第85期 回归于视觉本身（2013年）
学术主持：王易罡 付晓东
主题：宋元元 闫珩 商成祥 张博夫 耿旖旎 杨帆 沙子鉴 付经岩 韦加
新作：陈文令 洪耀 侯拙吾 沈伟 彭燃 郑宝成 曾慧
Issue No. 85(2013)
Theme: Regression to Vision Itself
Academic Host: Wang Yigang, Fu Xiaodong
A.T:Song Yuanyuan, Yan Heng, Shang Cheng Xiang, Zhang Bofu, Geng Yini, Yang Fan, Sha Zijian, Fu Jingyan, Wei Jia
A.N: Chen Wenling, Hong Yao, Hou Zhuowu, Shen Wei, Peng Ran, Zheng Baocheng, Zeng Hui
回归于视觉本身
Regression to Vision Itself
学术主持：王易罡 ACADEMIC HOST: WANG YIGANG
编者按
本期我们邀请了王易罡老师来作为推荐东北年轻艺术家的主持。2006年，由我和孙宁共同策划的“上房抽梯”的关于70年代东北年轻艺术家的群展，第一次系统地呈现了东北地区实力派绘画系统的面貌。当时是工业转型时期，重工业为主的铁西区大面积拆迁留下大批的废墟，工人大批量下岗，废墟成为一个时代和集体的隐喻，理想中的社会主义幻觉在一片废墟中破灭。这些艺术家在以写实的形式，叙事的情节而进行观念性的反逻辑创作，以可以感知的视觉形象创造一个思维的陷阱，成为了这次展览的主要内容。图像形成一种话语般的修辞，在表形、表意，甚至表音等方向，图像的可能性被更大限度地打开了。这一方法，在后来几乎成为东北年轻艺术家的倾向，在后来几年的毕业展上可以很明显地看到“上房抽梯”式的调侃和伤感趣味的延续，而区别于学院体系的教学样式。本期所推荐的艺术家中，基本都是“上房抽梯”之后出现，并活跃在东北的80一代的年轻艺术家，他们各自有着自己不同的方向和面貌，并在不断地完善着自己的体系。宋元元毕业于摄影系，用他独特的对摄影图像的理解改造怪异的室内空间，通过镜头一般的孔洞重新看待绘画。耿旖旎的胖子系列和椅子系列，对绘画视觉元素的操控运用自如，调侃和荒诞的情节设置如同单刀直入。张博夫毕业于卡塞尔美院，低沉压抑而集聚潜在的爆发能量在画面中透过单纯而沉稳的颜色得以承载。闫珩是以装置和绘画互相结合的绘画，也用书写和黑板的物象把文字和图像作为一种超现实的蒙太奇，把压抑、控制和疯狂合理地拼贴到一起。商成祥以无比的耐心对细密而纠结的物体充满兴趣，并在撕裂、破碎的瞬间，在动物和人性之间，呈现了一个时代的精神图景的画面。杨帆以一种装置摆拍和相机闪光的效果完成画面，钮扣系列更加的破碎化，分离化。付经岩的作品以坏画的稚拙的笔触方式，传达着视觉记忆中的荒诞，或者视觉观念的叠加。韦加的作品则用一种接近于抽象的形式传达个人的记忆和情感的宣泄。我非常荣幸地向读者推荐这些颇具实力的更新一代的来自东北的青年，并共同见证他们的成长和不断涌现的创造。
——付晓东
事实上，在今天我们有很多时候，已不再相信你的眼睛与视觉本身，更多地相信一种文本与叙事的解读，它似乎比仅仅以一种感官上不确定的视觉感受来得更可靠。而这种文本与叙事解读的真实可靠性，让我们在思想方法上，不自觉地将视觉感受的直接性与鲜活感退居其次。我们是在泛滥的多元时代，是一个说图的时代，而不是看图的时代。记得在三十年前读过的《现代绘画简史》中，H.Read说过：“全部绘画艺术史就是一部人类视觉进化的历史。”离开了视觉本身，恐怕很难在特殊的交替时代中形成什么新建树，也许今天的文本与叙事又形成了一个新的主体和另一种表达方法，但是我始终还是相信视觉本身及你的第一手感觉。
我们可以回顾东北艺术发展的历史，它是在特殊的历史进程中发挥了它特有的作用，但它仅仅是体制内的艺术。我们应该逐渐地学会正视历史，昨天在体制内的辉煌不等于今天的成就。如果说我们今天还有传统的话，它不再是艰苦奋斗的革命文艺了，因为它早已失去了特定的环境，失去了革命的对象。而在今天这种传统已转变成“鲁美”，在特定区域中所形成的一种理性视觉经验的积累。这种积累是在长期教学实践与艺术家不断耕耘中所确立的。如果今天我们丢掉这种对视觉规律及经验的把握，那么我们将无传统可依。假如我们还是抱着所谓的虚拟现实主义，所谓具象写实为传统的话，我们也将失去在今天全球一体化背景下生存的条件。
今天的多元已从无主流发展至不再相信或不断质疑主流的行动，几乎我们今天在许多的绘画及其他门类艺术中展现出的一种对主体的否定与质疑已形成了一种新的景观。福柯对待主体死亡的认识，也许是涵盖今天的文本与叙事新方法的一种较为清晰的表达。如果这些构想消失，如同它们的出现一样；如果这些构想因某一事件而发生动摇，而该事件的可能性，我们至多能预感其形式或者征兆？我们目前还不能辨别。犹如18世纪前后，古典思想的基础发生动摇那样，那就完全可以打赌说，人就会像画在海滩上的一张面孔一样消失。福柯认为：人是如同海滩上的图画，在涨潮、退潮的冲刷中什么都不会剩下来，没有记忆，没有痕迹。在这里的死亡与无意义、被否定、被怀疑的主体，便是我们生命自身及艺术创作形成的主体意识。把主体、客体从二者永恒与不变的原则与概念中彻底解放出来，即：我不能自由设计自己，而是更多地服从于话语的和非话语的实践。
我们的成长几乎都是从不断地否定一种主体开始，犹如我们的降生，不是错误、不是叛逆、不是不道德，更不是我们违反伦理，而是一种在蜕变中的反思与进步。对于主体的反动，便使我们今天得以变得真实。这种真实，便是对自我认识的一种解放，这便是从传统的、习惯的、约定俗成的判断中走出来，于是就会有了一个新的希望与许诺。
回归也许是一种无奈，也许是一种重新出发的起跑点，如果我们认为解决视觉与观看方式的问题，是一个有效的基本问题，也许它便是今天纷乱的艺术现象中比较直接、具体的问题。假如从它入手，我们就会从另外的一个层次上来重新看待它。
东北青年艺术家的发展，都有着自身区域性特有的发展脉络，其中传统学院的影响，是一个非常重要的部分。在今天国内艺术界比较活跃的艺术家，都在不同程度上是在学院求学期间就已经有了对不同艺术资讯的了解，大多比较重视绘画能力的表达。在进入社会更广阔生存空间之后，便及时调整了绘画的方法与观念，积极地去对应今天的文化现象与市场的变化。但这并不等于在艺术及视觉上有了什么样的进步。在以往的学院的教育传统中，人们更多地关心——如何接触新的绘画形式，如何从没有见过的新的大师作品中学习一种绘画方法，如何用别人的眼睛替代自己的眼睛，用别人的思维替代自己的思考。而这种绘画与思考的方法，它在有形与无形地伤害着青年艺术家。我们的青年艺术家又需要经过多少年的沉寂与思考，才会把这个无形的主体意识给打破并丢掉！又有多少人终生走不出这道“伪艺术”的樊篱。在这里，无论是学院教育或是生存的环境里，都有一个致命的问题：那就是我们从来没有让这些青年艺术家，来面对一种真实或者说是真诚，没有让他们学会如何用真诚的眼睛看生活、看世界，也没有让他们用真诚的心去感悟社会与世态的变迁与冷暖，而始终让他们成长在一个虚伪的空间环境里，以至于他们无法用自己的内心去感受生活与现实，无法用自己的眼睛来批判世间的真、善、美，以至于我们也迷失了自己，我们看到的不再是心灵引导艺术，而是市场价格在引导绘画艺术以及其他门类艺术。现在这种现象已蔚然成风，一部分艺术家从虚伪的艺术又走向了金钱的艺术。曾几何时，我们无法面对众多的东北艺术家的作品，其绘画方法、思维方式的同化，让我们很无奈。时至今日，一走进我们的工作室，你仍然会发现：二三十人的作品放在一起，如不细看，你会觉得同出一辙。无论从上述的哪个问题上来看，都是我们今天所不愿意见到的。
“80后”年轻一代的艺术家基本都是在这种教育下成长起来的艺术家。他们虽然出自这种学院的体系，并无奈地接受了这种异化的艺术教育，又正好赶上“中国式”的扩招，加之教育理论的陈旧、有限的师资力量根本无法承载数量如此浩大的艺术学子的教育，致使这些年轻人虽然有机会上大学，却没有机会体验到真正的大学教育。正是由于这种状况，造成了这一代人的普遍性的“基础”薄弱（与所谓的传统学院标准相比较而言）。但在另一个方面，却阴差阳错地促成另外一部分人的自由表达，这真是无心之柳。这些敏感的青年透过今天的资讯，接触到了大量的西方当代艺术思想，学会了如何面对全球化、如何面对市场。因此，市场的发展及导向几乎成为这批“80后”艺术家前进变化的主要动力。他们面对市场极度热情，对市场给予了极大的拥抱。市场发展变化的任何倾向都或多或少地影响他们的绘画风格及创作思路。
在“80后”的大部分东北青年艺术家的作品中，也不仅是东北，都出现许多的相似性，这种相似性便是由于一种创造力低、没有自己的真实感受所导致。比如王兴伟的影响，在相当长的一个时间内都非常明显。他采取一种另类叙事，或是反叙事，以方法论的方式来重新表现、抽离形式与内容的关系，把一种坏的、失败的绘画方法与传统中的正确的方法反转使用，从而形成一个特有的视觉经验。王兴伟这种方法与思考其实很多情况下仅适合他一人，有其自身发展的文脉与系统，而不一定适合所有人。然而无论从哪个角度来说，今天的东北艺术家的问题与优势是共存的。在今天中国艺术市场中比较活跃的或是还具备相当潜力的仍然在东北的这部分艺术家，他们最多的是油画专业出身，其数量按所学专业依次是版画、雕塑、中国画、新媒体、动画等。但是，这些艺术家进入独立创作之时已经逐渐地形成了一种多元化的价值取向，比如一部分艺术家转而使用新的从前并不熟悉的装置、影像及新媒体艺术形式。对于年轻人来说，学院的专业背景的局限，使他或多或少地形成了重技术、轻思考的创作方式，对于技术的自我意淫依然很盛行，然而经常被我们所诟病。但也有些“80后”的艺术家已经从这种诟病中走了出来，自由大胆地跳出原有的学院教育中的所谓传统的樊篱，他们在努力批判、否定传统学院影响的同时，积极地在迷茫中寻找自我的方法与新的理念，努力在不同的材料中以一种开放的心态，在一种不确定与探索中去寻找一种自我的真实。从这个角度上来说，福柯的结论也许是有意义的：我并不能自由设计自己，而是更多地服从于话语的和非话语的实践，这些实践首先为他成为主体提供了可能性。
这里我们所谈的主体，在不同的阶段也是非固定的。在昨天的主体被否定的同时，便会在一个模糊不清的混沌中形成一个新的主体。多元文化及全球一体化中，也是人类面临生存无序与无奈的选择，当然也有着强权政治及被全球化，但是我们也不能确定今天与明天谁将会被全球化，也许它会是：以彼之道，还施彼身。我们今天说的主客体之间的关系，也许会在以后的时间里发生另外一种倾向的改变，但无论它怎样地变化，都是艺术与思想自然规律的必然体现。
回归是期许、是愿望，它也许促使我们把这个关于视觉的问题重新思考，也可能成为了一个终点，又或许可能成为一个起点。
2013年8月11日
于鲁迅美术学院美术馆
Actually, many times we do not believe our eyes or vision itself; rather, we would trust a kind of interpretation of texts or narratives, which seemed more credible than the uncertain visual sense. In terms of the thinking patterns, the credibility of the interpretation of texts and narratives will dwarf the directness and vividness of vision unconsciously. We are in a multi-element time flushing with picture-interpretation rather than picture-appreciation. I remember that in A Concise History of Modern Painting, H. Read said that “the sum of the history of modern paintings is the evolution history of human’ s vision.” Without vision, there would hardly be any new attainment in a special transforming time. Maybe texts and narratives today have formed a new subject and another means of expression, but I still believe in vision itself and people’ s first-hand feeling.
We can retrospect the development history of the northeastern art, which has played its special role in the special history process. However, it’ s still an art within the system. We should learn to face up to history that the previous glory within the system is not equal to the present achievement. If there is still tradition today, it is not revolutionary art extolling hard struggle any more in that this kind of art has lost the specific environment and the revolutionary targets. At present, this tradition has been transformed to “Luxun Academy of Fine Arts”. It is the accumulation of sensible visual experience in a special region, established by the long-term teaching practices and artists’ hard work. If we drop this mastery of visual laws and experience, we will have no tradition to rely on. And if we still hold the so-called virtual-realism – the representational realism as the tradition, we will lose the survival condition in the context of globalization nowadays.
The multi-element today has developed from non-mainstream to actions of mistrusting or continually querying the mainstream. The negation and query of subjects in many paintings or other arts today have become a new phenomenon. Foucault’ s cognition of the death of subjects may be a relatively clear expression covering today’ s new way of composing texts and narratives. The fading of these ideas is like the rising of them. Just like the way classical thoughts were shaken around the 18th Century, if these ideas were shaken by some incident whose possibility can not be told yet or can at most be hunched, it can be bet that human will fade like a face drawn on the beach. Foucault holds that humans are like the drawings on the beach flushed by tides and ebbs, leaving nothing behind, neither memory nor trace. In this sense, death and the meaningless, negated and queried subjects are the main awareness formed by life itself and artistic creation. The subject and object are to be liberated from the eternal and unchangeable principles and conceptions, i.e., “I cannot design myself freely, but have to submit to verbal and nonverbal practices”.
As with our birth, our growth starts from negating subjects continually, which is not a wrong, or rebellious, or immoral, or unethical behavior, but the rethinking and progress in regression. The resistance to subjects enables us to be more authentic, which is the liberation of self-awareness. Breaking out from the traditional, habitual and conventional opinions, a new hope and promise will rise up.
Regression may be out of frustration or a new start point. If figuring out the visual and watching ways is considered a valid basic question, it will be a relatively direct and substantial question among the complex artistic phenomena. Starting from this question, we will rethink about it from another perspective.
The development of northeastern young artists has its special development pattern with regional features, in which the influence from the traditional academy is an important part. Artists active in the domestic art field today have had certain understanding about different art information to different degrees during their studying in academies, when most of them paid more attention to the expression of painting competence. After entering a broader survival space in the society, they adjusted their drawing ways and conceptions in time and coped with the changes in today’ s cultural phenomena and market positively. However, this does not mean there is any progress in art or vision. Previously, in academic educational tradition, people cared more about how to approach to new painting forms, how to learn a new painting pattern from an unknown master’ s works, how to see things from others’ eye, and how to think in others’ way. However, this kind of painting and thinking patterns have been harming the young artists tangibly or intangibly. How many years’ silence and thinking should the young artists go through to destroy and dump this intangible subject awareness! How many people are there who cannot break the hedge of this “pseudo-art” even with their whole lifetime!
Here, there is a fatal problem either in academic education or the survival environment: we have never exposed these young artists to reality or sincerity, nor have we taught them to see life and the world with sincere eyes, or sense the changes of society with a sincere heart. Rather, we leave them to grow in so false an environment that they cannot feel life and reality with their heart or criticize the true, good and beautiful things in the world with their eyes. As for us, we also lose ourselves – we do not value the art lead by the soul any more but paintings and other arts lead by the market, which has been a common phenomenon today. A part of the artists have even reduced from pseudo – art to the art of money. There were times that we could not face the masses of works by northeastern artists, which are so helplessly similar in their painting and thinking patterns. At present, entering our workshop, you can still find that the differences between works made by some 20 different artists are hard to tell without a careful look. None of the above problems is what we expect to confront today.
Most of the young artists of the “1980s generation” grow up with this kind of education. Trained in this academic system, they can only accept the alienated art education. Happened to come across the expanded enrollment special in China and the education whose theories are old-fashioned and whose teaching resources are limited to cultivate so many art students, they have hardly any opportunity to experience true university education even though they have attended the university. For this sake, the “foundation” of this generation is generally weak (compared with the so-called traditional academic standard). But in another aspect, it has facilitated some others’ free expression without awareness. Through today’ s information, these sensitive young people have contacted the abundant modern western artistic conceptions and learnt how to face globalization and the market. Therefore, the development and guidance of market have almost become the main force driving these “1980s-generation” artists forward. Facing the market’ s ardor, they welcome the market and adjust their painting styles and creating paths according to the changes of the market.
Most of the works made by the “1980s-generation” northeastern and other artists have many similarities, which are caused by low creativity and lack of true feelings. For example, the influence of Wang Xingwei has been very obvious during a rather long period. He takes a different narrative way – counter-narrative and the methodological pattern to re-present and separate the relation between forms and contents, and reverse the use of traditionally bad and failing painting ways and the correct ways, offering a unique visual experience. Due to the special cultural pattern and system of individual development, under many circumstances, Wang’ s way and thinking can only suit for himself rather than everyone. However, seen from all perspectives, the problems and advantages of today’ s northeastern artists are coexisting. In today’ s art market in China, northeastern artists are relatively active and potential, with most of them studying oil painting and the rest studying engraving, sculpture, ink and wash painting, new media and animation in sequence. However, when these artists start to create works independently, they have formed a multi-element value orientation. For example, part of the artists start to resort to new and unfamiliar art forms including installations, videos and new media. For the young people, due to the limitation of their education background in the academy, they may have more or less formed the working patterns that weigh techniques while belittle thinking, following the flush of self-illusion of techniques, which has always been criticized by us. However, there are certain 1980s-generation artists who have dumped this illusion and break out of the hedge of the so-called tradition in academic education. While endeavoring to criticize and negate the influence of the traditional academy, they are positively seeking their own patterns and new ideas amidst confusion, trying to seek a true self from different materials and all the uncertainty and explorations with an open attitude. In terms of this perspective, Foucault’ s conclusion may make sense that “I cannot design myself freely, but have to submit to verbal and nonverbal practices”. These practices at the first place have provided the possibility for him to be the subject.
The subjects we are discussing vary in different phases. While the previous subject has been negated, a new subject is rising from messes. In the context of multi-element culture and globalization, it is the choice when people are facing the disorder and frustration of survival as well as power politics and forced globalization. However, we are not certain what will be globalized at present or in the future. Maybe it will follow the saying of “like for like”. The relationship between the subject and object discussed today may change to another track in the following time. But the changes are always the necessary reflection of the natural law of art and thinking.
Regression is both expectation and aspiration, driving us to rethink the problem of vision. It may be an end point; it may be a start point.
August, 11th, 2013
Written in the Art Gallery of Luxun Academy of Fine Arts