Installation view of ‘John Kørner: Life in a Box’ at Victoria Miro, London. © The artist. Courtesy of the artist and Victoria Miro, London/Venice

‘The pace of contemporary life has never moved so fast,’ says Copenhagen-based artist John Kørner, while peddling comically slowly on his bike installation at Victoria Miro’s Wharf Road gallery in London. The bike is attached to a moving platform topped with a stall of chairs built for visitors, parallel to a vast, 12-panel painting charting a sunrise and set. The installation is designed to ‘slow us down, and see the painting from a different perspective’.

哥本哈根艺术家约翰·科纳(JohnK Rner)说，当代生活的节奏从来没有这么快过。他在伦敦维多利亚·米罗(Victoria Miro)的码头路画廊(Wharf Road)滑稽地缓慢地兜售自行车。这辆自行车连接在一个移动平台上，上面有一个为游客建造的椅子摊位，平行于一幅巨大的12面板绘画，上面画着日出和布景。安装的目的是“放慢速度，从不同的角度看这幅画”。

The exhibition – ‘Life in a Box’ – revolves around the physical, emotional, and conceptual constraints of time passing, and the ways in which we attempt to ‘outrun’ them. Kørner depicts runners in cross-country garb, shifting in-and-out of focus into vivid yellow and red backgrounds, as if we’re just missing them as they zoom past. In the upstairs gallery, a sweeping, floridly-coloured race track covers the floor; the finish-line dissected by a giant climbing frame that also functions as a bar, which Kørner encourages you to climb up, and order a shot.

展览--“盒子中的生活”-围绕着时间传递的物理、情感和概念约束，以及我们试图“超越”的方式。KosterRner描述了跨国家GARB的跑步者，将注意力从焦点转移到生动的黄色和红色背景中，好像我们只是在他们缩放过去一样丢失了它们。在楼上的画廊里，一个扫过的、有花彩的种族轨道覆盖着地板；由一个巨大的攀爬架切割的精整线，它也起了一个杆的作用，Kararner鼓励你爬上去，并下令射击。

Installation view of ‘John Kørner: Life in a Box’ at Victoria Miro, London. © The artist. Courtesy of Victoria Miro, London/Venice

伦敦维多利亚米罗的“约翰·科纳：盒子里的生活”的安装视图。艺术家。维多利亚·米罗，伦敦/威尼斯

The bar, Kørner explains, is a reflection of the time-travelling transformation we undergo when drinking alcohol. ‘It seems that lots of people change personality when they go drinking. Especially in the UK, there’s so many pubs – and I’m fascinated by this culture. It has a great impact on the demeanour. For instance, I smile more when I drink. For some people, it’s a way of escaping to a place where time moves differently.’ For better or worse.

酒吧，KingRner解释说，是我们在喝酒时经历的时间旅行转变的反映。“似乎很多人在喝酒时改变了个性。特别是在英国，有很多酒吧，我对这个文化很着迷。例如，当我喝酒的时候，我更多的微笑。对于一些人来说，它是逃避时间的一种方式，在这个地方，时间会有不同的变化。”“为了更好或更糟糕。”

There are lighthearted notes to the exhibition, but, as is common in Kørner’s complex practice, it’s also dense with metaphor, symbol, and serious commentary. On what exactly, Kørner leaves largely up to the viewer. The snow-peaked mountains he paints, for instance, are not meant to represent a particular range, but the idea of a mountain more broadly. Here, they seem to represent natural order and peace, offering refreshing calm from the self-defeating, fast-paced racing occuring elsewhere in the gallery.

展览中有一些轻松的注释，但是，正如K rner复杂的实践中所常见的那样，它也充满了隐喻、象征和严肃的评论。确切地说，科纳在很大程度上取决于观众。例如，他所描绘的雪峰山脉，并不代表一个特定的范围，而是一座更广阔的山脉的概念。在这里，它们似乎代表着自然秩序与和平，提供了令人耳目一新的平静，因为在画廊的其他地方发生了自我挫败、节奏快的比赛。

Likewise the boxes seen throughout the exhibition have manifold meaning. At times, they appear prison-like and claustrophobic, drawing you in like a box set. At other times, they are protective; containing within them calming, vast green planes. For the artist, ‘they refer to anything from mental “boxes”, to apartments, to crates of apples, to TV sets, to the tall walls of a valley’. Rather than prescribe meaning, his ‘main aim is to communicate with the viewer, and have my work resonate with something in their life’.

同样，在整个展览中看到的盒子也有多种含义。有时，它们看起来像监狱一样，幽闭恐惧症，把你像盒子一样吸引进来。在其他时候，它们是保护性的，里面包含着平静的、巨大的绿色平面。对于艺术家来说，‘他们指的是任何东西，从精神上的“盒子”，到公寓，到苹果箱，到电视机，再到山谷的高墙。他的“主要目的是与观众交流，让我的作品在他们的生活中产生共鸣”，而不是规定意义。

Installation view of ‘John Kørner: Life in a Box’ at Victoria Miro, London. © The artist. Courtesy of Victoria Miro, London/Venice

伦敦维多利亚米罗的“约翰·科纳：盒子里的生活”的安装视图。艺术家。维多利亚·米罗，伦敦/威尼斯

The exhibition also contains a number of Kørner’s storied ‘problems’: egg-shaped sculptures that represent the universal nature of issues, questions and conundrums. The idea has followed Kørner for much of his career, first appearing in the years after his graduation from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts Copenhagen in 1988. At Victoria Miro, they take the form of bright, primary-coloured sculptures dotted along the race track, obstacles in the way of the theoretical runners chasing their goals; and gallery visitors navigating the space, forcing them to move slowly and deliberately.

展览还包含了科纳的一些传说中的“问题”：鸡蛋形状的雕塑，代表了问题、问题和难题的普遍性。这一想法在他职业生涯的大部分时间里都是跟随着科纳提出的，第一次出现在他1988年从丹麦皇家美术学院哥本哈根毕业后的几年里。在维多利亚米罗，他们采取的形式是明亮的，原色的雕塑点缀在赛道上，阻碍理论赛跑者追逐他们的目标的障碍；以及画廊参观者在空间中航行，迫使他们缓慢而故意地移动。

Kørner has long been of the opinion that art should exercise the imagination like a bicycle stretches the legs. He tests the theory literally, and runs the imagination ragged, in what is an edifying, dense display. Afterwards, you can climb the bar for a refreshing, transformative tipple. §

长期以来，科纳一直认为艺术应该像自行车一样锻炼想象力。他从字面上验证了这一理论，并以一种富有启发性的、密集的展示方式，运用了破烂不堪的想象力。之后，你可以爬到吧台上，喝一杯清爽的、变革性的酒。§

2019年走廊的水，由JohnKingrner，丙烯酸在帆布上。(c)艺术家。来自于2019年的维多利亚米罗（VictoriaMIRO）、伦敦/威尼斯（Venice/Venice）的水，由Canvas（Canvas）的JohnKingerner（JohnKingerner）提供。(c)艺术家。伦敦/威尼斯维多利亚米罗的礼遇

在伦敦维多利亚米罗举行的“约翰·克里纳：生活在一个盒子里”的安装图。(c)艺术家。伦敦/威尼斯维多利亚米罗的艺术家和维多利亚米罗（VictoriaMIRO）的礼貌，伦敦维多利亚米罗（VictoriaMIRO）的一个盒子里的生活。(c)艺术家。伦敦/威尼斯艺术家和VictoriaMIRO的礼遇