2022
Painting
Black oil,boiler oil,paper
76 (H) x 57 (W) cm
New York, New Yorker is a series of paintings by Wu Chien-Hsing that depicts lovers, friends, and strangers in everyday scenes against the backdrop of the streets of New York. These figurative works evoke connections between people, as well as connections between people and places. Interestingly, the works were composed of motor oil and made through the laborious process of repeated rubbings, done by hand using auto parts and scraps from various construction sites. The subjects of these paintings, ranging from unhoused individuals to construction workers, were sourced from the artist’s own photography, street scenes from his various walks around New York City.
Wu Chien-Hsing’s earliest motor oil portraits depicted his own family, in compositions borrowed from family photos. However, as the artist accumulated more life experiences and was introduced to a wider diversity of perspectives through his time in New York, his works gradually began including a wider array of subjects from different corners of the world. Wu’s latest series, New York, New Yorker, is thus a result of his own observations on the street, captured through iPhone photographs which the artist later synthesized, reassembled, and imbued with his own imaginations, compositions, and aesthetics. The series is not only Wu’s own musings on street scenes from his adopted city but also a deeper consideration on how one can record the present through the process of painting.
The present and its transient nature are key considerations throughout the series, especially in these motor oil works as an innate quality of the lubricant is to gradually fade and blur over time when applied on paper. Like the lifetime of a memory, the final appearance of these works will an indecipherable blur, leaving only traces of the smell of motor oil.
“紐約‧紐約客 ”系列 透過繪畫方式，以紐約街道為場景，描繪關於朋友、愛人、陌生人。以及他們日常生活的場景，這些具象的描繪，喚起了人與人或在地之間的連結，從繪畫中展藝術家觀察人物的觀點，這些作品從看見到被看見之間，思考著繪畫過程中，如何記錄當下。
吳建興最早的肖像繪畫是描繪自己的家族相片，隨著不同生活經驗及視野逐漸朝向國際，從紐約尋找適合的描繪對象，嘗試遇到的陌生人，過街頭選角的過程，為他們拍攝照片。最後通過合成或組裝，對於構圖及美感的想像，重新安排會製成作品。
有趣的是，作品用汽車黑油繪製，同時使用汽車零件及工地撿來的廢料進行拓印。由於使用的媒材特性，作品完成後會隨著時間的推移慢慢模糊，就像記憶一樣，隨著時間逐漸淡忘，留下的只有淡淡的黑油味。
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