If you’ve never seen artwork from the Liu Dao collective before you may have a flurry of questions. You’ve probably started with the standard who, how, why trio of artistic inquiry. There’s plenty of that information to come, but just to give you the gist of things- Liu Dao (the Chinese translation for island6) is a collective comprised of about fifteen people (some occasionally come and go as artists so often do). Members of this group are mostly Chinese but there have also been plenty of western painters, curators, art directors and technicians as well.

参加艺术博览会的时候，总会看到有朋友看着六岛的作品一脸惊诧（不过在我们上海的画廊空间也常常这样）。大家会冒出各种疑问，通常的提问三重奏是：六岛是谁？这些作品是怎么做的？为什么决定创作这样的作品？维基，谷歌，六岛的官网等等等，其实已经足够回答。如果还有什么需要补充的，那就解释下六岛Liu Dao吧。六岛Liu Dao其实是island6的中文翻译，是一个有大约15人的艺术团队（偶尔会有人数上的变动，艺术家都是来去自由的）。团队中的成员，有来自中国的，也有不少西方国家的画家，艺术指导，策展人和技术人员。

The group was founded in 2006 and has spent the years since artistically contemplating the clashes between traditional and contemporary culture: the good, the bad and the outright hilarious. That last part is one of the aspects we believe has allowed us to stand out, garnering international recognition and critical acclaim. There’s plenty of room in the world for dark, serious and stark artistic work, even some of our pieces could fall into that realm. Most of what we make however, is soft, light-hearted, and romantically optimistic about our world, our era and the people that surround us.

自从2006年成立以来，持续数年六岛都在思考如何用艺术的方式呈现传统与当代的文化碰撞，最终发现，高雅的，低俗的，彻底的幽默才是我们想要的。这也是使六岛脱颖而出，获得国际认可和好评的重要原因。世界上有许许多多深刻，严肃而阴暗的作品，我们也有一些作品是这样的风格。但大多数，还是以轻松，阳光的方式反映着我们的生活和所处的时代面貌。

island6 @SCOPENY video clip

视频回顾

If you’re one of those people though, and looking for some darker humor, look no further than most of the blurbs that accompany the artworks. These are the short texts that compliment each piece as something akin to the artwork’s voice. They are, if you’ll excuse a cliché analogy, the yin to the artworks yang (or maybe it’s the other way around?). These texts are the often gritty, occasionally morose, side to the work’s overall concept. If the visual artwork is your coddling mother, think of the blurb as your dad telling you to go get a real job. Maybe neither has the optimum advice but together they might offer a richer version of the truth.

作为好奇的围观群众之一，如果你想了解的，不仅仅只是参展作品的基本介绍，还想来点意味深长的黑色幽默。那下面的文字，应该能满足你。这些文字有的是些不着边际的胡诌，有的带点悲观色彩，不过却是作品理念的有效补充。如果把作品的视觉呈现看作是个宠孩子的妈妈，那它们就是理智明确的父亲。要理解艺术作品里所蕴含的深意，缺一不可。

 "Flexing Gibbous" (肌肉先生)
 Laser projection/激光投影

Variable/尺寸可变

“Flexing Gibbous” for example, is a playful laser artwork that shows a man flexing his muscles in goofy, exaggerated motions. What looks to be a fun and simple animation though has a bit more to it when you read the blurb. It offers some darker ponderings on the occasionally frivolous nature of hard work: toiling away without-end for perhaps just a fleetingly little glimpse of greatness (if even that).

《肌肉先生》这件有趣的激光作品，表现了一个夸张，笨拙的动作。虽然看起来是那么简单，但它也暗示着关于努力刻骨这件事的黑真相：无止尽的埋头苦干，或许只是关于伟大的浮光掠影（如果真有伟大存在）。

"Love is Pink Plastic Feathers" (爱是粉红色的塑料羽毛)
 LED, acrylic painting, paper collage

LED显示，丙烯绘画，剪纸拼贴

52(W)×52(H)×5(D) cm 

“Love is Pink Plastic Feathers” is also a light-hearted looking little piece with some deeper undercurrents flowing. What on its surface is a toy flamingo among real ones is actually a commentary on group identity and the way family can influence that acceptance (or the absence of it).

《爱是粉红色的塑料羽毛》也是看起来很轻松简单，但寓意深刻。一只塑料玩具火烈鸟，在一群活动的真火烈鸟中间，让人联想到群体的一致性和家庭对一个人认知判断力养成的影响。

"Our Brave Discovery" (我们勇敢的发现)

TFT , oil painting, media player

TFT显示，油画，多媒体播放器

48(W)×67(H)×7(D) cm

This dark blurb thing isn’t a rule though, sometimes the dynamic is turned on its head and an overtly pessimistic visual artwork is made lighter with the accompanying text. “Our Brave Discovery” is a prime example of this. The piece shows cleaning ladies wiping off the windows inside a skull. No doubt it looks sinister, but what the artists really wanted to convey was the sense that each person possesses their own reality unique to them, whether it be right, wrong, happy, sad or downright strange.

暗黑内涵其实也不是定式，有时动力会被反映在头脑上，并且过于悲观的形象需要一些轻松的语言去平衡。《我们勇敢的发现》就是这样的作品。它看起来有些不详，不过艺术家是客观的，想传达的是：每个人都拥有属于自己的真实，对也好，错也好，高兴也好，忧郁也好，甚至哪怕完全的不可理喻。

There are plenty of other Liu Dao artworks with a multitude of messages, themes, concepts and undertones. While this is meant to explain a bit about that, it is ultimately up to a viewer to ascribe what that piece means to them. If it is indeed true that every person has their own reality, then each artwork too must have endless versions of itself, all waiting to be discovered, adored, and given life... perhaps by you. Thanks for adding another version.

除了以上六岛这次带去SCOPE纽约的作品之外，还有许多作品有着不同的主题和内涵。尽管不断试图去解读，但最终还是取决于观者们自己的理解。就像我们在上文提到过的那样，每个人眼中有着不同的真实，也意味着每一件作品都有着无数不同的理解方式，期待着由此，去发掘，去推崇，最后，再反过来影响现实。那你的理解是什么呢？

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Address: 

island6 Main

50 Moganshan Rd, Bld 6, 2F, Shanghai

地址：

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+86-2162277856

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