「如果一只乌龟冬天不睡觉 Chill, I Guess」｜洮本圆 Tao Ben Yuan 艺术家个展 ---（2025.04.19 - 05.06)
.
.
“一只乌龟如果冬天不睡觉……”
在2024年的冬天，创作者洮本圆想为自己养的阿龟，一只活了二十几岁寿终正寝的巴西龟，写一个故事。在她的脑海里冒出了这样的开头，但开了头之后，她便卡住了。彼时她同时也在找工作，在持续奔波里她的状态也开始浮浮沉沉。
这不是她第一次创作故事。
洮本圆在法国学了3年插画。在上学期间接触到了独立漫画志《叙事癖》，她很喜欢烟囱的漫画。在2014年，《叙事癖》发布5周年纪念的主题征稿时，她尝试画了小漫画《不穿衣服就不要开窗户》，没想到入选做了刊登，这给了当时的她很大鼓励。
“原来我也可以画漫画！”
不仅如此，洮本圆还发现原来自己更喜欢这样的创作形式，不只是像自己所学的专业——是辅助于别人的文字或主题的配图插画，而完全是由自己的想法延伸出来的画面与故事。
毕业之际，洮本圆去到了香蕉鱼书店，在那里她接触了艺术书、zine这样的形式。也在此期间，她做了自己的第一本纸本作品《OLD MAN AND PIGEON》。从创作想法到绘制故事，从纸本设计到选纸装帧，最后再一本本地手工制作，她正式开启了自己的“一个人生产线”。随着国内艺术书展的兴起，洮本圆也得以带着她的手作书与陌生人分享。
一边上班，一边继续创作，在洮本圆看来并不难，两者彼此独立，互不干扰，就像两个身份。“创作的时候，如果画不下去了就先不画，也不会觉得愧疚；工作的时候，如果觉得影响了创作，那就为创作让路，并没有太多的纠结 。”洮本圆笑说，但是要比较的话，创作是比上班难多了。
“也许是我没有那么擅长创作。”
她的故事都是在她的探索中慢慢完成。没有固定的创作流程或手法，创作的起点也不一，有时是从一个想法、一句话，有时是从一张纸开始。比如这次的新作品《 One Tortoise Year》中，一直想为阿龟画故事的她刚好碰上了一种名叫“江户小染”的日本特种纸，“它的凸版花纹很特别，像一只只小乌龟”，仿佛命中注定般，让她的故事得以“落地”。
创作的灵感在刻意去找的时候反倒是找不到的，卡住的情况也不是偶发。洮本圆习惯于把一些日常的观察都记录下来，随手翻阅，而且她特别喜欢观察小动物。在她看来，动物与人是在一起的，并没有那么大的分别。也因此，在她以“APOORZOO”为名的故事动物园里，动物与人类自然而然就在一起的，边界模糊，那些感性的句子和想法，有时也从动物的话语或者思绪里传递。
“每次做作品的时候，我都没有明确的主旨，也不想要有。”洮本圆自觉她的故事不是那么好读，“要说什么，又好像没说什么”，画面直白，但寓意模糊。她觉得把话说太明白有点太傻，说太多又仿佛说教，便只是“淡淡地”。
“因为我也只是在分享我的一些生活感受，想画普通人的故事，并没有那么大起大落的人生真谛。”但在这之中她也有一个坚持，那就是有一些想说的话是一定要出现的。一些她潜意识的寓意被包裹在故事中。
“希望好的事情发生”是这个新故事里的一句话。而这次的展览名字，是我们一起从作品中选取的开头：“一只乌龟如果冬天不睡觉”，它的下一句是——“就可以做任何事”。希望以此去传递不说过多但又坚持表达的感受。
这次展览是阿龟故事与大家的第一次线下见面，也是洮本圆作为创作者的首次个人作品展。大家不仅可以看到洮本圆全新创作的故事《One Tortoise Year》完整手稿，还有早期创作的《À la sieste》水彩作品原稿，以及翻阅16本由她亲手制作的艺术书作品，一览作为创作者的她是怎么从一个画面到一个故事，一瞥她的创作方式与灵感，来感受散步时刻Gallery一直执着呈现的个体创作。
“If a turtle choose not to sleep in winter……”
In the winter of 2024, creator Tao Benyuan wanted to write a story about her Brazilian turtle, which she had raised for a long time. It had lived a long life, over twenty years in fact, until its death. The beginning of a story came to mind, but after a while, she got stuck. At that time, she was also looking for a job. Overall, life was a bit of a mess and as a result, so was her state of creativity.
This is not her first time writing a story.
Tao studied illustration at a school in France for 3 years. During her school years, she came into contact with the independent comic magazine 叙事癖 and she really enjoyed the comics by Chinese comic artist 烟囱. In 2014, during an open call for submissions, on the anniversary of the release of 叙事癖, she attempted to draw her own short comic work and was unexpectedly selected for publication, this gave her great encouragement at the time.
To her own realization,“So, I can also create comics！”
Not only that, Tao Benyuan also realized that this may be her preferred form of creation. Rather than illustrations that were supplementary to other people's texts or themes, as she was trained, instead she can now create complete stories and images derived from her own ideas.
Right before graduation, Tao interned at the Banana Fish Bookstore, there she was exposed to forms such as artist books and zines. During this period, she made her first zine, “OLD MAN AND PIGEON”. From an idea to a story, from visual design to paper selection and binding, and finally assembled together by her own two hands. Tao officially launched her "one person production line". With the rise of domestic art book fairs, She was able to share her newly handmade books with complete strangers at these fairs.
Having a job while continuing to create isn’t difficult in Tao’s view. For her, these are two independent spheres, not interfering with each other, sort of like two identities. “When creating, if I hit a wall and can’t continue drawing, I don’t have to feel guilty about it. And when working, if I feel that work is affecting my creativity, then I will make way for creativity, and not worry too much!” Tao smiled and said: “However, when I compare the two, creating is much harder than going to work.”
“Or maybe, I'm just not a good enough creator.”
Tao completes her stories through a gradual process of exploration. There isn’t a fixed creative procedure or technique, and the starting point of each creation/work is also often different. Sometimes it starts from an idea or a sentence, and sometimes it starts from a piece of paper. For example, in her new work "One Tortoise Year”, Tao had always wanted to draw a story for her deceased turtle A Gui. She happened to come across a special type of Japanese paper called 江户小染. “Its embossed pattern is very special, they look like small turtles," it’s as if destined that she would make her story come to fruition using this special paper.
The inspiration for creation cannot be found when one is deliberately searching, and the situation of getting stuck is not exactly incidental. Tao is accustomed to recording down and flipping through her daily observations, and she particularly enjoys observing small animals. In her opinion, animals and humans are all together in this world we live in and there is not such a big difference between us and them. Therefore, in her “story zoo” named APOORZOO, animals and humans naturally coexist, with blurred boundaries. Emotional sentences and ideas are frequently conveyed through the words or thoughts of animals.
“Every time I begin to create a story, I don't have a clear theme and I don't want to have one." Tao feels that her stories are not easy to read. “Saying something but as though saying nothing at all”. She likes her visual creations to be straightforward, meanwhile keeping the meaning of the stories vague or perhaps open-ended. She feels that speaking too clearly can be a bit foolish, and speaking too much seemed like preaching. So stories just have to be "subtle" in their own way.
“Because I am only sharing some of my personal life experiences and drawing up stories of ordinary people, not so much in search of life’s big ups and downs or the true meaning behind it. “ However, she does have some insistence when it comes down to things she wants to express, they must appear in her story one way or another. There is quite some of her own subconscious meanings wrapped into her stories.
“To hope for good things to happen", this is a phrase in the new story. And the name of this exhibition originate from the opening sentence of the story : “If a turtle choose not to sleep in winter”, the following line is then “it can do anything”. This is perhaps a key message in which this exhibition would like to express, but to do so in a quiet manner is somewhat necessary.
This exhibition will be the first time A Gui's story come face to face with the audience offline, and it’s also the first personal exhibition of Tao Benyuan's work as a creator, here in Xiamen. On this occasion, you will be able to observe the complete manuscript of Tao’s newly created story "One Tortoise Year", as well as some of her earlier original watercolor pieces from the series："A la sieste". Furthermore, during this exhibition, the audience will have the opportunity to browse through 16 artist books all created personally by Tao. To see how she went from a painting to a story as a creator, to catch a glimpse of her creative style and what inspires her work, and to feel the type of individual creativity that the Champochic Gallery is persistently dedicated to presenting and sharing with our audience.
在2024年的冬天，创作者洮本圆想为自己养的阿龟，一只活了二十几岁寿终正寝的巴西龟，写一个故事。在她的脑海里冒出了这样的开头，但开了头之后，她便卡住了。彼时她同时也在找工作，在持续奔波里她的状态也开始浮浮沉沉。
这不是她第一次创作故事。
洮本圆在法国学了3年插画。在上学期间接触到了独立漫画志《叙事癖》，她很喜欢烟囱的漫画。在2014年，《叙事癖》发布5周年纪念的主题征稿时，她尝试画了小漫画《不穿衣服就不要开窗户》，没想到入选做了刊登，这给了当时的她很大鼓励。
“原来我也可以画漫画！”
不仅如此，洮本圆还发现原来自己更喜欢这样的创作形式，不只是像自己所学的专业——是辅助于别人的文字或主题的配图插画，而完全是由自己的想法延伸出来的画面与故事。
毕业之际，洮本圆去到了香蕉鱼书店，在那里她接触了艺术书、zine这样的形式。也在此期间，她做了自己的第一本纸本作品《OLD MAN AND PIGEON》。从创作想法到绘制故事，从纸本设计到选纸装帧，最后再一本本地手工制作，她正式开启了自己的“一个人生产线”。随着国内艺术书展的兴起，洮本圆也得以带着她的手作书与陌生人分享。
一边上班，一边继续创作，在洮本圆看来并不难，两者彼此独立，互不干扰，就像两个身份。“创作的时候，如果画不下去了就先不画，也不会觉得愧疚；工作的时候，如果觉得影响了创作，那就为创作让路，并没有太多的纠结 。”洮本圆笑说，但是要比较的话，创作是比上班难多了。
“也许是我没有那么擅长创作。”
她的故事都是在她的探索中慢慢完成。没有固定的创作流程或手法，创作的起点也不一，有时是从一个想法、一句话，有时是从一张纸开始。比如这次的新作品《 One Tortoise Year》中，一直想为阿龟画故事的她刚好碰上了一种名叫“江户小染”的日本特种纸，“它的凸版花纹很特别，像一只只小乌龟”，仿佛命中注定般，让她的故事得以“落地”。
创作的灵感在刻意去找的时候反倒是找不到的，卡住的情况也不是偶发。洮本圆习惯于把一些日常的观察都记录下来，随手翻阅，而且她特别喜欢观察小动物。在她看来，动物与人是在一起的，并没有那么大的分别。也因此，在她以“APOORZOO”为名的故事动物园里，动物与人类自然而然就在一起的，边界模糊，那些感性的句子和想法，有时也从动物的话语或者思绪里传递。
“每次做作品的时候，我都没有明确的主旨，也不想要有。”洮本圆自觉她的故事不是那么好读，“要说什么，又好像没说什么”，画面直白，但寓意模糊。她觉得把话说太明白有点太傻，说太多又仿佛说教，便只是“淡淡地”。
“因为我也只是在分享我的一些生活感受，想画普通人的故事，并没有那么大起大落的人生真谛。”但在这之中她也有一个坚持，那就是有一些想说的话是一定要出现的。一些她潜意识的寓意被包裹在故事中。
“希望好的事情发生”是这个新故事里的一句话。而这次的展览名字，是我们一起从作品中选取的开头：“一只乌龟如果冬天不睡觉”，它的下一句是——“就可以做任何事”。希望以此去传递不说过多但又坚持表达的感受。
这次展览是阿龟故事与大家的第一次线下见面，也是洮本圆作为创作者的首次个人作品展。大家不仅可以看到洮本圆全新创作的故事《One Tortoise Year》完整手稿，还有早期创作的《À la sieste》水彩作品原稿，以及翻阅16本由她亲手制作的艺术书作品，一览作为创作者的她是怎么从一个画面到一个故事，一瞥她的创作方式与灵感，来感受散步时刻Gallery一直执着呈现的个体创作。
“If a turtle choose not to sleep in winter……”
In the winter of 2024, creator Tao Benyuan wanted to write a story about her Brazilian turtle, which she had raised for a long time. It had lived a long life, over twenty years in fact, until its death. The beginning of a story came to mind, but after a while, she got stuck. At that time, she was also looking for a job. Overall, life was a bit of a mess and as a result, so was her state of creativity.
This is not her first time writing a story.
Tao studied illustration at a school in France for 3 years. During her school years, she came into contact with the independent comic magazine 叙事癖 and she really enjoyed the comics by Chinese comic artist 烟囱. In 2014, during an open call for submissions, on the anniversary of the release of 叙事癖, she attempted to draw her own short comic work and was unexpectedly selected for publication, this gave her great encouragement at the time.
To her own realization,“So, I can also create comics！”
Not only that, Tao Benyuan also realized that this may be her preferred form of creation. Rather than illustrations that were supplementary to other people's texts or themes, as she was trained, instead she can now create complete stories and images derived from her own ideas.
Right before graduation, Tao interned at the Banana Fish Bookstore, there she was exposed to forms such as artist books and zines. During this period, she made her first zine, “OLD MAN AND PIGEON”. From an idea to a story, from visual design to paper selection and binding, and finally assembled together by her own two hands. Tao officially launched her "one person production line". With the rise of domestic art book fairs, She was able to share her newly handmade books with complete strangers at these fairs.
Having a job while continuing to create isn’t difficult in Tao’s view. For her, these are two independent spheres, not interfering with each other, sort of like two identities. “When creating, if I hit a wall and can’t continue drawing, I don’t have to feel guilty about it. And when working, if I feel that work is affecting my creativity, then I will make way for creativity, and not worry too much!” Tao smiled and said: “However, when I compare the two, creating is much harder than going to work.”
“Or maybe, I'm just not a good enough creator.”
Tao completes her stories through a gradual process of exploration. There isn’t a fixed creative procedure or technique, and the starting point of each creation/work is also often different. Sometimes it starts from an idea or a sentence, and sometimes it starts from a piece of paper. For example, in her new work "One Tortoise Year”, Tao had always wanted to draw a story for her deceased turtle A Gui. She happened to come across a special type of Japanese paper called 江户小染. “Its embossed pattern is very special, they look like small turtles," it’s as if destined that she would make her story come to fruition using this special paper.
The inspiration for creation cannot be found when one is deliberately searching, and the situation of getting stuck is not exactly incidental. Tao is accustomed to recording down and flipping through her daily observations, and she particularly enjoys observing small animals. In her opinion, animals and humans are all together in this world we live in and there is not such a big difference between us and them. Therefore, in her “story zoo” named APOORZOO, animals and humans naturally coexist, with blurred boundaries. Emotional sentences and ideas are frequently conveyed through the words or thoughts of animals.
“Every time I begin to create a story, I don't have a clear theme and I don't want to have one." Tao feels that her stories are not easy to read. “Saying something but as though saying nothing at all”. She likes her visual creations to be straightforward, meanwhile keeping the meaning of the stories vague or perhaps open-ended. She feels that speaking too clearly can be a bit foolish, and speaking too much seemed like preaching. So stories just have to be "subtle" in their own way.
“Because I am only sharing some of my personal life experiences and drawing up stories of ordinary people, not so much in search of life’s big ups and downs or the true meaning behind it. “ However, she does have some insistence when it comes down to things she wants to express, they must appear in her story one way or another. There is quite some of her own subconscious meanings wrapped into her stories.
“To hope for good things to happen", this is a phrase in the new story. And the name of this exhibition originate from the opening sentence of the story : “If a turtle choose not to sleep in winter”, the following line is then “it can do anything”. This is perhaps a key message in which this exhibition would like to express, but to do so in a quiet manner is somewhat necessary.
This exhibition will be the first time A Gui's story come face to face with the audience offline, and it’s also the first personal exhibition of Tao Benyuan's work as a creator, here in Xiamen. On this occasion, you will be able to observe the complete manuscript of Tao’s newly created story "One Tortoise Year", as well as some of her earlier original watercolor pieces from the series："A la sieste". Furthermore, during this exhibition, the audience will have the opportunity to browse through 16 artist books all created personally by Tao. To see how she went from a painting to a story as a creator, to catch a glimpse of her creative style and what inspires her work, and to feel the type of individual creativity that the Champochic Gallery is persistently dedicated to presenting and sharing with our audience.
厦门市思明区民族路37号之1海祥大厦7楼
Level 7, Hai Xiang Building, 37-1 Min Zu Road, Siming District, Xiamen
Level 7, Hai Xiang Building, 37-1 Min Zu Road, Siming District, Xiamen
