中国科幻戏曲的舞台布景设计
混合媒介装置
2015
在装置作品《中国科幻戏曲的舞台布景设计》中，黄汉明将尤伦斯当代艺术中心（UCCA）的甬道展场封闭起来，借鉴了剧场舞台立体布景的搭景方式，层层树立十余块木板。木板上的图像分为“太空舱”和“云端”两部分，中间镂空，观众可穿过这些人工景致，直达甬道尽头——一片不断旋转的圆形平板，上面鲜亮的色彩令人目眩。黄汉明设置的情景看似叙事连贯：观众走出太空舱，从而步入云朵之间；而事实上，作品包含两个错位的部分：云彩的纹样参考了描绘宇宙的中国传统戏曲舞台以及古代宗教壁画、抽象、明亮，与受二十世纪五六十年代西方典型科幻电影所启发的、“未来”、昏暗的太空舱形成对比；不同的图像代表了多重的文化背景和时间维度，分别呈现了他近期对粤剧舞台现代化进程、中国古代壁画和中外科幻电影的研究成果。观众的视野先接触到象征未来的科幻布景，随后才走进历经历史沿革的云朵纹样之中，似乎走向未来，又好像面朝过去，也不禁会对线性的、连续的、量化的时间观产生质疑。
Ascent to the Heavenly Palace (I-IV) / 飞向天宫
2015, Photographic series, 110x165cm
Scenography for a Chinese Science Fiction Opera / 中国科幻戏曲的舞台布景设计
mixed media installation featuring a handpainted theatre stage set (paint on canvas, wood, steel, motors)
2015
For the installation Scenography for a Chinese Science Fiction Opera, Ming Wong transformed the Nave gallery space at UCCA into a full-scale three-dimensional theatre stage set, constructed out of hand-painted wooden backdrops.
Visitors can walk through the interior of a spaceship – derived from science fiction movies from the Eastern Bloc in the 50s and 60s, and fused with the aesthetics of a Chinese ornamental garden – and then beyond swirls of clouds into outer space – inspired by cosmological design motifs from Chinese opera and ancient religious cave murals – towards the swirling vortex of the universe, symbolized by a kaleidoscopic, disorienting wheel of color.
The diverse iconography in the work represents a multifaceted cultural landscape and a nonlinear timeframe derived from the artist’s recent investigations into various aspects of the modernization of Cantonese opera, including its scenography and cinematic transformations, and its unlikely relationship with the development of science-fiction in China.
In this work, the viewer seems to be walking towards the future yet facing the past, which calls into question the linear, continuous and quantitative aspects of time.
Accompanying the stage set is a series of photographs of the artist as a space explorer within this scenography, entitled “Ascent to the Heavenly Palace (I-IV)”. The costumes, backdrops and poses recall an uncertain nostalgia of chinese propaganda posters, children’s space adventure books and pantomime.
Photographs by Eric Gregory Powell.
