栗憲庭

 

“不解之結(jié)”是我準(zhǔn)備作展覽用的一個(gè)標(biāo)題，企圖概括當(dāng)代藝術(shù)中的一種話語(yǔ)現(xiàn)象，即作品無(wú)論畫的是人還是畫其他東西，藝術(shù)家在表現(xiàn)的過程中，都不同程度地呈現(xiàn)出疙里疙瘩的結(jié)狀造型。比較著名的如天津的蔡錦，安徽的陳宇飛，四川的何森、趙能智，等等，還有本文要敘述的廣東的鄧箭今。

繩結(jié)的“結(jié)”作為物象名詞，在中文里經(jīng)常被用作形容內(nèi)心難解的、郁結(jié)的意象。早在魏晉時(shí)，社會(huì)的黑暗使一些有良知的知識(shí)分子內(nèi)心充滿了痛苦，因此，諸如“胸中塊壘”的詞匯就常出現(xiàn)在他們的詩(shī)中。此后，“塊壘”也多被歷代文人所喜用。塊壘即“結(jié)”，著名的蘇東坡也曾在他的繪畫中用“樹結(jié)”比喻他心中的結(jié)。“結(jié)”變成通俗漢語(yǔ)即是“疙瘩”，口語(yǔ)里也常說他心里有“疙瘩”。塊壘、結(jié)、疙瘩，即是形容物象的詞匯，也是描繪內(nèi)心感受的語(yǔ)言，這是漢語(yǔ)的一種特征，也是中國(guó)藝術(shù)的一種特征，所謂比、興、意象化之類。其實(shí)，英文中同樣的名詞結(jié)“knot”也作心之結(jié)解：Knots in the mind（思想上的疙瘩）。看來人類在使用文字語(yǔ)言表述自身的感覺上有共同之處，也許西方美學(xué)上的“模仿說”過于強(qiáng)大，在二十世紀(jì)以前的藝術(shù)中，我們鮮有見到類似中國(guó)比、興一類的作品。

鄧箭今的自畫像時(shí)期就已經(jīng)顯示了“結(jié)”般的筆觸，1996年以來的作品尤其《青春期》、《味道》、《夢(mèng)幻的情歌》、《呼吸》等同期的作品，筆觸過程所呈現(xiàn)的結(jié)狀造型，成為作品話語(yǔ)的重要因素。自然，鄧箭今作品話語(yǔ)的首要因素是他“畫什么”，男女性欲望中的人物動(dòng)態(tài)是顯而易見的，這些動(dòng)態(tài)都很直接，如《一抹晚霞》、《呼吸》、《閃逝的風(fēng)景》、《夢(mèng)幻的情歌》中的伸舌頭的動(dòng)態(tài)，《味道》中的閉眼張嘴和煽著鼻翼的動(dòng)態(tài)，《青春期NO.2》中近似手淫的動(dòng)態(tài)等等。但這些動(dòng)態(tài)都不是直接表現(xiàn)性，而表現(xiàn)性的欲望，或者借性來表現(xiàn)某種內(nèi)心的壓抑。因?yàn)檫@些動(dòng)態(tài)幾乎都是單個(gè)人的私密狀態(tài)下的動(dòng)態(tài)，即使畫的是兩個(gè)人，也是一種壓抑得無(wú)法接觸的狀態(tài)。人物動(dòng)態(tài)的背景是鄧箭今作品話語(yǔ)的第二個(gè)“畫什么”因素，如《呼吸》背景中擁擠地露出水面的頭，象缺氧的魚。在這里作品被轉(zhuǎn)換為一種意象話語(yǔ)，以擁擠和缺氧喻壓抑的感覺。其他作品多采此方法，以飛機(jī)和疙里疙瘩的云作《閃逝的風(fēng)景》的背景，也許以此喻作者與妻子兩地生活的感覺。鄧箭今作品話語(yǔ)的第三個(gè)因素即“怎么畫”，回到本文的重點(diǎn)——筆觸的結(jié)，這是造型語(yǔ)言中最不可替代的因素，鄧全部以疙里疙瘩的筆意畫所有的形象，正是憑借疙里疙瘩與郁結(jié)的心情有一種通感，作者才可以通過疙里疙瘩的筆意表達(dá)出內(nèi)心的郁結(jié)。中國(guó)傳統(tǒng)文人畫多用此法，這得益于書法美學(xué)的早熟，古代文獻(xiàn)多有記載。作品如倪瓚疏落的筆意與他寂寥的心情，石魯疙里疙瘩的筆意與他晚年的梅花等等。當(dāng)然色彩也是一種話語(yǔ)因素，鄧多用強(qiáng)烈的色彩，且很生、猛、焦，尤其按常理他用的都是一些忌諱的發(fā)“焦”的色彩，缺乏潤(rùn)以及透明度，如他常用的發(fā)焦的紅、綠、黃，常給人一種惡心的感覺。但也正是如此，才表達(dá)出他的那種難言的被壓抑而焦渴的欲望，色彩的焦與心理的焦在這里也是一種通感。這種生存感覺長(zhǎng)期郁結(jié)于作者的內(nèi)心，以至成為一個(gè)不解之結(jié)，并通過一定的人物動(dòng)態(tài)、寓意的背景、筆意、色彩表現(xiàn)出來。

在鄧箭今的近期作品中，《味道》較特別，那是一幅畫體會(huì)性感覺的人物表情——閉眼、張嘴和煽動(dòng)的鼻翼，色彩一反平時(shí)的焦而變?yōu)槿岷偷呐遥貏e之處在于筆意：大量使用了油，筆觸比平常流暢，使整個(gè)畫面有種液體般的流動(dòng)感，人物形象在此便超越了寫實(shí)而成為作者性的感覺的意象。其中關(guān)鍵在于作者把繪制的過程當(dāng)作自己的體會(huì)過程，于是心之結(jié)在這種體會(huì)中被化解，筆觸的結(jié)也因此化解為一泓粘乎乎、濕漉漉的蠕動(dòng)的液體。

以上所敘只是解讀，不是評(píng)價(jià)，評(píng)價(jià)是把作品放在特定的語(yǔ)境里尋找它的意義。當(dāng)性的壓抑成為特定環(huán)境里人的共有生存感覺時(shí)，性的壓抑就成為一種文化語(yǔ)境（可用“文化情境”，但情境和語(yǔ)境同出英文context），藝術(shù)家對(duì)這種個(gè)人感覺的表達(dá)也由此獲得某種當(dāng)代的共識(shí)，就此而言，鄧箭今的作品具有一定的當(dāng)代意義，盡管他的作品還顯得有些單調(diào)，因?yàn)樵谌说男詨阂值谋澈螅瑧?yīng)該隱含著更為復(fù)雜而豐富的生存感覺。其次，藝術(shù)的本質(zhì)是語(yǔ)言，因此必須把要評(píng)價(jià)的作品，放在整個(gè)藝術(shù)中的語(yǔ)境里，去看它的創(chuàng)造性的含量。鄧的作品話語(yǔ)基本來源于表現(xiàn)主義以及象征、意象、超現(xiàn)實(shí)主義這兩條語(yǔ)言線索。就此而言，無(wú)論世界還是中國(guó)當(dāng)代藝術(shù)，此類作品可謂汗牛充棟。中國(guó)此類作品大多在語(yǔ)言上趨向“緊梆梆”的感覺，這一特點(diǎn)在國(guó)際當(dāng)代繪畫中，可以說使人望而即知這是中國(guó)人的作品，我想一是由于中國(guó)藝術(shù)家過多地受到寫實(shí)主義訓(xùn)練的束縛，且寫實(shí)主義總體上又不完善，欲罷不能，所以放不開。其二最重要的原因還是人們普遍上的精神壓抑，造成了總體語(yǔ)言上的緊張感，而鄧箭今的作品尤其緊。當(dāng)然，這僅僅局限在繪畫的范圍里，擴(kuò)大到整個(gè)世界當(dāng)代藝術(shù)的范圍，中國(guó)此類作品就顯得過于依賴傳統(tǒng)尤其寫實(shí)主義的傳統(tǒng)語(yǔ)言結(jié)構(gòu)，而在語(yǔ)言上缺乏更多的創(chuàng)造性。在當(dāng)代文化的全球化的過程中，幾乎找不到與世界當(dāng)代藝術(shù)無(wú)緣的地域當(dāng)代藝術(shù)，除非不是當(dāng)代藝術(shù)，因此，當(dāng)代藝術(shù)的地域特征的創(chuàng)造，一方面需要在地域情境中找到一種文化針對(duì)性，一方面又必須在整個(gè)藝術(shù)史的語(yǔ)境中找它的創(chuàng)造性的位置。

1997年

 

 

 

 

By  Li Xianting

 

“Indissoluble Knot” is the title I prepare to use for one exhibition, intending to summarize a discourse phenomenon in contemporary art, that is the wart-like knot shape emerging in varying degrees in the expressions of the artists regardless of their paintings are about people or other stuffs. The comparatively famous ones such as Tianjin based artist Cai Jin, Anhui based artist Chen Yufei, Sichuan based artist He Sen and Zhao Nengzhi, and so on, and Guangdong based artist Deng Jianjin this article will describe.

 “Knot” as a noun of object is often used to describe the undissolvable and pent-up emotion. Early in Wei and Jin dynasties, the dark of society made the intellectuals’ hearts full of pain, therefore the words like “a block in chest” often appear in their poems. “Block” is “knot”. The well-known poet, Su Dongpo once metaphorizes the knot in his heart by “tree node”. “Knot” in the popular Chinese means “l(fā)ump (GeDa)”. In spoken language, it is frequent to say that we have lumps (GeDa) in hearts. Block, knot, and lump are the words describing objects but also the words describing the inner feelings. This is a character about metaphor in Chinese and Chinese art. In fact, the “knot’ in English also has the understanding of “Knots in the mind”. It seems that there are many common characteristics for people’s use of language to express feelings. Perhaps the theory of “imitation” in the western aesthetics is too strong. In the art before the twentieth century, we seldom see the works of metaphor in Chinese definition.

       In Deng Jianjin’s self-portrait period, the touch of “knot” has emerged. His works since 1996, especially Adolescent, Taste, The Love Song of Dream, Breathing and some other works in the same period, have the key factors through the brushes showing the knot-like shape. Naturally, the primary factor of Deng Jianjin’s works is “what he painted”, in which the activities of the figures about the sexual desire are obvious. These activities are direct. For example, the activities of stretching tongue in A Piece of Afterglow, Breathing, Evanescent Landscape in A Flash, The Love Song of Dream, the activities of closing eyes, opening mouth and slightly vibrating nose in Taste, the activity similar to masturbation in Adolescent No.2, etc. However, these activities didn’t directly express sex, but express sexual desire or express the inside oppression by sex, because all of these activities are of single person’s private movement. Even in the picture with two persons, it’s also a kind of inaccessible depression. The background of the activities is the second “factor” of the discourse of Deng Jianjin’s paintings, such as a crowd of heads above the surface like hypoxic fish in the background of Breathing. Here the work is transformed to be a discourse of image, metaphorizing the feeling of oppression by the crowded and hypoxia. Most of the others works also adopt this method. The background of Evanescent Landscape in A Flash with aircraft and lumps of cloud might metaphorize the feeling of being separated with his wife. The third discourse factor in Deng Jianjin’s works is “how to paint”. Back to the focus of this article—knot of brushwork, this is the most irreplaceable factor in the modeling language.  Deng paints most of the images in the form of knots. It’s just because knot has a synaesthesia with pent-up emotion, then the painter can express the inside knots by the image of lumps. The Chinese traditional literati paintings always use this method, which benefits from the precocity of the aesthetics of calligraphy.  The ancient literatures have more records, such as Ni Zan’s little pen and his solitary mind and Shi Lu’s brushwork of lumps and the plums in his later years. Of course, color is also a kind of discourse. Deng often uses strong colors, and uses them in a raw, vigorous and scorched way. In particular, he uses the “scorched” colors taboo for others in common sense, lack of moist and transparency. For example, the scorched red, green and yellow always give audiences a feeling of nausea.  However, so far he can express indescribable the pent-parched and thirsty desire. The scorched color and the burned psychology here is also a synaesthesia. This feeling was entangling in the painter’s heart for a long time, becoming a indissoluble knot and being expressed through certain activities, backgrounds, brushwork and color.

In Deng Jianjin’s recent works, Taste is quite special. It is about the emotion of experiencing sex--- closing eyes, opening mouth and slightly vibrating nose. The color is totally different with the scorched color usually use but turn into the soft and warm grey. What special is the brushwork: heavily using oil, and the more fluent brushwork than usual make the screen has a liquid-like sense of flow. The figures here are beyond realism and become the image of sex that the painter has. The key inside is that the painter takes the making process as the process of his own experience, and then the knot in heart is dissolved in this experience. The knot of brushwork is thus dissolved as peristaltic liquid which is sticky and wet.

      The above is just reading not judgment. Judgment is putting the work in certain context to find its significance. When sexual repression becomes the common sense of people in a certain environment, it also becomes a cultural context. The expression of personal feeling the artist has therefore gains a sort of contemporary consensus. In so far the discourse of Deng’s works has certain contemporary meaning. However, his works are a bit monotonous, because behind the sexual repression of human being, there should be more complicated and rich sense of survival. Second, art nature is language, so it is necessary to put the works waiting for evaluation into the whole art context to measure its creative quantity contained. Deng’s discourse basically comes from the two language clues: expressionism and surrealism of symbol and imagery. In this way, there is a large amount of works in either world art or Chinese contemporary art. The Chinese works of this kind mainly tend to the “strenuous” sense, which directly features Chinese arts in the international contemporary art. I think it’s because the Chinese artists gained too many shackles from the training of realism and realism is not perfect in general. They cannot help doing realism, so they cannot free themselves. The second most important reason is that the generally spiritual depression causes an overall sense of tension on language. Deng Jianjin’s work is especially tense. Of course, this is only limited to the scope of painting. Expanding to the worldwide contemporary art, the Chinese works of this kind seem too dependent on the traditional linguistic structure of realism and short of creativity on language.  In the process of globalization of contemporary culture, it almost hard to find local contemporary art unless it’s not contemporary art. Therefore, on one hand, the geographical features of contemporary art needs to find a cultural focus in the geographical context, on the hand it has to find its location of creativity in the whole context of art history.

 

1997