研究NOTE | Stine Deja 斯坦·戴亚：后资本的轮回荆棘林
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策展人研究笔记
艺术家 | About the Artist
Born in Denmark in 1986 and currently based in London, Stine Deja received her MA from Royal College of Art in 2015 and her BA in interaction design from Kolding School of Design in 2012.
Deja’s practice explores the sticky in-between of real and virtual worlds with a striking arsenal of media that includes 3D animation, immersive installation, moving image, and digital surrogates. In Deja’s simulated spaces, uncanny avatars hinge between what’s strange and familiar, seducing us with not quite-real products informed equally by the artist’s simultaneous fascination and revulsion with our hyper-commercialized contemporary culture.
Concealed beneath a sleek surface, multiple layers of social critique meld with absurdist aesthetics and tragicomic narratives to create a cybernetic landscape of fantasy and desire. At the heart of all of Deja’s projects is a keen interest in how these heightened emotional states, often coaxed out by late capitalist narratives of self-care and guilt-free indulgence, are displaced onto the body.
艺术家简历 | CV
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Stine Deja | 斯坦·戴亚
b.1986, Denmark
Lives and works in London
Education
2013-2015 MA Royal College of Art2009-2012 BA Kolding School of Design
2008-2009 School of Fine Art & Design, Århus
2020 Last Resort, Annka Kultys Gallery, London, UK
2019 HYPERSEA: Permanent installation commissioned by The Danish Art Foundation
2018 Hard core, soft bodies, Solo show at Schimmel Projects, Dresden (DE)
2018 Synthetic Seduction, Duo show KH7 Artspace, Aarhus (DK)
2018 4K ZEN, Solo show at Unit110, New York (US)
2018 Synthetic Seduction, Duo show SixtyEight Art Institute, Copenhagen (DK)
2018 Synthetic Seduction, Duo show Annka Kultys Gallery, London (UK)
2017 There's life outside, Solo show Annka Kultys Gallery, London (UK)
2017 Cyphoria, Solo show at Annka Kultys Gallery, London (UK)
Selected Group Exhibitions2020 'NO BODY' Galerie Manqué, New York, US
2020 Schimmel Art Projects, Brixen, Tyrol, IT
2020 'Hypersurface', Austrian Cultural Forum, London, UK
2020 Screening, 'Art Lovers Movie Club', Art Review
2020 'Extemporary: Art Out of Time', Perm Museum of Contemporary Art, Perm, RUS
2020 Screening, 'Mock Jungle', Metoché, Bologna, IT
2020 ‘Hyper Functional, Ultra Healthy’, Somerset House, London, UK
2019 'Link in Bio', Mdbk, Leipzig, DE
2019 'Extemporary: Art Out of Time', National Centre for Contemporary Art, Nizhny Novgorod, RUS
2019 'Biotechnosphere', Tranen, Gentofte, DK
2019 Goingaway.tv, Wrong Biennale Pavilion, Online
2019 EXPO Chicago with Annka Kultys Gallery
2019 'Super Host', Like A Little Disaster, Polignano a Mare
2019 'Beyond The Skin', Museum Villla Rot, Burgrieden, DE
2019 'Copernicus', E.M.Bannister Gallery, Rhode Island (US)
2019 'We Sing the Body Electric, Gallery 46, London, (UK)
2019 'HERE + NOW', Pablo's Birthday, New York (US)
2019 PLOP residency show, London (UK)
2019 'Life & Beyond', Lewisham Arthouse, London, (UK)
2019 SUB Festival, 'Synthetic Seduction', Holstebro, (DK)
2019 Group show, 'Future Human', Space Studios, London (UK)
2019 Screening, '4K ZEN', Vitrine Gallery x Kino Digital, London (UK)
2019 Group show, A closed mouth gathers no feet, DASH Gallery, (BE)
2019 Group show, A glass is not a reference for an amount, In de ruimte, Ghent, (BE)
Award/Grants/Residencies
2020 Working grant, Den Hielmstierne-Rosencroneske Stiftelse
2020 3 year working grant, The Danish Arts Foundation
2019 PLOP residency, London
2019 Working grant, The Danish Art Foundation
2019 SPACE Art & Tech residency 'Future Human', London
2019 Nominated for Remmen Fondens Kunstpris (Finalist as duo together with Marie Munk)
2018 Grant for Hard Core, Soft Bodies at Schimmel Projects, Danish Arts Foundation
2018 Synthetic Seduction at KH7 Artspace awarded by Statens Kunstfond
2018 Working grant, Danish Art Foundation
2018 Grant for Synthetic Seduction at Annka Kultys Gallery with Marie Munk, Danish Arts Foundation
2017 Working grant, Danish Art Foundation
2015 Chris Garnham Prize
精选作品 | Selected Works
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热能系列
Thermal series
」Q1
《热袋 | Thermal Womb》（2018）似乎是一种为使人类抵御毁灭性灾难的挽救措施，而“womb”一词也意味着子宫或者孕育之处。这项装置是否代表了人类最终生存状态的一种概念，或一种最坏的时期结束后出现新生的可能性？为什么子宫是热能的？还有，我好奇的是，你为什么把那些“人”倒过来摆放？
Thermal Womb (2018) somehow seems like an act of rescue for human beings against destructive disaster, and the word Womb also means uterus. Does the installation work represent a concept of the last state of human existence, or a possibility of new life after the end of bad times? Why would those “Wombs” to be thermal? Also, my biggest curiosity is, why do you put those “people” upside down?
‘The Last Resort’ on view in Annka Kultys Gallery, London in February 2020, was the result of extensive research into transhumanism and cryopreservation. I was interested in exploring the motivations and beliefs of the individuals who buy into cryopreservation, whilst simultaneously I investigate the social and ethical implications of its wider uptake.
The Thermal Womb sculptures are an almost exact replica of how bodies are stored at Alcor, an American human cryopreservation company. Bodies are placed in sleeping bags and rapidly frozen to around -196°C in metal containers called dewars, the bodies are stored upside down so that in the case of a technical fault the heads would be the last thing to thaw. For the installation, the sculptures were surrounded by red sand to mirror the Arizona desert where Alcor is based. I called them wombs because the structures offer a kind of frozen incubation space, and I found it to be an interesting cyclical metaphor: to be born from the biological womb at the start of life and then potentially reborn from the technological womb when science has caught up.
Q2
与《热袋》与相比，作品《热悬浮 | Thermal Suspension》也相当令人印象深刻。这个人形化雕塑倒挂在倚墙的不锈钢框架上。这个人穿着一件在《热袋》中也出现过的黄色羽绒服，但不同于《热袋》的是，头部播放面孔的屏幕消失了，雕塑的面部变得空无一物。这两件作品的概念有什么不同？Compared to Thermal Womb, the work Thermal Suspension is also quite impressive. The anthropomorphic sculpture is fastened upside-down to a stainless-steel frame against the wall. The man wears a yellow down jacket like in the Thermal Womb, but instead of screens that play faces, there’s nothing in the exposed face part. What’s the difference of the two works’ concepts?
Thermal Womb was kind of the beginning point, although it’s still speculative. It was inspired by something that already exists. In Thermal Suspension, I was more trying to imagine these floating bodies as a part of our universe. For the body shape， I was inspired by the old crime scenes，in which bodies were given that kind of chalk outline, and I thought it would be interesting for these figures to mimic that death pose. Unlike the figures in Thermal Womb, the figures in Thermal Suspension have been freed from their dewars and are now able to move through the world as a new form.
For my next show this work has been developed and I am looking into ways of suspending the form in a circular frame that moves. So several of them will be spinning around in an endless loop—I think it’s going to be an interesting new embodiment of the theme. In this work, I am trying to create a parallel world in another time and space.
硬核 x 软体
Hard Core, Soft Bodies
」Q3
似乎你的作品和实践是基于“人的生存境遇”和“人体的哲学意义”的。《硬核，软体 | Hard Core, Soft Bodies》是你的一件关键作品。这是一个动态装置，看起来坚硬冰冷的内支架中，有着象征不同身体器官和骨骼的肉色软壳。除了作品本身，在安装作品时，空间中的地板上的沙子和黄色墙纸意味着什么？It seems that your works and practice based on “human subsistence situation” and “philosophical significance of the human body”. Regarding to one of the key works named Hard Core, Soft Bodies, it’s a dynamic installation with internal stent which looks hard and cold, and a flesh-coloured soft shell which symbolizes different body organs and bones. Besides the work, what does the sandy floor and yellow wallpaper means when installing the work in space?
Ha ha, it is such an interesting description of the work because actually the space was filled with gravel not sand and the yellow light was created by applying a yellow vinyl to the lights and windows so that the white space had a quite dramatic coloured filter in it. This colour made the transition into the gallery space very obvious and even made the view from the gallery to the outside world pretty bizarre as well. Because everything apart from the screens had this yellow hue， it made the videos seem more hyperreal and they commanded more attention.
The installation created an alternate reality where people step into the world on screen. I always want to make the experience of watching my video works immersive. So that even if you’ve been to the gallery a hundred times before， you still feel as though you are entering a new space.
神秘的遗迹
Cryptic Ruins
」Q4
同时，从视频作品《神秘的遗迹 | Cryptic Ruins》中，我们可以看到，这部作品的概念通过 “人类世”和“后人类时代”以及一系列的修复场景展开。你使用过拟人技术吗？在许多作品中，你把机器比作人类，这是否表达了对于某些人类行为的编程和去情绪化，或者其他一些概念？Also, from the video Cryptic Ruins, we could see that the concept of the work revolves around the “Anthropocene” and “Post-Human Era” with a series of restorations scene. Have you been using anthropomorphic techniques? As in many works, you compare machines to humans. Did you express the programming and de-emotionalization of certain human behaviors or something else?
For Cryptic Ruins, I was inspired by National Geographic’s way of documenting archaeological sites. My video fast forwards the viewer into the year of 21020 where a mysterious archaeological site has been uncovered in where was central London. A large communal structure dedicated to seemingly unproductive expending of energy from human bodies. Whilst we might easily identify it as a gym, our descendants are concerned with why it exists at all.
By framing the 21st century compulsion towards physical fitness as a mysterious practice of the past that requires decoding, the piece reveals something of the absurdity of contemporary urban life and questions the rationality of our obsessions.
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完美人类
The Perfect Human
」Q5
你有件超级有趣的早期作品《完美人类 | The Perfect Human》（2014），根据作品视频，“完美人类”可以在电脑屏幕内移动。作品还呈现出“完美”的坠落方式、“完美”的躺倒方式和“完美”的社交方式。关于“完美”的标准化思考有时令人发笑，那么这部作品的探索主题是不是试图表明它实际上是一个无止境的循环，没有答案？There’s a super interesting earlywork called The Perfect Human (2014). According to the video, “a perfect human” can move inside a computer screen. For example, the work also shows a perfect falling way, a perfect lying down way and a perfect socializing way. Standardized thinking about "perfection" is sometimes funny, so is the theme of exploration of this work trying to show that it’s actually an endless loop without answer?
我的作品是直接受到影片《完美人类》的启发（*丹麦语：Det perfekte menneske，1967，13'，Jørgen Leths 约根·莱思）。“完美人类”便是询问我们如何成为自己的，如何处理我们的经验，以及赋予的身份将如何影响我们。视频的目的是观察，而不是提供一个答案。这作品重写并数字化了Jørgen Leths 原作里对于“何以为人”的人类学观察，或是“何以为完美人类”。视频中的人不再是在医院般的白房间里，而是在屏幕上。被连接着却又独自一人，被观察者审问同时也被指挥行动出“完美性”。
My work was directly inspired by The Perfect Human (*Danish: Det perfekte menneske, 1967, 13’, Jørgen Leth). The 'perfect human' questions how we become who we are, how we process our experiences and how a given role affects us. This video aims to observe rather than providing any answers. The piece rewrites and digitizes Jørgen Leths’ anthropological observations on what it means to be human, or rather "a perfect human". The human is no longer in a clinical white room, but in a screen. Connected yet alone whilst being interrogated by an observer who is dictating the perfection of this human.
聊聊其他 | Conversations
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Q6
由于疫情下对于行动的限制，许多艺术家和学者正在探索数字媒体，如建模，视频制作和其他与科技技术有关的可能性。如我们所知，你从2014年便在使用建模技术，你是否有其他人协助或是全都是自己制作？Partly because of the COVID-19 and physical restriction, many artists and scholars are exploring the digital media like modeling, filmmaking and other possibilities with technics. As we knew that you began with the modeling technology practice since 2014, do you have assistance or just making it by yourself?
I truly enjoy figuring stuff out myself—I can spend hours trying out new techniques and ideas. I did have some assistance though, when I was creating the universe for Cryptic Ruins. I guess it depends on the scale of the project versus how much time and budget you have.
Q7
疫情期间你都是如何度过的？我们知道在疫情爆发之初，你在伦敦的 Annka Kultys Gallery 的个展才刚开幕，接下来会有什么新展览或新创作吗？
How did you or have you been pulling out through the virus pandemic? We know that just at the beginning of the outbreak of COVID-19, you had opened your solo exhibition at Annka Kultys gallery, London, how about the next show or new practices afterwards?
这场疫情无疑是很可怕的。适应这种新生活确实是个挑战，但我相信我们必须保持乐观，把这看作是我们塑造新世界的机会。一般来说，艺术和文化提供灵感，启发你思考但也可以是一种愉快的逃避——在这样的时代之下，我觉得它比以往任何时候都重要。
对我来说一切都很好，我的工作室就在我家旁边，所以我很幸运能够继续工作。一开始我的很多展览都被推迟了，但现在看来更多的展览要重新开展了。我的下一场个人展览将于11月在丹麦的Tranen当代艺术中心开幕，我真的很兴奋终于能够布置并展出这些作品。
The pandemic is without a doubt terrifying. Adjusting to this new life has been a challenge, but I believe that we have to stay optimistic and see this as an opportunity for us to shape a new world. Art and culture in general provide inspiration. It makes you think and it can be a pleasant escape — in a time like this it’s more important than ever, I think.
It has been okay for me, my studio is literally next to my home, so I have been lucky to be able to continue working. Lots of my shows were initially postponed, but it seems like more and more exhibitions are opening again now.
My next solo show opens in November at Tranen in Denmark and I’m really excited to finally get to install and show these works.
Q8
最后，你可以为我们想更了解当代艺术和西方文化的中文读者一些建议吗？One more question for our mandarin-speaking viewers: Could you provide some tips for us when we’re trying to understand the contemporary art and the western culture?
对我来说，艺术是一种通用的语言。所以对于探索西方文化来说，艺术也许是一种令人兴奋的交流方式。
For me，art speaks a universal language. So perhaps this is actually an exciting way to discover things about the Western culture.
更多 | More to see
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展览“最后的胜地”：《热袋》
Thermal Womb at Last Resort
《合成诱惑》
Synthetic Seduction
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采访 / Roxy
编译 / Roxy, Athena, Kala.Zhao
校对 / Kala.Zhao, Jessica
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