Melting Suns on the Screen
光天化日
Aug 31 - Sep 28, 2024
De Sarthe, Hong Kong
DE SARTHE is pleased to present Melting Suns on the Screen, a solo exhibition by Hong Kong-based artist Liao Jiaming, concluding the gallery’s eighth annual de Sarthe Artist Residency (deSAR). Featuring a new body of installation, video, and mixed media artworks, the exhibition imagines an abandoned site of worship, in which relics of a fictional religion are preserved and now discovered. The exhibition’s mystic narrative is founded on the notion that personal desires are the root of all belief systems. Mediating between the spiritual and secular in contemplation of contemporary desires, the artworks manifest as sacralized artefacts of the technological era. Melting Suns on the Screen opens August 31st and runs through September 28th.
Since the dawn of civilization, humanity has given birth to innumerable faiths in search of ultimate fulfillment. For millennia, we looked to the gods hoping that our wishes would be granted, and we have made beautiful objects in our desire-driven devotion. In the age of instant gratification, Liao Jiaming examines the constructs of faith through similar paradigms in contemporary technology. As he invents his own technocentric religion, the artist reenacts the role of both the creator and the follower.
During his residency in the same space, the artist’s interactive installation The Arcana Intelligent (2023) posed as a figure of divination. Utilizing a combination of different AI algorithms, the installation translated comer queries into personalized tarot cards, successively building an archive of anonymous prayers and anxieties. As the exhibition opens, the fictitious deity is no longer present – what was once its temple is now a sanctum of its remnants. The iconography it created manifests as various objects in the space.
With reference to the interior of gothic churches, a selection of images generated by The Arcana Intelligent were developed into varied stained-glass installations placed around the gallery. The most monumental of which is a triptych titled (Modern) Revelations(2024). Depicting fragmented roses and racecars amidst glorious greenery, the tarot card from which the artwork found its composition was generated based on the question: “How do I be young and rich forever?” Subtly aglow, the form of the artwork in juxtaposition with its prompt alludes to the growing egocentrism fostered by modern beliefs. In a similar way that stained glass had memorialized saints, social technology has provided the means for self-glorification and immortalization. Ultimately, it is also the collective products of this process that inform the wisdom of Liao’s contemporary deity.
A quiet cacophony of voices emerges from behind the glass partition. Comprising an array of 3D hologram fans and a layered multi-channel soundtrack, Vanity of Vanities (2024) is the artist’s visual and audio rearrangement of data collected from The Arcana Intelligent. Built on the skeletal structure vestigial to the now dismantled AI installation, the arrangement of its components recalls the anatomy of a PC. On the floating displays, a series of seemingly arbitrary images play one after the other – collected during the residency, these are discarded photos that visitors had to offer in exchange for Liao’s AI guidance. As unintelligible voices permeate the surrounding space, the installation becomes reminiscent of both a shrine and a database, wherein past prayers are perpetuated.、
As seen from historical reliquaries, the innate human attraction toward shiny objects has largely defined what we consider precious materials. Broken Memory is a body of mixed-media artworks that reconsiders technological hardware under this context. Using motherboards from different computers along with found materials such as natural shell, silicon chips, and glass, the artist imagines the artworks to be artefacts, fragmented and displaced over time. Just as the motherboard was removed from a larger entity, each artwork comprises a fictional tarot card that has been isolated from the deck. In the background, a faded collage made from newspaper articles about AI appears as if scattered or shuffled scriptures.
A mural of entangled bodies printed atop a quilt-like collage of the artist’s used clothes, Liao’s Open Yourselves (Ourselves) (2024) draws a connection between the representation of beauty in religious iconography and that in social technology. Developed from the artist’s ongoing investigation of technology’s impact on queer culture, the artwork begins with Liao’s vast collection of found imagery from gay dating apps – specifically, headless mirror selfies boasting perfectly sculpted torsos. Despite their dehumanizing anonymity, these images have become almost an archetype of desirability on gay dating platforms. Contemplating the emphasis, even fetishization, of bodily perfection within this culture, the artist feeds these images into AI, subsequently generating a grotesque yet lavish profusion of flesh, visually evocative of a Renaissance fresco. Yet, as the resultant image is manually transferred onto the artist’s old shirts, the original composition appears only in exhausted tatters. Yellowed, stained, and sewn together to mimic the image, the clothes recall the intimacy that is coveted yet lost in the collective desire to be worshipped.
At the end of a long red carpet, The Creator 2.0 (2024) awaits. As if an altar built in commemoration of The Arcana Intelligent, the interactive installation is composed of a headless, solitary figure stood atop a luminous card vending machine. Upon inserting a token, visitors will receive a card at random, each with an image that is AI-generated from the same set of found photographs used in Open Yourselves (Ourselves). Printed on holographic cardstock in reference to celebrity trading cards, the distorted representations of the male body not only allude to the glorification of certain body builds but are also reflective of the dysmorphia caused by canonical definitions of beauty. Imposing a physical ritual on its participants, the novelty of the installation materializes the aspects of objectification and gratification that are normalized in online dating culture.
There is an important notion that underpins the exhibition – that in reality, divinity is but a subconscious projection of the self. It is under this framework that the deification of technology can be justified. As such, the artist has also lent the form of his own body to several artworks, including The Creator 2.0 as well as The Arcana Intelligent. The final artwork in the exhibition is a video titled Kept Between Us (2024), in which the artist engages in self-reflection as The Arcana Intelligent. Within the video, the familiar entity enters into a philosophical soliloquy in contemplation of human nature. Interspersed with footage that Liao recorded from his everyday life, the video breaks the fourth wall and serves as an epilogue to the narrative
德薩畫廊欣然呈獻香港藝術家廖家明個展「光天化日」（Melting Suns on the Screen），為畫廊第八屆年度德薩藝術家駐留項目（deSAR）畫上完滿句號。展覽展出一系列全新的裝置、錄影及混合媒介作品，設想一個被遺棄的敬拜場所，其中，虛構的宗教遺物被得以保存並揭露見光。展覽的神秘敘述建基於個人慾望乃一切信仰系統之根源的概念上。作品顯化為科技時代下被神化的聖物，斡旋於靈性與理性推論之間以反思當代慾望。「光天化日」將於 8 月 31 日開幕，展期至 9 月 28 日。
自人類文明肇始以來，人類為尋求終極的滿足，孕育出無數的宗教信仰。千百年來我們仰望神明，冀望夢想成真，同時亦在慾望驅動下製造出美麗的事物。在這個有求即應的時代，廖家明透過當代科技以相類似的範式來檢視信仰架構。藝術家發明了一個屬於他並以科技為中心的信仰體系時，並同時扮演起創造者與追隨者的角色。
駐留期間，藝術家於同一空間內設置的互動裝置，《萬試萬靈》（2023）扮演了占卦命理的角色。裝置結合了各種人工智能演算法，將來訪者的詢問轉換成個人化的塔羅牌，陸續建立起一個藴藏著匿名祈求與急切焦慮的檔案。展覽開幕時，虛構的神祇已不復存在—— 曾經的神壇，已變成遺跡的聖所。它創造的圖像，則化身成各種作品散佈於空間中。
一系列從《萬試萬靈》生成數據中精選的圖像，以哥德式教堂的內部裝潢為藍本，製成不同的鑲嵌玻璃裝置，佇立於畫廊四周。其中最龐大的是一幅名為《（現代）啟示》（2024）的三聯屏風。作品描繪了被盎然綠意環繞的零碎玫瑰和賽車，其構圖取自一張由此問題生成的塔羅牌：「怎樣才能永遠年輕和富有？」。作品微微透光，其展現的型態與意有所指的訊息雙雙並置，影射著現代信仰所滋長的自我中心主義。鑲嵌玻璃作為紀念聖人的方式，同樣地，社會科技亦提供了自我陶醉並神化為不朽存有的途徑。終究，還是這個自我神化的過程形成之產物，集體塑造了廖創造的當代神靈之智慧。
一陣陣微弱的喧鬧聲從玻璃屏風後方傳出。《虛空的虛空》（2024） 由一組三維全息投影風扇和多聲道原聲帶組成，是藝術家對《萬試萬靈》收集到的數據進行視聽上的重新編排。被拆解的人工智能裝置骨幹殘骸作為結構基礎，其中的元件組裝方式，讓人聯想起一部被解剖的電腦結構。懸浮的顯示器上，接續播放著一連串看似隨機的影像——來訪者於駐留期間奉上他們已刪除的相片，以換取廖的人工智能指導。當喃喃細語的莫名聲音滲透在周圍的空間裡，這個裝置讓人同時聯想起神社及數據庫，在此，昔日的禱告得以永續長存。
回顧歷史便有跡可尋，閃亮物對人類有與生俱來的吸引力，並在很大程度上定義了我們如何界定材料的珍貴性。《壞記憶》是於此語境下重新反思電子硬件的混合媒介作品。藝術家使用了來自不同電腦的主機板，以及天然貝殼、矽晶片和玻璃等現成物料，設想這些人造遺物因經年累月而變得支離破碎的模樣。如同主機板被移除自原來的整體般，每件作品皆包含一張從牌組中分離出來的虛擬塔羅牌。背景那褪色的拼貼畫面，則是由關於人工智能的報章拼貼而成，猶如被洗刷後的經文隨處散落。
廖的《敞開自我》（2024）是一幅展現身體互相糾纏的壁畫，印在以百家布形式縫接的藝術家自有舊衣服上，把來自宗教聖像畫與當今社會科技中象徵的美聯繫起來。作為藝術家持續探究科技對同志文化的影響之延伸，作品始於廖在同志約會社交平台上收集的大量圖像，尤其是那些無頭的對鏡自拍照，吹噓著完美的雕塑型軀幹。儘管這些圖像皆匿名且抹去了個人特徵，但卻幾乎成為同志社交平台上的理想典型。藝術家反思同志文化對完美身形之偏重，乃至迷戀，他向人工智能輸入這些影像，從而生成奢華卻怪異可怖的大量肉體，視覺上讓人聯想起文藝復興時期的壁畫。然而，當圖像被人手移印至藝術家的舊襯衫時，原本的構圖顯得殘破不堪。以變黃、染色的縫製衣物摹仿圖像，叫人喚起那追求親密關係的過程中，轉變成備受推崇的集體慾望，令人垂涎卻又迷失其中。
另一邊廂，《創世者2.0》（2024）正於長長的紅毯盡頭佇候著。儼如《萬試萬靈》的紀念祭壇般，這個互動裝置由一個無頭、孤立的人形站在一台熠熠發光的卡片販賣機上所組成。觀者往販賣機投入代幣後，將收到一張隨機發放的卡片，整組卡片的圖像是《敞開自我》中使用的同款現成照片，並交由人工智能產出。這些扭曲的男性身體圖像，彷照名人閃卡的樣式打印在幻彩鐳射卡紙上，不僅暗指對特定身材的過份推崇，更反映了因美的範型定義而造成的畸形。裝置對觀者施加了實際的行動儀式，此新奇體驗具象化了線上約會文化中，經已習以為常有關物化與自我滿足的面向。
一個關鍵的概念貫徹始終地支撐着是次展覽——現實生活中的神性，不過是來自潛意識的自我投射。正是於此框架下，科技的神化才有其合理性。亦因如此，藝術家將自己的身體形式借用到多件作品中，包括《創世者2.0》及《萬試萬靈》。展覽以一段名為《為你好》（2024）的錄像作品作結，當中，藝術家使用了《萬試萬靈》中持有的身份進行自省。這個似曾相識的實體，於錄像中開展了一段對於人性的哲學獨白，期間穿插着由廖所錄製以及人工智能生成的日常生活片段，藉此打破第四道牆，為整個敘事落下帷幕。
Since the dawn of civilization, humanity has given birth to innumerable faiths in search of ultimate fulfillment. For millennia, we looked to the gods hoping that our wishes would be granted, and we have made beautiful objects in our desire-driven devotion. In the age of instant gratification, Liao Jiaming examines the constructs of faith through similar paradigms in contemporary technology. As he invents his own technocentric religion, the artist reenacts the role of both the creator and the follower.
During his residency in the same space, the artist’s interactive installation The Arcana Intelligent (2023) posed as a figure of divination. Utilizing a combination of different AI algorithms, the installation translated comer queries into personalized tarot cards, successively building an archive of anonymous prayers and anxieties. As the exhibition opens, the fictitious deity is no longer present – what was once its temple is now a sanctum of its remnants. The iconography it created manifests as various objects in the space.
With reference to the interior of gothic churches, a selection of images generated by The Arcana Intelligent were developed into varied stained-glass installations placed around the gallery. The most monumental of which is a triptych titled (Modern) Revelations(2024). Depicting fragmented roses and racecars amidst glorious greenery, the tarot card from which the artwork found its composition was generated based on the question: “How do I be young and rich forever?” Subtly aglow, the form of the artwork in juxtaposition with its prompt alludes to the growing egocentrism fostered by modern beliefs. In a similar way that stained glass had memorialized saints, social technology has provided the means for self-glorification and immortalization. Ultimately, it is also the collective products of this process that inform the wisdom of Liao’s contemporary deity.
A quiet cacophony of voices emerges from behind the glass partition. Comprising an array of 3D hologram fans and a layered multi-channel soundtrack, Vanity of Vanities (2024) is the artist’s visual and audio rearrangement of data collected from The Arcana Intelligent. Built on the skeletal structure vestigial to the now dismantled AI installation, the arrangement of its components recalls the anatomy of a PC. On the floating displays, a series of seemingly arbitrary images play one after the other – collected during the residency, these are discarded photos that visitors had to offer in exchange for Liao’s AI guidance. As unintelligible voices permeate the surrounding space, the installation becomes reminiscent of both a shrine and a database, wherein past prayers are perpetuated.、
As seen from historical reliquaries, the innate human attraction toward shiny objects has largely defined what we consider precious materials. Broken Memory is a body of mixed-media artworks that reconsiders technological hardware under this context. Using motherboards from different computers along with found materials such as natural shell, silicon chips, and glass, the artist imagines the artworks to be artefacts, fragmented and displaced over time. Just as the motherboard was removed from a larger entity, each artwork comprises a fictional tarot card that has been isolated from the deck. In the background, a faded collage made from newspaper articles about AI appears as if scattered or shuffled scriptures.
A mural of entangled bodies printed atop a quilt-like collage of the artist’s used clothes, Liao’s Open Yourselves (Ourselves) (2024) draws a connection between the representation of beauty in religious iconography and that in social technology. Developed from the artist’s ongoing investigation of technology’s impact on queer culture, the artwork begins with Liao’s vast collection of found imagery from gay dating apps – specifically, headless mirror selfies boasting perfectly sculpted torsos. Despite their dehumanizing anonymity, these images have become almost an archetype of desirability on gay dating platforms. Contemplating the emphasis, even fetishization, of bodily perfection within this culture, the artist feeds these images into AI, subsequently generating a grotesque yet lavish profusion of flesh, visually evocative of a Renaissance fresco. Yet, as the resultant image is manually transferred onto the artist’s old shirts, the original composition appears only in exhausted tatters. Yellowed, stained, and sewn together to mimic the image, the clothes recall the intimacy that is coveted yet lost in the collective desire to be worshipped.
At the end of a long red carpet, The Creator 2.0 (2024) awaits. As if an altar built in commemoration of The Arcana Intelligent, the interactive installation is composed of a headless, solitary figure stood atop a luminous card vending machine. Upon inserting a token, visitors will receive a card at random, each with an image that is AI-generated from the same set of found photographs used in Open Yourselves (Ourselves). Printed on holographic cardstock in reference to celebrity trading cards, the distorted representations of the male body not only allude to the glorification of certain body builds but are also reflective of the dysmorphia caused by canonical definitions of beauty. Imposing a physical ritual on its participants, the novelty of the installation materializes the aspects of objectification and gratification that are normalized in online dating culture.
There is an important notion that underpins the exhibition – that in reality, divinity is but a subconscious projection of the self. It is under this framework that the deification of technology can be justified. As such, the artist has also lent the form of his own body to several artworks, including The Creator 2.0 as well as The Arcana Intelligent. The final artwork in the exhibition is a video titled Kept Between Us (2024), in which the artist engages in self-reflection as The Arcana Intelligent. Within the video, the familiar entity enters into a philosophical soliloquy in contemplation of human nature. Interspersed with footage that Liao recorded from his everyday life, the video breaks the fourth wall and serves as an epilogue to the narrative
德薩畫廊欣然呈獻香港藝術家廖家明個展「光天化日」（Melting Suns on the Screen），為畫廊第八屆年度德薩藝術家駐留項目（deSAR）畫上完滿句號。展覽展出一系列全新的裝置、錄影及混合媒介作品，設想一個被遺棄的敬拜場所，其中，虛構的宗教遺物被得以保存並揭露見光。展覽的神秘敘述建基於個人慾望乃一切信仰系統之根源的概念上。作品顯化為科技時代下被神化的聖物，斡旋於靈性與理性推論之間以反思當代慾望。「光天化日」將於 8 月 31 日開幕，展期至 9 月 28 日。
自人類文明肇始以來，人類為尋求終極的滿足，孕育出無數的宗教信仰。千百年來我們仰望神明，冀望夢想成真，同時亦在慾望驅動下製造出美麗的事物。在這個有求即應的時代，廖家明透過當代科技以相類似的範式來檢視信仰架構。藝術家發明了一個屬於他並以科技為中心的信仰體系時，並同時扮演起創造者與追隨者的角色。
駐留期間，藝術家於同一空間內設置的互動裝置，《萬試萬靈》（2023）扮演了占卦命理的角色。裝置結合了各種人工智能演算法，將來訪者的詢問轉換成個人化的塔羅牌，陸續建立起一個藴藏著匿名祈求與急切焦慮的檔案。展覽開幕時，虛構的神祇已不復存在—— 曾經的神壇，已變成遺跡的聖所。它創造的圖像，則化身成各種作品散佈於空間中。
一系列從《萬試萬靈》生成數據中精選的圖像，以哥德式教堂的內部裝潢為藍本，製成不同的鑲嵌玻璃裝置，佇立於畫廊四周。其中最龐大的是一幅名為《（現代）啟示》（2024）的三聯屏風。作品描繪了被盎然綠意環繞的零碎玫瑰和賽車，其構圖取自一張由此問題生成的塔羅牌：「怎樣才能永遠年輕和富有？」。作品微微透光，其展現的型態與意有所指的訊息雙雙並置，影射著現代信仰所滋長的自我中心主義。鑲嵌玻璃作為紀念聖人的方式，同樣地，社會科技亦提供了自我陶醉並神化為不朽存有的途徑。終究，還是這個自我神化的過程形成之產物，集體塑造了廖創造的當代神靈之智慧。
一陣陣微弱的喧鬧聲從玻璃屏風後方傳出。《虛空的虛空》（2024） 由一組三維全息投影風扇和多聲道原聲帶組成，是藝術家對《萬試萬靈》收集到的數據進行視聽上的重新編排。被拆解的人工智能裝置骨幹殘骸作為結構基礎，其中的元件組裝方式，讓人聯想起一部被解剖的電腦結構。懸浮的顯示器上，接續播放著一連串看似隨機的影像——來訪者於駐留期間奉上他們已刪除的相片，以換取廖的人工智能指導。當喃喃細語的莫名聲音滲透在周圍的空間裡，這個裝置讓人同時聯想起神社及數據庫，在此，昔日的禱告得以永續長存。
回顧歷史便有跡可尋，閃亮物對人類有與生俱來的吸引力，並在很大程度上定義了我們如何界定材料的珍貴性。《壞記憶》是於此語境下重新反思電子硬件的混合媒介作品。藝術家使用了來自不同電腦的主機板，以及天然貝殼、矽晶片和玻璃等現成物料，設想這些人造遺物因經年累月而變得支離破碎的模樣。如同主機板被移除自原來的整體般，每件作品皆包含一張從牌組中分離出來的虛擬塔羅牌。背景那褪色的拼貼畫面，則是由關於人工智能的報章拼貼而成，猶如被洗刷後的經文隨處散落。
廖的《敞開自我》（2024）是一幅展現身體互相糾纏的壁畫，印在以百家布形式縫接的藝術家自有舊衣服上，把來自宗教聖像畫與當今社會科技中象徵的美聯繫起來。作為藝術家持續探究科技對同志文化的影響之延伸，作品始於廖在同志約會社交平台上收集的大量圖像，尤其是那些無頭的對鏡自拍照，吹噓著完美的雕塑型軀幹。儘管這些圖像皆匿名且抹去了個人特徵，但卻幾乎成為同志社交平台上的理想典型。藝術家反思同志文化對完美身形之偏重，乃至迷戀，他向人工智能輸入這些影像，從而生成奢華卻怪異可怖的大量肉體，視覺上讓人聯想起文藝復興時期的壁畫。然而，當圖像被人手移印至藝術家的舊襯衫時，原本的構圖顯得殘破不堪。以變黃、染色的縫製衣物摹仿圖像，叫人喚起那追求親密關係的過程中，轉變成備受推崇的集體慾望，令人垂涎卻又迷失其中。
另一邊廂，《創世者2.0》（2024）正於長長的紅毯盡頭佇候著。儼如《萬試萬靈》的紀念祭壇般，這個互動裝置由一個無頭、孤立的人形站在一台熠熠發光的卡片販賣機上所組成。觀者往販賣機投入代幣後，將收到一張隨機發放的卡片，整組卡片的圖像是《敞開自我》中使用的同款現成照片，並交由人工智能產出。這些扭曲的男性身體圖像，彷照名人閃卡的樣式打印在幻彩鐳射卡紙上，不僅暗指對特定身材的過份推崇，更反映了因美的範型定義而造成的畸形。裝置對觀者施加了實際的行動儀式，此新奇體驗具象化了線上約會文化中，經已習以為常有關物化與自我滿足的面向。
一個關鍵的概念貫徹始終地支撐着是次展覽——現實生活中的神性，不過是來自潛意識的自我投射。正是於此框架下，科技的神化才有其合理性。亦因如此，藝術家將自己的身體形式借用到多件作品中，包括《創世者2.0》及《萬試萬靈》。展覽以一段名為《為你好》（2024）的錄像作品作結，當中，藝術家使用了《萬試萬靈》中持有的身份進行自省。這個似曾相識的實體，於錄像中開展了一段對於人性的哲學獨白，期間穿插着由廖所錄製以及人工智能生成的日常生活片段，藉此打破第四道牆，為整個敘事落下帷幕。
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