Soft Fever
“Soft Fever”汇集艺术家李悦的三十余幅绘画作品，呈现她近年来关于身体经验与感知边界的思索。展览标题指涉一种低烧般的生理状态——梦幻的、切肤的的感受，使创作过程中自我与外界的区分不再清晰。这种感知模式持续影响着艺术家构建图像的方式：植物与动物、火山与沙漠、水体与星轨，彼此的界限消融，缠为流动的整体。
李悦的创作灵感常常从旅行的经历得来。因长期往来于不同地区，她的作品逐渐从长卷转为便于随行的小尺幅作品。她使用的材料——彩铅——既易于在临时栖居的空间中展开工作，又能通过反复叠加为画面营造出柔和朦胧的质感。这种不断流动的创作状态也塑造着李悦的绘画语言：每个场景都带有未完成的动态，仿佛叙事随时可以在下一个时空中继续铺开。热带的氤氲水汽、四时变化的光线、生出繁茂枝叶的植物成为画面中主要的视觉元素。亚答子如触手般贴近发梢（《尼帕棕榈女孩》）；树枝与血管一同在夜幕下蔓延（《蓝色血管，缠绕心脏》）；水塔花丛中的人触碰着着水中人的脸庞，难以分清是现实还是记忆的倒影（《Fade into You》）；雨林中黑豹出没，一弯积水映出动物的眼睛（《热带的一夜》）。画中出现的自然物质具有情感与生命力量，不同物种也皆为有着自我意识的生灵，穿梭于真实世界与想象幻境之间。
艺术家同时在作品中融入东方与西方的神话元素，依托生命转化与万物轮回等共同母题，将内在体验延展为更加广阔的情感共鸣。“Soft Fever”意在展现介于清醒观察与沉湎梦境之间的存在状态，营造出边界模糊的感知空间，也指向不同于日常经验的多种可能。
Soft Fever brings more than 30 drawings by Mellow Yue Li, presenting her recent contemplations on bodily experience and perceptual boundaries. The exhibition title refers to a feverish physiological state—dreamlike and visceral—where the distinction between self and the world becomes blurred during the process of creation. This mode of perception continuously affects how the artist constructs her imagery: plants and animals, volcanoes and deserts, water bodies and star trails—their edges dissolve and intertwine into a fluid entity.
Mellow’s inspiration often derives from her travel experiences. As she moves between different regions constantly, her work has gradually shifted from scrolls to small-scale pieces that are convenient to carry. Her medium—colored pencils—allows her to work in temporary dwelling spaces while creating soft, hazy textures through repeated layering. This mobile creative gesture shapes Mellow’s language of drawing: every scene carries an unfinished dynamism, as if the narrative will continue unfolding in the next time and space. Humid air in the tropics, changing light through the seasons, and plants with lush foliage become the primary visual elements in her drawings. Nipa palm fruits approach hair like tentacles (Nipa Palm Girl); branches and blood vessels spread together under the night sky (Blue Veins, Hearts Intertwined); a figure among bromeliad flowers touches the face of their reflection in water, indistinguishable between reality and memory (Fade into You); a panther wanders in the rainforest, a pool of water reflecting the animal’s eyes (A Tropical Night). The natural matter in the drawings embodies emotion and vitality; different species become sentient, conscious beings, traversing between the real world and imagined realms.
The artist also incorporates mythological elements from both East and West, drawing on shared motifs of transformation and incarnation to extend personal experience into broader emotional resonance. Soft Fever intends to present an existential state between lucid observation and immersion in dreams, creating a perceptual space where boundaries are indistinct and pointing toward multiple possibilities beyond everyday experience.