趙力

 

長久以來，身體一直被歸為物質實體(material substance)的范圍。身體，是物質世界的一部分，是占有時空并服從于物理法則的物質存在。精神，則屬于另一實體的范圍，只占有時間而不服從物理法則。事實是身體與精神的二元分離，使得存在于時空的物質世界與不占空間的精神，在特定的同一個人的身上產生了無法相互化約的二分困境，這不僅是哲學家努力要解決的問題，或許也是藝術家想要涉及的話題。李曉奇的畫，有很多是關于身體的描寫。雖然畫家總是機智地直接在畫面寫上那些怪怪的畫名，雖然那些畫名與畫家所描述出的情景有著某種直接的呼應，但是有關的身體圖示卻似乎是其中的某種恒定。或許生活中的李曉奇，像尼采一樣“信仰身體比信仰精神更具有根本意義”，然而在藝術創作中畫家卻通過所謂的身體圖示來表示身體在世界的存在方式。同樣在創作中，李曉奇的身體圖示從來沒有僅僅停留在物質化的表層，而是一種具體的統一性：身體以及它的組成部分，呈現出內在復雜的交互作用，且彼此相互影響并組成有機的整體的意義；在堅持有機整體意義的基礎上，將身體與外在環境進行動態的整合活動，換句話說就是將所處的外在環境視為身體的活動領域，而依據這種動態整合使得外在環境構成了某種新的空間意義，這種空間并非一般意義上的景深或構圖布局，而是身體與環境的融而為一的情境式的空間；與此同時，身體與環境的關系又總是處于建構與重構之中，隨時地調整而生成出更多的意義與范圍，而作為李曉奇創作中的主角——身體，則更凸現出它在不同空間中的行動、作用，以及對于情境式空間的主導性，主動地在時空中開啟了專屬于己的“意義場”，這些特殊的“意義場”，既是李曉奇運用當下的身體圖示而創造出的豐富的面向與意涵，而它的沉淀與累積更會漸漸衍生出一套意義的系統，涵蓋過去又面向未來。

 

隱語，也叫“隱”，古字為“言隱”，是古時對謎語的一種叫法。《文心雕龍》對隱語的定義是“遁詞以隱意，譎譬以指事”。所以隱語是隱去本事而假以他辭來暗示的語言。隱語的分類，大體為密言、測智、譎諫這三類，李曉奇的畫也大體如此。密言，是隱語中最基本的形式，它或許會依靠一些看似是通行的符碼，但傳達的卻是特定的對方才能理解的意涵。《豎中指》，凡人雖然插上了天使的翅膀但還是凡人，他豎起的中指看似是一種罵人的姿勢，其實纏著布條的中指展示的卻是自己的創傷，說明的卻是“自己很受傷”。測智，有點類似于競猜謎語，要把“以此喻彼”本意猜想出來需要一定的智力。《剪辮子》，表現的僅僅是剪辮子嗎？！李曉奇是在對穿著舊式服裝的“遺老”所進行的一種“拯救”，還是某種加速其死亡的他殺？！還有那個“遺老”指的究竟是誰？是傳統？是規則？還是自己的生活或是那些揮之不去的記憶碎片？譎諫，是過去的臣子用隱晦的語言向君主進諫自己的意見，而李曉奇則將其引申為一種針對世人的提示警醒。《陰謀》，決不是天知地知你知我知的事兒了，所有的“旁觀者”都將卷入而成為了“同謀”，于是“陰謀”變成了“陽謀”，而《獵物》中的“他殺”就等同于“自殺”，或許你的獵物已經將你變成了它的“獵物”。誠然，無論是密語、測智還是譎諫，都需要觀賞者進行所謂的視覺性閱讀，而那些隱語不僅都具有內容上的明確針對性，甚至還具有了時代性的印痕特質。

在當今如此圖像化的時代，復制泛濫早已令純粹而自由的繪畫方式成為了某種的另類。李曉奇的創作卻與整個時代背道而馳，這在當下的語境中值得尊重。畫家，還是畫家，他必須回到繪畫的本身，這是李曉奇最想做的事情。李曉奇注重對主觀感受的表現，特別強調內部視野的審視，極力主張內在體驗和心靈激情。事實是畫家拒絕那些虛假而表象的真實，而是要求表現比日常目力所及更多的真實存在，因此李曉奇立足于當下而去挖掘內心的感受且張揚激情，這構成了他畫面中的“劇情主線”，然而它也導致了那種不安、矛盾與恐懼，寓意性地表現出了當代人對社會劇變的內心孤獨與恐懼心理。李曉奇的創作也融合了幻覺、夢境和錯覺，以及扭曲變形的手法，這些部分可以視為對西方現代派大師的汲取，而另些的來源則帶有東方的神秘主義與書寫性的抽象化傾向，因此作品往往也具有了濃重的象征意蘊。李曉奇的作品中還常常隨心所欲地使用新奇的語言，奇特的造型、刻意的肢解、重復的扭曲，形成了一種緊張而急促的節奏，這是李曉奇獨特的畫面節奏，也是“他不看，他觀察，他不描寫，他經歷，他不再現，他塑造，他不拾取，他探尋”的個人方法論。

The enigmatic language by the body

By Zhao Li

Body

For quite a long time, the body has been deemed as under the umbrella of material substance. The body has been one part of the material world and the physical existence, which occupies time and space and at the same time is subject to physical principle. In contrast, the spirit has been under the umbrella of the other substance, which only occupies time but do not conform to physical principle. As a matter of fact, the binary separation of the body from the spirit leads to the difficult binary situation where the material world, which exists both in time and space, and the spirit, which does not take up space, are not capable of transforming into each other in a specific and given person. This has been a problem, which not only entails great effort made by the philosophy to deal with but also may be the subject matter that the artist would like to touch upon. Many of the paintings made by Li Xiaoqi concentrate on the description of the body. Despite of the fact that the painter has always been wittily write down directly the quite weird names of the paintings on the canvas and the fact that there exists certain direct echo between those names of the paintings and the scenes depicted by the painter, the pictorial presentation of the body has seemed yet to be some constant rhythm in those paintings. Maybe in real life, just like Nietzsche, Li Xiaoqi holds “believing in the body has more fundamental meaning than believing in the spirit”. However, in art creation, the artist chooses to make use of the so-called pictorial presentation of the body to express the existing manner of the body in the world. In the same way, in his creation, the pictorial presentation of the body by Li Xiaoqi has never been merely still at the superficial stage, but of a kind of concrete unity: the body and the parts constituting of it take on the inherent and complex interacting effect, influence each other and make up an organic whole; while the meaning of an organic whole is adhered to as the base, the dynamic integrated activity is carried on of the body and the external environment. In other words, the external environment where the body exists is considered as the activity field of it and based on this the dynamic integrated activity, the external environment takes on some new special meaning and the kind of space is neither the depth of field nor the composition layout in the ordinary sense, but a situational space where the body and the environment are integrated with each other into a whole; at the same time, more meanings and categories are generated due to the fact that the relationship between the body and the environment are always subject to the construction and reconstruction and because of the adjustment from time to time. The body, as the dominant role in the creation by Li Xiaoqi stands out for its actions and purposes in different space and for its predominance in the situational space, and takes initiative to start the “significance fields” in space and time, which belongs exclusively to itself. These special “significance fields” the rich orientation and implications created by Li Xiaoqi making use of the pictorial presentation of the body under discussion, by the precipitation and accumulation of which a set of meaningful system will be derived little by little, which not only covers the past but also looks forward to the future.     

The enigmatic language

The enigmatic language has also been known as “enigmatic”, the ancient character of which is “hidden langue”, which is one of the ways to call a riddle in ancient times. The Literary Mind and Carving of Dragons gives definition of the enigmatic language as “on the surface of the word , the meaning is hidden and take a closer look, the reference is got ”.. As a result, the enigmatic language is the language which hidden the original object and borrow other words to imply it. In general, the enigmatic language is classified into three types, which are respectively code, intelligence measurement and obscure remonstrance. The paintings made by Li Xiaoqi can be understood in the same manner. Code is the most fundamental form of the enigmatic language, which appears to depend on some seemingly popularly accepted signals and codes to transmit the specific implication which means something exclusively to the other party.  In the Erected Middle Finger, the ordinary people are still what they are even when endowed with the wings of the angel. His erected middle finger seems to be the gesture of cursing. However, in fact his middle finger twisted by cloth stripes is intended to exhibit his trauma so as to express “he is already seriously wounded”. Intelligence measurement can somewhat be compared to riddle guessing, which entails a certain level of intelligence to the actual original meaning by “use one word as an analogy of another one”. Cutting the braided hair merely refers to the action of cutting the braided hair itself?! Is what Li Xiaoqi has done to “the old adherent” in old fashioned appearance a kind of “salvation” or a certain kind of murder to accelerate his death? Besides, who on earth is the old adherent? Is he the tradition, the convention, the reflection of his own life or the lingering fragments of memory, which is hard to erase? Remonstrance is the obscure language which was used by courtiers to recommend their own thoughts and ideas in the past. However, it is used by Li Xiaoqi to allude to a king of hint and warning to the mortals. Conspiracy is by no means what is known to the heaven, the earth, you or me any more. All the “standers-by” will be involved in the conspiracy and play the role of “accomplice”. In this sense, the “secret conspiracy” becomes a “open conspiracy” and in Prey, “murder” is equal to “suicide” in the sense that probably your prey has already changed you into its own prey. It has to be admitted that whether it is code, intelligence measurement or obscure remonstrance, the so-called optical reading rendered by the observer is indispensible, and the enigmatic language not only has the clear direction in content and even the property of the era’s stigma. 

Expression

In the pictorial era as it is nowadays, the pure and liberal way of painting has already been rendered a certain different, special, completely new type by the overwhelming duplication. Since the creation by Li Xiaoqi just has done the opposite of what the whole era wants, it deserves our respect in the present lingual context. That painter, the painter himself or herself has to focus back onto the painting itself is what Li Xiaoqi would like to do most. Li Xiaoqi pay more attention to the expression of the subjective feeling, particularly emphasizing the survey of the inner field of view and making every effort to advocate the inner experience and the spiritual passion. Since the fact is that the painter rejects those fake and surface realities, whereas he or she demands to exhibit more real existence than what the eyes are able to reach in daily life, Li Xiaoqi takes the present as the base to dig out the feeling of the inner mind and to advocate passion, which constitutes “the main line of the plot” and at the same time leads to the disturbance, conflict and terror, which allegorically present the contemporary people’s inner loneliness and terror when faced with the great changes in the society. The creation by Li Xiaoqi has combined hallucination, dreamland, illusion and twisted and deformed technique, which can be taken as derived from the source of the modern masters in the western world, while what is derived from other source has the tendency of the eastern mysticism and writing abstraction. As a result of it, his works has strong symbolic implication. In the works by Li Xiaoqi can be easily found the arbitrarily used language of novelty, peculiar model, intentional dismembering and repeated deformation, which has developed into the tense and urgent rhythm. It is the pictorial rhythm special to Li Xiaoqi and also his personal methodology of “he does not look but observe; he does not describe but experience; he does not pick up but build up; he does not pick up but grope ” .