About “A Growing Landscape (IV)”
Bi Rongrong
Exhibited at Paris Internationale By A thousand Plateaus Art Space
关于“生长中的风景 (IV)”
毕蓉蓉
由千高原艺术空间展示于巴黎国际
2023.10
Time:
The three textiles come from botany photographs and landscape manuscripts that I have taken at random. I have woven these three serendipitous images with black, white and grey cotton and wool threads in the manner of machine weaving, scattering them around the screen as pixel dots during the programming process, and crisscrossing them with abstract grid lines during the weaving process. The momentary, even unconscious, spontaneous images were enlarged, broken down, and ordered in the process of creation, turning it into a serious process with a story to tell, which I sometimes enjoy and sometimes question, so that by the time I had finished weaving the three pieces of textiles, I cut them up and found a type of Dong fabric that I thought was interesting and had a rich (or complex) production process, to rejoin them together. The jacquard fabric that was re-sewn, which is extremely stretchy, and the temperature of the iron made them stretch and shrink again, and then the Dong cloth, which is an extremely stable fabric with a stubborn character, the two were forcibly sewn together, so that the story that had already been told in itself, began to continue again. The process of creation is sometimes under such a game, endlessly unfolding and cycling.
(About Dong Cloth: In the Dong tradition, it is a functional cloth, which is first dyed with botanical dyes that are extracted from local herbs with anti-inflammatory properties, and then coated with egg whites, it can serve as a moisture-proof, anti-hooking, and dermatitis-proof cloth in the course of labour, as well as a bright cloth that can be used to bandage wounds in case of injury).
时间：
这三片织物分别来自于我随手拍摄的植物照片与风景手稿。我以机器编织的方式，用黑白灰棉线与羊毛线编织了这三个偶然得来的图像，在编程的过程中，它们以像素点的方式在屏幕中散布开来，在编织的过程中，则以抽象的网格线纵横交错着。一瞬间甚至是无意识地随手而得的图像，在创作过程中被放大，被分解，又被有序的排列，变成了一个很严肃，又有着说不完的故事的过程，我时而享受着这个过程，时而质疑着这个过程，因此当我织完这三片织物的时候，我又将它们裁剪开来，并找到了一种我认为很有趣，有着丰富（或复杂）制作工艺的侗布来重新衔接它们。被重新缝纫的提花织物，它有着极强的伸缩性，熨斗的温度使它们重新伸展、收缩，然后侗布则是一种极为稳定，有着倔强性格的织物，两者被强行缝纫在一起，使得本身已经讲完故事，又开始延续起来。创作的过程，有时就是在这样一种对弈之下，被无尽的展开与循环下去。
（关于侗布：它在侗族的传统中，是一款功能性的织物。先在手工梭织的布匹上染上植物染料，而这些染料提取自当地的一些具有抗炎症的中草药，再在其表面涂以鸡蛋清，能够在劳作中，起到防潮、防勾破、防护皮炎，并在受伤时能用身上的亮布去包扎伤口的作用。）
The process of machine weaving (2023)｜机器梭织过程，2023年
A Growing Landscape (IV) — Textile 01
Jacquard fabric part: wool thread, cotton thread
Fabric part: Dong cloth (Botanical dyeing on cotton
with surface brushed with egg white)
生长中的风景（IV）— 织物 01
提花织物部分：羊毛线，棉线
布条部分：侗布（棉布上植物染色与表面刷鸡蛋清）
155×114.5cm
2023
生长中的风景（IV）— 织物 02
提花织物部分：羊毛线，棉线
布条部分：侗布（棉布上植物染色与表面刷鸡蛋清）
A Growing Landscape (IV) — Textile 02
Jacquard fabric part: wool thread, cotton thread
Fabric part: Dong cloth (botanical dyeing on cotton
with surface brushed with egg white)
114x170cm
2023
A Growing Landscape (IV) — Textile 03
Jacquard fabric part: wool thread, cotton thread
Fabric part: Dong cloth (botanical dyeing on cotton with surface brushed with egg white)
122.5x170cm
生长中的风景（IV）— 织物 03
提花织物部分：羊毛线，棉线，布条部分：侗布（棉布上植物染色与表面刷鸡蛋清）
122.5x170cm
2023
While sewing the woven textiles, inspired by the Dong cloth, I recalled some of the images of herbal plants that I had collected from the internet during the 2020 pandemic, which at this point already seemed like pixelated blocks of existence, and I wanted to continue the series of manuscripts from that time, but at this point I’m not the same as I was then when I was able to immerse myself in the interior of the plant lines and feel through the screen the shifting sensations of the meridians and leaf veins acutely, they had become a distant landscape, and I began to depict their stories in relation to other, more varied fragments – possibly a building, a block of colour, or a pair of eyes.
在缝纫编织织物的同时，受到侗布的启发，我回想起自己在2020年疫情期间从网络中收集的一些中草药植物图片，它们在此时已经像是一些像素块式的存在，我想继续延续当时的手稿系列，但此时我已经不同与当时能够沉浸在植物线条的内部，透着屏幕敏锐地感觉到经络、叶脉的变幻的感受，而是，它们在我的脑海中变成了一片远处的风景，我开始描绘它们与其它更多的碎片支间的故事，可能是建筑物、可能是色块、可能是一双眼睛。
A Growing Landscape (IV) — Print 01
Ultra Giclee print, acid-free watercolor paper
生长中的风景（IV）— 印刷 01
Ultra Giclee打印、无酸水彩纸
25.5 × 35 cm
2020
A Growing Landscape (IV) — Manuscript 05
Pencil, watercolor, acid-free watercolor paper
生长中的风景（IV）— 手稿 05
铅笔、水彩、无酸水彩纸
25.5 × 35 cm
2020
A Growing Landscape (IV) — Manuscript 01
Pencil, watercolor, Ultra Giclee print, polyester thread, acid-free watercolor paper
生长中的风景（IV）— 手稿 01
铅笔、水彩、Ultra Giclee打印、涤纶线、无酸水彩纸
35 × 51 cm
2020
A Growing Landscape (IV) — manuscript 07
Watercolor, acrylic, acid-free watercolor paper
生长中的风景（IV）— 手稿 07
水彩、丙烯、无酸水彩纸
36.5x55cm
2023
A Growing Landscape (IV) — Manuscript 02
Pencil, watercolor，embroidery on cotton，polyester thread, Dong cloth (Botanical dyeing on cotton
with surface brushed with egg white), acid-free watercolor paper
生长中的风景（IV）— 手稿 02
铅笔、水彩、布上刺绣，涤纶线、侗布（棉布上植物染色与表面刷鸡蛋清）、无酸水彩纸
36.5 × 55 cm
2023
Space:
Working on textiles and drawings are intertwined and progressed, sometimes they are close and sometimes far away from each other. I have decided to change the perspective of the textile that was already only seen as pixels or warp and weft interweaving lines, and continue to get closer to it, in this perspective it is a fictional image made up of a myriad of threads and thread ends, and at this point I realise that it is actually thrown away, and that the image of the textile is already far away and has become blurred.
It is in this vision that the wallpaper in the space is obtained, its light probably coming from the surrounding windows.
空间：
织物与绘画的创作交织着进展着，它们时而近时而远，我决定将本已经只能被看到像素点或经纬交织线的织物换一个视角，继续靠近它，在此时的视角中它是一个虚构的由无数线与线头组成的画面，此时我又发现它其实被抛得很远，织物的图像已经远离而变得模糊不清。
空间中的壁纸便是在这个设想中而获得，它的光可能来自周围的窗户。
A Growing Landscape (IV) — Wallpaper
UV print，dimensions variable
生长中的风景（IV）— 墙纸
UV 打印，尺寸可变
2023
The view of the work at the space | 作品在空间中展示
In the “A Growing Landscape” series, I interpret images of plants collected from the internet and my daily surroundings. Then I decode and transform them through my paintings and textile works. The natural properties of plants and the environments in which they grow interact and relate to each other, and I found this relationship inspires and resembles to how us as human beings bind with ourselves and the nature. I try to make use of this relationship to bring the digital and pictorial materials I collected into a continuous dialogue with my environment. The process of constructing these materials can be described as “weaving”, which integrates paintings and textiles into the space. This way of working gives the paintings and textiles another possibility of freedom, and at the same time maps out my thoughts on the relationship between the environment and myself.
在“生长中的风景”系列中，我将从网络、日常周遭采集的植物图像进行了解读，以绘画与织物的方式将它们进行了解码与转换。植物们的天然属性与生长环境之间相互影响及关联，这种关系也将我们人类紧密的捆绑在了一起。我尝试借由这种关联，将采集的这些数字化、图像化的素材与我所处的环境进行连续的对话，构建这些素材的过程可以用“编织”来形容，“编织”将绘画、织物交错融入空间，它使得绘画与织物有了另一种自由的可能性，同时也映射了我对环境与自我之关系的思考。