37℃ ~ 黑染紅的衣裳: 12月 2015

在北京工作室的艾未未

2015年四月

由五角星設計工作室（Pentagram）的 Harry Pearce 拍攝

昨天

一位朋友傳了一個訊息給我

說：

...
前天剛看到台灣藝術家雜誌上，妳寫艾未未的文章，我數度掉下淚來，一直以來覺得好的藝術創作與意念，能為人類帶來啟示與關懷，我真的敬佩他的勇氣，謝謝妳寫的文章，也為人類的歷史留下美好珍貴的記錄。
....

看了之後

我是感動的.....

這也讓我想到了十一月份

我在紐約 St John University 參加了
一個以 “中國當代藝術的現況與未來的展望” 為題的會議....

記得最後討論的部分

言談之中

我突然提到了艾未未（1957- ）這位藝術家

因此

產生了一個連鎖反應

那就是...

一時, 引發了支持與反對艾未未的 “激烈爭論”

講者：

隋丞, 張峰, 王家增, 劉峰, 方秀雲, 何善影, 張英超

這也點出了艾未未存在的爭議性....

基於一些原因

可能是抄襲與否

或意識形態

或觀念藝術創作原則

很多人對他的作品不太能苟同

有不少人說他之所以揚名於世

是因為中國政府處處找他麻煩

中國政府越找他麻煩

他聲名就越大

只要還他自由

爭論就會消失了

關於這樣的說法

我倒不這麼認為

說來

艾未未是一個想透過藝術來改變社會的藝術家

他的性格是 restless ....

一旦看到不正義的事, 他很難平靜

他有揭發的欲望

這樣的性格

再加上中國社會, 腐化與不公平的事一而再, 再而三發生

他怎能罷休

我想

這樣無法寧靜的因子一直會跟隨他

世上大多數的人都傾向過清靜的日子

不太想挑起爭議

然而

常常爭議性的背後

卻是真實

我認為中國

很慶幸有一個艾未未....

Written by Natalia S Y Fang

Liang Jing

Art is everywhere. This is what we learn from an exhibition in New York of pictures by the Chinese painter Liang Jing (b. 1959). His eighteen paintings in the Hwang Gallery from the 1^st to the 20^th of December show his thought and feeling of the last three years. The display is titled “What Is Not Art?”

Earthly Wanderings

In Liang's Existence Series (2014), the viewer immediately sees “broom” imagery, albeit of a nearly-abstract nature. In the middle of each painting, the broom stands upright. It is upside-down and dominant in its size. Its sophisticated relationship with its background has been subtly contrived. The painter has used clever painting techniques and added different unexpected elements in his brushstrokes. Finally, each work invites unusual perceptions and gives surprising visual effects.

Then, why a “broom”? Talking about it, one perhaps likes to link it with witchcraft. A male witch flies around on a broom — such a myth can hark back to the middle ages. The German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) also composed a ballad “Der Zauberlehrlin”, saying that a sorcerer’s apprentice abuses his power by enchanting a broom to fetch water, and finally the place is flooded. In addition to magic, there is a more direct connection, that is, as a cleaning tool for dust removal. In making art, in 2006, in front of Denver Art Museum in Colorado, a large piece of public art “Big Sweep” made by an American artist Claes Oldenburg (1929- ) was installed. This work is a combination of dust pan, broom, and rubbish paper — which is so direct, without needing any imagination.

How about Liang Jing? His Existence Series alludes to sweeping. However, unlike Oldenburg’s, what Liang takes is not a real object, but one from his memory: in Mainland China, around the year 1971, during Culture Revolution, there were many publications like propaganda paintings and comic books in which the image of a “broom” was printed. At such a crucial time, also his own formative period, the image preoccupied him. It recurred to him that this memory gradually grew many years later when he started thinking about the subject matter. The 2013 “A Color Romance” (Fig.1) became his first work involving broom imagery.

“A Color Romance”

2013

oil on canvas

35 x 24″

If you want to understand his Existence Series, it’s necessary to look at “A Color Romance” first. In this painting are scarlet red, almost burning red, and bright yellow, even brighter than gold leaf. The broom is loosened, blooming upwards, looking like an upside-down circular cone. If the whole painting is put upside-down, one is reminded of a Tower of Babel. It also resembles two paintings by the Dutch Renaissance painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525-69) of the “Tower of Babel”. Pieter Bruegel the Elder transformed the tower into ruins (Figs 2 & 3). True to say, when making “A Color Romance”, Liang Jing was not aware of these classical paintings. However, his painting shows that great minds think alike.

“The Tower of Babel”

c.1563

oil on panel

45 x 61″

Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

The Little Tower of Babel”

c.1563

oil on panel

24 x 29.3″

Museum Boijmans Van

Beuningen, Rotterdam

The “Tower of Babel” recorded in “The Genesis” of The Bible (11:1-9) is an ethical myth, saying that human beings, while rebellious against the God, started building a tower with its top in the sky, thinking they could do anything they liked there. Liang finds the secular world full of thrones, cruelty, greed, deception and betrayal. Therefore, he wants to sweep away the vicious power. When painting an image of a broom, at the same time he also creates a form of the corrupted material world like “Tower of Babel”. What he has done is to juxtapose the two contradictory elements (a broom’s cleaning nature and the tower’s corrupted nature). The whole picture suggests an unresolved reconciliation.

Once “A Color Romance” was painted, his Existence Series（Figs 4-7）came naturally. In this series, like “unity in diversity” in architectural aesthetics, all the painting are different in color tone, shape, paint density, object’s relationship with background, etc.; but all appear consistent in form — the broom, in an independent and proud posture, sticks out from a state of darkness or of confusion. An image emerges of “pure and untainted” — remaining undefiled in spite of general corruption.

“Existence (I)”

2014

oil on canvas

47 x 31.5″

“Existence (II)”

2014

oil on canvas

47 x 31.5″

“Existence (III)”

2014

oil on canvas

47 x 31.5″

“Existence (IV)”

2014

oil on canvas

47 x 31.5″

After this series was finished, the painter’s binding of the broom was also dramatically loosened. The broom’s twig-like brush is freely spread. From his “Solo II” (Fig.8), this change can be observed. In this painting, the upper part of the broom is spread out and flying all over whereas the lower is gradually disappearing into white mist. This is a sign of the painter’s developing toward abstraction after having spent time on a half-figurative half-abstract experiment. This work seemingly announces his stepping towards a metaphysical dimension.

“Solo (II)”

2014

oil on canvas

47 x 31.5″

Liang Jing’s brooms are evolving all the time — from attacking the material world, then cleaning with vicious power, then standing out, and finally pointing to a spiritual world. I think this is the painter’s constant self-reflection. Are these brooms his self-portraits? The answer is yes!

After his Solo Series, the painter would go to a wider world — Nature.

Trembling Nature

In Liang’s Dream Series, the canvases are like mystic lands, dotted by wondrous, ethereal and simply stupefying sights, having red, purple and blue color tones. Although they are arranged in an abstract manner, they seem like morning mist, vast sky, seashore, glacier, rock, weathered ruins, castle, etc. — a metamorphosis of nature and geographic landscape. Standing in front of each painting of this series, the viewer cannot help himself being allured in to experience its overwhelming power.

Let’s talk about “Dream I” (Fig.9) first. The lower part, around a quarter of the painting, is a territory near us which belongs to the front scene. Here are several small, erected, and ambiguous things — which I think of as simplified “human figures” with blurred outlines. This is a secular world. By contrast, the upper part is a large area of red — a mixture of burning and misty red. Its space is swelling, like expanding towards depths. It becomes a boundless universe. Let us attend to the middle upper part in which white threads with varying thickness are falling. Look at it carefully. Do these apparently leaping light beams recall the spreading twigs of his broom which in the painter’s previous series? Yes, that’s right. These threads are intertwined and flutter disorderly. The space is no longer silent. Instead, sound has been made because of the fluttering imagery (visual image making impact, generating an audio effect).

“Dream (I)”

2014

oil on canvas

31.5 x 47″

Here, the painter uses a special method — Rückenfigur (figure seen from behind). In the foreground of the image, one or more persons with backs to us are painted. They are contemplating the view before them — guiding the viewer to put himself in their position and situation and then the viewer will look at everything that the painter wants to convey. No wonder why the viewer seeing “Dream I” will sense a strong presence.

Now, let’s look at other pieces like “Dream II”, “Dream III”, and “Dream IV” (Figs 10-12). The space is no longer expanding outwards. Instead, in the foreground are divine, magnificent and rigorous geographic landscapes. Now one has no longer a real “broom”. What is left here are imprints of past sweeping — ghosts clinging to landscapes. On the surface are traces of rushes, compressions, lashes, flakes, spikes, scratches, breaks, dissolved elements, sprays, etc. which create a sense of motion, although not reaching an autokinetic effect. Therefore, they demonstrate a state of movement instead of stillness. What will happen next? An illusion of sound. When looking at the dreamlike visual world, we also hear the sound of nature.

“Dream (II)”

2014

oil on canvas

31.5 x 47″

“Dream (III)”

2015

oil on canvas

24 x 28″

“Dream (IV)”

2015

oil on canvas

24 x 28″

No doubt, Liang is adept at creating atmosphere. Reflecting pervading mist, bounding crystal, shaded mottling and graded shadows make the pictorial space become abstraction, sensuality, allegorization, and mystification. Whereas the Existence series is directly connected to “broom” imagery, the Dream series involves vestiges of a broom sweeping through or another metaphysical demonstration. Situated between the secular world and outer space, he now moves through the realm of nature.

When writing about nature, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the great figure of the “Sturm und Drang” movement, spoke of its dark, absurd, chaotic and incomprehensible qualities. Jean-Jacques Rousseau — himself a figurehead of the age of Enlightenment — had a similar sentiment and once wrote about how much fear he experienced when finding himself in the depths of nature. One cannot deny that the Dream series is the painter’s awakened state — his disillusion with the darkness and confusion of the material world, and his embracing of the spiritual world. In Liang’s works, there is a metamorphosis of nature — teeming with reflections, imagination and strength of spirit. One can see he has achieved a visual and romantic realization of the sensibilities of the two authors.

Gesture of Transition

Making the Dream series, Liang felt like leaving the troubled secular world and getting closer to the spiritual world. However, before his departure from the secular world, he has experienced a transition. Thus he made some transitional works. Among them are “Musical Notes” and “Untitled”. Take “Musical Notes” (Fig.13) as an example. It has four sections in which brushes with oil paint of green, yellow, red, black, etc have different shades of colors. This painting reminds me of the American poet Emily Dickinson’s (1830-86) “Mother Nature”. This poem tries to interpret nature. She writes:

She sweeps with many-colored brooms,

And leaves the shreds behind;

....

“Musical Notes”

2015

oil on canvas

47 x 157″

I think that “Musical Notes” can be interpreted by these short words. This painting shows the sweeping traces made by colored brooms. What is left in the painting? After vicious force has been swept away, what remains are fragments of the force of nature. Looking at the painting carefully, one can find neither thickness nor heavy density in colors. I think these show the painter’s realization of simplicity and purity after having experienced darkness. It actually demonstrates living, soaring and the pure essence of the secular world. Here, can you hear music that makes your heart beat?

How about the other painting “Untitled” (Fig.14)? This work has the bright red and yellow color tones of “A Color Romance” and the outer appearance of the Existence series that the painter had previously made. However, this time, the “broom” imagery is even more clear. This situation is rather like what American painter Mark Rothko (1903-70) said:

If a thing is worth doing once, it will be worth doing again and again — to detect it, to explore it, to carry on repeating it, until finally everyone can see its brilliance.

“Untitled”

2015

mixed media on canvas

35 x 24″

As Rothko’s admirer, Liang once said his work had the same structure of thinking as Rothko’s. He spent more than one year on this “Untitled” on which he had thought about and corrected over and over again. Thus, this painting has much more focus and stronger aesthetic form. As a result, it is transformed into a glittering sunflower. As a matter of fact, he may have looked back to search for brilliant colors and the broom imagery. This is not to return to the past, but to prepare to leave it. At the moment when he finished this painting, he completely distanced himself from the secular world.

Meditation before Labour Delivery

In Liang’s Distance series (Figs 15-20), looking at them from the beginning, one maybe imagines the painter’s departure from the earth and travel around Milky Way. Seeming as if he is looking down from space, each painting is a portrayal of details of the earth’s plates. However, looking at them carefully, especially at the spatial structure and textural display, one can see they are not geographical plates, but living beings whose bodies are wrapped, covered, stripped, growing protective layers, etc. These living beings are moving, twisting, causing movement, even transforming themselves or being in a state of total stillness.

“Distance (I)”

2015

oil on canvas

20 x 20″

“Distance (II)”

2015

oil on canvas

20 x 20″

“Distance (III)”

2015

oil on canvas

20 x 20″

“Distance (IV)”

2015

oil on canvas

20 x 20″

“Distance (V)”

2015

magnesium-aluminum

24 x 16″

“Distance (V)”

2015

magnesium-aluminum

24 x 16″

In these paintings, each living being is alone in depth. They symbolize that the painter is entering a state of serious aesthetic thinking — like an encapsulation before labour delivery, he is experiencing a period of precious meditation and contemplation. His future art will continue developing, based on this series. Soon, this wrapping shell will be cut open. Then he will come back to art making. It is believed that it will be another wonder.

Sublimity

From the painter’s using form and structure telling of a corrupted material world, through receiving the enchantment of nature, then taking essence of the secular world, to experiencing recent meditation of living beings, it seems as if I have seen a painter’s desire of transcendence — entering a pure spiritual world.

Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840）

“The Monk by the Sea”

1808-10

oil on canvas

43 x 67.5″

Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany

It also feels as if I am by one of South America’s waterfalls, listening to a monk playing a flute. His body and mind have been purified. The waterfall’s roar can be louder than a million gunshots. Despite the dramatic impact, the monk still continues playing. In vast nature, one’s mind will encounter a sensation of fear, pain and a sense of crisis; but one knows that one won’t come to harm. Such an overwhelming state, as a matter of fact, is how the British philosopher Edmund Burke (1729-97) tried to define the “sublime” in art. Nature is the revelation of nature. Human beings cannot surmount nature. Then, a sense of awe and reverence arises. Finally, spirituality will come. Having exactly exemplified this, Liang’s works for recent three years are step by step more and more spiritual — reaching almost a religious realm!