"Great Art can and should be able to cause ripples in peoples' hearts, resonate with any type of feelings from the heart."
"This new technology and ‘canvas’ have provided an opportunity for us to witness and contribute to the history of art and humanities for the future. We should aspire for transcendence."
Curated and directed by Derrick Li (aka “X”) from Triple X, this is a groundbreaking collaboration between one of the most prominent Contemporary Chinese artists, Jia Aili—represented exclusively by Gagosian Gallery - and renowned digital artists in the NFT native space, Raoul Marks, David Ariew, and Ryan Hawthorne. This collaboration aims to shift the attention back to the content, creativity, essence of art, and most importantly, blur the gap between the contemporary art world, the digital one and the NFT space. A result of nine months of preparation, the creations are based on Jia’s paintings, mixed with his visions and art philosophy, with personal inputs, mediums, styles, interpretations and “signatures" from digital artists. This collaboration is a “conversation through art,” a conversation between different mediums, different creative worlds, the East and the West; a conversation that connects the past, present and future.
David Ariew has been a 3D artist for about a decade, he’s done many different jobs over the years like filming, editing, VFX, 2D motion design, DIT and color grading, all of those practices helped train his eye for creating cinematic 3D content. David’s work has always been very tightly intertwined with music, he has worked on many concert visuals, and with many big artists such as: Deadmau5, Katy Perry, Zedd...etc.
“This project was more than just a new experience and challenge, but a meaningful collaboration designed to bring the traditional art world together with the digital art world, and Triple X’s mission is to blur that gap and create unity. It was also a chance to bring cultures and artists from completely opposite ends of the spectrum together, and build within Aili’s genius universe. It’s the most thoughtful project that I’ve been a part of in the space yet, and I’m so honored and excited to participate! To me, the most enjoyable part of this journey has been recognizing these deeper ideas about art, and also making new friends while building something unique and beautiful with them that will hopefully resonate within both the traditional and the digital art communities, as well as across both Chinese and American cultures.”
The Road Ahead" is a passionate development of the painting Nameless Day 2 created by Jia Aili in 2007. "It struck me as an image I could dive into and imagine the scene unfolding," says David Ariew, "I wanted to get closer to the character and witness more of their story."
At first glance, the audience may interpret the scene as post-apocalyptic and feel sad for the character, but that’s just a first impression. The character may be filled with hope for all we know, and Jia Aili is often a fan of the absurd, creating tension and contrast between light and dark elements in his works, such as a character with a gas mask in a field of flowers. "I connected with this piece not just because it’s visually stunning, but because I felt that I could explore Aili's world and delve further into the story where it was left off," stated by Ariew, "that’s a huge challenge, as I wanted the piece to remain authentic to the original painting, so I introduced the descending balloon, an element used in other paintings of Jia's, to create a bit of confusion and distract or entertain the character from his observation of the rocket launch."
Score and sound design by Abel Okugawa.
「偉大的藝術敵得過時間，不朽的經典在不同的時代都能激盪心靈。」
「這項嶄新的技術和『畫布』提供了一個契機和新的範式，這就是這個時代的脈絡，讓我們得以見證藝術人文歷史的全新一章，併為之做出貢獻。我們應當追求卓越，參與到未來的藝術史中去。」
這是一次前所未有的突破性的合作，由來自Triple X的李東昱（別名 "X"）策劃和指導，他策劃了中國最傑出的當代藝術家之一賈藹力（由高古軒畫廊獨家代理）和NFT世界中最著名的幾位數字藝術家的深度跨界合作，他們是：勞爾·馬克斯（Raoul Marks）,大衛·埃魯（ David Ariew）以及 萊恩·豪瑟恩（Ryan Hawthorne）。
這次合作旨在重新聚焦和強調藝術的內容、創意和藝術的本質，尤其重要的是，真正去融合當代藝術世界和數字世界，消弭它們之間的鴻溝。這一系列的創作以賈藹力的繪畫作品爲出發點和創作源泉，揉合了賈藹力的願景和藝術理念，數字藝術家們在作品中注入了各自的深刻理解、獨具個人色彩的媒介與風格和詮釋，以及屬於他們自己的獨特 “簽名”。
這次合作是一次真正的 "藝術間的對話"，在不同的媒介之間、在東方和西方之間。這次突破性的對話連接着過去、現在和未來。
編曲音效由Abel Okugawa設計。
「這個企劃不單是一個新體驗及挑戰，更是一個專為融合傳統與數碼藝術世界而設、別具意義的合作，Triple X的宗旨是要令這兩個界別的界線變得模糊，最終合而為一。這也是一個機遇，在藹力精彩絕倫的藝術世界中，將截然不同的文化及藝術家帶到一處共同創作。這是我在這個空間之中參與過最深思熟慮的企劃，對於能夠成為其中的一份子，我感到非常榮幸和興奮！這個過程中我最享受的部分，是發掘這些與藝術相關的更深層概念，以及結認新朋友，並與他們一同建構出這麼獨特並美麗的東西，而希望我們的創作成果在傳統或數碼藝術的群體中，或在中國及美國的文化中都能夠引起共鳴。」