不解之结——邓箭今作品及其它

栗宪庭

 

“不解之结”是我准备作展览用的一个标题，企图概括当代艺术中的一种话语现象，即作品无论画的是人还是画其他东西，艺术家在表现的过程中，都不同程度地呈现出疙里疙瘩的结状造型。比较著名的如天津的蔡锦，安徽的陈宇飞，四川的何森、赵能智，等等，还有本文要叙述的广东的邓箭今。

绳结的“结”作为物象名词，在中文里经常被用作形容内心难解的、郁结的意象。早在魏晋时，社会的黑暗使一些有良知的知识分子内心充满了痛苦，因此，诸如“胸中块垒”的词汇就常出现在他们的诗中。此后，“块垒”也多被历代文人所喜用。块垒即“结”，著名的苏东坡也曾在他的绘画中用“树结”比喻他心中的结。“结”变成通俗汉语即是“疙瘩”，口语里也常说他心里有“疙瘩”。块垒、结、疙瘩，即是形容物象的词汇，也是描绘内心感受的语言，这是汉语的一种特征，也是中国艺术的一种特征，所谓比、兴、意象化之类。其实，英文中同样的名词结“knot”也作心之结解：Knots in the mind（思想上的疙瘩）。看来人类在使用文字语言表述自身的感觉上有共同之处，也许西方美学上的“模仿说”过于强大，在二十世纪以前的艺术中，我们鲜有见到类似中国比、兴一类的作品。

邓箭今的自画像时期就已经显示了“结”般的笔触，1996年以来的作品尤其《青春期》、《味道》、《梦幻的情歌》、《呼吸》等同期的作品，笔触过程所呈现的结状造型，成为作品话语的重要因素。自然，邓箭今作品话语的首要因素是他“画什么”，男女性欲望中的人物动态是显而易见的，这些动态都很直接，如《一抹晚霞》、《呼吸》、《闪逝的风景》、《梦幻的情歌》中的伸舌头的动态，《味道》中的闭眼张嘴和煽着鼻翼的动态，《青春期NO.2》中近似手淫的动态等等。但这些动态都不是直接表现性，而表现性的欲望，或者借性来表现某种内心的压抑。因为这些动态几乎都是单个人的私密状态下的动态，即使画的是两个人，也是一种压抑得无法接触的状态。人物动态的背景是邓箭今作品话语的第二个“画什么”因素，如《呼吸》背景中拥挤地露出水面的头，象缺氧的鱼。在这里作品被转换为一种意象话语，以拥挤和缺氧喻压抑的感觉。其他作品多采此方法，以飞机和疙里疙瘩的云作《闪逝的风景》的背景，也许以此喻作者与妻子两地生活的感觉。邓箭今作品话语的第三个因素即“怎么画”，回到本文的重点——笔触的结，这是造型语言中最不可替代的因素，邓全部以疙里疙瘩的笔意画所有的形象，正是凭借疙里疙瘩与郁结的心情有一种通感，作者才可以通过疙里疙瘩的笔意表达出内心的郁结。中国传统文人画多用此法，这得益于书法美学的早熟，古代文献多有记载。作品如倪瓒疏落的笔意与他寂寥的心情，石鲁疙里疙瘩的笔意与他晚年的梅花等等。当然色彩也是一种话语因素，邓多用强烈的色彩，且很生、猛、焦，尤其按常理他用的都是一些忌讳的发“焦”的色彩，缺乏润以及透明度，如他常用的发焦的红、绿、黄，常给人一种恶心的感觉。但也正是如此，才表达出他的那种难言的被压抑而焦渴的欲望，色彩的焦与心理的焦在这里也是一种通感。这种生存感觉长期郁结于作者的内心，以至成为一个不解之结，并通过一定的人物动态、寓意的背景、笔意、色彩表现出来。

在邓箭今的近期作品中，《味道》较特别，那是一幅画体会性感觉的人物表情——闭眼、张嘴和煽动的鼻翼，色彩一反平时的焦而变为柔和的暖灰，特别之处在于笔意：大量使用了油，笔触比平常流畅，使整个画面有种液体般的流动感，人物形象在此便超越了写实而成为作者性的感觉的意象。其中关键在于作者把绘制的过程当作自己的体会过程，于是心之结在这种体会中被化解，笔触的结也因此化解为一泓粘乎乎、湿漉漉的蠕动的液体。

以上所叙只是解读，不是评价，评价是把作品放在特定的语境里寻找它的意义。当性的压抑成为特定环境里人的共有生存感觉时，性的压抑就成为一种文化语境（可用“文化情境”，但情境和语境同出英文context），艺术家对这种个人感觉的表达也由此获得某种当代的共识，就此而言，邓箭今的作品具有一定的当代意义，尽管他的作品还显得有些单调，因为在人的性压抑的背后，应该隐含着更为复杂而丰富的生存感觉。其次，艺术的本质是语言，因此必须把要评价的作品，放在整个艺术中的语境里，去看它的创造性的含量。邓的作品话语基本来源于表现主义以及象征、意象、超现实主义这两条语言线索。就此而言，无论世界还是中国当代艺术，此类作品可谓汗牛充栋。中国此类作品大多在语言上趋向“紧梆梆”的感觉，这一特点在国际当代绘画中，可以说使人望而即知这是中国人的作品，我想一是由于中国艺术家过多地受到写实主义训练的束缚，且写实主义总体上又不完善，欲罢不能，所以放不开。其二最重要的原因还是人们普遍上的精神压抑，造成了总体语言上的紧张感，而邓箭今的作品尤其紧。当然，这仅仅局限在绘画的范围里，扩大到整个世界当代艺术的范围，中国此类作品就显得过于依赖传统尤其写实主义的传统语言结构，而在语言上缺乏更多的创造性。在当代文化的全球化的过程中，几乎找不到与世界当代艺术无缘的地域当代艺术，除非不是当代艺术，因此，当代艺术的地域特征的创造，一方面需要在地域情境中找到一种文化针对性，一方面又必须在整个艺术史的语境中找它的创造性的位置。

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 “lump (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