谭天：希曼在宜家午睡
2023年10月14日—11月26日
Gallery I & II｜SPURS Gallery，北京市朝阳区酒仙桥路二号院 798 艺术区 D-06
马刺画廊将于2023年10月14日在Gallery I & II双层展厅空间呈现艺术家谭天在画廊的第二次个展“希曼在宜家午睡”。
每年当天气逐渐炎热时，“在宜家睡觉”的新闻就会时不时地出现在各大媒体平台上。熙熙攘攘的人群正在卖场里选购商品时，总有人像在家中一样坦然自若地睡在样板间中，那一幕恍惚让人觉得回到了家中，溢出了一种合理与不合理同时存在的错位感。“希曼在宜家午睡”描述的就是这个无法被轻易概括与评判的状态，无法通过明确定义进行概念划分，从而难以在既有系统中评判好坏优劣，这些无法找到落脚点、微妙且游离的“关系”共构起了此次展览以及谭天作品创作的动机。
谭天近几年的创作中，有一个系列的作品都由三部分组成：一幅抽象绘画；然后在画面上留下词语或者短句，这些文字大多极易阅读且令人回味，来源于谭天平常看到的新闻、电影或者米姆（meme）等等；第三部分则是一件物品。这三者若以绘画作品、文字语意、物件本身来讲都各自独立且完整，但是当它们被并置后，形成了或对话、互文，甚至可能互相攻讦的关系，这个从指涉明确的事物到“难以言表”的过程也许就是谭天的创作动机。
由此而来，展览“希曼在宜家午睡”中的每一个部分也在一同建立上述微妙戏谑的关系。展厅中模仿宜家搭起了一个卧室样板间，卧室中有一台电视，电视中播放着艺术家2021年创作的一件影像作品《令人窒息的爱》，走出样板间之后，仿佛进入了宜家卖场中的下一个功能区——选购货架上堆叠的商品区域，这里展示的就是每组由三部分构成的作品的照片。二楼展厅则与谭天去年呈现的展览“（广告牌，宣言，笑话）”享有一样的元素与结构，他貌似如数家珍地展示着多种艺术创作的演绎方式，但无不释放出的重要信息是，“当代艺术是什么”或者“不止是什么”。
展览将持续展出至2023年11月26日。
Tan Tian: C-Man Nap in IKEA
October 14 – November 26, 2023
Gallery I & II | SPURS Gallery, D-06, 798 Art Zone, 2 Jiuxianqiao Rd, Chaoyang District, Beijing
SPURS Gallery is pleased to present “C-Man Nap in IKEA,” an exhibition by Tan Tian on October 14, 2023. This is his second solo exhibition with the gallery and will be presented in Galleries I & II.
When the weather grows hot each year, what often comes with is the particular news of “Sleeping in IKEA” across media platforms. As bustling crowds shop their ways through the furniture store, there are always certain individuals who, as if at home, sleeping unabashedly in the showrooms. This view then becomes a jarring déjà vu of one’s own houses, a dissonance of seeming reason and utter irrationality. “C-Man Nap in IKEA” attempts at this state that cannot be easily described and arbitrated: it cannot be clearly defined in conceptual categorizations, so it cannot be judged through existing systems. These nuanced, wandering “relationships” that waver on the edge of conceptual entrapment are the building blocks of this show and Tan’s philosophy of art making.
In Tan’s recent works, there’s a series that all consists of three parts: an abstract painting; words and phrases on top of the image, easy to read and evocative in meaning, coming from news, movies, or memes; and lastly, an object. The three components — work of painting, words with meaning, individual object — all stand individually logical. But when they are juxtaposed, they form relationships of interchange, intertextuality, or even mutual aggression. This transition from the distinct subject to the “unspeakable” may be the underlying motive of Tan’s practices.
Therefore, the exhibition “C-Man Naps in IKEA” replicates these delicate and playful relationships in its every part. A replica of a showroom bedroom at IKEA is built in the gallery space, with a television displaying Suffocating Love, a video work that the artist created in 2021. Exiting the showroom, the viewer finds themselves in the next section at an IKEA store — the towering racks where stocks pile upon each other. This is where the photos of Tan’s trifold series will be shown. In the upstairs space of Gallery II, the format of installation is the same as Tan’s show from last year “(Billboard, Manifesto, Joke)”. He seems to share the multidisciplinary of art at ease, in an air of lightness, but very much pokes at these important questions: “What contemporary art is,” and “what else could it be?”
The exhibition will be on view at SPURS Gallery until November 26, 2023.