讓我用心來朗讀 用眼眸來觸摸諦視它
    直覺告訴我：
    《潰敗》是一簇簇突兀的盲文。
    趙培生（Pei Sheng .Zhao 1965～藝術教授，陶藝家）的陶藝作品《潰敗》系列使我讀到了《金剛經》中“應無所住而生其心” 偈語的禪味，作品在無所住的流變形態呈現的是現在時態的塌陷、崩潰，亦如病樹前頭那萬木的春天，是絕唱也是前世歡歌。
    《潰敗》系列的形態語意是酷似使慧能頓悟的，運動的剖面截圖。作品構成的發端在虛擬中也暗合了霍金（Hawking 1942～英國理論物理學家）遐想宇宙黑洞的奇點，它在述說著一個終結的另一個開始。宇宙在擴張、膨脹、生長遞增中顛覆的是以往的一切已知。作品的美則是對這生命運動跡象的意象的撲捉。它表現收縮的暗空間，也是反向的擴張……內斂、隱退、含蓄、塌陷、遞減、退步是道極之美的否極泰來，是丑陋的背反。             
    通常陶藝作品是個體空間的占有來體現的，作品是陽空間為陰。作品是與之外的空間發生虛實的陰陽兌換關系，構成物體的美感、他幾乎都是擴張的，努力的使作品的主體放大，具有視覺空間最大化的占有率。 空間的虛與實是無限的，與具體的作品體量而言它又是有限的，就如作者趙培生所言：  “棄形存意是我作品的內核，我抽離物象模糊尺度與體量概念。我覺得打破尺度概念很重要，當作品放在一個無參照物的時空里，看起來非常非常之大。所以，我的作品趨向于抽象與具象之間。因為在《潰敗》外延和空間的實處沒有明朗的具象，我覺得這是個莫名其妙的‘虛象’，它就是我要的東西。”  趙培生的陶藝作品是自省、內斂、含蓄的集合體，虛含萬象的“虛象”使作品完成了對體量感的藝術訴求。這是一個漸進的系統，在不斷摸索過程中搜救自己的靈魂。  回首看看他以往的陶藝作品：2001年代《萌動》系列在擴張中求體量；2004年《大無限》系列寄予內斂中求博大；2011-2012年的《太湖石》系列則是模糊了瘦、漏、皺、透、丑的具象羈絆，以自己的點、線、面語言結構作品。  趙培生經由上述的系列作品的實踐很艱苦的摸索，并以三級跳的方式完成了2013年《潰敗》系列的蛻變。這是一個重要的開端，為此，作品抽象的實體陶土中虛開了一個虛洞，使有限的實體滑落在塌陷的邊沿之后的想象。意象的大無限在此“虛象”中成就。  趙培生的作品是塌陷，是洞開生命的滑落運動，是生命輪回周期的潰敗，這是個大膽的命題。他不同于賈科梅蒂（Giacometti1901～1966瑞士超存在主義雕塑大師，畫家）是融化式的衰減，作品暗喻的是階梯式的減小或長大，他的貢獻是減少的運動來表達生命的瞬間，凝固的一隅是遞減的定格。《潰敗》在體量上更不是形似與馬約爾（Aristide 1861～1944法國雕塑家，畫家）是對空間膨脹，從而達到與空氣的交換和與空間的平衡。
    《潰敗》是不含成見的否定當下，同時又是潰敗對潰敗的否定。他舍棄了封達那（Fontana1899～1968意大利雕塑家，陶藝家）的刮痕和凹陷的語言符號，將刀鋒與折痕轉換，在窘迫的空間擠壓下使塌陷成為了潰敗黑洞的邊沿。
    《潰敗》是要一切都走向流逝，一切都要成為過去，一切又都是“虛象”的無限。這也是西方現代主義的核心，否定既肯定，肯定也是否定。畢加索所說：現代藝術就是不斷破壞的集成。《潰敗》從時間流逝和運動變化的角度出發，是對尼采（Nietzsche1844～1900德國著名哲學家）宣布的上帝死了，以及應聲附和的藝術也跟著殉葬了的詰問。
    作為職業教授的趙培生，他的作品是振作的積極和樂觀的。是在潰敗的運動中看出希望的阡陌之路，是天地之間的不仁之仁的美麗夢想。  作為日常生活中的趙培生，在QQ上曾自稱是“魯丁”的山東漢子，對世事百態的反應是緩慢的遲疑和謙遜的溫厚。但是，在他作品的象外，我們不難發現了他內在的本心，那是率性的敏銳和迫切的粗野。他在用脆弱的個體生命來面對無情的自然，直面世態炎涼人情冷暖，做一次視覺的無畏的抗爭。  于是，在新作《潰敗》系列作品上，我看到了趙培生與先賢的避讓，看到了一爿爿頹廢的殘垣斷壁上是塌陷的洞孔，繼而依照他的“虛象”滑向《潰敗》之后的新生。
    交上一篇善循的讀后感， 以付好友培生展事之托。
    2013-8-19于滬江大學舊址
                
    Reading Being Defeated
    I read it by my heart
    I touch it with my eyes
    My instinct told me the Being Defeated is actually a cluster of articles by braille alphabet
    The Being Defeated series of pottery works made by professor and artist Peisheng Zhao remind me of the spirit of Zen from the famous Buddha chant in Diamond Sutra: 'Persisting for nothing, then you will get everything.' The wild outline of his pottery indicates the collapse and disintegration of current times, closely resembling the Chinese verse: 'After the illness of one tree, there will hopefully come out the spring of ten thousand trees.' It is not only the masterpiece of our age but also the happy song of the previous life.  The shape and meaning of his pottery series are much like the moving interception picture that gave an epiphany to Hui Neng, sixth patricach of the Zen. Zhao's works compose a beginning point like a “Single Point” which indicates a new start at the end of an old era. “Single Point” is thought to exist in the cosmos by Steven Hawking (A famous English theoretical physicist ). In the process of expansion, swelling, and life increasing, it is known that the past is inverted. The beauty of    Zhao's works exactly catches the images of this moving process. It expresses the shrinking dark space, but meanwhile reflects reversed extension. The movements like estraint, retreat, connotation, collapse, decrease and retrogression bring people wonderful feeling after enjoying seeming-wrecked works, which indicates the antinomy of ungainliness.  Generally pottery works are embodied by the occupation of individual spaces, in which Yang effect of works is based on Yin space. And works form the beauty of objects by exchanging Yin and Yang with its external space. It’s almost extending all the time to magnify the main subject of work in order to achieve the biggest occupancy ratio of visual spaces.
    The Xu and Shi (Reality and Fantasy)of a space is infinite. But when it comes to specific work, the relationship of Xu and Shi is finite. Just as the artist Peisheng Zhao himself says: 'Abandoning shape but keeping meaning is the inner core of my works. I remove image from my works to overshadow the concept of dimension and size. I think it’s significant to break the barrier of scale concept and works seem to be tremendous in a space without any reference substance. Therefore, my works tend to exist between abstraction and concretization. Because there is no clear concrete image in extension and external space of Being Defeated, I think it’s an indescribable in-between virtual image. But it’s exactly what I want.' The pottery works of Zhao are combinations of introspectiveness, restraint and connotation.The 'virtual image' that containing all images makes his works equipped with great artistic appeal in terms of size aspect. It’s a progressive system, in which we search and rescue our souls while fumbling forward.
    Let’s have a look into his previous works: Budding series in 2001 kept a perfect balance of proper size and extension, Infinity series in 2004 sought a feeling of vast and Stones of Lake Tai series in 2011 and 2012 bedimmed the fetters of concrete image such as tighting, leaking, crinkling, penetrating and uglifying and used his own language of points, lines and surfaces to structure works.        Mr. Zhao have been exploring hard on the artistry road through those works mentioned above and finally made the Being Defeated series in 2013 in a triple-jump way, which meant the rebirth for him. It’s an important new beginning. It seems that a virtual hole appears on the surface of pottery clay and restricts entities fall into fantastic imaginations behind the edge of collapse. The great infinity of art image has been accomplished here.  Zhao’s works embody collapsing which is the slide movement of opening new life and the defeat of regular life cycle. Mr. Zhao is so ambitious that he chooses such a wild idea. Different from the works of Giacometti (1901-1966, Swiss sculptor, artist), Zhao’s pieces imply multistep increasing or decreasing. Zhao's contribution is to reveal certain transient  moment of life through reducing movements. In his works, solidification is just on the behalf of progressive decrease. As for size, Being Defeated series are distinct from the pieces of Aristide (1861-1944, French sculptor, artist).They focus on dilating space so as to gain the effect of exchanging air and balancing space.
    The Being Defeated series deny the present reality without prejudice, but they also deny defeats themselves too. Mr. Zhao refuses using the scratches and dents as language sign, which are symbols of Fontana(1899-1968, Italian sculptor and ceramist). Instead, he converts blade point into folds, making the edge of black hole collapse under stern space squeezing.
    The Being Defeated series give the viewers three important lessons: everything is going away, everything is destined to be past and everything is the infinity of 'virtual image'. They are also the core of western Modernism: denial and affirmation exist at the same time and affirmation is just denial. Picasso once said, 'Modern Art is the integration of unceasing destroy. 'The series are powerful interrogatories towards Nietzsche (1844-1900, German philosopher)’s words 'God is dead'  and echoed 'art is also buried with the death of God', from the perspective of time lapse and movement change.
    As a professor, Peisheng Zhao create positive and inspiring works. He conveys a message of seeing hope in depressing defeat and seeking the beautiful dreams to set hearts free.  In daily life, however, Mr. Zhao, a man from Shandong Province modestly calling himself “Lu Ding” in the virtual web space, faces everything with tolerance, sincerity and gentleness. But we’re still able to find his inner intention, a mixture of wilful acuteness and tonic wildness. He’s always bravely confronting with the merciless nature, the fickle reality and cold human world and fearlessly fighting with them by hope and dreams in his visual works.          Thus,through the new Being Defeated series, I realise that Peisheng Zhao shows his respect towards  wise men of the past but finds his own way of art. I see the holes on the decadent wreckages, on which a marvellous rebirth represented by Being Defeated arises on the base of his own 'virtual image' theory of art.

    professor Shanxun Xu  at the site of the old Hujiang University

    19th August, 2013