食肉的温柔 Carnivorous Tenderness

Skills: 展览 Exhibition
2025年11月艺术家驻地
驻地成果开放日
 
 食肉的温柔 
 
Ethan Lieutet Khnafo
2025年11月9日（周日）下午4点
 

2025 November Artists in Residence

Residency Works Open Day

 

 Carnivorous Tenderness 
 
Ethan Lieutet Khnafo
 

November 9 (Sunday) 16:00, 2025

 前言 Introduction 
“在菜市场里，我凝视着挂在各式管道上的肉块，仿佛看到了自己。我的目光落在摊位光洁的金属上，透过斑驳的血迹，在霓虹灯的映照下，我的眼睛闪闪发光。
这让我意识到奉献的简单，以及承诺的复杂。我意识到，映照在我脸上的，不应该是终点的景象，而应该是成长的希望。”
“Amid of lurking at the meat husks hooked on diverse pipe at the wet market, I saw myself. Reflecting on the polished metal of the stalls. In between the watery red stains, my eyes shine under the white neon lights. 
It made me realise the simplicity of devotion and the complexity of commitment. How the reflection of my face should not be the view of an end, but the hope of growing up. “

Meat Me Halfway n°1

摄影和丝网印刷 Photographic series, silk printing 

78×46 cm

2025

 

在痛苦与愉悦的交汇处，这片空间邀请你潜入那些不为人知的隐秘角落。它缓缓揭开一个驯服世界的原始躯壳，在那里，情感被压抑，残酷与关怀交织。
Ethan带着自嘲和讽刺的目光，直面他永恒的孤独恐惧，透过生活碎片，他解开了与他那难以割舍的Éros紧密相连的残酷预兆。
一种对联结的躁动渴望，在温柔与渴望之间摇摆不定。他的作品渴望一种张力：一方面是渴望“从此幸福快乐地生活在一起”的爱情，另一方面又是沉浸于性取向的世界，被一种本能的过度消费主义所浸透。在这个世界里，亲密往往被表演所取代，欲望成为表达爱意的唯一有效语言。
《食肉的温柔》强调了艺术家作品中反复出现的主题 – 二元性。在温柔的爱抚与血腥的言辞之间，开辟出一条道路。以各种形式呈现：一种原始的激情。
当两个身体相遇，温柔化作血肉之躯，成为一种共情的行为，温暖的肌肤既带来慰藉，又带来吞噬。
整体而言，这个项目宛如一个视觉与社会学的实验室，剖析着男性之间的关系世界。从人民公园的相亲角对爱情的终极追寻 – 这映照着传统核心家庭理想的镜子 – 到上海市场弥漫着铁锈气息的小巷，艺术家以摄影绘画、厚重的雕塑和行为艺术为工具，探索为何身体上的爱意往往胜过忠诚的依恋。

At the intersection of pain and pleasure, this space is an invitation to plunge into the hidden corners of the untold. Slowly opening the raw carcass of a tamed world where emotions are shushed and brutality encounters care. 

With self-derision and an ironic torch, Ethan confronts his everlasting fear of aloneness, viewed through fragments of lived experience, and he unravels the harsh omens bound to his inextricable Éros. A restless longing for connection that oscillates between tenderness and hunger. His work yearns for the tension between the desire for a “happily ever after” love, yet immersed in the world of sexual orientation, saturated by a visceral hyper-consumerism. A world where intimacy is often replaced by performance, and lust becomes the only valid language of affection.

Carnivorous Tenderness emphasises a duality, a recurring subject in the artist’s work. Creating a path across the softness of a caress and a bloody connoted word. In all forms: a carnal passion. 

When one body meets another, tenderness becomes flesh itself, an act of empathy, where warm skin comforts and consumes at once.

As a whole, this project stands as a visual and sociological laboratory, analysing the man-on-man relationship universe. From the ultimate search for love in People’s Park Match-making Corner, a mirror of the straight nuclear family ideal, to the iron-scented alley of Shanghai’s Market.  And using as a tool photographic paintings, meaty sculpture, and performative transformation, it explores why bodily affection often prevails in opposition to a devoted attachment.

Meat Me Halfway n°5

摄影和丝网印刷 Photographic series, silk printing, 

25,4×25,4cm

2025

Put a Ring on It

综合材料 Metal, alginate, acrylic

2025

 

自古以来，人类便将道德观念和各种象征意义投射到动物身上，然而这些象征意义因地域而异，既展现了文化差异，也揭示了意想不到的联系。从La Fontaine寓言到埃及神话，这些故事持续引起共鸣，塑造着我们对自身与非人类世界关系的理解。Lieutet Khnafo在ACENTRICSPACE的驻地项目正是植根于这一悠久传统。灵感诞生于菜市场，他选择以猪（或猪肉）为中心展开探究，审视其三个截然不同的特征，以及与这种看似平凡的动物相关的丰富而深刻的含义。

Since the earliest myths, we, humans, have projected morals and diverse symbolisms onto animals,  yet these symbolisms diverge from one region to another, revealing both cultural differences and unexpected connections. From the Fables of La Fontaine to the Egyptian pantheon, these stories continue to resonate, shaping how we understand our relationship with the non-human world. A part of Lieutet Khnafo’s project at ACENTRICSPACE situates itself within this long tradition. Born among the stalls of a Wet Market, the artist has chosen to center his interrogation on the pig, or pork, examining three distinct characteristics and the rich plethora of dividing meanings associated with this seemingly commonplace animal.

Roasted, Yet Honest

装置和行为 Installation and Performance

2025

 

汉字“家”的图案是一头猪在屋檐下，象征着财富、好运和富足，也代表着爱和忠贞的伴侣关系。这与西方贬义的传统观念截然不同，西方传统观念中猪常常被描绘成肮脏、懒惰和贪婪的形象。

The Chinese character for home, Jiā (家), depicts a pig beneath the roof of a house. Symbolising wealth, good fortune and abundance, as well as qualities such as loving and being a devoted romantic partners. In contrast with the Western derogatory traditions often cast the pig as dirty, lazy, and greedy.

Roasted, Yet Honest: From the Grim Brothers to the Tip of My Nose.

Installation and Performance

2025

 

在这种文化差异的核心，艺术家也反映了个人经历，与他早年对性的思考产生共鸣。例如，在同性俚语中，“猪”或“像猪一样”指的是沉溺于短暂关系的不健康行为。这与同性群体中的过度消费密切相关。这种解读与中国文化中猪所象征的稳定、家庭生活完全矛盾。

In the heart of this cultural divergence, the artist also reflects personal history, resonating with earlier reflections on sexuality. In gay slang, for instance, the term ‘’piggy or being a pig’’, depicts someone over-indulging fleeting encounters in an unhealthy manner. It is an association linked to overconsumption among homosexuals. This interpretation stands in total ambivalence with the pigs’ association with the stable, familial household in Chinese culture.

SafeBox

综合材料 Epoxy, rhinestones, crystals, pearls, pigtail from Zhuijiajiao Wet Market

2025

 

然而，有一个物体充当了这种复杂象征二元对立中心的桥梁：那就是小猪存钱罐。

动物性以及人类与其他生物之间的相互关系是Lieutet Khnafo艺术探索中的主要主题。艺术家以动物形态的变形和表演性的联想为棱镜，对我们生活中的社会和情感层面进行了深刻的探究。这一永恒的主题自Ethan的青少年时期便一直伴随着他，也与他早年成为动物学家的愿望相辅相成。

Nevertheless, an object acts as the bridge in the centre of this complex symbolic dichotomy:  The piggy bank. 

Animality and the interrelationship between humans and other living beings a predominant themes in Lieutet Khnafo’s artistic exploration. Through the prism of zoomorphic metamorphosis and performative association, the artist conducts an acute investigation into the sociological and emotional aspects of our lives. This enduring subject has accompanied Ethan from his teenage years, alongside his early aspiration to become a zoologist.