Rockbund Art Museum 上海外滩美术馆

No Sky­ is the first survey exhibition of Tosh Basco, a Filipino-American artist based in Zurich. Basco is highly regarded for her hypnotic performances, movement-based works, and improvisations, which unfold across film, theater, drawing, and painting. Her practice did not develop in a traditional art school context but initially emerged from her involvement in queer nightlife scenes in the 2010s. At this time, Basco, living in California, exposed herself to various movement traditions and researched alternative histories of performance. Basco became well-known as­ boychild, an ethereal drag persona that the artist performed hundreds of times over a few short years.­

The difficulty of documenting delicate, entangled gestures using photography and video led Basco to experiment with drawing and painting as alternative forms of translation. Eventually, the action of conversion became the very site for Basco’s corporeal approach to drawing and painting.­ No Sky­ presents unseen works that Basco made over the last decade, including works on paper, oil painting, photography, and sound. All the works in the exhibition, in various ways, can also be considered as­ representation- by-touch­ and thus ask the viewer to think about alternative modes of representation, challenging the dominance of the eye and mind, imitation and idea.­

The exhibition transforms the 4th floor gallery into a blue stage, which alludes to Basco’s studio space. On the museum’s 5th floor is an installation of photographic works responding to the exhibition’s title: No Sky. It takes its name from a poem by the Lebanese-American poet and artist Etel Adnan (1925–2021), which addresses themes of dislocation and the impossibility of returning to a past or home. Under No Sky, the studio is the stage; performance is rehearsal; painting is touching; improvisation is a form of emancipation.

“没有天空” 是菲律宾裔美籍艺术家托什· 巴斯科的首场梳理性个展。定居苏黎世，巴斯科凭借如梦似幻的表演、基于身体律动的作品和即兴创作而广受赞誉，这些艺术特点也在她参与的影像、剧场和绘画创作里有所体现。巴斯科并非在传统艺术学院开始她的艺术生涯，而是以2010 年代的酷儿夜场作为起点。彼时巴斯科生活在加利福尼亚，她在那里接触到丰富的舞蹈传统，并且深入地研究了多元的表演史脉络。巴斯科最初作为“boychild”——一个超凡的变装角色——为人熟知，她在短短几年时间里奉献了数百场表演。

在“boychild” 获得初步成功后，巴斯科的创作形式不断演变。她持续探索实验性表演美学和舞蹈艺术，例如涉及繁复肢体动作的日舞踏。然而，利用照片和摄像记录微妙的、相互缠结的体态行为是极为困难的，这促使巴斯科将绘画看作一种替代的“翻译” 方案。 由此，巴斯科的身体绘画构成了一种翻译行动。“没有天空” 呈现巴斯科过去十年间的创作，多为首次公开展出。这些作品包括纸本绘画、油画、摄影和声音。在各种层面上，此次展出的作品均可视作一种“触觉再现”，邀请观众思索其他的再现形式，挑战眼与心、模仿与观念范式的主导。

本次展览将美术馆四楼的空间转变为一块蓝色的舞台，与巴斯科的工作室地面相照应。美术馆五楼的装置陈列巴斯科的一系列摄影作品，与展览同题。“没有天空” 取自黎巴嫩裔美籍诗人和艺术家伊黛尔· 阿德南(1925–2021) 同名诗作，探讨错位和无法回归的过去和家园。“没有天空” 之下，工作室是舞台，表演是排练，绘画是触碰，即兴也是一种解放。