2024年4月25日至8月4日，Fotografiska影像艺术中心将呈现艺术家组合库珀与戈弗的国内首次个展《塞壬之歌》（Sirens）。
在《塞壬之歌》中，库珀与戈弗虚构了一个由身处不同转变状态的女性组成的部落。从女性身体和传统仪式出发，艺术家组合在此基础上重建了一个神话王朝，灵感来自不朽女神的变革力量，以及她们对权力、魔法和复仇的运用。
Battle Of Giants，2024 ©️ Cooper & Gorfer
通过独特的混合媒体拼贴画与诞生于相机下的摄影艺术作品相结合，库珀与戈弗描绘了拥有超自然力量的女性，她们诱惑、迷人，或许也很危险。不同寻常的身材比例以及巨幅画面的呈现方式让她们高耸于观众之上。
构建人物的最初想法来自于超现实主义游戏《Cadavre Exquis》，在游戏中，艺术家们通过将身体分成两个隐藏的部分来创造一个共享的身体 —— 画面从而呈现了意想不到的联想和比例，身体从不完全属于自己，四肢同时属于几个女人。
库珀与戈弗的创作技法游走在真实与想象之间，交织的错层仿佛是画面中主角掩盖自身的保护色。作品中的形象实则源于个人对脆弱性的描述，即我们隐藏在内心的邪恶和欲望，以及它们如何通过身体展现。一直以来，肖像画中的女性一直处于被人注视的弱势状态，而艺术家则打破了对女性特质的既定观念，无论是真实性地还是象征性地，这是对女性身体占据空间权利的大胆宣言 —— 魔幻和复仇，库珀与戈弗的塞壬之歌在揭露脆弱性的同时，也证明了一种不可忽视的力量。
The Wrestle，2022 ©️ Cooper & Gorfer
Cooper & Gorfer: Sirens, the premier solo show of the artist duo in China will be on Fotografiska Shanghai from 25th April 2024 to 4th August 2024.
In Sirens, Cooper & Gorfer create a fictitious tribe of women in different states of transformation. Birthed from a library of female bodies and rituals, the artists reconstruct a mythological dynasty inspired by the transformative powers of immortal goddesses, their use of power, magic, and vengeance.
Noe Animal，2024 ©️ Cooper & Gorfer
From unique mix media collages to artworks arising from in camera sets – photography is blended with painting and caricature, visualizing and illustrating women wielding supernatural power, who are alluring, enchanting and perhaps dangerous. They explode from the frames that contain them, towering above the viewer.
The initial idea for constructing the figures came from using the surrealist game Cadavre Exquis, where the artists created a shared body by dividing it into two concealed halves. Resulting in unexpected associations and proportion. Bodies that are never entirely their own, with shared limbs that belong to several women simultaneously.
The line between what is real and what is imagined is mirrored in Cooper & Gorfer’s technique, with those collage pieces symbolizing the protective layers we mask ourselves with. Cooper & Gorfer’s imagery stems from personal accounts of vulnerability, playing with our own inner demons and desires, and how they manifest in the body. Breaking out of preconceived notions of femininity, the work is a bold declaration of the right of the female body to occupy space, both literally and figuratively. Loving mystical and avenging, the Sirens is a testimony to vulnerability and a force to be reckoned with.
关于库珀与戈弗
库珀与戈弗由艺术家莎拉·库珀 (1974年生于美国) 和尼娜·戈弗 (1979年生于奥地利) 组成。她们的作品围绕着幻觉、记忆和错位的主题，通过女性经历的分层图像拼贴来说明身份的可塑性。以摄影为出发点，她们的作品由绘画和刺绣材料的分层拼贴画以及拆解图像的短暂蒙太奇组成。其主题的复杂性在艺术作品的创作过程中及作品表面的碎片中皆可寻得踪迹。
Cooper & Gorfer
Cooper & Gorfer comprises the artists Sarah Cooper (US, 1974) and Nina Gorfer (AT, 1979) who began their collaboration in 2006. Their work centers around themes of illusion, memory, and dislocation, illustrating the malleability of identity through layered pictorial collages of the female experience. The duo’s work departs in photography, and ranges from physically layered collages with painted and embroidered materials, to photographs of disassembled images in different states of ephemeral montage. The complexities of their subjects are reflected in the process and the fragmentation of the artwork’s surfaces.
