「Ze/Ro」 策展人：陈瑞琦
布朗画廊欣然宣布将于2021年7月至8月在香港空间呈献「Ze/Ro」展览。展览由香港策展人陈瑞琦策划，是香港画廊协会推出的暑期项目之一。香港画廊协会的暑期项目致力于培养本土艺术社群，尤以青年艺术家为焦点，于香港这座充满活力的城市，为会员画廊、新晋艺术家、策展人和作家搭建合作的平台。
是次由陳瑞琦策劃的群展兼具思想性與話題度，展出五位在香港生活和工作的藝術家的作品。每位藝術家的創作均涉及身份、性別、社會和自我的主題，並反映一系列社會概念以及對去性別化的渴望。言及展覽主題，陳瑞琦表示：
性别是社会的建构物， 文化及传统经常将性别角色定型而达到某种管理目的。值得我们关注的是女性和男性在社会上如何被自己或别人「再现」。为追求社会的性别中立，牛津英语词典正式为去性别化作出回应，定立新的词𢑥「Ze」去取替「He」「She」 来代表中性的第三方。富有力量而被赞崇的英雄— Hero，于文字上和现实中不再是「He」的专利，或许英雄的称呼从此可叫作 Ze/Ro。
是次展览透过五位艺术家区凯琳，陈家翘，周頴璇，林岚，刘清华，说明现今女性如何自觉地意识到自己在社会上的地位和价值。从而以身体和思想主动地发挥自身的创造力。不同世代的女性带着不同的身份角色，去显示一场知觉行动的成果。确认个人的独特性和多元性才是主导者。作品探讨女性由身体至思想上的各种感知 : 一个拥有赋予生命能力的载体，它的变化与能耐超越我们的想像；却同时带来幻想、情感牵引、甚至人生的学习。身体亦是自己最亲密的联系，动作和感应往往连结内心的回忆和思绪。作品也表现出艺术家于女性不同阶段表达的自主、恐惧、浪漫与张力。当中包括生命的记录，或纯粹于生活中的一点自我沉思。艺术家脱离对性别的迷思，去呈现「Ze」的能量和面对事、物的敏感度。
我们诚邀您于今个夏季参观香港画廊，深入了解这些才华横溢、富有思想的藝術家的佳作，並從中深入了解香港作為文化之都的重要地位。
Ben Brown Fine Arts is delighted to announce our forthcoming exhibition Ze/Ro at the Hong Kong gallery, from July through August 2021. The exhibition is organised by Hong Kong-based curator Shirky Chan as part of the Hong Kong Art Gallery Association's (HKAGA) Summer Programme. Fostering the local arts community with a focus on young talent, the HKAGA's Summer Programme actively builds a bridge between its member galleries, emerging artists, curators and writers within this vibrant city.
Chan has curated a contemplative and topical group show featuring the work of five artists: Au Hoi Lam, Chan Ka Kiu, Christy Chow, Jaffa Lam and Jess Lau living and working in Hong Kong, each of whom addresses notions of identity, gender, society and self, framed by social constructs and desired dissolutions of gender. Chan explains:
Gender is a social construct. Culture and tradition are often used to shape the contents of gender stereotypes to prescribe regulatory social regimes. In this sense, the representation of female and male is still crucial in terms of how they are being projected by self and others in society. To enact gender neutrality and de-gendering in society, Oxford English Dictionary has officially adopted the new gender pronoun "Ze" instead of "He" and "She" to represent non-binary gender identities. As such, the powerful and divine word "Hero" is no longer the privilege of "He" in the world of linguistics and reality. Perhaps we can start calling it "Ze/Ro" from now on.
In this exhibition five artists, Au Hoi Lam, Chan Ka Kiu, Christy Chow, Jaffa Lam and Jess Lau, explore the nature of the female world where women empower themselves by embracing their creativity in the realms of body and mind. Cross-generational women in distinct identity roles transcend acts of self-awareness into rewarding outcomes, from which a sense of autonomy is recognised through one's individuality and multifaceted characteristics. Their works adapt the female's multisensory experience from body to mind: a life-giving bearer that embodies changes and endures beyond our imagination; whilst being the matrix for one to envision fantasies, emotional associations or even a learning process in life.
Body is the intimate site for one to reclaim memories and emotions through movements and sensations. The artists in this exhibition also disclose their autonomy, fear, romance and tension in different stages, all of which are traces in life, or put simply, a lifelong contemplation. Evaluated against the cultural orientation of gender, they acknowledge and exercise the power of "Ze".
We invite you to visit the Hong Kong gallery this summer to delve into the work of these talented and thoughtful artists whose work is reflective of Hong Kong's status as a cultural capital.