2015.09.06

彧瓦尔 ▪ 肖:哺乳动物的寓言 Yuval Shaul:A Tale of Mammals

哺乳动物的寓言 展览现场
A Tale of Mammals exhibition view

人类创造了文明,而所有的文明都无一例外从悲剧性的血与火中诞生。人类把自己与自然区隔,使自己与自然对立。人类自以为脱离了动物的范畴,并且赋予自我种群的存在以特殊的意义,而成为了这个星球的主宰和上帝。尼采说“上帝已死”,我想他指的并不是真正的上帝的消亡,而是指向人类试图取代上帝和神的欲望与野心。当我看到Yuval Shaul所创作的那些融合了动物的外形特征的人类,以及机器与动物合二为一的作品的时候,我想我们也只不过是一群哺乳类动物,与日渐灭绝的老虎和鲸鱼以及其它的各种生物一样,被困在这小小的蓝色星球上,就像是阿尔图斯赫胥黎所描写的《美丽新世界》里的那些快乐满足而又麻木可怜的人们,在幻觉与催眠中去实现着他们所谓伟大和光荣的梦想!这应该就是Yuval Shaul创作的那些作品的意义所在 - 无论是巨大的鹿角战舰,还是潜水艇一样的鲸鱼,亦或是在公牛的毛皮上拼接组合的新的世界地图,它们就像是一个个关于动物的寓言,指向了人类不可预知的未来。—— 魏星

Humans created civilization, and all civilizations were, without exception, born from bloodshed. Humans differentiate themselves from nature and stand opposite to nature. Humans believe that they are superior to animals, that they are the rulers and God of this planet. Friedrich Nietzsche once declared that “God is dead”, I think he was not referring to the true demise of God, but to the human desire to overthrow, indeed to replace God. When I see Yuval Shaul’s works which are full of animal allegories, when I hear the deafening explosions of war, I think, that we are merely animals too, like those endangered tigers, whales and other creatures, trapped on this little blue planet. We live just as those happy, satisfied but numb, poor people that Altos Huxley once described in his magnificent“ Brave New World”, achieving their so-called great and glorious missions through illusion and hypnosis! This is, in my opinion, the significance of Yuval Shaul’s works: whether the huge antler machine, or the submarine-like whale, they are just allegories pointing to the unpredictable future of mankind. —— Wei Xing