高    嶺
（美術學博士、批評家、策展人）
2007年3月5—7日

對世界的認識方式有許多種，但是絕大多數方式都是建立在人的眼睛的直接觀察之上的。

在這個只有科學和醫學人士才經常光顧的微觀世界里，細菌、病毒、微生物與各種物質的微觀結構并存，是一個完全不同于人的肉眼視覺普通觀察的另一個天地——在這里，這些蠕動的微生物等竟然有著千姿百態的形象結構，或橢圓或長方，或細長或扭曲，時而膨脹時而縮小；其每一種又都有色彩和形體上的差異和變化，有些通體長著無數的纖毛，有些則如花蕊般混沌一團．．．高風在感嘆這些神奇之物的同時，用手中的畫筆描繪出它們的形態，記錄下對它們的理解和藝術化的想象。

高風的這些日常生活行為，首先是個人非常私密的喜好，問題在于他從這種喜好中發現了另外一個視覺世界，而且透過這個世界他獲得了一種新的觀察普通世界的方式或者說手段。而在絕大部分情況下，人們的個人化和私密化的喜好，并沒有轉換為自己的工作經驗和生活行為。這就意味著高風在隨后的創作中，開始用一種不同于以往的“另類”眼光來觀察周圍的一切，包括已經發生過的作為間接經驗的歷史和正在發生著的當下現實。這種獨特的眼光使他獲得了一種迥然別樣的話語闡釋方式，即千百年來我們用肉眼所獲得的經驗和知識，原本是有很大的限制性，超過了這個限制，知識和經驗還有另樣的存在方式和形象。這就使得我們不得不懷疑人類長期形成的世界觀和藝術表現的真實性，因為事物原本還有另外一種微觀的存在方式和形式。由此看來，知識和藝術的真實性只能是相對的，或者說，還有它們的另外一種全然不被人知的一面。
于是，高風手中的顯微鏡猶如魔鏡一樣，解蔽了長期以來圍繞著我們、控制著我們的關于世界和藝術表現的一切既得觀念，使社會歷史和日常生活，還有藝術表現，統統改變了其各自原有的形象、位置和角色，彼此之間的界限開始模糊甚至充滿了魔幻的色彩。毫無疑問，傳統的視覺中心主義價值觀念在高風的魔鏡里蕩然無存，而全新的視覺形象語言和想象力卻從魔鏡里釋放出來——一切當下的現實都是可以懷疑的，一切以往的藝術形象都是可以重新闡釋的。

“前世”系列，是高風對傳統文化的重新理解。宋代馬遠、夏珪的一角山水和半邊樹木，呂文英的貨郎圖，都成為藝術家重新闡釋的對象。馬遠的《踏歌圖》描寫陽春時節農民在田隴溪橋間的歌舞歡娛場面，人物刻畫簡練生動，富于生活情趣。構圖上遠近分明，遠山和近石以大斧劈皴擦，試圖在傳統紙本和絹本材料上，營造出具有堅實的質感和立體感的山石形象。而高風筆下的人物卻變成了帶有長須的細菌微生物，畫面上方的題跋字樣也被改造為某種微生物的形狀。當然，高風并不是用原樣的微生物來代替古畫的某些情節，毋寧說，他是受到了魔鏡中另一世界奇幻景象的啟發，以自己大膽的想象來重新構造一種傳統的文化景象，因為畫面中的藍靛色和金黃色，都是他的一種主觀臆造。高風還大量使用飽和度高的顏料來描繪人物，以造成畫面的戲劇感和魔幻感。從材料本身的屬性分析，在布面上使用丙稀顏料這本身就具有傳統繪畫的礦物質和水性顏料所難以達到的視覺效果。再如，呂文英的《貨郎圖》，反映了明代社會兒童被貨郎擔中琳瑯滿目的玩具逗得歡欣雀躍的喜劇場面。而高風在描摹時，卻大量加進了自己發現的各種細菌、病毒和微生物，它們替換了原畫中的玩具而成為面無五官的變異兒童們的新寵。這種對傳統文化藝術經典之作的置換，其目的在于藝術家試圖喚起人們對既往歷史的大膽設想和另類思考，歷史不僅是由可見的文字和圖像建構起來的，而且也可以被看成是由古已有之的各種微生物所構成的，只不過這些只有到了現代自然科學和醫學發展時期才能夠找到證明罷了。

同樣的，反映當代現實生活的“今生”系列，也難逃細菌的侵擾和滲透。在高風的都市題材的作品中，無論是單個的人物肖像還是群像，畫面中總是出現藝術家自己的影子。但這種影子卻沒有什么五官特征，有的只是猶如吸盤般的洞穴，從它們之中釋放出各種細菌、病毒或者其他什么微生物，播散、彌漫在城市的空氣中，侵蝕著城市的各個角落以及生活在其中的人群。而藝術家自己的影子在畫面里也早已病入膏肓了，他的頭發、他的面部筋絡和血脈，已經成為微生物最好的宿主。

也許有人會認為藝術家在作品中的這種做法是惡作劇，然而藝術家花費大量心血所做的手稿，以及兩個系列通體所彌漫的明快色彩和扎實造型，都向我們傳遞出這樣強烈的信息——藝術家在傳統符號和現實生活的真實之中，巧妙地加入了一種鮮為人知的新的真實，即我們的歷史和我們的現實本身，原本就有隱匿著的看不見的另一種真相。

我們雖然沒有意識到這一種真相，但是我們卻每時每刻都處在它的包圍之中。

高風的藝術創作既借助于已有的傳統視覺圖像，也表現現實的生活世界，富有重要學術價值的是，無論是對前者的重新復寫（創造），還是對后者的（借助于病菌、病毒等微生物的）主觀表現，他都超越了作為間接經驗的圖像來源和作為直接經驗的親身觀察的自足性和唯一性。從方法論的層面上講，他順應了源自西方的反視覺中心主義的潮流，也吻合中國當代藝術走出傳統視覺表現模式的需要，他以自己的方式告訴人們這樣一個重要的信息：視覺的真實并不僅僅只有一種呈現方式，視覺的真實還有待于每一個有心人去發現，而在這個不斷發現的過程中，世界原本的面貌（包括人們關于世界的直接經驗和間接經驗），也許有別樣的可能性，充滿了魔幻的魅力和神奇的色彩。藝術的價值之一就在于能夠揭示出世界的豐富多彩的各個方面，能夠喚起人們對世界的想象力，從這一點說，高風的作品讓我們受到了很大的啟發。對于被統稱為“前世”的歷代傳統繪畫圖像的重新闡釋，將是高風未盡的事業，而對于當代社會現實微觀真相的揭示，也將是他大有可為的工作，我期待著他在這條“博古通今”的藝術道路上，創作出更加令人耳目一新的作品。

Preexistence and Present Life: The magical world of Gao Feng

Gaolin
(Doctor in History of Arts, Critic and Curator)
March 5, 2007

Human beings have many ways to understand the world, but most are filtered through the eyes.  The boundless universe of talent and splendor, the numerous expressions of society, all of these pass through the naked human eye.   That is why individuals value their eyes with their own life; vision is regarded as the most important tool to perceive the world. For ancient Greek and Hebrew civilizations, the visual and the auditory senses were the major resources to approach the prototype form of truth. Moreover, both the former and the latter were understood as the way to handle the sacred metaphysical world of the real. Subsequently, for Western traditional culture, the way things are viewed and experienced is imperative to understanding the archetype of truth.  The apprenticeship to Plato and Aristotle established the Western philosophy of visual centralism, along with the discoveries of Renaissance artists about the laws of perspective, and Descartes’: "I think therefore I am", a binary philosophical model.  All these cultural propensities are fundamentals for Western classical art as a connection to the real world, and for artists as the main way to access the outside world. In keeping with the past, Western modern art conforms to the tradition of visual centrism and, at the same time, to the needs of a developed capitalist society.

In China, avant-garde and contemporary art, took shape along with the policy, of an open market economy and with the development of international cultural exchange.  During the process of taking, absorbing, studying, creating, and fusing the artistic Western culture and our own art tradition, we became a new personality in the field of art, on the world stage. Therefore, changes in line with the traditional view in Western art inevitably and deeply influenced the transformation and development of Chinese art.  This has already become an undisputable fact.

In this context, Chinese artists have a deep understanding of perceptual experience as an imperative issue within artistic creation, and thus open up an abundant, colorful scope in different themes and topics, showing a variety of styles and patterns. To avoid a simplistic method  or just because there is no way to directly observe and express the microcosmic world, young contemporary artists get rid of the traditional centered vision, to expand their visual language.

Gao Feng’s art work is created, and can be understood within this kind of cultural background. When he graduated from college in the nineties, Chinese contemporary art began to present diverse mediums and styles. Then he came to the capital city of Beijing. In this center of Chinese artistic culture, he felt the strong breath of contemporary art; and started to question how to walk his own path of artistic creation.  All of the young artists born in the seventies had to face these matters and make choices.  Gao Feng, as other artists from this generation, directed his eyes to what lay within his own life experiences and personal feelings; art is germane to his own life, rather than to the outside world of social and political affairs. In other words, art is based on personal life, personal ways of viewing the world, and then on interpretation of this experience, even of some very trivial and insignificant details. It was the love for his pets and his concern about their living habits and emotions that led Gao Feng to study microbes, bacteria, and the microscopic world. This huge and marvelous microcosm has changed the way he views and experiences the world.
 
The microscopic world (germs, viruses, and many micro structures) usually just experienced by doctors and scientists, displays a completely different universe, where microorganisms unexpectedly have thousands of ovals or rectangles; they grow or distort, inflate or contract.  Each type with different shapes and colors, some have long bodies and numerous segments, and others a dense flower at their center. At the same as Gao Feng sights the magic around the microorganisms, he uses the brush to give them shape, makes notes of their scientific behavior and releases his artistic imagination. The great number of sketches and drawings certifies the number of days and nights he indulges in this infinitesimal world. 

He visualizes things around him in an alternative way, including what has already occurred, direct or indirect behaviors, empirical history, as well as what takes place in the present reality. In the beginning and for many years he used only his bare eyes to acknowledge and experience; but now (through the microscope) he offers a special language to reveal his own understanding. This enables us to think about long-term human configuration, to view the world and the authenticity of art expression, because originally, and at a deeper level, all things also have another micro dimension of shape and way of existence.

Thus, Gao Feng’s microscope is like a magical mirror, in control of our world and of artistic expression of all acquired concepts. History and the daily life of the community have changed their original image, position and role. Beyond all doubt the centralized traditional vision does not exist inside Gao Feng’s magical mirror, and instead a completely new visual language and creative power is released from within; every existence can be doubted, and every image of art can be re-explained.

“Preexistence” Series is Gao Feng´s re-understanding of traditional culture. Every corner in the landscapes of Xia Wa, or every tree branch from the paintings of Song Dynasty Ma Yuan, or from Lu Wenyin’s Itinerant peddler, have all become the artist’s re-interpretations. Gao Feng’s version of Ma Yuan’s Tap Song describes the peasant, standing on a bridge during the spring season; the character expresses vivid, curious aspects of life.  The representation of depth and breadth in a landscape composition, the distance between a rock and a mountain far away, are produced with lines that seem to have been cut by an ax, resulting in a solid texture and a three dimensional feeling.  Even the words written on the surface have evolved into long-bearded microorganisms.  Of course Gao Feng is not replacing some details of the traditional paintings with microorganisms, but rather, through his magical mirror, he stands in another world, inspired by fantastic scenes; his brave imagination re-structures a traditional scene into blue and golden yellow creations of his subjectivity.  He saturates the surface with oil and acrylic paint to describe rocks, mountains and characters and in order to portray a sense of drama and magical flow in colored images. The sense of volume and space in the scenery is emphasized by the spectrum of light and shade of the same color, an attribute or visual effect difficult to achieve with traditional water color and mineral materials on traditional paper or silk. Turning again to Lu Wenyin’s Itinerant Peddler, where children from the Ming Dynasty are portrayed as excited and amused by the toy peddler, Gao Feng adds substantial quantities of bacteria, viruses and microorganisms, to displace the original toys in the painting, which become the new treasure of these children who, in Gao Feng’s rendering, lack facial features. 
In this replacement of traditional art work and culture, it seems that the artist is trying to arouse people's past history and stimulate an alternative thinking about it. History is not only built up through the visible text and image, it can also be regarded as a composition by ancient microorganisms, which can only be certified through the development of modern science and medicine.

Reflecting on contemporary realist life, the series “Present life”, also encounters difficulties in escaping the harassment and infiltration of bacteria. In Gao Feng’s urban work, no matter if it is a portrait of a single character or a group image, the artist’s silhouette is always present on the surface of the painting.  His figure, however, does not have any facial features; there is only a kind of cavity which releases bacteria, virus or other kinds of microbes that disseminate and penetrate the city’s atmosphere, corroding each corner of the city, living within the crowd.  The artist’s own silhouette inside the painting is also not curable; his hair, his face, his muscles and his blood pressure, had already become the best shelter for the microorganisms.

Possibly someone will assert that the artist’s modus operandi is a prank; however, the artist spends a great deal of painstaking effort on his sketches and paintings.  In both series the vivid colors and the solid shapes, want to transmit to us strong, intense information – an artist of reality in the traditional sense- skillfully making people aware of a new reality, that is our history and our own existence from an original, hidden point of view, invisible to others.

Gao Feng’s artistic creation, through the use of both traditional visual images and real life representations, is full of important academic values. Neither the “Preexistence” artwork nor the “Present Life “work is a subjective performance. He has gone beyond experience as indirect source of images and beyond first-hand experience, as a direct observation of self sufficiency and uniqueness.

Speaking from the level of methodology, he accepts the anti-Western vision of centralism, and he corresponds to contemporary Chinese art’s task to diversify the needs of traditional representations. In his own way he delivers an important message: the true vision is not only a mere presentation; rather, we must make every effort still to find it, and in this process of discovery, the original look of the world (including direct and indirect experience), might have different possibilities, full of magical charm and supernatural color. One of the values of art lies in the revelation of the colorful world in all aspects, to stimulate people’s imagination; Gao Feng’s work is inspired by the great ancient artwork. For those works, collectively referred to as "Preexistence," ancient traditional paintings and the re-interpretation of them is not an exhausted project, since for contemporary social reality a micro truth is revealed.  I look forward to Gao Feng’s "erudite and informed" road in the future as he continues to create fresh and inspirational work.