繪事新編
“繪事”是中國古代對於畫畫的稱呼，相對於今天更常用的“繪畫”，甚至“油畫”“版畫”“布面丙烯”等概念而言，“繪事”沒有分門別類的學科化，更重要的是，它偏重於指出畫畫是一件事情、一種活動。其中潛在包含著一種綿延性，既不分主客（畫家與繪畫），也不分古今，換句話說，畫畫這件事在“繪事”這個詞裏是活的。
如何畫畫，事情一直在變化著，“繪事”總是在“新編”。新編當然不是憑空編，既然有“新”，自然就有“舊”，尤其是在中國，我們豐富的本土繪畫傳統一直在那裏，作為一個沉默的座標，或者一種安靜的寶藏，總得有人把它們翻撿出來，在今天的經驗下賦予新的活力。
“繪事新編”邀請了四位從各自角度回應著中國繪畫傳統的藝術家，在他/她們的作品中，我們能看見文人的、民間的、中古的、近代的，圖像的、符號的、風格的、媒介的……諸多我們並不陌生的過去。他們分解、打亂、重組了這些傳統，也在啟動、推進著這些傳統，不僅在繪事之中，也在其他的事情裏。
Paintings Redrawn
Hui Shi, or painting-related matters, is the term for painting in ancient China. Compared with the more commonly used modern concepts of "painting", or even "oil painting", "print" and "acrylic on canvas", Hui Shi is not classified into a single subject. More importantly, it emphasizes that painting is a matter and an activity. There is a kind of continuity hidden in the concept. It does not distinguish between subject and object (i.e., painter and painting), nor the ancient and the modern. In other words, painting, as a matter, is alive in the term of Hui Shi.
Things are always changing in terms of how to paint, as Hui Shi, or paintings are always being retold. The retold stories are certainly not made out of thin air. Since there is the “new”, naturally the “old” also exists, especially in China where our rich local painting tradition still thrives as a coordinate in silence, or a treasure in quietness. Someone should pick up the tradition and offer it a new kind of vitality with the contemporary experience.
The exhibition of Paintings Retold is delighted to invite four artists who responds to the Chinese painting traditions from their own individual perspectives. In his/her works, we can see literati, folk, medieval, modern, pictorial, symbolic, stylised and intermediary expressions...those pasts that we are not unfamiliar with. They decomposed, disrupted, and reorganized these traditions, and they were also activating and advancing these them, not only in painting, but also in many other things.
