Illustration by Theophile Signard
Théophile Signard is a Paris-born, Shanghai-based illustrator, graphic designer and creative director. He moved to China over 10 years ago and has progressed from a career in advertising + events to producing work in various creative fields, including illustration art, embodied by his role as Co-Editor of illustration art magazine ‘Shaving in the Dark’.
Picture the scene: after a few days in lockdown, I am in my Shanghai apartment, watching the news and absorbing all the information on the development on this coronavirus crisis, hour after hour. Images of masked people starting to appear on both local and international news have flooded my brain. Getting anxious, for sure, but also powerless regarding this dramatic situation. What can I do? What can I do as an artist?
I committed to expressing my feeling in the only way I can. Drawing, drawing and more drawing. Creating on the subject was the obvious thing to do for me. I let my subconscious guide my creative mind and direct my hands. I was submerged in images of all these masks being everywhere, but also becoming increasingly difficult to get and precious at the same time. That’s when the idea of this Masquerade series came to me. I wished to share an expression of my creativity, reacting to these terrible events, in the form of a series of black and white digital illustrations. It is not a dramatization of the situation, but rather an expression of my feelings at the time. Ten days, ten illustrations, ten visions of this period in time, shared by millions of people. In fact this is a little breath of creativity in the moment and a way to remember the lockdown period.
插圖
特奧菲爾·西納德（Théophile Signard）是一位出生於巴黎的插畫師，平面設計師和創意總監。
他於10年前移居中國，職業是廣告業+舉辦活動的方式來從事各種創意領域的工作，
包括插畫藝術，他同時也是插畫藝術雜誌《Shaving in the Dark》的共同編輯。
想像一下這樣的場景：在遭受禁閉幾天之後，在我上海的公寓裡面，我重複一個小時又一個小時地，觀看著即時新聞，並吸收有關冠狀病毒的危險發展以及有關於它的所有訊息。
戴著口罩的人們開始在本地和國際新聞中出現，這幅圖像淹沒了我的大腦。
對於這種戲劇性的情況，你一定也會感到焦慮，但也無能為力。
我能做些什麼呢？身為藝術家的我該怎麼辦呢？
我致力並盡可能地去表達自己的感覺。
繪圖，繪圖和更多的繪圖。
在這個事件上進行創作對於我而言是顯而易見的事情。
我讓我的潛意識引領著我的創造力並指導著我的雙手。
我被所有這些戴著口罩的影像所淹沒了，給吞噬了…
但同時那畫面也變得越來越難以獲得和珍貴。
從中我找到我的假面舞會系列。
我希望以一系列黑白數位插圖的形式，分享我對這一連串可怕事件之反應下產生的創造力。
這不是當局情況下戲劇化的轉變，而是我當時正感受到與我所能表達的情緒正在交互作用。
數以百萬計的人共同分享了這十天，十幅插圖和十幅異象由我在這期間的創作。
在被囚禁的這段期間，我感受到些微地創造力了。
Author: Theophile SIGNARD
Translation by CHUANG Shih-Ning
