Rockbund Art Museum 上海外滩美术馆

Inlet of Arid Dreams is the first institutional solo exhibition of Tan Jing, a native of Shenzhen, China, known for her experimentation with unconventional materials across sculpture, installation, and moving images. Her work explores the multi-layered narratives between reality and fiction, often combines elements of folklore, organic materials, and personal memoirs. For Inlet of Arid Dreams, presented in the museum’s 2nd floor Gallery, Tan Jing brings major new works, including the four-channel video installation titled Nook of a Hazy Dream (2023) and the soft fabric scented sculpture The Souvenir (2023), both commissioned by the Rockbund Art Museum for this exhibition.

Smell plays a distinctive role in Tan Jing’s art. Olfactory memories, unlike verbal recollections, cannot be easily rewritten. She incorporates these sensory memories tied to identity and locality into her sculptural works. Whether it’s the pungent aroma recalling Southeast Asian cuisine waiting from green tiles, or the fragrance of Thai talcum powder emanating from fabric flowers that acts as a reminder of grandparents (Floor Tiles and Flowers, 2023). Such intersection between the olfactory and the visual takes us on a journey from her ancestral Lingnan residence in search of Lap Hung.

Lap Hung is a character Tan Jing has constructed based on the figure of her grandfather, who re-migrated from Thailand to China in 1956. In the new four-channel video installation Nook of a Hazy Dream (2023), Lap Hung’s spirit returns to his imagined native place. Since 2019, Tan Jing has been visiting her relatives and the Chinese diaspora community in Bangkok, Thailand, recording the histories narrated by her elders. In this video work, disappearing memories converge in varying languages; they weave dialogues of the past, the future, and the present world, constructing the narrative of the film. The interplay of light and shadow sheds on glass screens, which serve as windows that open to a dreamscape.

“Inlet of Arid Dreams” is a place that exists in Tan Jing’s imagination. It refers to a transitional realm between arrival and return, reality and illusion. Here, personal desires are stranded in the landscape of memory. The artist aims to fathom these life experiences and pose questions: when dealing with diasporic individuals, how can we comprehend the complexity of their identity and emotions? What are the alternatives to the silent suppression of feelings when traumatic experiences is confronted?

“旱梦滩”是艺术家谭婧的首个机构个展。出生、成长于深圳的谭婧以创作实验性材料的雕塑、装置和影像知名。她的作品擅于结合民俗学、生物学和对个人历史的研究，在真实和虚构交叠的地带诱发多层次的叙事。此次在美术馆二楼呈现的“旱梦滩”集结了谭婧近年创作的多个重要作品，包括由上海外滩美术馆为本次展览委约创作的四频录像装置《热梦隅》（2023）和布艺软雕塑《纪念品》（2023）。

气味在谭婧的创作中形成了一条独特的感知线索。通过气味所保存的记忆往往不如文字一般易被篡改。谭婧将这种与成长、身份、地域相关的感知记忆注入她的雕塑作品中。无论是踩碎后从地砖中散发出类似东南亚食物的酸辣味，还是布艺折花中隐隐飘来的祖辈身上特有的泰式爽身粉香气（《地砖与花》，2023），都通过视觉与嗅觉的编织，将我们带入一段从岭南老宅出发、寻找阿雄的旅程。

“阿雄”是谭婧以祖父的形象为基础所创作的角色。在2023年夏天完成拍摄的四频录像装置《热梦隅》中，阿雄的魂灵回归想象中的故里。谭婧于2019年开始探访远在泰国曼谷的家族成员和离散华人，记录年迈长辈的口述历史。影片中，这些即将要消失的记忆在不同语言中交织，穿插着过去、未来和现世的对话，构成了影片独特的叙事。光影则穿透四张纹理各异的玻璃屏幕，打开通往梦境角落的“窗户”。

“旱梦滩”是谭婧想象中的地名，它是“来”与“回”、“真实”与“虚幻”的中间地带，聚集了记忆时空中被搁浅的个人愿望。艺术家试图理解这些无常沉浮的生命经验，并向我们提出：面对流动中的个体，如何理解其身份与情绪的复杂性？面对创伤经验，除了用沉默压制情感，我们能否唤起其它的能动性？