纯真年代，不是神话的神话
Stay Real Forever… A Myth, Not Really A Myth
陆蓉之，郑如芳，黄滢洁
Victoria Lu，Sandrine Cheng，Justine Huang
在一个网际网络即是存在的年代，记忆与幻想，虚拟与真实，可以像双胞胎一样，以相同或相异的面貌并存。
In this era in which the Internet defines our existence, memory and fantasy, as well as fact and fiction, can exist together like twins, taking on either similar or contrasting appearances.
人们可以执着地为自己打造一个理想的存在状态，不论是在记忆里，或是在网际网络的平台上，‘我思故我在’是一种最理想的状态，如今，仿佛已然可能实现。
People can fight to create an ideal state of existence for themselves, both within the recesses of their memory and on the global platform of the internet. The notion “I think; therefore, I am” has become one of the most desired states of existence; today, it seems as though we may already be able to realize such a state.
在台湾70与80后出生的艺术家不二良、KEA与五月天阿信，他们不同于上一个世纪的青年那般世故，也不愿像在上一个世纪成年的人类那般甘于服从于现实。不二良、KEA与五月天阿信的成年世界，记忆与幻想，虚拟与真实同时交杂而存在，那种可以穿梭时空的自由自在，是所有活在21世纪网际网络新宇宙里的人类，所共同拥有的一种前所未有的权利与权力。所以，他们的幻想可以理直气壮地以虚拟的姿态现身，不需要任何借口或累赘的解释。他们以为，他们主张，他们相信，因为相信，所以神话也可以是一种存在，故事，就这样展开。
The artists No2Good, KEA, and Ashin (of the band “Mayday”), who were all born in Taiwan in the 1970s and 1980s, are different from the young art-makers of the last century: they are not as focused on the real world, and they are unwilling to serve reality in the same way as those who came of age in the last century. In the world in which No2Good, KEA, and Ashin have grown up, memory and fantasy, fact and fiction exist together; they intertwine. The freedom to shuttle freely through time and space is an unprecedented power, and a right that all people who live in the new digital universe of the 21st century possess. Because of this, their fantasies can confidently be brought to life through fiction without any pretense or unnecessary apologies. They believe, they affirm, and they have faith, and because they have faith, myths are able to become a mode of existence. In this way, the worlds of their stories open up.
不二良、KEA与五月天阿信以《纯真年代》为主题，在上海当代艺术馆实现了他们虚构的神话，他们分别运用不同的媒材与手法，来回应这个持续变异的世界与虚拟化的网际网络新宇宙。他们不想背负沉重的历史包袱，也不想面对嘈杂纷乱的现实人生，他们选择以记忆中对‘纯真’的依恋，来建构似是而非的美好与天真，以他们熟悉的潮流语汇和幽默诙谐的视觉造型，表现当代艺术创作中多元与越界的形式。
Taking “Stay Real Forever...” as the theme for their exhibition, No2Good, KEA, and Ashin are bringing one of their imaginary myths to life at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai. They each use different media and different methods to respond to this ever-transforming world and the new, virtualized universe of the internet. They do not wish to shoulder any weighty historical baggage, nor do they wish to face the troublesome complexities of real life. They choose to construct a vision of questionable perfection and purity from their impressions of “simple truths” filtered through their memories; using humorous visual images and the pop vocabulary with which they are so familiar, they are creating a vision of the diversity and the boundary-breaking nature of contemporary artistic practice.
以‘公仔’创作而闻名于台湾潮流界的艺术家不二良，其实是台湾第一代的动漫美学（Animamix）艺术家，他早在上一世纪90年代，因为受到美国以涂鸦起家的新波普艺术家哈林(Keith Haring)作品的启发，开始他的漫画风格的绘画创作。1998年毕业于台湾中部彰化师范大学美术系的陈柏良，当时他的绘画方向很难获得中部艺坛的理解，更遑论重视，他1997年所作的《塑胶人》和1998年的《堆高人》系列，可以明显看出他对于当时艺术教育环境的一种反思与无奈。
No2Good, famed in the realm of Taiwanese pop culture for his “figurines,” was actually part of the first generation of Taiwanese Animamix artists. As early as the 1990s, he had begun to create manga-style paintings, which took inspiration from the works of Keith Haring, the American Neo-Pop artist famed for his graffiti works. Born Chen Boliang, he graduated from the Department of Fine Art at the National Changhua Normal University in central Taiwan in 1998; but at the time, the path that he had chosen to take in his paintings was very difficult for the art world in central Taiwan to understand, let alone value. In his “Plastic Men” series of 1997 and his “Pile Up Men” series of 1998, we can clearly discern something of his reflections on and discontent with the environment of the art educational sphere at the time.
陈柏良北上以后的台北艺坛，正处于‘观念艺术’的风口浪尖，他的漫画风格绘画还来不及登陆便牺牲在沙滩上。1999年陈柏良成立“猴戏设计工作室”规划各式视觉设计项目，2002年陈柏良从台湾师大设计研究所毕业,于是顺理成章地他转而朝向设计界发展。2002年陈柏良首次正式与台湾摇滚乐团‘五月天’合作，担任他们的动画MV《王子面》的导演，2003年他以‘不二良’为名发表了他所创作的第一款公仔,是 “五月天限量公仔”。2006年不二良与BenQ合作设计了“Jr.Q公仔”，2007年为台湾偶像团体‘飞轮海’设计他们的公仔。2008年他参加《吠克艺术国际联展》发表“小白烂公仔”，他也为台湾诚品书店《跨界玩设计》的限定版公仔发表了他首个“STAYREAL公仔”。2009年以来，不二良设计了一系列的“小鼠（MOUSY）公仔”，至此不二良的‘公仔’已在潮流界享有盛名，成为台湾公仔界的天王级人物。
After moving to Taipei, Chen Boliang found the local art world to be riding the crest of the “Conceptual Art” wave. Not surprisingly, his manga-like paintings precluded him from climbing aboard, leaving him instead stranded on the shore. In 1999 Chen founded the “Monkey Games Design Studio” and began working on a variety of visual design projects. In 2002 he completed a graduate program in design at Taiwan Normal University, which allowed him integrate smoothly into the design world. It was also in 2002 that Chen first formally collaborated with the Taiwanese rock group “Mayday.” That year, he directed an animated music video for their song “Prince’s Face”, and in 2003 he released his limited edition Mayday figurine, his first work to be released under the studio name “No2Good”. In 2006 No2Good collaborated with BenQ to design the Jr.Q figurine, and in 2007 he designed a figurine for the Taiwanese music idol group “Fahrenheit.” In 2008 he released his Little White Grunge figurine at the “International Real Fake Art Exhibition.” He also released his first STAYREAL figurine as part of the limited edition “Cross-over Play Design” series of figurines sponsored by Taiwan’s Eslite Bookstore. Since 2009 No2Good has been working on his “MOUSY” series of figurines. His figurines are well known throughout the pop world, and among Taiwan’s figurine lovers, No2Good has become something of a heavenly prince.
‘不二良’的英文名是‘No2Good’，发音是‘no too good’，是陈柏良的名字‘柏良’的谐音，也是他对自己在艺坛闯荡遇难处境的一种自我嘲讽，而他‘此处不留爷，自有留爷处’干脆改攻时尚潮流界的策略，在今天看来，反而像是先知一般，引领了艺术跨界创价的新趋势。其实，不二良在2005年所作的一幅绘画《未来》，清楚展现了他在人偶造型方面的原创力，他不但成功地从绘画界跨足到公仔设计，2007年他与阿信成立潮人时尚品牌“STAYREAL”，再从公仔设计越界到服饰设计和品牌运营，大步迈向生活美学家的全方位创作角色。
In Chinese No2Good is called “Bu Er Liang,” the pronunciation of which is similar to his given name “Boliang.” But his studio name is also a bit of self-deprecating joke about his own place within art world. Yet given the situation in contemporary art today, his strategy of directly confronting the world of pop fashion regardless of what others might think of his work seems to have been prescient, for it has opened a new path for the appreciation of boundary-bridging art. In fact, Future, a painting that No2Good created in 2005, clearly shows the great originality of his creation of human figurines. In this painting, he successfully bridged the boundary between painting and figurine design and in 2007 he continued on to bridge the gaps among figurine design, fashion design, and brand management by the time he and Ashin founded the pop fashion label “STAYREAL.” In doing this, he took a great step in the direction of fulfilling the creative imperative of an artist dedicated to aesthetics of all aspects of daily life.
2009年不二良在“五月天”的《DNA创造EXPO》演唱会发表了“五月天摇滚大亨公仔”，今年不二良为《Enjoy Rody!! Taiwan Exhibition 》创作了“Rody改装创作公仔”，也在《台北国际玩具创作大展》发表他最新完成的“金刚小鼠和海绵小鼠公仔”。
No2Good released his Mayday Rock Bigshot figurine at Mayday’s “DNA Creation EXPO” concert in 2009, and this year he created the Transforming Creativity Rody figurine for the “Enjoy Rody!! Taiwan Exhibition.” He also released his latest work, the Diamond Mousy and Sponge Mousy figurine, at the “Taiwan International Toy Creation Expo.”
这次在《纯真年代》展出的，也是以他创造的‘小鼠’为主题。那些看似纯真、幽默、童趣，色彩炫丽、造型夸张的‘小鼠’图像，是不二良创作中极具代表性的角色，因为它似乎象征了不二良对童年记忆的一种原型。例如：“大大的耳朵是要乖乖听大人的话，却常常不听话被处罚受伤因而包上了绷带”，或“大大的眼睛是对世界充满了好奇，却在升学压力下啃了太多书而成了大近视”…..，透过‘小鼠’在作品中的重复出现，不二良想要传达一种机器印刷式的永恒凝固的笑容，并且在缤纷色彩的欢乐气氛中浮现一种疏离感，他认为这就是目前生活在这越来越相似的地球村里的感觉。好比世界各大都市里到处都有麦当劳快餐餐厅，人们可以在里面吃到标准化味道的汉堡、薯条，喝到全球一摸样的可乐，但是在享受这种熟悉味道的同时，又隐约感觉一种莫名的渺小与疏离。
The works that No2Good is showing as part of the “Stay Real Forever...” exhibition also center on “Mousy.” These seemingly pure, humorous, child-like images of “Mousy”, with their dazzling colors and exaggerated forms, are among No2Good’s most representative works, for they seem to constitute an archetype of No2Good’s memory of childhood. He tells us, for example, that the “enormous ears are for politely heeding adults’ words, but since he often didn’t listen, he was punished; having been injured, he has to wear a band-aid,” and “his enormous eyes are filled with curiosity about the world, but with so much pressure at school and after reading so many books he has become completely myopic…” In the repeated images of “Mousy” in his works, No2Good includes a smile eternally fixed in a way that seems almost mechanically reproduced, a frozen smile that suggests a sense of alienation despite the brightly colored, fun-filled surroundings. No2Good believes that this is a feeling common to all who live in the increasingly homogenized global village of the present. Like eating at McDonald’s, which allows people around the world to consume hamburgers, French fries, and Coca-Colas whose flavors have been completely standardized, one can enjoy these familiar flavors, yet simultaneously still feel an obscure, nameless sense of insignificance and alienation.
不二良创作的第一件2000mm大型公仔雕塑作品，也将于上海的《纯真年代》特展发表，他试图用新世代KUSO的幽默态度，以一种活在当下的现世实践：每一个人身上都重叠着多重角色，加上网络虚拟游戏的充斥，人们一天当中可以轻易地参与了多种的社群关系，并随心所欲地在虚拟世界改变自己的性别、年龄和外观等等，连国际时差也在这虚拟世界中被消除了，可以‘24小时无休’都有人活在这虚拟世界中链接、沟通、聊天、谈心。
The first large-scale “figurine” sculpture that No2Good created—a work 2000mm in height—will be presented at the “Stay Real Forever...” exhibition in Shanghai. He has tried to adopt the humorous “KUSO” (or parodic) attitude of the new generation, creating a real-world practice based on life in the present. His work is based on the notion that every person’s body is overlaid with multiple identities. This, coupled with the rise of virtual Internet games, allows a person to participate in a number of different forms of social relationships in the course of a single day. In the virtual world, a person can change his/her gender, age, and appearance however he/she likes; even global time differences disappear as people living in the virtual world connect, communicate, chat, and commune 24 hours a day.
不二良藉由‘小鼠’这个可爱的角色，来面对当今信息网络世界和现实社会混淆不清的矛盾与疯狂。观者可以选择直接拥抱‘可爱美学’或是思考从这些制式化美好形象的背后所隐藏的矛盾、复杂生活情节。一群大大小小的‘小鼠’公仔雕塑，有一种不带个人情感的规格化微笑，它们尽管面容看来非常相似，却在细节方面充满了变化。不二良透过‘小鼠’不断地角色扮演（COSPLAY）其它身份，除了传达‘小鼠’多变的造型特色以外，也提供观者解读多重角色重叠的乐趣，彷佛大家集体向全世界宣扬某种快乐无忧的宣言。
No2Good has adopted the cute character “Mousy” as a way of facing the contradictions and craziness of the data-driven world of the internet, as well as the chaos of real-world society. Confronted with his works, viewers can choose to embrace the “Aesthetics of Cuteness” directly, or they can reflect on the complex, contradictory phenomena hidden behind these alluring, systematized images. A crowd of “Mousy” figurine-sculptures of various sizes bear un-individualized, standardized smiles. Yet even though they appear extremely similar, they differ in their details. Using “Mousy,” No2Good has constantly been experimenting with, or “cosplaying,” various other identities. Besides simply playing with the malleable external appearance of “Mousy,” his works also provide viewers with the pleasure of reading through multiple layers of identities. It is as though everyone has a chance to make a collective, carefree proclamation to the whole world.
创作往往挟带着强大潮流文化势力的KEA，本名蔡孟达，毕业于台湾台北艺术大学造形研究所，原本是学写实雕塑出身的，也有着本业遇阻，另辟蹊径而成功跨界的故事。在2002年毕业展览时，KEA以新世代的街头文化形象为题，以实体雕塑的概念，发表了20件一系列台湾当时还不熟悉的公仔创作，获得青少年在网络论坛上热烈的讨论回响。随后也在美术馆展出自己创作设计的100个手工翻模限量扭蛋公仔系列，反应热烈不到一周便全数售罄。但在当时传统学院环境下，立体公仔创作是否等同于雕塑创作?这在学校教授眼中倍受质疑不被认同，因此为了试图走出传统雕塑的规范，追寻新型态的美学，他开始坚持让自己的创作加入更多潮流元素以及自己的生活态度，来挑战颠覆自我原本的创作形式。
Cai Mengda, known as KEA, whose work is always filled with great pop cultural power, graduated from the graduate program in plastic arts at the Taipei National University of the Arts. He initially studied realistic sculpture, but having run into some difficulties in his field at the university, he set off to forge his own path. In his 2002 graduation show, KEA focused on images of the street culture of the new generation. Using concepts from the field of three-dimensional sculpture, he presented a series of 20 figurines, something with which Taiwan was not yet familiar at that time. However, his works generated intense discussion on youth internet forums. Soon after that, he showed a series of 100 limited-edition, hand-crafted moveable figurines that he had designed at a museum. The response was extremely enthusiastic, and within a week, they were completely sold out. But within the environment of the traditional art academy, could figurines be seen as a type of sculpture? To his professors, this was a doubtful proposition. Thus, in an attempt to escape the bounds of the category of traditional sculpture and to seek his own new aesthetic paradigm, he began to insist on including even more pop cultural elements in his works, as well as elements related to his own attitudes toward life. In this way, he began to challenge and overturn his own initial creative style.
从国中就读美术班开始，蔡孟达除了雕塑以外，他也偏爱网版印刷的课程，为他日后的街头模版涂鸦埋下伏笔。2004年，是蔡孟达创作的转泪点，在此之前他已学习了将近12年的雕塑，有一天他突发奇想，以‘型纸版画’的制作技巧尝试‘模版涂鸦（Stencil Graffiti）’，在月黑风高的夜晚，以‘KEA’之名，在深夜大街上偷偷摸摸完成作品，往往一个晚上便‘占领’了许多街头巷弄。虽然过程是低调的，但轰炸街头的力道在还是夜间的台北大幅地施展开来。他那具有寓意、既讽刺又幽默的‘模版涂鸦’，很快在以街头文化为基础的潮流界传播开来，那些拥戴他的粉丝及媒体们，拱他成为台湾最著名的‘潮流艺术家’或‘街头涂鸦艺术大师’。
Besides his study of sculpture in the fine art class of middle school, Tsai Mengda also enjoyed taking classes in screen printing—something that planted a seed for his later “stencil graffiti” works on the street, and eventually led to a turning point in Tsai’s career in 2004. Before then, he had studied sculpture for nearly 12 years, but on a whim one day he decided to use the technique of “stencil paper printing” to try “stencil graffiti.” Late one night, he secretly completed a work under the street name “KEA”; periodically from then on, he would “occupy” a number of alleys at night. Although his process was simple, the strength of his manner of “bombarding” the streets at night with huge stencil-graffiti works spread his art throughout Taipei. His humorous, ironic, yet meaningful stencil-graffiti works were quickly popularized among those pop-culture aficionados interested in street culture. The fans and media-types that supported him soon transformed him into Taiwan’s most famous “pop artist” or its “Master of Street Graffiti Art.”
蔡孟达以‘KEA’做为他涂鸦艺术家身分的属名，其实是因为牠乃一种生长在纽西兰南岛，会啄羊的调皮高山鹦鹉，总是发出‘kee-aa’的尖锐叫声，因此当地人管它们叫作‘KEA’。它们以高智力和好奇心而闻名，能在严酷的环境下生存，这种聪明的鹦鹉，懂得巧妙地避开人类布设的机关来觅食。性格奇特的‘KEA’十分精明捣蛋，喜欢恶作剧，所以蔡孟达假借‘KEA’之名在街头到处出击，比拟他当时涂鸦作品中略带黑色喜剧诙谐的风格。其中所隐含的戏谑似乎呼应着他本身做为一个涂鸦创作者的自我认同－不是刻意闯祸捣乱，只是敏锐的心灵总忍不住要随机取乐。
Tsai Mengda took his street name “KEA” from the name of a kind of parrot that lives in the mountains of New Zealand. The bird pecks at sheep and constantly cries with a sharp “kee-aa” sound. For this reason, locals call the bird “Kea.” Famed for their intelligence and curiosity, these birds are able to live in very harsh environments. This intelligent parrot understands how to gather food while dexterously avoiding traps set by people. These strange “Kea” are extremely clever and are fond of mischief. With the similarities between this bird’s behavior and the black humor of his graffiti works in mind, Tsai Mengda chose to borrow the name “KEA” to launch his attack on the streets. Like this mischievous bird, when Tsai chose to reconceive himself as a graffiti artist, he did not intentionally seek to make trouble; rather, his acute, restless mind was simply not content to follow the status quo.
近年来，KEA更专注于纯艺术的创作，作品反映自身所处的新世代文化，以及网络信息全球化的现象下，不同国界的文化交织融合，形成了一种新的浓稠混合的青少年文化形象，一直不断处于变形杂交的进行式中。于是KEA运用时空错置和文化杂交手法，企图以古典结合叛逆且诡橘的作品形式，来展现属于新世代的戏谑批判精神。他的《永无岛》系列显示他的混种文化脉络。他编造了「永无岛」的故事：生活在岛上的全都是基因突变的生物，只有拥有赤子之心的人才能看得见它们。而那正是艺术家所生活的岛屿，杂交物种所隐喻的异想空间（或一片乱象）也正是年轻世代所感受到的不确定与自由。
In recent years, KEA has been more concerned with purely artistic creation. His works reflect the culture of the new generation of which he finds himself a part, as well as the interweaving of the various cultures of the world through the global information exchange enabled by the internet. This phenomenon has created a vocabulary of new, dense, heterogeneous cultural youth images, which are in a constant state of flux. Thus, KEA makes use of various methods of displacing space and time and of mixing cultures, and he attempts to use images taken from classical works that treat deceit and falsity in order to give expression to the spirit of jocular criticism that belongs to this new generation. His “Never Land” series shows his interest in mixing various cultural arteries. He has fabricated a story about “Never Land”: All things that live in Never Land have mutated genes, and only those people who possess a child’s heart can see them. It is this island where the artist himself lives. The alternate space (or the chaos) symbolized by these cross-bred species represents the uncertainty and the freedom felt by today’s youth.
《错乱置序》系列里，KEA探讨从混乱达成和谐共存的一种可能性，他将焦点转移到历史人物与当代语境的交会融合，例如：拿破仑以英勇风姿骑在乐园里的旋转木马上，披着Made in France的LV披肩；著名的蒙娜莉莎，掀起裙子来，露出洁白的臀部，上面有时下流行的刺青，仔细一看竟是KEA的名字，充满性暗示的姿态魅惑人心，彻底颠覆了古典淑女的神秘与矜持。这些具有某种游戏意味的图像创作，让KEA发展出了属于他自己独特「回眸一笑的消遣美学」
In his “CHAOSMOS” series, KEA explores the possibility of the simultaneous existence of “chaos” and “cosmos.” He shifted his focus to the possibility of bringing historical figures into the context of the present. For example, he pictured Napoleon riding a carousel horse in an amusement park with a heroic mien while carrying a Louis Vuitton bag made in France. He also imagined the world-famous Mona Lisa lifting her skirt to reveal lily-white buttocks, her torso bearing a hip tattoo that, on closer inspection, turns out to spell out the name KEA. Such an image is filled with insinuations about the perfidy of her beauty, completely overturning the sense of her mysterious reserve as a classical gentlewoman. These playful images allow KEA to develop a playful aesthetic paradigm in which every look brings a laugh.
而KEA在《猿惑》系列中将贝多芬、爱因斯坦、切格拉瓦、欧巴马和达利的等人脸孔猿猴化，将人类所谓的智者面容和人猿的面目混为一体，传达出错乱、迷惑却又带有黑色幽默感的揶喻意味。他挪用了1968年科幻老电影“浩劫余生”的概念，刻意的曲解、玩弄图像和创造笑点，使观者从迷惑错乱到重新理解的会心一笑，得以转化对名人图像既有的观看经验。
In his “Monkey Madness” series, he “monkey-ified” the faces of people like Beethoven, Einstein, Che Guevara, Obama, and Dali, fusing the countenances of some of humankind’s greatest “wise men” with those of monkies and thereby suggesting a metaphorical meaning that carries a sense of confusion, bemusement, and black humor. He appropriated ideas from the 1968 science fiction film Planet of the Apes, intentionally distorting and playing with images to create moments of laughter. Transforming our usual visual experience of the images of famous people, he leads viewers from a state of puzzling confusion to moments of shared laughter based on renewed comprehension.
《淬炼的强悍》系列的源头，是KEA与国际著名运动品牌NIKE的合作，是KEA作品中能见度最高，但讽刺性也最强的一组作品。在这系列中，可以看出KEA对当代潮流文化有着敏锐的洞察，抱着既与之同乐又不掉以轻心的态度。其实，除了NIKE以外，KEA也曾经与ADDIDAS、ASICS、ROYAL等其它运动品牌合作过。他认为这些品牌之间的竞争是非常激烈的，就像史前时代的巨兽相互攻击一般弱肉强食。而球鞋文化一直是街头与潮流文化中很重要的一环，透过品牌的华丽包装，青少年纷纷趋之若鹜，彷佛拥抱着一双潮鞋入睡，就拥有了一切。因此KEA将球鞋融入三角龙、暴龙、长毛象等猛兽的造型，藉以讽刺当代的商场攻防，仍与蛮荒时代相去不远。
The origin of his “Hardened Courage” series is to be found in his collaboration with the internationally famed sports brand Nike. This is the most publicly visible of any of KEA’s works, and is also among his most satirical works. In this series, one can see that KEA has a highly acute understanding of contemporary pop culture, both enjoying it while also remaining critical of it. In fact, besides Nike, KEA has also collaborated with other sports brands like Adidas, Asics, and Royal. He likens the intense competition among these brands to that among prehistoric beasts as they fought with each other, upholding the law of the jungle. Sneaker culture has always been an important realm of street and pop culture. Youths often scramble after popular sneakers, acting as if possession of that beloved pair of shoes would make them forever content. With this in mind, KEA has melded images of sneakers with visions of fierce beasts such as a triceratops, tyrannosaurus, and a mammoth. He uses these images to satirize contemporary market competition, suggesting that we really are not much different from beasts.
已经是台湾潮流艺术代言人的KEA，坦言自己非常欣赏村上隆‘艺术拥抱商业’的做法，他认为，如果艺术能够藉商业更贴近群众、更清楚地传达艺术家的观念，那么就更有效达成艺术沟通的目的。去年KEA受邀为台北市政府做了高达十层楼的元宵灯节的雷射艺术主灯设计，他也与日本 ASICS 经典知名球鞋品牌‘60周年的人气艺术家的企划’合作。这几年来KEA先后与NIKE、LEVI'S、MOTOROLA、LG、MILDSEVEN等国际名牌合作过，如今也和“STAYREAL”合作他的个人潮流服饰款线，同时投入他的公仔设计、潮流视觉设计、品牌形象规划等工作，跨足数种不同领域，自在游走于纯艺术和商业艺术之间，展现出跨界艺术的强大魅力，辟开了一条崭新的创作路线。
KEA, who already is a spokesman for Taiwanese pop art, candidly says that he greatly admires Murakami Takashi’s notion that “art should embrace commerce”. He thinks that if artists can use commerce to become closer to the public and to express their own ideas more clearly, then one is thus more effectively realizing art’s ultimate goal of communication. Last year, KEA received an invitation from the Taipei Municipal Government to design a ten-story, lightning-spewing light display for the Festival of Lanterns. He also collaborated with the Japanese athletic shoe company Asics on a project to commemorate the 60th anniversary of their company. These past few years, KEA has worked with international brands like Nike, Levi’s, Motorola, LG, Mild Seven, and now he is also collaborating with STAYREAL to create his own line of pop clothing. At the same time, he is still devoted to his figurine designs, visual designs, and brand planning. Stepping between various fields, freely floating between pure art and commercial art, he bears witness to the powerful elegance of boundary-bridging art as he opens his own, fresh creative path.
台湾摇滚乐团‘五月天’的主唱阿信，本名陈信宏，他在流行音乐领域是如日中天的巨星，但是鲜有人知他也是一位视觉艺术家。从小，阿信就喜欢文字创作、音乐、绘画与摄影，所以他和不二良都曾就读于以培养艺术小天才而著名的台北师大附中美术班。他们自1992年相识以来，两人从来都不曾放弃他们对艺术的热爱与追求。然而阿信在音乐方面也的天份使他很快地脱颖而出，他在师大附中找到志同道合的朋友，1995年阿信组了‘So Band’乐团，是‘五月天’的前身，他开始词曲创作。1997年乐团改名为‘五月天’和滚石签约，1999年正式发片，‘五月天’乐团正式成军，除了鼓手冠佑以外，其余四人-主唱阿信、吉他手怪兽和石头、贝司手马莎都来自于师大附中。而‘五月天’原本是贝司手马莎在网络论坛上的代号‘Mayday’，直接被翻译成中文的‘五月天’，而用作乐团的名称。
Chen Xinhong, better known as Ashin, the lead singer of the Taiwanese rock group “Mayday,” is like the sun to the world of pop music, but few people know that he is also a visual artist. Since childhood, Ashin has enjoyed writing, music, painting, and photography. Like No2Good, he also attended the famed fine arts program of the Affiliated Senior High School of Taiwan Normal University, which is dedicated to fostering young artistic talents. Since they first met in 1992, they have never abandoned their love and pursuit of art. Ashin’s innate talent in music allowed him to find musical success quickly. At the Affiliated High School he found several friends with similar ambitions, and in 1995, they formed the “So Band”, predecessor to “Mayday,” for which he wrote lyrics. In 1997 the band changed its name to “Mayday,” and they signed a contract with Rock Records, and two years later they released their first official album. Other than Guan You, their drummer, the other four members of “Mayday” all attended the Affiliated High School: Ashin, their lead singer; Monster and Stone, their guitarists, and Masa, their bassist. The band’s name was originally a moniker that bassist Masa used on internet forums. They directly translated the name into Chinese as “Wu Yue Tian,” which they began to use as their band’s name.
阿信，以‘五月天’乐团主唱的身分活跃于华人音乐界，迄今出版过七张录音室专辑、一张精选辑和数张演唱会专辑，总销售量达五百万张，成绩斐然。阿信和‘五月天’乐团曾举办超过数百场巡回演唱会，足迹踏遍亚洲、美洲、澳洲各地，吸引百万人次以上的现场观众，并曾在中国内陆、港台星马…等地区，夺下最佳编曲、词曲、乐团及最佳专辑等众多大奖。
Ashin is known throughout the Chinese music world as the lead singer of Mayday. Up to now, they have released seven studio albums, a collection of greatest hits, and several live recordings. In total, they have sold more than five million recordings, a striking achievement. Ashin and Mayday have played several hundred concerts across Asia, America, and Australia, attracting more than one million concert-goers; and have been nominated in mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong for a number of awards including best sound editing, best lyrics, best group, and best album.
能唱能演的阿信，同时也是著名词曲创作者，他除了为自己的乐团作词谱曲外，还受邀为王力宏、梁静茹等诸多圈内著名歌手打造畅销歌曲。他创作的歌曲呈现多元化的风格，有一些来自于他看过的电影或是小说所产生的灵感，也有的是他从生活经验里直接取材。他最为人所熟悉的歌曲有：“离开地球表面”、“香水”、“夜访吸血鬼”、“孙悟空”、“轻功”、“赌神”、“DNA”、“雌雄同体”等等，除了国语流行歌曲之外，阿信也创作了不少闽南语歌曲，例如：“志明与春娇”、“出头天”等等。
A talented singer and performer, Ashin is also a well-known lyricist. Besides writing for his own band, he has also written hit songs for pop stars like Alexander Wang (Wang Lihong) and Fish Leong (Liang Jing Ru). His songs are written in various styles. Some are derived from movies he has watched or from inspirations taken from novels, while others are directly based on his own life experiences. His best-known songs include: “Leaving the Surface of the Earth,” “Perfume,” “Searching for Vampires at Night,” “Monkey King,” “Floating Kung Fu,” “Gambler’s Spirit,” “DNA,” and “Hermaphrodite.” Besides his popular songs in Mandarin, Ashin has also written a number of works in the Minnan dialect—for example, “Zhiming and Chunjiao” and “Stand Out.”
多才多艺的阿信，他创作的文字总是贴近人心，简单明了却又充满寓意，他不喜欢表面虚华的用字遣词，它的文字内容大多围绕爱情、友谊，对生命或世界的看法、自己的梦想等等，平易近人而且激励人心，配上优美的旋律，使得‘五月天’的歌很容易成为家喻户晓传唱的歌曲，例如：“人生海海”、“恋爱ing”、“温柔”、“知足”、“天使”、“突然好想你”、“你不是真正的快乐”、“如烟”、“我心中尚未崩坏的地方”等等，在年轻的歌迷心中，他是健康、励志的表帅。
The words of multi-talented Ashin always touch people’s hearts; they are simple and clear, yet filled with meaning. He does not like to use flashy words unthinkingly. His lyrics typically center on love, friendship, his views of life or the world, and his own dreams—topics that are easily accessible and that have the potential to inspire. This accessibility, coupled with the band’s graceful rhythms, has allowed Mayday’s songs to become known across the world. Their songs “The Ocean of Life,” “Loving,” “Warmth,” “Content,” “Angel,” Suddenly Missing You,” “You Are Not True Happiness,” “Like Smoke,” and “The Part of My Heart That Is Not Yet Broken” have become especially popular. In the hearts of young music lovers, Ashin is a healthy, inspiring role model.
阿信的多媒体艺术创作源起于大学时代空间设计系的学习环境，那正是陆蓉之任教的台北实践大学，可以想象他曾接受严格的基本功锻炼，有些教授采取多元化的教学路线，特别是要求学生不断在媒材上寻求突破，都为他奠定良好的创作基础。阿信曾经出版多本文字、影像书籍，拥有自己独到的美学观点，近期热衷于新媒体的艺术创作，投身于巡回演唱的同时，掌握穿梭世界的空档，制作新的影像装置作品，尝试应用各种媒材在空间中表现新意。近年来大型演唱会舞台俨如一场新媒体装置艺术的演出，已经蔚为风气，提供空间设计出身的阿信大展身手的另一个舞台。他不但可以为自己的演出创作舞台效果，这次参与《纯真年代》在上海当代艺术馆的展出，是阿信首度以‘音乐/视觉跨界创作者’的身分，正式发表了个人的多媒体创作，以结合光学科技与空间形塑的手法，将舞台上气势磅礴的多媒体视觉效果，转化为近距离可以感应与互动的虚拟实境，在艺术的场域里摇滚。
Ashin’s multi-media artworks find their origin in the academic environment of the spatial design department of the college that Ashin attended—the same Taipei Shih-chien University at which Victoria Lu teaches. For this reason, one can imagine that he received rigorous basic training. Professors take diverse approaches to teaching, some demanding, in particular, that their students continually make breakthroughs with the experimentations on materials. All of this has helped him establish a solid creative foundation. Ashin has published a number of books of both texts and photos based on his own original aesthetic viewpoints. Recently, he has been excited about “new media” works, yet he has also been devoting himself to his concert tours. Taking advantage of his opportunities to shuttle throughout the world, he has been creating new video installations and has been experimenting with various media in three-dimensional space to express new ideas. In recent years, the stages for his large concerts have become like new media installations, providing Ashin, himself a trained spatial designer, another stage on which to demonstrate his talents. But he not only creates stage effects for his own performances. “Stay Real Forever...” at MoCA Shanghai will be Ashin’s first opportunity to publicly reveal his identity as an artist who bridges the musical and visual arts and to formally present his own multi-media creations in an art-world space. He will combine visual effects with spatial and sculptural art and will transform the great and momentous multimedia performances on the stages into an intimate virtual space that can interact with viewers. In other words, he will “rock” in an art space.
阿信的新媒体作品，和他的词曲一样，有一种干净利落直指人心的震撼力，它不用过度的装饰或累赘的语言，就能建构出一种令人向往的想象空间。他的影像装置，受到他的音乐背景和空间设计概念的影响，视觉加上了节奏，影像和三度空间结合，创出他独有的时空交错的彩光元素，不论声、光或动态的形象，都是一气呵成的壮阔气势与瞬间万变。从事新媒体的创作，能够给予阿信更大的创作满足，他能够结合绘画、摄影、作曲、空间设计、视觉设计等各方面的才华，一次性引爆在同一件作品里，全然发挥了他的创意。而从乐团的表演艺术角度而言，阿信有最佳的条件去整合各领域当中的顶尖人才，以团队的实力，打造出个人艺术家难以项背的大型制作。
Ashin’s new media works are like his lyrics in that they have a very direct way of touching people’s hearts. Without making use of excessive decoration or verbiage, they are able to construct an imaginative space that stimulates yearning. His video installations have been influenced by his musical background and his spatial design; they are visual, but with a rhythm. Combining video with three-dimensional space, he creates his own original colorful mixtures of time and space. His sounds, lights, and moving images all are powerful and constantly changing. Working with new media gives Ashin even greater creative satisfaction. He is able to bring together his talents in painting, photography, writing, spatial design, and visual design into a series of artworks that completely showcase his intentions. And from an artist’s perspective, Ashin has the perfect opportunity to bring together the greatest talents from various fields and to use their collective strength to create large-scale works that an individual artist would have difficulty completing.
自从阿信和不二良合作‘STAYREAL’时尚品牌设计以来，他经常发表服饰方面的设计，如今从歌唱演艺事业跨足新媒体艺术，再一次华丽的转身，以新媒体艺术家的身份在上海世博会期间，发表他个人的视觉艺术创作，展出他最擅长玩转的虚实空间和影像互动的装置。重情义的阿信，他和不二良之间的‘发小’情谊，长久以来维持一种多层次的合作关系，这次的联展，再一次展现他们的合作无间的默契。对他们的艺术生涯而言，《纯真年代》只是刚刚起步而已，在未来，链接资源、整合人脉的团队创作，越界形成创意产业链，也都还在起步的阶段，不二良、KEA与五月天阿信，无疑地都是这股趋势的领军人物。
Ever since Ashin collaborated with No2Good on the design for the fashion label STAYREAL, he has done increasingly more work on clothing designs. Today, having stepped from musical performance into new media, he has again brilliantly transformed himself, using his identity as a new media artist to release his own visual art creations during the Shanghai World Expo and to exhibit his wonderfully playful installations involving virtual spaces and interactive video. The friendship between Ashin and No2Good since youth has for a long time been a multi-layered collaborative relationship. This special exhibition once again shows the closeness of their collaboration. In terms of their careers as artists, “Stay Real Forever...” is simply a first step. Team-based artistic production that brings together people and resources to bridge boundaries among media is something still in its infancy; but in the future, No2Good, KEA, and Ashin will undoubtedly become leaders in this field.
陆蓉之在讨论‘动漫美学（Animamix)’的特色时，曾指出动漫美学的艺术指的不是动画或漫画的本身，动漫美学的艺术是一种面对新世纪审美态度的全面化概念。这些由动漫产业带动的日益壮大的大众流行文化其实是建构在生活的游嬉与享乐之中。或许更应该说在丰富的感官享受的消费文化里，孕育出各种生活美学的品味，精淬然后升华。这种由人类文明史上前所未见的庞大消费人口所共同孕育的全球化“追新”、“追星”的行为，正是新世代浸淫在流行文化生活里，所发展出来的大众美学，动漫美学是其中最具代表性的一块田地，透过互联网和其它传播媒介迅速泛滥全球。而这些巨量经过变造、简化的大量视觉图像语言和中国文字源自于图像符号的认知系统可谓是异曲同工。
When discussing the characteristics of Animamix art in recent years, Victoria Lu has pointed out that Animamix does not refer to animation or comics in and of themselves. Rather, Animamix refers to a total conception of the aesthetic tendencies of this new millennium. The forms of mass pop culture that derive from the animation and comics industries are growing every day; fundamentally, they are rooted in the simple enjoyment of life. Or perhaps one should say that in this consumer society chalked full of immense sensory pleasures, a number of different aesthetic paradigms for life have been born and refined. The global “pursuit of the new” and “pursuit of the stars” collectively fostered by this consumer population is greater than any other in the course of human history, and constitutes part of a mass aesthetic born of this new generation that is immersed in pop culture. Animamix is among the most representative forms of this aesthetic. Through the internet and other communication media, this aesthetic is quickly inundating the world. The language of transformed and simplified visual symbols employed by the practitioners of this aesthetic is perhaps different in origin but similar in spirit to Chinese characters, which derive from a system of commonly recognized image-signs.
不二良、KEA与五月天阿信都是陆蓉之认为最具代表性的动漫美学艺术家，也都是她研究的对象。这个世纪的动漫美学艺术家，有别于传统的艺术创作的创作者，他们的艺术作品的完成，往往需要团队整合以及专业分工的多重交迭的合作，因而必需动员庞大的人力、物力与财力，不像是传统的艺术创作者，可以在一个封闭的工作室里独立完成。因此，跨领域的产业整合，是动漫美学艺术家的特殊现象，一如美国、日本的动漫画产业所发展出的丰富衍生产品，涵盖到民生用品、衣食住行，几乎无所不包。所以，新一代艺术家的产值，不仅在于他们所创的艺术品本身而已，而是一个时代文化力量相加的总体环境，为他们提供了各式各样的机会，可以创意总监的身份，走出纯艺术、高艺术的象牙塔，进行跨领域的资源整合，创出庞大的商业产值。艺术的创作与行销，将是全球性的创意产业中的极为重要一环，这类艺术创作和大众流行文化之间也不再存在高、低的位阶之分。所以，阿信，是流行文化的巨星，也可以是21世纪新艺术领域里一颗闪亮的明星。
No2Good, KEA, and Ashin are artists whom Victoria Lu considers to be among the most representative followers of the Animamix aesthetic. They are all objects of her research. The Animamix artists of this century are different from traditional artists in that the completion of their works often requires the participation of a number of team members and collaboration with various specialists. Thus, these young artists must mobilize a great bit of manpower, materials, and finances, unlike traditional artists who could complete their works alone in a closed studio. This collaborative, cross-over production process is unique to Animamix artists. Their work bears a close affinity to the rich variety of products created by the American and Japanese animation and comics industries, which have expanded to include products related to all aspects of daily life. Thus, the value of this new generation of artists rests not merely in the artworks that they create; rather it derives from the complete environment of the cultural forces of their times, an environment which provides various opportunities to them, which allows them to create their own identities, and which allows them to exit the ivory tower of pure or “high” art and to enter cross-over collaborations that create vast commercial value. The creation and marketing of art will be an extremely important aspect of global creative industries in the future. There can no longer be any division between “high” and “low” between such artistic creations and mass popular culture. Ashin is now a pop cultural star, and also may soon become a star within the realm of the new art of the 21st century.
不二良、KEA与五月天阿信的《纯真年代》特展，由陆蓉之、郑如芳、黄潆洁共同策划，是上海当代艺术馆迎世博的一项“青春”献礼，反映21世纪年轻世代的美学观点，和他们对当下生存状态的省思。他们在幽默中显现诙谐的睿智是网络新世代的最爱，不二良、KEA与五月天阿信的「纯真年代」，以三种截然不同的创作风格演译了这种特质。同时，他们越界创价的创作方向，也预示了新世纪新艺术发展的一种必然。他们三位所编织的当代神话，一旦变成了现实，那么，神话也就不再是神话了。
“Stay Real Forever...” features No2Good, KEA, and Ashin, and was curated by Victoria Lu, Sandrine Cheng and Justine Huang. It is a “youthful” offering from MOCA Shanghai to welcome the World Expo. It reflects the aesthetic viewpoints of the youth of the 21st century, as well as their reflections on the contemporary issues. The wisdom that they show amid their humor is something beloved of the internet generation. “Stay Real Forever…” gives us a vision of this humorous wisdom in three completely different guises. At the same time, the shared tendency of these three artists toward creating boundary-bridging works foretells a necessary development in the art of the new century. As soon as the contemporary myths that these three artists are weaving become reality, these myths will no longer be mere myths.
永恒的‘纯真年代’，也不会只是记忆或幻想。
Staying real forever will no longer be simply memory or fantasy.
