Lisson is pleased to present the first solo exhibition of Ceal Floyer (1968 – 2025) with the gallery in China. Coinciding with her presentation Unfinished at Berggruen Arts & Culture, Palazzo Diedo, Venice, the exhibition features a rigorously concise grouping of sculptural works and readymades showcasing Floyer’s conceptual precision and dry wit.
Floyer’s practice interrogates familiar objects through a subtle defamiliarisation, exposing the disjunction between linguistic and visual registers. Characterised by a deceptive simplicity, her propositions employ double-takes and shifting perspectives to compel perceptual renegotiation. The resulting oeuvre achieves a distinctive tone of quiet resonance, wherein minimal gestures result in a reconsideration of the quotidian that is at once playful and profound.
Upon entering, visitors encounter the floor-based work Meeting Point (2013), which comprises a circular arrangement of red arrows mimicking universal signage seen in public spaces. Whilst the work delivers a directive, the configuration leads nowhere, with the language of orientation providing no actual destination. This intervention renders a familiar navigational tool functionally absurd, generating cognitive dislocation.
Read moreOn a nearby wall, Floyer's everyday poetics continues in Will Return (2018), a work that comprises a readymade commercial clock sign stripped of its hands. This alteration negates the object’s intended function, bringing the viewer into an existential mediation on presence and absence. Elsewhere in the gallery, Day for Night (2001) positions two desk lamps on a shelf; projecting overlapping beams of cold blue and warm orange light, each lamp cancels out the other in a deadpan visual loop.
Along the length of the gallery, Domino Effect (2015) presents a continuous row of upright dominoes, each piece placed flush against the next. By closing the gaps that would normally allow a chain reaction to unfold, Floyer arrests a symbol of cause and effect into a static, self-contained sculpture – a small act of sabotage that results in a study of suspended potential. On the opposite wall, Hinges (2021) consists of two metal door hinges installed directly into a 90-degree corner of the gallery. As with the dominoes, the hinges are stripped of function through their subtle misappropriation, redirecting attention to the architecture and charging it with an unresolved tension.
Suspended from the ceiling, Untitled (Static) (2018) takes the form of a parabolic dome fitted with a speaker that plays recorded static, the texture of the sound resembling falling rain. The associative qualities of the white noise transform the installation, composed from the most economical of means, into a sonic and visual illusion replete with both humour and pathos.
Collectively, these works distill Floyer's singular ability to transform the overlooked and the ordinary into profound perceptual enquiries. Through restrained gestures that suspend function, the work situates the viewer within a state of productive ambiguity, where the familiar is bestowed with a contemplative weight through being made strange.
里森画廊首次在其中国空间呈现英国艺术家西尔·弗洛耶（Ceal Floyer，1968–2025）的个展，通过一组凝练的雕塑与现成品，展现她鞭辟入里的观念创作，以及不动声色的幽默感。此次展览与艺术家在威尼斯博古睿艺术与文化基金会迪多宫（Berggruen Arts & Culture，Palazzo Diedo）的个展“Unfinished”同期举行。
弗洛耶以含蓄的手法将平凡之物陌生化，揭露语言与视觉系统之间的错置：看似简单而不然的作品往往需要回看和从不同角度观察，迫使观者重新审视自我的感知。她用至简的创作方式唤起对平常事物的反思，作品风格低调、沉静，在玩味与深意之间周旋。
观者步入展厅便会看到置于地面的《汇合点》（Meeting Point，2013）。作品由一圈红色箭头组成，模仿着通用于公共空间的指示标识。虽然给予观者方向指引，但箭头的排列方式却不通向任何地方。原本用于导引的符号系统，不再指向实际目的地，这样的介入使我们熟悉的导航工具陷入无功能性的荒诞境地，从而造成认知的错位。
一旁墙上的《稍后回来》（Will Return，2018）继续叙述着弗洛耶对日常的诗意美学：一个时钟标识中的指针被移除，令物件失去原有的功能，引发关于存在与缺失的深思。在旁边的的《白昼为夜》（Day for Night，2001）中，置于架子上的两盏台灯分别向墙壁投射出蓝光和橙光，冷暖光相互重叠、彼此抵消，形成无声的视觉循环。作品标题“Day for Night”来自电影拍摄中用于模拟夜景的技术。
沿着展厅另一侧墙面展出的是《多米诺效应》（Domino Effect，2015），地上竖立着一排彼此紧贴的多米诺骨牌。艺术家封闭了连锁反应发生的空间，将其中因果关系的象征定格为一件静止而自洽的雕塑，通过微不足道的“破坏”行为，探讨被搁置的可能性。对面90度墙角上的《合页》（Hinges，2021）由两片金属合页构成，和多米诺骨牌一样，这对合页由于细微的错置而失去了原有的功能，在悬而未决的张力之下，将观者的注意力转移至建筑空间本身。
《无题（噪声）》（Untitled (Static)，2018）自天花板悬垂而下，弧形罩内部的扬声器播放着预先录制的静电噪声，音质仿佛雨滴落下的声响。噪音所唤起的联想，使这件简朴的装置变成一场听觉与视觉的幻象，诙谐且富有感染力。
这些作品都是弗洛耶别具一格实践的体现，那些往往被忽略的日常，在她手中被转化为对感知的深入探寻。她用极尽克制的手法剥离客体的功能，将观者置于一种创造性的模糊状态之中：曾经熟稔的物件变得陌生，从而被赋予可供凝视和冥思的重量。
