的精神及物质遗产。在艺术家的画面中，机器人对人类各地区及各时期的人类文化产物进行混合与挪用，他们穿着刺绣戏服在剧院中演奏小提琴，穿着混合着洛可可与亚洲元素的服饰在空中起舞。
未标注日期的摇篮曲 Undated Lullaby, 2024, 机器人及人类油画，印刷绢本 Oil painting of robot and human, printed silk, 160 × 120 cm. 图片 © GALLERY FUNC
艺术家所关注的命题是生活在第三次工业革命人工智能浪潮中的每个人都难以回避的。人类身处在技术爆炸的环境，技术的发展在不久的未来可能超越人类的理解和想象。在过去人类使用技术并驾驭着科技，但在技术奇点到来之后的阶段，机器可能会比人聪明，或者说机器和人甚至能成为一体，如日渐成熟的脑机接口技术等。人和机器的界限会愈加模糊，在展览作品的画面中，艺术家试图捕捉机器人的“精神时刻”以及他们对“造神”的信仰需求。他们会孤独，会向往浪漫，同时会重构以他们为主角的宗教与神话。
石榴的作品中可以看到曾作为创业者的硅谷式浪漫主义和作为艺术史研究者的文人式浪漫主义。本次展出亮点作品双频道录像《半成品天堂》（2024）讲述了世界首位通过植入脑机接口治疗抑郁患者的情感历程。通过机械手臂演奏出的旋律，像是恣意调度影像内的受测者不可视的情绪，使得人类情感受人工智能操控的过程展露无遗，而双频道录像的手法，也像是让观众如受测者般同步被操控。
半成品天堂 Half-finished Heaven, 2024, 双频彩色影像 Two-channel HD video, color, sound. 图片 © GALLERY FUNC
另一件装置作品《电子相框：保持微笑》（2024）以凯特王妃在公众视野中长达半年的消失事件为创作灵感。艺术家运用超过100斤腐烂木材和新木材用榫卯结构相互拼接，制作成一个层层相套的巨大皇家风格的电子相框，内嵌一个微型屏幕。将历史上嫁入王室的数十位女性的婚礼现场照片，进行互相AI换脸的处理，生成伪造的“历史照片”在电子相框中轮播，以科学技术作为手段，探讨父权文化等议题。
创作是石榴选择表述出自己的所思所想的方式，她将穿过庞杂的当代艺术鸿海中，让过往堆砌的知识养分做为基石，为观众铺垫出如何让科技与艺术交互缠绕之下，开始相互攀附生长别样的艺术观点和方法论。
电子相框：保持微笑 Digital Photo Frame: The Necessity Of Smile, 2024, 彩色影像, 腐木 HD video, color, sound; hand-carved rotten ship wood, 125 × 100 cm. 图片 © GALLERY FUNC
GALLERY FUNC is delighted to announce the upcoming solo exhibition "ENTANGLED" by the post-90s artist Shi Liu's, which will debut domestically in the midst of summer. The exhibition is set to open on June 7, 2024. The title "ENTANGLED" is derived from the historical research work Entanglement: Science and Christianity in History by scholar Jianbo Ma. According to the clues in the book, technology and human beliefs are not binary opposites but mutually influential and inhibitory factors in the development of history.
Shi Liu's works are born out of such a concept. As we attempt to explore the similarities and differences between science and technology, we will see the artist's attempt to construct their own reasoning and imagination about the world after the Third Industrial Revolution, based on their long-standing interest in the technology industry and related issues. They seek to clarify their position in contemporary time and space, threading through the past and present. In the artist's conception, the future is a collection that encompasses the spiritual and material legacies left by multiple time and space dimensions such as the future, present, and past. In the artist's imagery, robots mix and appropriate human cultural artifacts from various regions and periods, performing violin in embroidered costumes in theaters and dancing in the air wearing costumes that blend Rococo and Asian elements.
The theme the artist focuses on is one that everyone living in the wave of artificial intelligence during the Third Industrial Revolution finds difficult to avoid. Humans find themselves in an environment of technological explosion, where the development of technology may soon surpass human understanding and imagination. In the past, humans used technology and mastered science, but in the phase after the Technological Singularity, machines may become smarter than humans, or machines and humans may even merge, as evidenced by the increasingly mature brain-machine interface technology. The boundary between humans and machines will become increasingly blurred. In the images of the exhibition works, the artist attempts to capture the "spiritual moments" of robots and their demand for "deification." They may be lonely, yearn for romance, and at the same time, reconstruct religions and myths with them as protagonists.
获得一个身体 Embodies, 2024, 陶瓷 Ceramics, 46 × 15 × 11 cm. 图片 © GALLERY FUNC
In Shi Liu's works, one can see both the Silicon Valley-style romanticism of an entrepreneur and the literati-style romanticism of an art history researcher. One highlight of the exhibition is the dual-channel video Half-Finished Paradise (2024), which tells the emotional journey of the world's first patient to be treated for depression through brain-machine interface implantation. Through the melodies played by mechanical arms, it seems as if the emotions invisible to the subject in the images are arbitrarily manipulated by artificial intelligence, revealing the process of human emotions being controlled by artificial intelligence. The technique of dual-channel video also seems to manipulate the audience synchronously like the subject.
Another installation piece, Digital Photo Frame: The Necessity Of Smile (2024), draws inspiration from the Duchess of Cambridge's six-month disappearance from the public eye. The artist used over 100 kilograms of rotting wood and new timber, joined together with mortise and tenon joints, to create a massive, nested, royal-style electronic photo frame with an embedded miniature screen. This frame displays AI-generated "historical photos" by face-swapping the wedding photos of dozens of women who married into royalty throughout history. Using scientific technology, the piece explores themes such as patriarchal culture.
Creation is the way Shi Liu's chooses to express their thoughts and ideas. They traverse through the complex sea of contemporary art, using the accumulated knowledge as the cornerstone to lay out how technology and art can interact and intertwine, initiating different artistic perspectives and methodologies to grow and intertwine with each other.
石榴，生于1995年，是一个生活和工作在洛杉矶和北京的多媒介艺术家。本科曾就读于布朗大学，主修艺术史，辅修纯艺术。她通过影像、装置和与机器人协作的绘画等，探讨人类属性和机器属性之间愈发模糊的边界。她的作品被布朗大学基金会，槟城州立美术馆等机构收藏。
在成为艺术家前，她曾是一名连续创业者，有过近10年从事机器人及相关行业的创业的经历，曾登上福布斯30 Under 30精英榜。多年的从业经历使她形成独特的科技观，她用写字机器人装置诗意还原爷爷的写字台，用影像作品关注世界第一位通过植入脑机接口治疗抑郁症的患者的情感经历，关注科技前沿的突破进展对人类作为个体的影响。
她相信科技造物脱骨于人类，在精神世界与人类作为整体有顺承关系。她的作品中根植于宗教、民间神话传说等深远的人类传统，将编程、机器人与绢本设色、木雕榫卯、陶俑烧制等古典技法结合，创造出兼具未来想象力与历史趣味的独特美学风格。
展览和项目包括：“Palai Project”，Balice Hertling，2024，马来西亚槟城；“毛绒玩笑”，ART021艺博会，2023，中国上海；“和平的形状”，河城，2016，泰国曼谷；“杀死一个假人”，Carpark，2015，英国伦敦；“河畔”，布朗大学艺术馆，2014，美国普罗维登斯。
Shi Liu, born in 1995, is a multimedia artist living in Los Angeles and Beijing. Her works explore the blurring boundaries between humans and robotics, and the impact of technological advancements on individuals. Her works are included in permanent collection of Brown Investments, Penang State Art Gallery and other renowned institutions.
After dropping out of Brown University’s Art History program, Shi Liu founded multiple successful companies in robotics-related area, which fueled her unique perspective on how machines and technology are shaping our society today. In her installation work Grandpa 2024, Shi Liu explored kindred bondings through a recreation of her grandfather’s desk with a robot writing letters in his chirography and tone of voice. In her video work Half-finished Heaven, she documented the emotional experiences of the world's first patient treated for depression through a brain-machine interface.
Shi Liu believes that all human creations intrinsically embody humanity, and sets out to discuss profound changes in our age without losing sight of the deep human traditions around them. The artist creates in various mediums, and often combines programming and robotics with classical techniques such as silk painting, wood joinery, and ceramic sculpture.
Her exhibitions and projects include: "Palai Project", Balice Hertling, 2024, Penang, Malaysia; "Fluffy Jest", ART021, Shanghai 2023, China; "Shape of Peace", River City, 2016, Bangkok, Thailand; "To Kill A Mannequin", Carpark, 2015, London, UK; "Riverside", Brown University Art Museum, 2014, Providence, USA.
