LIAO Wen: The Body Knows Silently
2021.06.18-07.15
Sponsor: Cai Jin Space
Address: Floor 5, 311 building, Qixing East Street, 798 Art Zone, Chaoyang District, Beijing.
廖雯：身照不宣
展期：2021.06.18-07.15
主办：蔡锦空间
地址：北京市朝阳区798艺术区七星东街311楼，5楼
In the exhibition “The Body Knows Silently", Liao Wen focuses on the critical status of "the body in the ceremony" by combining sculpture with narratives, and focusing on the physical and mental conflicts hidden behind the rituals of marginalized women.
The works exhibited this time revolve around three ancient female rituals: The Thesmophoria in Ancient Greece, The Adonia and the Hysteria Healing operation. The artist is deeply attracted by the contradictions of the body reflected in the ceremony. In the process of decomposing the ritual and tracing the mythology, she reproduced the conflicts between death and rebirth, instinctual desire and ethics, and control and escape.
The maternal atmosphere of the exhibition space contrasts with the female uterus that releases energy in the above-mentioned ceremonies. Liao Wen has transformed the wood and silicone that she is familiar with into slender and twisted bodies placed on top of the damp soil. The sharp joints in the sculpture are connected to the soft skin and flesh, and the detachable parts are connected and balanced to form temporary stability in the conflict.
As Richard Sennett put in the book「 Flesh and Stone：The Body and the City in Western Civilization] :"Ritual heals. Ritual is one way the oppressed—men as well as women—can respond to the slights and contempt they otherwise suffer in society, and rituals more generally can make the pains of living and dying bearable”. "The Body Knows Silently” attempts to give a voice to the silent history of the human body experience, so as to bring relief to the contradictions and pains that may still continue.
蔡锦空间将于6月18日展出廖雯的个人项目 《身照不宣》。在此次展览中，廖雯聚焦于“仪式中的身体”这一临界状态，将雕塑与叙事相结合，关注隐匿于边缘化女性仪式背后的身心冲突。
此次展出的作品围绕三场古老的女性仪式展开：古希腊的妇女节（Thesmophoria），阿都尼亚节狂欢节（The Adonia) 和歇斯底里症的治疗仪式。艺术家深受身体在仪式中表现出的矛盾性吸引，在剥离仪轨、溯源神话的创作过程中，逐步复现死亡与新生、本能欲望与伦理道德、控制与挣脱间的冲突。
展厅空间母体般的氛围与上述仪式中释放能量的女性子宫形成对照。廖雯将她所擅长的木头和硅胶转化成纤细、扭曲的躯体，置于潮湿的泥土之上。雕塑中尖锐的骨节衔接着柔软的皮肉，可拆分的部件间相互连接、制衡，在冲突中构成了一种临时的稳定。
如理查德.桑内特在《肉体与石头》一书中所言：“仪式可以治疗。仪式是被压迫者（包括男人跟女人）用来响应他们在城市中所遭受到的轻视的一种方式，而仪式一般来说可以让生者或垂死者比较能承受痛苦。” 《身照不宣》试图为人类身体经验中沉默的历史小节发声，从而给至今或许仍在持续的矛盾与苦痛带来缓释。
