T he largest work by the artist to be offered at auction, along with its companion work Sister No.14 (diptych) which was offered by Sotheby’s Hong Kong in 2019, the expansive Sister no. 15 (2008) hails from Duan Jianyu’s iconic Sister series of paintings that centre upon a fictional airline stewardess. Exuding an ethereal and enigmatic aura, Sister no. 15 depicts the characteristically blue-suited stewardess and a traveling band of animals journeying together across a vast, golden desert. This unlikely train includes tigers, zebras, orangutans, camels and elephants and, as Pu Hong observes, “It is much like Life of Pi […] animals endowed with counterpoints to the cowardice, greed, and sometimes earnestness of humanity” (Pu Hong, “Duan Jianyu: Attaching Reality to Surface”, LEAP 19, 13 May 2013). The protagonist of many of the artists compositions, the paratextual figure of the “sister”, consistently donning her blue uniform and carrying her suitcase despite the outlandish context we find her in, jumps from painting to painting. This fixation on “the journey” reflects a poignant state of uncertainty around urbanity and the contemporary world on the part of the artist. Often working in series, two works from Duan’s celebrated Sister series are part of the Sigg Collection at Hong Kong’s M+ Museum, along with works by the artist held at the Guggenheim.

As an artist who both writes and paints, Duan’s paintings possess a strong narrative drive and textuality. Born in 1970 in Henan province, Duan faux-naive visual lexicon incorporates references to both Western modernist tradition and Chinese art history, from primitivism and abstract art to Socialist Realism. The daughter of a mother who worked at a state bookshop and a father who was a writer, Duan was passionate about literature from an early age. Incorporating surprising and bizarre narratives with fabricated characters within her compositions, Duan challenges the conventions and boundaries of the landscape and portraiture traditions. Weaving together images of ordinary people and everyday scenarios with surreal elements, Duan’s compositions represent an adventure as much into the landscape of contemporary society as into the imagination. Although she herself is based in Guangzhou, her work embodies elements of her native town in Henan, with anxieties around modernisation and the problematics of regional identity informing much of the artist’s work. After having graduated he Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, the artist chose to move to Guangzhou instead of Beijing, the centre of the contemporary Chinese art world. Preoccupied with the growing tension between China’s modernization and its rural identity, Duan Jianyu’s singular iconography combines scenes of bucolic beauty with the aesthetics of mass production and the televisual imagination. Duan has articulated this as “whether it's the simple and honest countryside in the North or the delicate and beautiful scenery in the South, both landscapes are facing significant change; the old China, made up of lots of rural towns, each rich in its own folklore and local custom, is slowly ebbing away” (the artist, quoted in “Teaching Duan Jianyu”, Guggenheim Museum, online).

A universe into themselves, Duan Jianyu’s compositions produce vast spaces which seem to extend well beyond the confines of the canvas. Gradually loosing the glamour and elegance associated with their pristine uniforms and the promise of travel they denote, Duan’s “sisters” find their way into unlikely situations, which when combined with the artist’s warm and expressive use of colour, produces an atmosphere which as once sentimental and poetic. Peculiar and bizarre yet intimate, the present work epitomizes Duan Jianyu’s liminal visual lexicon that teases out allegories of contemporary society. Painting in a deliberately naive style, Duan diffuses her fantastical tableaux with a mood of banality that only deepens their mysteriousness. The correspondence between setting, allusion, the intertextual nature of image making and the multiplicity suggested within spatial structures are all at work within Sister no. 15, creating a dynamic reciprocity between its own visual language and the experience of the viewer.

《姐姐15號》是段建宇迄今最大幅的上拍作品，其姐妹作《姐姐14號》早前亦於2019年在香港蘇富比登場。尺幅宏大的《姐姐15號》來自段建宇經典的《姐姐》系列，整個系列圍繞著一名虛構的空中服務員創作。畫作散發一股空靈而神秘的氛圍，描繪穿著典型藍色制服的空姐，與一群動物穿越廣袤的沙漠。這奇異的旅團成員包括老虎、斑馬、猩猩、駱駝和大象，一如蒲鴻所述：「這與《少年Pi的奇幻漂流》十分相似……將動物與人性中的怯懦、貪婪，甚至誠實對位」（蒲鴻，〈段建宇：把現實附在表皮上〉，載於《LEAP藝術界19》，2013年5月13日）。「姐姐」作為藝術家眾多作品的副文本主角，總是穿著藍色制服穿梭不同畫作，提著行李箱置身於奇異的環境之中。段建宇對於「旅途」的重視，反映出藝術家面對都市生活和當代世界，內心深處的忐忑不安。段建宇的作品多以系列形式出現，除了古根海姆博物館，香港M＋希克藏品亦收藏了兩件廣受好評的《姐姐》系列佳作。

作為一位同時書寫和繪畫的藝術家，段建宇的畫作帶有一份強烈的敘事動機和文本性。1970年出生於河南省，她如夢似幻的視覺語彙融合了西方現代美學及中國藝術史，滲透出原始、抽象及社會現實主義的氛圍。母親在國營書店工作，父親則為寫作人，段建宇自小便對文學產生濃厚興趣。她畫筆下怪誕驚奇的藝術世界，訴說著一個又一個虛構人物的故事，挑戰風景畫和肖像畫的傳統界線。她喜歡將平凡人物、日常風景和超現實元素串連融合，筆下的畫面帶觀者展開一趟從當代社會飛越至想像世界的冒險旅程。儘管在廣州生活和工作，段建宇的作品卻總是散發出家鄉河南濃厚的鄉土氣息，訴說著對現代化的不安和地方身分認同的疑慮。在廣州美院畢業後，她選擇留在廣州，而非北京這個中國當代藝術圈的中心。段建宇深深感受到現代化與鄉土傳統的衝突，她別樹一幟的創作風格結合了農村的鄉土美、工業化生產和電視化想像的美學。她曾自述︰「不論是渾厚的北方農村還是清秀的南方農村，都在現實中發生著巨變，一個充滿傳說和傳統習俗的鄉土中國正在逝去。」（引述藝術家，錄於〈教育｜段建宇〉，古根海姆美術館，線上）

段建宇的作品自成一個世界，創造出一個彷彿延伸至畫布以外的廣漠空間。逐漸褪去工作制服的優雅和旅遊待遇的光環，段建宇的「姐姐們」置身於特異場景，在藝術家溫暖而情感飽滿的色彩運用下，營造出詩意洋溢的感性氛圍。怪異奇詭卻親密無間，此作突顯段建宇用以嘲諷當代光怪陸離社會的視覺詞彙，以一種故作天真的風格和波瀾不興的平庸情緒，增添奇幻畫面背後的神秘性。場景、暗喻、圖像的互文性以及空間結構的多樣性，全都在《姐姐15號》相互發揮角色，豐富畫作視覺語言的同時，亦為觀者帶來充滿層次的藝術體驗。