山景•各从其类
瑞典艺术家乔纳斯•波顿(Jonas Böttern)与艾米莉•孟娜达(Emily Mennerdahl)的“山坡艺术项目”
展览开幕式：2012年4月6日晚8点
展览档期：2012年4月6日—5月1日
地点：TCG诺地卡-UP画廊空间，昆明市西坝路101号创库艺术社区内
电话：0871-4114692
山景•各从其类 – 艺术家自述
“山景•各从其类”项目是对中国西南地区山脉的研究。这项研究涉及三个部分：植物、动物和地理。这个项目通过人造环境来描绘自然景观中的环境元素来表达了人与自然的关联。它质疑并挑战关于人造景观与“自然”的概念。
我们的主题专注于植物园、动物园和山脉主题的明信片，使之带有本土特性或政治、文化色彩。当这些事物离开它们的原产地，处于人为的环境中，这些经过雕琢和搭建的“新家”清楚的表明出人类如何看待自然、与自然相处。因此自然和人造景观的界限变得模糊。尽管这源自一个充满好奇和意义的课题，但我们尽可能让事物从时空中隔离出来，简化它们存在的具体地点。
植物园
植物园的“自然景观”是一个有组织有系统的自然。它通常由树的科学研究性或娱乐性构成，当然或者两者兼具。这是一种使得自然变得亲近和温顺的景观理念。在“山景•各从其类”项目里我们学习和记录了植物园里的五棵树。蓝桉树是一种有着银绿色树叶的大型树木。多叶的特性使得它总是投下斑驳的影子。高大壮丽的它于1896年被引入中国。它在新中国建立初期被大量种植于大型农场。今天的它在中国出口业里扮演了重要的角色。这个系列的另一种树是三棱栎，它的树叶很脆弱，是一种互生叶，即便在冬季也不会掉落。它是一种常青树，但在栖地流失过程中导致濒危。它原产于气候温和的低纬度高海拔地区。现在它被保护在植物园的大墙内成为了自然历史档案的一部分。
“景观（风景）是历史性构建各地区社会、经济、文化状态的一面‘镜子’”1
动物园
在一个显眼的位置上，一匹狼被收关在玻璃墙里。一棵干焦的树倾斜在透明的墙上、岩石散布在水泥地上。这匹狼，野性的象征，被供养在一个专门将野生动物展示给公众的系统中。这种系统——动物园，通常被认为人能够在这里理解自身与动物的关系。仅隔一道栅栏、一条浅壕沟或一面玻璃墙就产生的分隔，观众可以平静地站着观赏“野生动物”。作为动物研究的一部分我们拍摄了这匹狼的三种姿势，它在洞穴边被抓拍，凝固在时间里。然后我们用油画颜料去除原始图像的背景，狼被孤立并被从它的环境里抽离出来。狼被剥夺了先前的条件，被标记在一个空无的空间里徘徊。之后我们再通过涂画、消除的方式加工，这其实并没有拒绝空间，而是更增强了空间感，虚空正象征着现实的模糊性。
山
山地覆盖了中国西南的广大地区。这些山脉在延伸了很长后突然戏剧性的急转向南。在东方，山总是被视为神圣的，而在西方，直到18世纪山还被认为是丑陋和危险的。在工业时代和浪漫主义时期人们的观点开始发生转变，人们突然产生了一种对至高点的着迷。在白雪皑皑中沉浸于炫目的白色，同时又有令人怯步的巅峰，在恒久的努力登峰过程中遇见广袤的风景。在这种追求过程中，山便对象化了，一个有待被攻克的对象。为了到达顶峰，它的周围环境和文化都被忽略。
我们展示了十张有关山作为对象的明信片。我们用了在植物和动物研究的作品里相似的工作方式：涂白。留下的只有一个形状奇怪的物体；它抽象得几乎只剩下形状，在这个过程中风景被具体化和拆分。我们不再知道事物如何，以及怎样存在。事物进入了一种介于真实和想象的状态。
“我们阅读风景，换句话说我们根据我们自己的经验、记忆和我们共同的文化记忆来阐释它们的形式。”2
–
1, Robert Macfarlane, ”Mountains of the Mind”, page 18, Granta Books, 2008
2, Zhang, P. G. Shao, D. C. Le Master, G. R. Parker, J. B. Dunning Jr. and Q. Li, “China’s Forest Policy for the 21st Century”. Science 288.5474 (June 23, 2000): p2135.
A Categorisation of a Mountain Landscape
HILLSIDE PROJECTS – JONAS BÖTTERN AND EMILY MENNERDAHL
Exhibition Opening: 8pm, April 6th, 2012
Exhibition Duration: April 6th – May 1st , 2012
Add: TCG Nordica-UP Gallery, Xi ba lu 101, Kunming
A CATEGORISATION OF A MOUNTAIN LANDSCAPE – ARTIST STATEMENT
A Categorisation of a Mountain Landscape is a detailed study of a mountainous region in South-western China. The study involves three parts that examine flora, fauna and geology. Using artificial environments to depict elements from the natural landscape the project concentrates on the correlation between man and nature. It questions and challenges ideas surrounding the artificial and “the natural”.
Focusing on an arboretum, a zoo and found postcards of mountains we are working with subjects that are either native to the region or play a significance politically or culturally.
Removed from their natural habitat, the subjects now dwell in man-made environments. These sculpted and architected new “homes” articulate how humans look upon and relate to nature. The boundaries between the natural and the artificial become blurred. Although continuing to be a source of wonder and meaning the subjects are reduced to exist in places isolated in time and space.
The Arboretum
The “natural landscape” of the arboretum is an organisation and systemisation of nature.
It consists of a living collection of trees grown for scientific observation, for pleasure, or both. It is a conception of a landscape where nature can become both accessible and compliant.
In A Categorisation of a Mountain Landscape five trees from an arboretum are studied and documented. Eucalyptus Globulus is a large tree with fine silver green crowns. Fully leafed, the trees shade is characteristically patchy. Towering and majestic it was introduced to China in 1896. At the foundation of the People’s Republic of China the tree was applied for use in large-scale plantations. Today it plays a major part in China’s export industry. Another tree in the series, Trigonobalanus Doichangensis, appears delicate yet its alternate leaves remain despite winter. An evergreen, it is threatened by habitat loss. It is native to a climate tempered strongly by low latitude and high elevation. Now contained within the walls of the arboretum, the tree is part of a historical record in an archive of nature.
“Landscape is the historically constructed “mirror” of social, economical and cultural conditions in each area.”1
The Zoo
In a place seemingly remarkable and impressive, a wolf is collected and contained within walls of glass. Against invisible partitions lean brittle trees, rocks are spread out on a cement floor. The wolf, a symbol of the wild, subsists in an institution in which wild animals are kept and exhibited to the public. It is suggested that this institution, a zoo, is a place in which humans can come to understand their relationship to animals. With only a fence, a shallow moat or a wall of glass that separates, the viewer can stand in peace as he looks into the “wild”. As part of the study of fauna we photographed the wolf in three different positions. Captured in its den the animal becomes frozen in time. By then physically removing the original image’s background using oil paint, the wolf is isolated and taken out of its context. The wolf lingers in an empty space destitute of earlier conditions and signifiers. The application of paint as an act to erase is not a renunciation of space but rather an encouragement of space. The void comes to symbolize the ambiguity of the real.
The Mountains
In South-western China the mountain range spreads over massive areas. Having travelled from a far, it dramatically changes direction as it stretches south. In the East, mountains have always been seen upon as sacred. In the West, up until the 18th century, mountains were considered as something ugly and dangerous. In the era of industrialism and romanticism people’s views began to change. Suddenly there was an obsession with experiencing the sublime. To be immersed in blinding whiteness whilst accompanied by daunting peaks. Encountering vast landscapes in a continuous strive for a summit. In this pursuit, mountains become objectified; they become entities to be conquered. Surroundings and culture are disregarded in an attempt to reach the top.
Displayed on a table ten postcards describe mountains as objects. Conducted in a similar manner to that of the studies of flora and fauna, white paint erases whatever information is left of the surroundings in which the mountains rest. What remains is a strangely shaped object; almost abstract it is devoid of any meaning other than its form. In the process of categorising a landscape we objectify and take apart. We no longer know how or where things exist. The subjects come to remain in an indeterminate state, somewhere between the real and the imaginary.
“We read landscapes, in other words we interpret their forms in the light of our own experience and memory, and that of our shared cultural memory”2
–
1, Robert Macfarlane, ”Mountains of the Mind”, page 18, Granta Books, 2008
2, Zhang, P. G. Shao, D. C. Le Master, G. R. Parker, J. B. Dunning Jr. and Q. Li, “China’s Forest Policy for the 21st Century”. Science 288.5474 (June 23, 2000): p2135.