“冰淇淋物语”：新媒体艺术家刘海玲芝加哥Woman Made画廊展出作品
（《国际艺术新闻网》2023年8月22日消息）位于芝加哥Pilsen的女人制造（Woman Made)画廊的群展 “荒谬：我们相信的达达” (Absurdity: In Dada We Trust) 于近期开幕。展览时间为2023年7月22日至8月19日。毕业于美国芝加哥艺术学院，来自深圳、现旅居于芝加哥的中国艺术家刘海玲在展览中展出其装置作品《冰激凌话语》。
该展览包括43位艺术家的作品，主题来源于20世纪初期的达达主义运动，以探索当今人们对当今政治分裂、暴力增加和社区内部紧张的反应。展览同时也纪念 2022 年 3 月去世的艺术家和支持者海伦-罗默-史密斯（Helene Romer Smith）。
本次展览由 WMG 联合创始人凯利-亨森（Kelly Hensen）和贝亚特-明科夫斯基（Beate Minkovski）担任评委，与高地公园艺术中心（The Art Center Highland Park）、芝加哥妇女艺术核心小组（Chicago Women’s Caucus for Art）、斯托拉当代艺术（Stola Contemporary Art）和阿尔玛室内装饰（Alma Interiors）合作举办。
艺术家刘海玲在展览中展出了2021年完成的混合媒体装置 《冰激凌话语》。这件大型的影像气味混合装置是刘海玲作为新兴艺术家实践的一个重大突破。她在疫情期间观看了各国总统们针对疫情发表的演讲，并以此为启发编造了一则新闻。在这则新闻里，《第一届联合冰淇淋大会今天闭幕》当中，一个名为“联合冰淇淋”的组织在其第一次大会上宣布了组织维护和平的使命。新闻对现实玩味的参照和幽默的叙事带来了极大的荒诞感，但刘海玲表示，在幽默之外她通过作品展现自身对媒体叙事和疫情危机中失控感的思考。这件作品很快在国际上多个电影节展出，如The Fifth Annual Side/Lot Evanston Experimental Video Showcase（美国）、Supernova数字动画节（美国）、Burnt Video and Experimental Film Festival（加拿大）等。在接下来的一年，刘海玲进一步发展该作品的想法。
《冰淇淋话语》，影像+气味装置，Woman Made 画廊， 2023，图片由艺术家提供
2021年，《冰激凌话语》在芝加哥艺术学院的画廊中首次展出。该装置为观众带来丰富的感官体验，数个人造的冰激凌甜筒被固定在麦克风支架上，散发出奶油的甜味。展出的区域的墙上挂着一个没有数字的时钟。《第一届联合冰淇淋大会今天闭幕》和实时直播的新闻在屏幕上并列播放，仿佛两个带着各自事实的宇宙相互映照。除了画廊展出的装置之外，刘海玲还发布了一款Instagram快拍的AR(增强现实)滤镜，观众可以通过滤镜捕捉到《第一届联合冰淇淋大会今天闭幕》中虚构的联合冰淇淋组织会议大楼。在8月19日的展览闭幕式中,刘海玲于Woman Made 画廊向公众进行作品介绍并回答观众的问题，并计划将该项目作为系列继续发展。
《冰淇淋话语》，影像+气味装置，Woman Made 画廊， 2023，图片由艺术家提供
“荒谬：我们相信的达达” 展览现场
关于Woman Made 画廊
女人制造画廊（Woman Made Gallery）是一个为女性和非二元艺术家（包括变性女性和女性/女性认同的变性艺术家）服务的空间。自 1992 年成立以来，WMG 已在 445 场展览中展出了 9000 多名女性和非二元艺术家的艺术作品。目前，WMG 每年在芝加哥皮尔森社区举办七次展览。WMG 每年拥有 300 多名艺术家会员。迄今为止，WMG 已提供专业发展研讨会，并通过网络活动和在线推广将会员与 15,000 多名支持者联系起来。WMG 就女性最关心的问题举办对话，通过女权主义视角来认识世界。艺术家讲座、小组讨论、诗歌朗诵以及其他公共项目激发了社区对话。
艺术家简介
刘海玲（1997年生于中国深圳）是一位在芝加哥工作和生活的混合媒体艺术家、动画师和动态图形设计师。她在艺术实践中采用了不同的媒介：二维和三维动画、视频创作、写作、雕塑、印刷、增强现实、物理和虚拟装置。
刘海玲重点关注数字文化、离散文化、当代生活中图像和媒体的信息传达。她研究作为视觉传达而产生的图像的文化意义，以及这些图像是如何为舆论和资本系统服务的。在研究的基础上，刘的作品重构和反转图像及其意义，同时以探索图像的方式对当下社会变化作为回应。她的作品结构介于想象和现实、数字虚拟和物理环境之间，作品的表达方式幽默、黑暗、荒诞和暧昧。
她的作品曾在国际范围内的画廊展出，如4C画廊（美国）、Espacio画廊（英国）、CICA博物馆（韩国）等实体空间，以及NewArt City、Silicon Valet等虚拟艺术空间。她的作品还曾在国际电影和动画节上展出：如Supernova数字动画节（美国）、Burnt Video and Experimental Film Festival（加拿大）和Du vert à l’infini Music Festival（法国）等。
Absurdity and Dada: Artist Hailing Liu’s Video+Scent Installation “Ice Cream Discourse” exhibited in Woman Made Gallery in Chicago
A group show “Absurdity: In Dada We Trust” is now up from July 22 to August 19 in Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, US. In collaboration with The Art Center Highland Park, the Chicago Women’s Caucus for Art, Stola Contemporary Art, andAlma Interiors, this exhibition was juried by WMG( Woman Made Gallery) co-founders Kelly Hensen and Beate Minkovski. Chinese-born, Chicago-based artist Hailing Liu presents her video + scent Installation “ Ice Cream Discourse” in this show. As an artist exploring social-political impacts of media representations, her work perfectly resonates with the theme of the exhibition, which aims to respond to the political divisiveness, increased violence, and tensions within communities seen today through a similar lens of propaganda from the Dadaism movement in the early twentieth century. On August 19, the gallery hosted an artist walkthrough as the closing reception for the exhibition. Liu introduced their work and answered questions from the audience, which inspired them to develop Ice Cream Discourse as a continuous series.
The mixed-media installation, “Ice Cream Discourse” was a year-long project started from 2020 and completed in 2021. In early 2020, during the city lockdown and stay-at-home order, Liu thought about the relationship between real life and digital life, especially when online communication became a significant alternative to in-person interaction during the global pandemic. “The distinction between the real world and the virtual world becomes more and more ambiguous since we relied so much on digital images, information and communication to survive during that time”, Liu recalled their life in 2020 and said, “It was disheartening that we were all confined to limited physical spaces in real life, but it made me realize the potential of virtual spaces in constructing alternate realities that can provoke thoughts about our own lives.”
In 2021, Liu pushes the thought of building an alternate universe which refers to reality. Inspired by presidents’ speech about COVID and shutdown during the pandemic, Liu fabricated a piece of news, “The first United Ice Cream Assembly closes today” in 2020. According to the news, an organization, United Ice Cream, addresses its first assembly to declare its mission of maintaining peace. With a great sense of humor and absurdity, the news aims to critique the effectiveness of media representation. The news was soon showcased in multiple film festivals internationally, such as the Fifth Annual Side/Lot Evanston Experimental Video Showcase（Chicago,US）、Supernova数字动画节（Denvor, US）、Burnt Video and Experimental Film Festival（Montreal, Canada）. In 2021, Liu developed the news into an installation with multiple sensory experiences. Several artificial Ice cream cones are attached to mic stands, emitting a sugary smell. “ The scent can be smelled from a long distance in the gallery, I was lured to find the installation work”, an audience member said. A clock without numbers was hung on the wall. Liu’s fabricated news and live streaming news are displayed together as if the two different universes mirror each other. “Looking at the two different news, especially when the live streaming news was from the pandemic, that really makes me feel like I’m losing a sense of time. The work makes me realize the reality is so unreal”, an artist commented.
About the Woman Made Gallery
Woman Made Gallery is a space for women and non-binary artists, including trans women and femme/feminine-identifying genderqueer artists. Since our founding in 1992, WMG has shown the artistic work of over 9,000 women and non-binary artists in 445 exhibitions. Currently WMG is hosting seven exhibitions annually in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood location. WMG boasts a membership base of over 300 artists annually. To date, WMG has provided professional development workshops and connected members to over 15,000 supporters via networking events and online promotion. WMG hosts conversations on the issues that matter most to women and that makes sense of the world through a feminist lens. Artist talks, panel discussions, poetry readings, among other public programs inspire community dialogue.
About the Artist
Hailing Liu (Chinese: 刘海玲; b.1997) is a multimedia artist born in China. They received their MFA in Film, Video, New Media, Animation at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Their work employs diverse media in their art practice:video (2D & 3D animation), computer-based media (Augmented Reality, Social media), writing, printing and installation. Focusing on family history, Internet, digital diaspora and grass-root culture, Liu captures social, cultural and political changes in contemporary China and their relationship to the global. Their work specifically examines digital image consumption in people’s daily life, highlighting the social impact of media representations from digital images. Liu has exhibited their work internationally in physical spaces such as 4C gallery (USA), Espacio Gallery(UK), CICA Museum (Korea), virtual spaces such as NewArt City, Silicon Valet and Spatial. Their work has also been shown in film and animation festivals – Supernova Digital Animation Festival (USA), Burnt Video and Experimental Film Festival (Canada) and Du vert à l’infini Music Festival (France).
