只有眼睛，沒有頭髮，這些令人毛骨悚然的人物都像時裝店櫥窗前的模特兒娃娃， 它們都出自古巴版畫家Belkis Ayón的手筆；如此迷幻的作畫，原來隱藏著一個神秘宗教的故事。

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So I decided to take my not yet four year old colibrí with me to El Museo’s current exhibition “Nkame: a retrospective of Cuban printmaker, Belkis Ayón” knowing that would mean significant time lost for me to closely examine the textural complexity of the #colografía technique on display, much less reflect en vivo with the enormity of symbolic iconography and the transgressive interplay of this cubana exploring what is a male only Cuban Abakuá “secret society” descending from enslaved Africans from Old Calabar (contemporary Nigeria/Cameroon) that I had no knowledge of before today and Ayón’s exhibit. Although much of my time ultimately did involve the standard daddy duty of corralling her and begging patience for my indulgence more so than her education, kids then bless you with born again visions all too often. As she plopped down exhausted in front of the “Desasosiego/Restlessness” series (only realized that symbolism as I posted this), I asked her what she thought of the pictures and besides noting they were only black and white (she’s still more pink/purple/rainbow stage in her color palette) she said they were beautiful and loving. “Loving” which made me look at the entire exhibit in another way hours later, a deeper way born from the limited vocabulary of a sweet child who then promptly switched gears into scheming for some pizza slices #quesiguelacancion #teachthechildrenwell #childofallnations #desasosiego #restlessness #belkisayón

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Afro Cuban printmaker #belkisayón

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自小在古巴長大的Ayón，一直對古巴的黑人宗教Abakuá阿巴庫亞教很感興趣，但她自己卻不是這個宗教的信徒。Abakuá從不允許女性入教——這來自一個傳說：話說一個得到了神指引的公主Sikán 奉命要把聖旨傳達給她的人民，但她卻把這些秘密告訴了一個異國的情人，於是Sikán 便被施以死刑，而女性也不再受到信任。

這刻我們就知道，令Ayón感興趣的不是宗教的教義，而是這個社群對女性的排擠，甚至是整個社會製造出來的性別困擾，而版畫就成了她伸訴的方法。畫作呈現的都是Abakuá的宗教內容，但Sikán 公主卻成為作品的主角，我們甚至可把她理解為Ayón本人的化身。

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有黑白和彩色兩個版本的La Cena（The Supper），是一幅挪用了達文西The Last Supper 概念的變體畫，Sikán 取代了基督的位置，身旁的女性有些看著Sikán ，有些則直視觀眾，互相依偎著。透過把Abakuá的男性主導思想重新轉化，把聚光燈射在Sikán 身上，Ayón這裡嘗試對古巴傳統社會的性別角色定位作出伸訴。

Sikán is a transgressor, and as such I see her, and I see myself.
（譯：Sikán是一個違規者，當我看到她，我看到自己。）
—Belkis Ayón

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除了以宗教為主題來挑戰社會，Ayón的大膽還能體現在她的技法上，這是一種名為Collography（珂羅膠捲製版法）的作畫方法，它在古巴擁有悠久的歷史，但在當時已漸漸被淘汰；勇於嘗試的Ayón不怕複雜麻煩，以多種材料如菜葉等放在板上，再雕刻圖案，最後呈現出來的特殊紋理效果是大家都有目共睹的。

雖然Ayón選擇在32歲時了結自己的生命，但她還是留下了200多幅作品，為我們講述這個神秘宗教的故事。

NKAME: A Retrospective of Cuban Printmaker Belkis Ayón
日期：即日至2017年11月5日
地址：
El Museo Del Barrio,
1230 Fifth Ave,
New York, NY
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