一直以來，我對周圍的世界深感困惑，看不到未來的道路，苦悶、彷徨、無所適從占據了我整個精神世界。在這個現實的世界里，有時你會顯得很無奈。這是一個狂躁的、物欲橫流的社會。在這樣的社會里，你會不知不覺地受各式各樣“泡沫”式規則左右而偏離航向。這是一個貧瘠的、充滿信仰危機的時代。在這樣的時代里，隨處可見的是盲從的身影、麻木的表情。憤懣、痛苦、絕望、詛咒…彌漫在整個空氣中，生活在這樣的世界里，我們應該怎樣？ 少時受父兄影響酷愛畫，嚴父常激勵我們要有遠大的理想和抱負，在藝術上有所作為，做一個大畫家。盡管不太懂理想為何物，也不知什么才是大畫家，但，那時父親在我幼小的心靈中是那么地偉大與威嚴。然而由于家境貧寒買不起胃藥與生活的舉步維艱，繩子從此就與父親粘上了，家中凡是看上去象繩的東西統統被母親燒光。我們在恐懼中抗爭著，也在恐懼中長大。后來，父親的胃病居然奇跡般好了，但是，繩卻給我留下了永久的傷痛。 藝術家的任務不是要使人為虛構的人物行為而感動或憤怒…，而是要在未經渲染的記錄性的事實里挖掘出深藏在里面的有價值的東西——人性的、情感的、社會的、道德的、制度的、經濟的、文化的、歷史的等等。我在繩這一特定的符號里看到了上面的東西。作為工具它凝結了亙古以來的經驗，關鍵在于權力的持有人能指的態度如何。結繩記事、搬運、捆綁、束縛、縊殺、鞭撻、游戲、裝飾、懸掛、牽引、搭救、延伸、希望等等。如海明威說的最后的境界是：“你懂了以后所看到的”。 結繩記事，人類有了文明，人類從此自得區別于其它動物，也有了遮風擋雨的外衣，但人類所付出的代價是人類的軀體的機能開始退化與自然法則遭到了破壞。人類自詡的“高等”就是使自己的脖子上多了幾根看起來頗為漂亮的繩子，它是一把雙刃劍隨時可為你找到歸屬。人類在為征服世界而歡呼的時候，也在自掘墳墓。我們受益于文明之繩也禁錮于文明之繩。 柔韌的、秀美的、風情萬種的，我看到了夏娃的嬌媚，它可以使你狂躁、可以使你窒息、使你不能自己、也可使你消魂、使你達到生命之顛。要不怎么可使你偷食禁果呢？我們在詛咒蛇的惡毒的同時卻又在慶幸它的存在。 一根繩用以絞殺生命的時候，我們那么地憎惡它、痛恨它；當我們正是用同一根繩拋下陷阱挽救生命的時候，我們會由衷地感謝上帝的恩賜、為它的存在而雀躍。 “一朝被蛇咬，十年怕井繩。”大家都知道是因為蛇與繩有著共同的外部特征，使我們在心底里產生恐懼而形成心理障礙。其實，這時存在于人的心理意識中的“繩”比真正的毒蛇更可怕！精神受禁錮所留下的陰影將永遠揮之不去，讓你裹足不前。 一個繩上的螞蚱對另一個螞蚱說：“雖然我們來自不同的地方，彼此互不相識，千里姻緣一線牽，這也是緣啦，誰叫我們生活在這樣的國度里呢？我們都有著一個共同的理想，為了我們的自由，帶著捆綁我們軀體與靈魂的東西在愛的樂曲中勇赴火場吧！” “人為財死，鳥為食亡”果真錢財那么累人么？當我們為經濟拮據而到處奔波的時候，我們為達到理想而奮斗。這時你會感覺有一根繩牽扯在你的身后，使你放慢前進的步伐。當我們揮金如土沒有牽掛時，你又會覺得人生失去了目標而索然無味。 一個沒知識沒教養的人什么都敢做，一個有文化有德性的人會那么地左顧右盼、優柔寡斷。這說明了什么？我開始懷疑教育存在的真實理由，教育是幫助開化、明智、達理，開冥頑不靈的化、明專政統治的智、達傳統禮教的禮。如此教育非但不能解放思想，反而增加了重重束縛達到愚教于民的效果。 我們從來就低估了道德之繩的可怕。它會使你自甘墮落、也會使你遁身于無形。它象慢性毒藥一旦侵入肌膚，就很容易深入骨髓而無可救藥。中國人所說的一個人成熟與否，主要看他的言行是否符合世俗的標準。你成熟了只不過是一個人人稱道的木偶，由許許多多無形的繩在操控。 當科克倫在鋼絲上那么悠然自得時，我們想到的是什么？僅僅是一根繩子連接兩個高樓大廈或峽谷之間？猶如我們的當代藝術，盡管可供我們展示的空間極其狹小與極盡危險，但依然可以在有限的空間里爆發出巨大的能量。 人人都說我們有著悠久的文明與歷史，但誰又能說我們背負著這樣的歷史不夠沉重？我們總是習慣于維系在一根繩上，否則就被斥責為異端，“一窩風”的思維定式就象多米洛骨牌，一旦有一個倒下就必然影響整個歷史。何況我們的歷史本來就是朝令夕改極不真實的呢？背負著這樣的歷史我們又如何面對未來呢？ 當代藝術并不缺少想象力，因為當代藝術家鄙視沒有創造和因循守舊的東西。在他們的眼里只有進步，世俗詆毀不了他們、誘惑動搖不了他們、制度束縛不了他們，因為在他們的心靈深處沒有這樣的繩，有的只是遏制罪惡、丑陋的繩。 扯起希望的風帆，從此岸拋向彼岸。 For a long time, I’ve been baffled by the world I live in, seeing no way out. Depressed and anguish, I’m totally at a loss. Isn’t it a manic and money-oriented society, where you feel helpless, where you stray away from your due course affected by various formulas and strains which come and disappear like babbles? Isn’t it an infertile era full of sequacious followers and numb expressions, with beliefs collapsing? I smell in the air anger, agony, desperation, and curse…I really lost myself in such a world. When still in my childhood, I was crazy about painting under the influence of my father and brother. Father had always urged me to be ambitious and diligent so as to be a great artist. Though I was not sure what ambition I should establish and when I can claim to be a great artist, Father’s words impressed me deeply. At that time, Father suffered from stomach disease and should, according to the old superstitions, keep away from any ropes. Since our family couldn’t afford the medicine then, the only way to help my father was to keep the ropes out of sight. My mother burned up everything that even just looked like ropes. While we kids were struggling against such terror and also grew up in it. Later, my father recovered from the disease without much treatment. And ropes, as a symbol, seared an enduring wound in my heart. In my view, the task of an artist is not to move or ignite people by imaginary objects…on the contrary, it is to dig out from the plain portraying the valuable things concealed from our eyes— something about humanity, emotion, society, moral, regime, economy, culture and history, whatever. I see them in ropes, the specific symbol, which, crystallize3s the human experience even from the primitive time. As a tool, its nature depends largely on the manipulation of the user. The ropes can be used to keep records, to transport, to bind things, to restrain, to kill, to wipe, to play with, to decorate, to hang, to pull, to save life, to be extended and to offer hope…just as Heymingwey defined the utmost world as “what you see after you really understand.” Using ropes to do the recording marked the beginning of human civilization. The mankind has distinguished itself from animals even since. However, human beings put on this overcoat to shed from wind and shower at the cost of the degeneration of their physical function and the distorting of natural rules. The “superiority” boasted by human beings is no more than some fancy ropes decorated around their necks. It is a double-blade sword at people’s disposal. When humans are cheering for conquering the world, they are digging their own graves. Because when we benefit from the rope of civilization, we are at the same time, fettered by it. In the things that we take as delicate, gracious and appealing, I see Eve’s charm, which could drive us crazy, suffocate us or intoxicate us so much so that we feel we are beside ourselves or we are at the prime of we life. What induced us to sneak off the forbidden fruit? When we are cursing about the viciousness of the snake, we are actually pleased about its existence. We loathe and resent the rope, which is used to kill life, while when the same rope is used to save a life from a trap, we wouldn’t be more grateful of this favor of God and exited about existence of the rope. “A man once bitten by a snake will for ten years shy at a rope.” The common exterior features a snake and a rope share could project in our heart the similar fear and trauma. It’s mainly due to the fact that the ideological “rope” in humans’ psyche is more dreadful than real viper. It’s hard for one to recover from yesterday’s trauma, which looms around and consequently refrains him from pushing forward. A locust said to another bound on the same rope, “Though we come from different places and never saw each other before., we are now bound op to the same string. Definitely, it’s what we call fate, We were borne in the same country, and share a common ideal, for the sake of our freedom, what should we do but brave the fire in the sonata of love and burn ourselves up together with the rope binding our bodies and soul?” It’s said, “People die for money, as bird die for food.” Are we really so weak as to be manipulated by wealth? When we are struggling for the realization of our ideal, we are at the same time restrained by poverty, which retards our steps liking a rope pulling us behind. However, when we are living a sumptuous life without any worry about money, we are likely to loss the goal and live meaninglessly. It’s strange that an uneducated person is bald enough to carry out whatever in his mind; while a so-called civilized person tends to be indecisive and weaving. What does it imply? I begin to suspect the reason for the existence of education. Education is to cultivate people to be intelligent, wise and judicious, trying to enlighten the obstinate, open the mind of the despotic and teach the conventions worth remembering. But the fact is, in practice, current education system can’t liberate our thoughts, on the contrary, it imposes fetters on the people to the detriment of destroying their creativity and independent thinking. Maybe we have underestimated the power of the rope of “morality”, which leads us to abandon ourselves to vice or escape from the reality. Once it infiltrates to our skin like chromic poison permeating into the marrow of the bones, we are untreatable. When Chinese people talk about the standard of maturity, they are measuring with the traditional conventions. A mature person, therefore, is no more than a puppet commended by other people, and is controlled by lots of invisible ropes. What do we think when Cercolen was leisurely performing the ropewalking? Did you only see a rope connecting two skyscrapers or crayons? Didn’t it inspire you to think that though the room for us to display our talent is marrow and risky, we still have the opportunity to go off powerful energy in limited space? We always boast our long history and civilization, but isn’t that glory already too heavy for us to bear? Having been accustomed to be tied to one rope, we are easily to be criticized as the alternative if walking the other way. Such kind of “following-up” thinking resembles the domino effect; one’s collapse affects a series of followers and eventually the whole history. Not to say that our history recording work has already been largely manipulated by the powerful, hence absolutely incredulous? How could we face up to the future when bearing such a kind of history? The temporary arts are in no lack of imagination, because the temporary artists despise the crusted and uncreative works. They are engrossed in nothing but making progress. Hence they deride the convention, resist seducement and reject norms. They have no ropes in their mind, if have, that’s the rope curbing sins and viciousness. We still have hope. Let’s hoist the sails of hope and bound for the remote beach across the sea.