Richard Deacon: Harbour

The renowned British artist has been in the vanguard of British sculpture since the 1980s, with a career that spans over forty years. While this is Deacon’s first exhibition at Lisson Gallery’s Shanghai space, it is his twelfth with the gallery globally, following his first in London in 1983. Since then, the artist has gone on to win the Turner Prize; present numerous solo exhibitions at the world’s greatest institutions; and represent Wales at the Venice Biennale – all while experimenting with a diverse range of raw materials in order to test their very limits.

The exhibition includes a small series of rare glazed porcelain sculptures, each cast from the same mold but individually fired to create hues that reference distinctive natural elements: from emerald green to a soft blue granite, a metallic burnished copper to a deep leather. These works characterise the inherent process of making itself; each sculpture inhabits the molding of clay, each contour plied by the artist before they are transferred to be glazed – first on a small scale before being reproduced into their larger form. The model for the porcelain sculptures was initially created by the artist sculpting a lump of clay with a round wooden stick until the form emerged. This model was then carefully measured and enlarged, a technique not unlike the classical use of a pointing machine, to produce a plaster model which served as the cast for the porcelain forms.

Alongside these are three stainless steel sculptures entitled At Sea…(2022) – two placed in the centre of the main gallery and one in the adjacent space mirroring light from the window. Each of these works ripple with the undulating waves of the ocean, their surfaces meticulously worked to create the swirling patterning that mimics the movement of the sea. The material utilised – stainless steel, the surfaces of which were pre-prepared before construction using a grinder – is an additional reflector of light, allowing rays to bounce off the surfaces, just as the sun reflects off the ocean. The models for the At Sea pieces were made from discarded cardboard tubes, cut and re-joined to give a raft of wave form, the amplitude depending on the diameter of the roll and the number of sections it had been divided into.

These two bodies of work differ in both appearance and substance – the porcelain works appearing to connote differing materialities whilst the stainless steel works, whose materiality is exposed in the initial grinding of the surface, disperse light. However, there is a clear affinity between these two bodies of work in their refined, undulating surfaces. The intense colours of the porcelain can be seen dancing on the steel sculptures, and the movement of the At Sea works play with the fluxing forms of the glazed forms. Together, these techniques and components create an aesthetic that harks back to historic artistry while referencing modern engineering – a carefully orchestrated combination that is at once ancient yet contemporary.

在理查德·迪肯 (Richard Deacon) 于里森画廊上海空间的首次个展中，展出的两组全新雕塑彰显了这位著名英国雕塑家精湛的艺术造诣，及其不断探索材料可能性的创作动力。迪肯形态万千的作品形式往往受材料本身特性的影响，捏塑手法的超群且巧妙。展览中雕塑的雏形都来源于艺术家制作的模型，并通过进一步制造得以完善，其中的每个步骤都是作品意义中不可或缺的一部分。此前，迪肯曾在中国展出作品，包括2021年山东西海美术馆的揭幕展及2016年的乌镇国际当代艺术邀请展。

这位享负盛名的英国艺术家自1980年代以来便一直是英国雕塑的领军人物。自1983年于伦敦空间的首展开始，他已经与里森画廊携手走过将近40年，此次个展是他在里森画廊的第12次展览。在逾40年的创作生涯中，迪肯不懈地对多种材质进行实验以试验和拓展媒介的极限，这种追求卓越的实践令他受邀在全球众多顶尖艺术机构呈现个展、代表威尔士参加威尼斯双年展，并荣获透纳奖的殊荣。

此次展览呈现了一系列罕见的釉面陶瓷雕塑，它们都用同一个模具铸造，但不同色彩的釉面使它们显得不尽相同，如作品名称所暗示，它们分别特指着一种材料 —— 优雅的翡翠、柔和的蓝花岗岩、充满金属质感的亮铜，以及深邃的皮革。这些陶瓷雕塑的特定创作过程决定了它们的特征——迪肯先使用圆木棍反复击打一块粘土制成模型，然后将此模型仔细测量和放大——这一技术与使用测点仪类似，以此制作出一件石膏模型模具，继而结合注浆成型的方式铸造出雕塑的形态，最后在成型的雕塑表面添加一层釉彩。

同时展出的还有三件来自《在海上》(At Sea) 系列的不锈钢雕塑，其中两件置于画廊入口的一侧，另一件则位于画廊另一端的窗户旁，这让不锈钢的材质与落入画廊的光线产生互动。这些作品的顶面呈现出起伏的波浪形态，象征着翻腾的海浪，而不锈钢表面的漩涡式花纹则意味着海水涌动的状态。在艺术家着手开始创作前，不锈钢表面已用机器预先打磨好，因此光线能从不锈钢的表面散射而出，形成独特的光芒，正如阳光在海面折射出波光粼粼的效果。《在海上》系列作品的模型由废弃的硬纸管制作而成，艺术家将这些纸管纵向切割，并重新连接组合成波浪形态，而纸管的直径和被切成的份数则决定了波幅。

展出的陶瓷作品通过不同釉面呈现了其名称特指材质的特点，而不锈钢作品的材质特性则于早期的打磨阶段就已经凸显出来，即当光线投射到雕塑上产生的色散效果。尽管这两个系列的作品在外观和材质上都不尽相同，但相似之处在于它们都经过精心处理呈现出起伏的形态。陶瓷作品雅致华贵的色彩隐约地反射在不锈钢雕塑的表面，而《在海上》系列波纹呈现的动态则呼应了釉面作品蜿蜒起伏的表面。迪肯所采用的创作技巧和材质既唤起对传统艺术的审美，也善用了现代工程的技术，无不体现了他结合传统与现代的巧思与技艺。