tradingmeaning

Trading Meaning
交易的意义
June 6 - 30, 2009
DAC Space, 798 Art District，Beijing
中国数字艺术空间

Artists艺术家
Gonkar Gyatso贡嘎·嘉措, Tony Scott托尼·苏格特, Adam Bridgland亚当·伯格兰

Gonkar Gyatso贡嘎·嘉措





Tony Scott托尼·苏格特





Adam Bridgland亚当·伯格兰

Gonkar Gyatso is represented in the 2009 Venice Biennale.
Gonkar will present an artist’s talk at UCCA (798 art district) facilitated by the Australian Ambassador, Dr Geoff Raby at 12.00 – 2.00pm on Saturday 20 June.
Gonkar’s silk-screen prints, two of which are being shown for the first time, including an image of the work in the Venice Biennale, are in heavy demand by collectors in China, Europe, America and Australia. Only selected prints in these limited editions are available.
Tony Scott has an established reputation as an artist in China and Hong Kong. His installation – part of the New Health Plan series – containing various objects in a range of media, will attract a deal of interest from old and new collectors.
Adam Bridgland is an emerging young artist from London who has had several highly successful exhibitions in the UK in the past two years. His witty, highly collectable works are sure to appeal to many Chinese and overseas collectors.

贡嘎?嘉措是2009年威尼斯双年展的参展艺术家。
贡嘎将会出席在尤伦斯艺术中心的艺术家对话活动。该对话是由澳大利亚大使Geoff Raby组织促成并将于2009年6月20日中午12点至2点进行。
贡嘎的迷你贴纸重置中的两件作品是第一次展出，其中包含一幅在威尼斯双年展中展出。这些作品已经被中国、欧洲、美国及澳洲的收藏家的广泛收藏。本次展览将可售出精选的有限版本。
托尼·苏格特已经建立了在中国大陆及香港地区的艺术知名度。他的新健康计划装置系列作品利用了多种媒介来进行创作，也将成为一个新收藏亮点。
亚当?伯格兰是近两年活跃于英国的年轻艺术家，他来自伦敦，并成功举办了多个展览。他作品所传递的诙谐及极具收藏性必会吸引众多中国及国际藏家的关注。

Trading Meaning

The exchange of ideas as the raison d’etre of art is nothing new; nor is the apparent dissonance between art and commerce. Trading meaning acknowledges the communication of ideas through Gonkar Gyatso, Adam Bridgland and Tony Scott - three artists who employ forms generally associated with branding, marketing and commerce.
Trading involves an exchange of product or service and has a direct bearing on culture, lifestyle and values. We can deny the impact of trade and commerce, we can overstate its impact, we can rail against the values associated with it, or we can whole-heartedly embrace it – but we cannot ignore the effect of the exchange of goods for benefit and/or profit.
Implicit in the practice of trading is a readily decipherable code which conveys the nature and purpose of the agency that provides the product or service. This needs to be accessible to potential clients, customers, consumers and collectors, through promotion and advertising. The key element in this transaction is the symbol of the agency as a logo and/or slogan – branding.
Icons, trademarks, branding, symbols and signs are the visual codes for communication. The artists produce work which reflects on and refers to ‘trading’ and its concomitant symbols. The three artists address the codes used in medicine, religion and business drawing connections between traditional and contemporary language. With wit and humour, the artists subvert the content of language, making us re-think intention, meaning and value.
Adam Bridgland takes the form of logos and ‘de-activates’ them through translation into private or personal meanings as unique objects. Bridgland’s materiality of his product, the hand-stitching and the fabric, creates a counter-point to the impersonalised, reproduced design image or ‘brand’. The meaning of the image, apparently a symbol, is turned around through Bridgland’s wit and humour to reference our desire for possessions and lifestyle aspirations.
Gonkar Gyatso generates a frisson between the spiritual force of Buddhism and the impact of modern consumer culture on the global society. The form of the Buddha is constructed and/or overlayed with mini-stickers and pencil text taken directly from pop culture and imagery – Disney characters, Coca-Cola, Macdonald’s, Starbucks, Prada and Versace – as well as media headlines on global issues. The cultural imperialism of dominant economies is shown as having a bearing on the way people live their lives; for Gonkar, the strength of his own tradition, Tibetan culture, lies in its deep and abiding association with Buddhist belief and practice. Each sticker image is minute in relation to the over-riding image of Buddha. Even large objects such as aircraft are made to appear insignificant against the monumentality of a form which is not so much defined as suggested in the cosmos.
In the context of this exhibition, Tony Scott’s educational aids may refer to a relationship between marketing strategies and medical practice. The belief that diagnoses of patients’ conditions and the remedies are conditioned by oaths and absolute integrity of practice is subverted when economic interests appear to have an effect on the outcome. Scott references his personal health, related to hearing, foot ailments, blood pressure and dentistry, through an installation of objects used as professional and public aids in traditional Chinese medicine.

Reg Newitt, Trading Meaning curator, May 2009.

交易的意义

想法的互换是存在且必要的但却使艺术变成了一种不仅仅是表面了无新意的物品且突显了艺术和商业之间的冲突感。贡嘎·嘉措, 亚当·柏格兰和Tony Scott透过交易的意义, 如品牌行销，营销和商业行为，认知了想法的互通性。

交易是一种物品和服务的交换行为，而且还因为文化、生活型态价值观而有不同的导向。我们可以否认潮流及商业的攻势,；我们可以夸大它；我们也可以跟潮流逆道而行，又或者我们可以打开心胸拥抱它，但是我们无法忽略物品交易所带来的无论是好的或不好的效益。

媒体上有目的且被大肆宣传的产品和服务其如何使消费者产生盲目的交易惯性是可以被轻易被破解的密码。其实只要瞄准了潜在的客户、顾客、用户和收藏家然后透过宣传和广告就能游刃有馀。品牌行销就是交易行为的真谛，利用标志和标语为媒介。

图标、商标、品牌行销符号和标志是用来沟通的密码。艺术家利用可以反映和意指出交易的素材来创作这些相互辉映且相生相息的符号。此三位艺术家特别强调了用在药品、地区和商业的密码，并且在传统和现代的语言之间作了连结。他们用一种幽默诙谐的角度去颠覆了语言本身，让我们重新去思考其意图、意义和价值。

亚当柏格兰反向的利用了商标的形式去抵制他们，如透过把它转化为一种非常隐私且个人的意象而使其意义不同凡响。柏格兰物化了他自身的作品，利用亲手的缝製和布料的挑选去挑战对那些无生命力且千篇一律的的设计和品牌。柏格兰以他的幽默和机智翻转了形象及符号的意义，透视了消费者对物质的佔有慾及对生活型态的渴望。

贡嘎嘉措在佛陀的宗教力量和现代的消费文化对全球所造成的影响中找到了他作品的核心价值，他用流行文化中的既有图像，如迪士尼卡通人物、可口可乐、麦当劳、星巴克、普拉达和范思哲还有全球媒体的新闻头条以迷你贴纸重迭的效果以及素描所组成佛祖的形象，突显出主流经济下文化的潜移默化如何对人们的生活方式带来冲击。对贡嘎来说，他本身西藏传统那种很深的信念及身体的力行带给他很大的力量，每个迷你贴纸都捕捉了佛祖形象无远佛届影所响的每个瞬间。甚至是大件的物品。如飞机这种毫无意义的形象显示出对于人类如此庞大的物品但是相对于全宇宙来说却是微不足道。

这次的展览能够被促成的因缘际会，其实是由于Tony Scott所受的教育跟营销策略及医学实践相关的缘故。从医学诊断对病情分析的确信和治疗方法的角度来说得深深的倚靠着医学从业人员高尚的宣示以及全然无私的道德观，却因为经济的利害关係影响诊断的结果而被破坏殆尽。Scott在传统的中药医学中分别透过专业及公共救援的置入性治疗反映他自身的健康情况，如听觉、脚疾、血压和牙病。