Retelling
Found object, cement
Size variable
2026
Retelling comprises three “original objects” that are deeply tied to historical and cultural contexts, along with their plaster molds and cement reproductions. The logic behind Chu’s selection is itself an index of cultural domains: the Guanyin statue represents religious culture; the column base of a European classical architectural order stands for humanity’s creativity in reshaping the world through architecture; the scholar’s stone represents aesthetic and artistic culture. Accompanied by three geometric forms—since for ancient Greek philosophers, geometry is the foundational element and the “Forms” through which the cosmos is constituted—Chu uses these to stand for knowledge and philosophical culture. By placing the white originals, the white plaster molds, and the grey cement products side by side, the work constructs a symbolic system spanning religion, art, philosophy, and the civilization of human making.
The artist’s continuous re-molding of the original objects makes tangible the core feature of “replication.” Culture persists precisely through repeated reproduction and retelling. And each subtle visual discrepancy among the reproduced pieces—air bubbles, missing chips, shifts in surface texture—becomes the visualization of “variation” or “mutation” that is unavoidable in the process of replication. Chu’s re-molding turns technical imperfection into a metaphor for “the noise of cultural dissemination.”
True repetition is never the reproduction of sameness; it is the generation of difference. Each grey cement reproduction, though derived from the same original mold, inevitably differs due to the mold’s cycles of cooling and heating and its gradual wear. These defects are not shortcomings; instead, they are the creative force embedded within the act of repetition itself. Culture, through repeated remaking, never moves toward stagnation—it generates new meanings and possibilities in every instance of repetition.
Even more illuminating is the reversal of the way of seeing. When the originals and reproductions are placed together, viewers initially read the differences as their defects. But when the reproductions accumulate, those defects become the focus of attention—each instance of imperfection becomes an inborn, distinctive mark of each reproduced piece. In this numerical reversal, reproduction flips from a secondary copy into the primary subject of creativity.
《失真》由三件深具歷史文化關聯的「原物」、其白色石膏模，以及多件灰色水泥翻製品構成。朱氏選物的邏輯本身便是一份文化範疇的目錄：觀音雕像代表宗教文化，歐洲古建築柱式的柱帽代表人類通過建築改造世界的創造力，案頭文人石代表美學與藝術文化。配以三個幾何形狀——古希臘哲學家把幾何視為構成宇宙的基本元素與「理型」——朱氏以之代表知識與思哲文化。白色原物、白色石膏模、灰色水泥製品並置，構築出一個橫跨宗教、藝術、哲學與人類造物文明的象徵體系。
藝術家對原物不斷翻模，是「複製」核心特徵的具象化：文化正是在反覆重製與傳播中得以延續。而每一件翻模成品外觀上的微小差異——氣泡、缺角、紋理的偏移——正是迷因在複製過程中不可避免的「變異」或「突變」的視覺化。朱氏的翻模，讓「技術上的不完美」變成「文化傳播中的噪音」的隱喻。
真正的重複從來不是同一性的再現，而是差異的生成。每一件灰色水泥翻製品，雖源於同一原模，卻因模具的冷熱收縮與耗損而必然有別；這些「缺損」並非缺陷，而是重複過程本身所蘊含的創造性力量——文化在反覆重製中，從不走向僵化，而是在每一次重複裡生成新的意義與可能性。
更具啟發性的，是觀看方式的翻轉。當原物與重製品並置，觀眾起初從差異中讀到的是重製品的「缺失」；但當重製品數量大於原物，那些「缺失」反而成為觀看的焦點——每一處「不完美」成為每件重製品自帶的獨有印記。在數量的逆轉中，重製從「次級的複本」翻身為「創造的主體」。
Original Chinese text by Jeff Leung
文：梁展峰
Related exhibition 相關展覽
2026 "Replication as Sublime", Mooroom, Hong Kong 《複數即超昇》，Mooroom，香港