李青个展
《大家来找碴》李青个展
展期: 2006 年9月9日至2006年10月9日
开幕时间: 2006年9 月9日（星期六）下午3点
地点: 北京市 朝阳区 草场地 319号 100015
更多信息请联系孟凡(电话: 13488709596, 010 6432 8831) 。 或发邮件到: art@f2gallery.com
Exhibition period: September 9th till October 9th, 2006
Opening: Saturday, September 9th at 3 pm
Address: No.319 Caochangdi, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China 100015
For further information, please contact Meng Fan at 13488709596 (010 6432 8831), or e-mail to: art@f2gallery.com
李青：在视觉游戏的背后
张朝晖
从2000年开始，媒体开始把目光关注在世界舞台上中国惊人的经济发展上。随着中国经济的发展，中国渐渐在国际舞台上开始挑战美国的超级地位。这种情况不仅使国际关系重新平衡，同时也让中国和世界在政治，经济和社会的发展前景中充满了不确定的因素。这是因为中国的不充分的改革正在引起越来越严重的社会危机。在这样的情况下，人们的注意目光转到80年代以来出生的中国年轻一代身上。他们所秉持的观点成为观察中国未来发展的重要参考。作为这一代人中最为敏感的一部分，中国年轻艺术家的艺术创作或许是认识今日以及预测明天中国的关键尺标。
在中国当代艺术领域，这几年最为突出的现象之一是年轻艺术家的崛起，他们的艺术似乎在挑战由欧美艺术主流所控制的审美标准和习惯。这让西方的艺术评论者意识到没有偏见的深入研究中国艺术的重要性。年轻艺术家似乎变得不再介意西方人怎样看待中国，而是将自己的注意力集中到对社会的观察与思考中，去抓住变化莫测的世界与焦虑生活的本质。这样，当代艺术创造回归到现实社会中来。
1981年生于浙江的李青还是中国美术学院的油画系研究生。他正在成为这一代艺术家中有代表性的人物。在过去的几年中，他参加了许多重要的展览，并获得奖励。这是因为艺术界对他的艺术表现的认可，诸如对油画语言的准确的个人化把握与运用，广泛的社会关注，以及清新的画面格调与气质，以及语言与表现内容的恰当整合。
他使用繁荣媒介是相对传统的油彩与画布，作品一般是中等大小，而且往往是双联的， 写实性的内容与准抽象的手法结合起来使用。清晰，明朗而有透明性的作品很容易吸引观众的注意力，并留下深刻的印象。这一套系列作品名为《找茬》，其明显的特征是将两张相似的画面并置。这一系列作品的灵感来源于早年玩过的电子游戏，在玩的过程中，参与者的观察与注意力能受到检验。这一对并置的图画看起来象一个场景的两个被抓拍下来的两个连续的瞬间，也可能是身体，面容，一个地点，东西，或者一个人。
第一眼上看去，这一对图画并没有明显的差别，但在仔细观察之后，一些不同之处就能被发现。这样的视觉经验让人感觉到生活中的时间意识。这套名为《找茬》的作品的题材很广泛，但大多数是寻常的场景，也有一些关于国家与国际事件的表现。还在有些情况下，他的作品建立在社会主义革命时期的记忆上，例如集会，游行，以及毛主席的塑像。这套作品暗示着一个被媒体操纵的视觉世界，这个主要由电子屏幕展现的第二现实甚至超越了人们自己对真实世界的知觉性认识。
并置是当代艺术时间的重要方法之一。两个瞬间之间的张力和关系往往成为作品观念的源泉。以时间为基础的生命意识对经历过长期动荡社会的中国人来说是很敏感的。在中国艺术界，这种反映三十年社会变迁的新旧对比的并置的手法在许多年轻的中国摄影家中是十分流行的。因为这样的手法准确地反映当代中国人的文化认同，因为我们身处在充满不断变化的世界，新与旧，东方与西方的东西都纠缠在一起， 难解难分。在李青的作品中，新与旧的并置不仅是一个简单的视觉游戏，而且包含着复杂的心理状态。
精彩的画面处理证明了李青是一位优秀的画家。画面上，他的笔触十分准确和自信，造型明确，涂色大胆，以及完美的构图。这样，他将油画的视觉游戏连同描绘的内容融入画家创造的游戏，这样的游戏也能让观众来分享，其结果可能是一个反映世界变化的图画王国。在画面上，形象的模糊化处理不仅传达着数字化视觉世界的经验，同时也暗示变化着的世界的不确定性。因为与复杂的现实社会及人们心理状态的表达，李青的作品跨越了风格的局限，同时也颠覆了对中国当代艺术常规的看法。
也许艺术家在主观上并没有意识到这一点。正如他谦虚地所言“我只是一个电脑程序员，用陈旧的方式和勤奋的工作来设计游戏”。和他的许多同代人一样，对艺术抱有游戏性的娱乐化心态，而不是象他们的艺术家前辈那样，将艺术当作获得自由的战斗武器。但另一方面，他那容易被人接受的视觉世界可以与外界进行沟通和交流。因为传达的感情很普遍，景物也很寻常，画面上也非常简洁而单纯，诸如庭院，街景，游行，以及国际论坛等。
许多中国当代艺术的内容表现得十分强烈，以便表达艺术家对现实社会与制度的否定态度，但李青的作品有所不同。虽然他的作品在一定程度上也表现的公共的和政治生活，但画面上很难分析出他自己的明确的观点，画面仿佛是一面镜子，反映了两个真实的瞬间。另一方面，画面上强烈的笔触和大胆的施色，以及厚重的机理共同暗示了一个由大众媒介和电脑网络所操纵的现实，用BOUDRILLARD的话说，是一个对真实世界的模拟。从这个意义上讲，李青并不希望自己的画面讲述一个具体的故事是很自然的，但呈现出当代世界的视觉经验与心理感应。简单而言，是对变化世界的个人观察和表现。画面的内容包括从私人生活到社会与历史事件的广泛内容，但很难看到有宏大叙事色彩的内容，即使与历史有关，也是平易，客观，而温和的，反映出一个从个人视觉而观察到的现代中国发展历程和历史记忆。
每一对画面都值得观众仔细观察和比较，时间所代表的生命意识是特别值得咀嚼和玩味的，而艺术家杰出的绘画才能让画面更感人，更显示出迷人的力量。用传统的油画媒介与手法，李青成功地呈现出当代中国艺术的新视域；同时，关于社会变化的普遍的心理反映也得到昭示。当然，他的作品有一种强烈的游戏色彩，但对游戏的解读需要参照来自外部世界的信息，这样对于游戏的参与也将更加真实与贴切。
经历了二十多年的社会变动与意识形态冲突，许多艺术实践也反映了这些问题，例如政治波谱，讽刺现实主义，以及一些激进的带有血腥味道的行为艺术。艺术家和社会正在建构新的艺术社会学图景。社会在期待理性和有超越性的艺术作品。这样的作品能医治焦虑，麻木而困顿的心灵。另一方面，象李青这样生在80年代之后的艺术家，他们没有经历时代的创伤-例如文化大革命和天安门民主运动-但在经过时间的洗涤与过滤，年轻的艺术家变得更为平静和理性，从而隐含着新的发展方向。
李青的作品让我们看到了这样的苗头。他们在中国艺术舞台和社会生活中的出现具有明显的象征性意义。因此，可以这样说，艺术家的视觉游戏更多的是关注色彩与笔触的组合。但对于艺术的观众而言，他们更愿意探索视觉游戏背后的更为丰富的社会与文化内涵。
Li Qing: Behind the Visual Game
By Zhang Zhaohui
Since 2000 there has been an increasing curiosity by the international community in the astonishing speed of China's emergence on the globe as one of the key players and a potential competitor of the American superpower. This situation will not only enable the international framework to reshape itself, but also makes China become more uncertain in terms of its social, cultural, and political prospects. Thus the world is shifting its attention to the young Chinese generation who is born into earlier 1980s, and grow up with the open and reform program. Their attitude will be an important reference to China's palpable future. As the most sensitive group of this generation, Chinese young artists' creation is perhaps the parameter to foresee China's tomorrow.
In Chinese art world, one of the most obvious phenomenon in recent year is the coming out of age of many young talented Chinese artists whose art practice is recasting the conventional appreciation and perception which is dominated by Western art establishment. This forces international commentators to re-examine the new art without a prejudice. No longer reflecting back to the ideological-charged western projection and imagination of China, they pay attention wholly to current social reality- to capture the nature of a changing and uncertain life and that contemporary Chinese art is down to the earth.
Li Qing (born in 1981 in Zhejiang province) is a graduate student at China Academy of Art and one of the representatives of this new generation. Over the last few years his art has been included many important exhibitions and rewarded several grants and awards, due to his excellence of performance - the mastery of refined and personal technique, the wide social concerns, and the appropriate representation. Executed in the very traditional medium of oil on canvas, the generally mid-size paintings are usually paired pictures. On his canvas an impression between the figurations and an abstract-gestural style is obvious.
By first glance his bright and semi-translucent canvas is easily recognized. The juxtaposition of two similar pictures is one of the most notable characteristics of his current series Point out the Difference, a pastime computer game, which tests player's visual perception, inspired him to do the series. The pairs of picture are seemingly the successive snapshots capturing the two moments of a seemingly consecutive event, a body, a face, a place, an object, or a person. There is very little difference between the two pictures at first sight, and there are several minor distinctions between two upon a careful scrutiny. This reminds viewers about the sense of time and lived experience. The series of pair paintings covers a wide variety of subject matter, but many of them are less significant. Sometimes he recreates scenes from the memories of the socialist revolution, daily life, social gathering, and international relations, such as street dancing, old photograph, parade, international conference, or Mao statue. The repertoire suggests a media manipulated visual realm, the second reality. In this mass media era, people's perception of the world is more from the screens and less from the physical surroundings.
Juxtaposition is one of the key methodologies of contemporary art practice. In Li Qing's work juxtaposition usually occurs between two similar subject matters or scenes but in difference chronologically. The tension or relation between the two is usually the resource of concept of the work. In China's art scene the juxtaposition of old and new, which reflects the remarkable social transition taking place over the last three decades, was/is popular. As the method exactly reflects the current identity of Chinese people who are surrounded by consistent remarkable transitions in a territory where old and new are mixed.
Li Qing is a great practitioner of oil painter. With his bold brush stroke, exact impasto, and, he smartly turns the visual games and subject matter into his own painterly game, a pictorial world that reflects changing reality. The blurring of the images not only suggests the digital visual world that surrounding us, but also the uncertainty of the changing world. Thus his creation oversteps the stylistic boundaries to sabotage clichés about Chinese contemporary art.
As the artist puts it, "I am merely a computer programmer who is making a simple game by hard working and old fashion." Li Qing is making a simple and easily accessible visual world where audience may exchange idea and share a common feeling. Many of the prototypes of contemporary Chinese art were heavy in their subject matter in order to express artists' negative attitude towards the current corruptive system. Even though his work present some views of public and political life but hard to tell his comment, like a pair of mirrors exactly reflecting two moments (or from slightly different angle) of an event or a scene. On the other hand the strong stroke of the brush and bold impasto as well as pigment texture are integrated to suggest a reality that is filtered by mass media or computerization, using Boudrillard's a simulation of the real. In this sense Li Qing does not tell what a concrete scene or story is, but indicating a visual experience to the contemporary world, or put it simply, his impression of the shifting life.
The subject matter of his oil-painting spans from social and historical concerns to personal experience, reading out a panoramic picture of contemporary Chinese life and memories. Each of his painting deserves a close look and the serious comparassion of the pair of the paintings would find a strong sense of time, the consecutive moments of life. The distinguish painterly quality of the works empowers the unique fascination of pictures. Using the traditional medium Li Qing successfully presents a magic pictorial series of contemporary Chinese art. Simultaneously, psychological complexity toward the remarkable social transitions of China is easily understood. His art is a visual game but entwined with social information that reflects the vicissitudes of the society.
The subject matter is ordinary, and unnoticed, some are like news photo for a propaganda purpose. He presents a picture that combine with images and reality. Grand rhetoric and heavy theme are non-exist. Li Qing is more interested with an ordinary scene that affects our perception to the world. Having a two-decade social uphail and ideological confliction, to consider the Cynical Realism and radical and bloody performance as parameter in the art world, the society is crying for a more tranquil and rational art, which is therapeutic to the exhausting and anxious souls. On the other hand, the young generation who born into 1980s, like Li Qing, have experienced little of the national trauma and tragedy, their art are no longer thematically heavy but more metaphorical and painterly quality is emphasized. Li Qing is among those group younger artists. Their emergence in the art scene will be symbolic to Chinese art world and the entire society at large. For the artist his visual game is perhaps a play of pigment and stroke, but his audience there is something significant behind the game.
形象的离间
朱朱
与他的最新作品在绘画语言上所取得的突破性进展相比，“大家来找茬”应该被视为李青确立其个人风格的系列之作，从二00五年初至今，他一直都在不停地丰富这个系列里的作品，或者，以一个比喻性的说法，一直都在砌造这处小小的迷宫。从更为广泛的角度说，一切艺术创作都具有迷宫性质，而我们对于一幅画作的凝视，本身就颇似迷宫漫游；这就像雅克·阿达利（Jacques Attali）在那本薄薄的论迷宫的书中写到的：“谁制造了迷宫，谁就把有限变成了近乎无限，把时间堆积在有限的空间里”。
“大家来找茬”是如今的一个经常出现在电视上的小节目，屏幕上会显示出两幅极其相近的画面来，要求观众在相对短的时间内找出所有不同的细节。这种游戏曾经出现在我们的幼年时光，只不过现在图画被搬上了屏幕，而且，附带了物质的诱饵，获得一份微薄奖品的可能。李青套用了这个节目的形式，创作出一系列的情景画，在双联的画面之间设置出微妙的差别，这些差别就是画家要说的话，或者说，画家自己就潜藏在其中，等待着与我们会面。迷宫的特性就在于建筑面目的相似，每条路径、回廊、墙或转角都似曾相似，由此造成漫游者的迷误，并且构成了对他们的智力与情感的考验。在李青的纸上迷宫中，这一特性被格外明确地利用，更为重要的是，经由他的布设，我们的感觉是形象被离间了，形象如同一条花园的小径正在分岔，在“找茬”这个初始的游戏之中，两幅画面在时空上是同一的，或者说，是现实的一次成像，制作者对图象在局部进行人为增删，目的仅仅在于制造出差别，自然，越具有视觉上的欺骗性越好。而在画家这里，虽然也保留了这一类噱头，却远远地不止于此，他对于形象施以离间之术，令它分裂、变化，呈现出自相矛盾或自我背叛的特性来，促使我们重新打量现实，感知现实的虚假、荒谬和空幻，正是在这从那些局部的细微变化之中，我们可以体验到一种言说的巨大张力。这样的作品具有游戏与反讽的双重意味，并且隐含着一个本质的主题，那就是对绘画语言本身的沉思与怀疑，有关这一主题的意识，在现代艺术的范围内，可以追溯到比利时画家勒内·玛格利特；而在东方的精神传统中，无疑是一种“元”意识。
这个系列在其创作初期就题材而言更为日常化，不过，从最终被遴选出来的、构成展览的这十二组作品来看，画家蓄意将题材的重心放在了历史记忆与时事新闻两方面，至少是明确增加了这两方面的比重，换句话说，在寻觅到一种表现形式之后，他希望从尽可能的高度和广度上释放自我的能量，这在一度程度上使我们的观赏损失了一份红尘之中的乐趣，正如纳博科夫所言，“没有什么比庸俗的粗鄙更令人振奋了。”（《谈洛丽塔》）从那些被归入幕后的画作里，我们可以清晰地看到一个年轻艺术家赖以生存与呼吸的当代生活环境。毕业生合影、单身汉的房间、电视新闻，公寓楼门前阴郁的迹象，电脑屏幕周围的卡通招贴，街心塑像，公园里的人群，火灾，夜晚街头的刺青少女等等，混乱、新鲜、正在被全球化改写的现实直接切入到我们的视线之中……不妨说，整个系列的进展过程是一个与现实的间距不断拉大的过程；当历史之维参与到他的创作之中，也意味着他的视野正变得开阔，现实的本质或者当代生活的来龙去脉才有可能得以被进一步地廓清。
如果将这次展览的作品做一个机械的题材分类，不妨将《英雄墓》、《珍妃》、《高僧》、《浮图》、《主席》、《明镜》视为对历史记忆的处理，而《英雄归》、《大会》、《大佬》《大兵》所关涉的当代生活，集中在政治与时尚两方面，而《老虎机》与《自画像》显得更带有个人生活与自传色彩。
Ⅱ
“什么东西寻找起来费尽艰辛，什么东西发现时就会使人无限快乐。”奥古斯丁的这句话道出了游戏的原旨。事实上，我们的艺术与文学一样，往往止步于浮泛的现实叙事，在一个沉重的道德面具之下，无法正视艺术的游戏性。需知审美游戏正如迷宫的探险一样，具有净化甚至是再生的作用。可以设想，受诱于“找茬”之乐的观众们，好奇心首先得到了满足，继而会不知不觉地偏离这些表面的异同，随之陷入到思考“它们何以不同”这一问题之中，观看被引向了“歧途”，或者说，引向了一场智力的交谈。
如果说玛格利特的绘画是关于不可能存在的事物的快照，那么李青的作品看似仍然来自生活或历史场景的片段，遗址，电视报道、街心塑像、旧照片等等，而共通之处在于他们的绘画都不是对于一种叙事冲动的满足，而是攫取物象来表达形而上的思考。李青的一组初期之作描绘了公园中的亭子景象，在双联画面上，那个亭中的拍照者和台阶上伫望的女子都保持了相同的姿势，但亭子前草地上的一对坐着的男女姿势却已经更改，男子已经起身来到女子的身边，以手抚触到她的肩膀，这个局部的差别让我们产生出错觉，因为，在这个局部之内，时间仿佛已经过去了几秒、几分钟、几小时，情状已经发生了变化，可是，除了这个局部，两幅画面上的时间感大体上是同一的。由于这个局部的时间有异，我们反过来再去凝视亭中的拍照者和台阶上伫望的女子时，会感觉到他们的形象具有一种呆滞的、迟缓的特性，俨然脱离了时间而存在。不过，仔细想来，难道拍照和伫望不都是让时间不知不觉中溜走的方式，或者说使人忘却了自身的存在的方式吗？或者，从另一个截然不同的角度来考虑，也可以将草地这个局部视为坐着的男人内心的幻象呈现，他在与女子攀谈的同时幻想着自己与她有了更为亲昵的举动……无论如何，形象被离间了。
在《英雄归》里，那位宇航员在卫兵的护送下，接受人群的夹道欢迎，第一幅画面上，我们可以看到他显得举止僵硬，受宠若惊，仿佛还没有适应如此盛大的场面，夸张地说，他的姿态倒像是一个被押送的犯人，而在第二幅画面上，他已经在挥手致意，看上去已经进入到“英雄”这一角色之中，我们似乎可以猜想他此后的生活，他将会不停地受到领导人的接见，不停地出席电视采访节目、受勋仪式、演讲会、报告会，在那样的过程中越来越老练、坦然，口才越来越出色，如此等等，他的自我逐渐地丧失，甚至当他揽镜自照时，眼之所见也俨然是一个不折不扣的英雄形象。而画家通过对比巧妙地揭示出这个形象的裂变过程，事实上，如果说当宇航员置身于浩瀚的星空、挑战着人类的某种极限时，他的确具有英雄主义的色彩，然而，从他凯旋归来，双脚踏上地面的时刻，他已然成为了意识形态的宣传工具，一个政治化的广告形象。他那挥手的姿态已经在有意无意之间模拟了领袖的举动；在这个系列的另一组作品《主席》之中，站立在雕像基座上的毛泽东正是一个挥手致意的姿态，这个姿态可以说是他留给整个中国的经典性的视觉记忆，仿佛他仍然站在天安门城楼上宣告中华人民共和国的成立，或者在文化大革命期间接见着从各地赶来的红卫兵们，而画家在这个手势中找茬，他将毛的手掌换成了一个手枪的样式，某种安详、伟大的精神象征被暴力感替换了，这个手势唤起的是另一种历史的记忆：内战的记忆，阶级斗争的记忆，打倒与毁灭一切的记忆。
我们可以从这样的作品中看到对意识形态的拆解。而这个系列中另外两组有关政治题材的作品同样如此，《大会》展现的是不久前举行的针对朝鲜问题的六方会谈场面，但是，在第二幅画面上增添了几个细节，会场中央的枝形吊灯多出了一个冰棱般的下垂物，此外，还多出了侍立在一侧的礼仪小姐。这两个细节都与性有关，冰棱般的下垂物暗示了男性生殖器的崇拜，仿佛在指涉政治无非是一种权力化的性竞争，而礼仪小姐佐证和加强了这样的论调。在另一组作品《英雄墓》之中，岳坟墓碑上标示朝代的字样消失了，“宋岳鄂王墓”变成了“岳鄂王墓”，从表面上看，似乎是碑铭受到岁月的侵蚀，其中的字样部分地磨损，然而，我们可以联想到，任何一个朝代、一种统治形式最终都将会在漫长的时光中消弭于无形，对于它们的记忆最终还不如对于一些个人的记忆来得久长。
在有关政治现实的表达之外，画家的语气似乎立刻就变得戏谑轻快起来，《大佬》中那位外国明星为美女们簇拥，在第二幅画面上，他身后的一位美女将自己的手公然地伸到了他的腰间，这个动作如果在现实中的一个瞬间发生，也仅仅是一个不经意的举动，然而，当它被画家捕捉到，它就变成了一个极富意味的细节，令我们联想到娱乐圈中的某种内幕或交易，譬如，在明星梦驱使之下的女人以色相相诱，图谋着从成功之士那里窃取一条捷径。
也许《高僧》可以被视为这个系列中离间的高潮，双联画中的李叔同一个已然垂暮之年，眼脸下垂，神情悲苦，另一个却恍若中年，眉头相对舒展，神色开朗而欢喜。熟悉这位高僧生平的观众应该知道，他生前最后的一句话是“悲欣交集”。画家通过双联形式图解了这句遗言，但是在具体的处理上却显得出人意料，画家分裂了那种混融高妙、接近圆满的境界，将之拆解成这位高僧处在不同时期的两幅肖像，神情一悲一喜，仿佛在那颗深邃的心灵之中，仍然有一种自我的论辩，而远非无言归一的圣境。
在他的作品之中，李青如同一个侦探般潜行于现实与记忆的迷宫，不停地揭开内与外、真与假、此与彼之间的帷幕，画面中那些相同的部分，正如迷宫中看似相同的墙壁、拐角和道路，都是现实的障眼法，需要加以甄别，需要识破，并且，一旦找出了疑点，画家就立刻以画笔进行点戳，使之现出“原形”，引导自己以及观众穿越某道障碍，走向出口。而我们必须意识到，这个“原形”也只是经他的侦探和认识而修正的形象，是从现实表面被离间出来的形象，它依然作为一种关于真相的隐喻，而不是真相本身；每个形象都是与特定的主题结合在一起的，它们构成了迷宫中的不同侧面，而在每个被离间的形象之中，画家试图透露给我们他对于真相的领悟，同时，激发起我们的智性想象力。
Ⅲ
时间的主题或许构成了一切艺术的表达核心，在李青的这个系列里，它恰好也构成了我最为偏爱的部分。
出现在《浮图》里的虎丘塔就是时间的象征，在第二幅画中，塔已然塌陷、倾颓，显示了自然时间的流逝，而塔前合影的家族人物被更换，他们的服饰与神态显示了年代的变迁感。在《自画像》之中，脸上的瘢痕似乎在倾诉青春期的心理历程，而有关时间主题的最细腻、最有诗意的表达出现在《镜子》之中，也许这是整个系列中最完美的一组作品。
出现在画面上的是院落一角，依照它的模样，似乎就是我们在江南地区的巷中经常会瞥见的某座后院，它隐现在某扇门缝里，也许门已经朽坏，敞开在那里，或者，院墙也已经坍塌，只是用篱笆和铁丝围起来，在视线中几乎一览无余。这样的后院可能是从前大户人家的后花园所在，后来宅子被分割成无数人家，原先园林式的布设被毁坏殆尽，已然看不出当年幽深雅致的面目了。花坛已经拆毁，雕花门窗在破四旧的时候被丢弃，当作木柴填进了炉膛，也许还可以想像一口井的存在，却因为有过绝望而激愤的跳井人，而不再启用了，并非为了追悼，而是被视为不祥。如此，现在的院子可以说已经丧失了从前的韵味，只有植物——那些老树、藤蔓或花草幸免于历史的劫难，依稀让人思忆起从前的光景。
画家在这组画中具体的构图法令我想起安东尼奥尼的电影《放大》，如果说院落是历史变迁的一次缩微和一个片段，他截取的则是片段中的片段，一个角落中的角落，并且将之放大，正如影片中的主人公通过一张照片上的细节来侦破一桩发生在公园里的谋杀案，画家侦破了一件发生在历史里的谋杀案。时光究竟是一场怎样的变迁，昔日的世界究竟是怎样的归于衰败和无形，什么将继续留存，什么已经无可挽回地离开我们？这种种复杂的思绪和情怀都在画面中得到了完整的表达，形成了一部双联形式的“对照记”。我们可以看到，虽然两幅画之间的对照所显示的是一个相对短暂的时段之内的变化，却已经道出了沧海桑田。不妨在这里记下那些变迁的证据：墙上增大的裂缝，下水道向地面的移位，梳妆台上多出的一道胶布，模糊的镜面上映现出的不同人迹，墙上的窗架宛在，但是窗已然消失，而开花的野草攀过了低矮的水泥台沿，往外蔓延而来，正如时光对这座院落所做的不断覆盖。
如果以镜子来比喻，这院落一角不啻是一面镜子的残片，而且，污迹斑斑，其中的影象显得模糊而扭曲，然而，它又再明确不过地映照出时光本身。
Ⅳ
当形象被离间甚至是被瓦解，它就是在指涉现实是一种幻象，同时，也具有对绘画本身的反作用力，我们会感受到绘画作为一种语言，尤其是在它的每一次言说之中，都充满了误区，都不可确信。玛格利特在其著名的作品《形象的反叛》之中宣称此不是彼，彻底离间了画面上的形象与现实本身。李青无疑受到这种观念的启迪，但是，相比之下，他的方式是挑逗而非决裂，是通奸而非地震。
中国的造园术所具的一个重要观念，就在于借景。以一扇窗假借树影，一潭深水假借天光，一座亭子假借远方山色；在一个有限的空间里获得无限的感受。园林无疑具有着迷宫的特性。博尔赫斯的《交叉小径的花园》正是想像了中国式园林的迷宫性质，将不同的时空交会在一处。李青的这个系列作品令我想到了借景，他假借了一个游戏节目形式，将各种可能的历史与现实景观纳入画面上，并且在其中放进了精神的寓意，这无疑显示了他机智甚至促狭的意识，敏感的思维才能，并且，相对于西方超现实主义对于事物的强硬得近于暴力的焊接，他显出了一种东方调性的柔软。而在他最新的系列创作《互毁而同一的图象》之中，我们将可以看到他对绘画语言本身所做的更为激进也更具创造性的思考。
我们知道，迷宫的美学寓于难度之中。智性的方式尤其是一种要求画家不断超越自我的方式，其中充满了歧途、死角和偶然性。而对于这个事实的认识，也许他在选择自身道路的时候就已经有过充分的思考，或者说，某种结论已经隐藏在他的那一组作品《老虎机》之中——当我向他问及老虎机上显示的某个数字意味着什么的时候，他答复说：
“是的，意味着得分，摁键后灯会转圈，慢慢停下来，停在有的地方会得分，机器会吐币，停在有的地方可换取多玩几次的机会，但大部分地方什么都没有。”
2006年8月
Alienation by Images
By Zhu Zhu
Despite his recent breakthroughs in artistic language, the style of Li Qing's art did not become defined until the series of works 'Finding Together'. Since 2005 or so, he has been working continuously on the series. Metaphorically speaking, he has been building a small-scale labyrinth with these works. In his book The Labyrinth in Culture and Society, Jacques Attali wrote "Whoever has created the labyrinth, s/he has turned finiteness into almost infinity. S/he has stuffed limited space with unlimited time." Seen from this wider perspective, all types of artistic creativity, in one way or another, resemble a labyrinth. And therefore gazing at a painting is somewhat like meandering inside a labyrinth.
As we all know, 'Finding Together' is a type of program which frequently appears on television. In this type of program, two very similar pictures are shown side by side on the screen, and the audience are asked to spot the differences between them in a short time. We are familiar with these games since childhood. The only difference is that they are now played on television with a material reward attached to the winning of the game. Li Qing adopts the format of the game and creates a series of vignettes of contemporary life. Hidden in the nuanced differences between the paired pictures is precisely what the artist wants to tell us. Or we could say that the artist has camouflaged himself, waiting to meet the viewer inside the paintings. Architectural similarity is the underlying principle of the design of the labyrinth. Every track, every corridor, wall and corner resembles one another. One easily loses one's way amongst features that are hard to tell apart. The sense of confusion and disorientation also poses challenge to the pathfinder's intellectual and emotional strength. The characteristics of architectural labyrinths are cleverly employed by Li Qing and applied to his pictorial labyrinths on paper. More importantly through his careful designs, the viewer is led to feel somehow split and disoriented by the images. Like a fork in a garden path, these images lead us onto different side paths. In the original game of Spotting the Differences，the paired paintings share the same space and time. In other words, the images of reality are of the same time. The game designer alter the details here and there to create some differences between the compared pair. Naturally the more the alterations can deceive the eye, the better the design. Li Qing's works retain some of the stunts of the game, but they are a whole lot more than a game. He exercises the art of alienation with images. By making the images contradict themselves, he tries to lead us to reconsider the nature of reality, its deception, absurdity and hollowness. In the nuanced details of Li Qing's art lies tremendous narrative tension that forces us to think. In this way, his paintings work both as games and satires. But they carry an even more important and essential significance, that is to contemplate and question the fundamentals of pictorial language. In modern art, this idea can be traced back to Belgian artist René Magritte; whereas in the oriental tradition, it undoubtedly comes from the 'unconsciousness'.
At the earlier stage in the development of the series, the subject matter leaned toward concerns of everyday life. But the twelve sets of works chosen for this exhibition focus deliberately on historical memory and news of current affairs. In other words, having found a mode of artistic expression, he now wishes to release his artistic energy on a higher horizon and across wider selection of subjects. To an extent, this new direction takes away some of the pleasure deriving from viewing art about the mundane world. As Vladimir Nabokov put it, "Nothing is more exciting than vulgarity" (On Lolita) . In the paintings excluded from the exhibition, we can clearly see the environment of a contemporary life where the young artist lives. Group photos of graduates, the room of a single man, television news, the gloomy decay in front of his apartment block, stickers of cartoon characters around the screen of the computer monitor, sculptures in the street, the fire, teenage girls with tattoos hovering in the street at night. These help to draw our attention to the chaotic and fresh reality - now in the middle of transformation by the process of globalization. Perhaps the process of the art series' development can be seen as a process of distanciation from the real life. By bringing in the historical dimension into his works, not only does the artist's vision become broadened, but the essence or the ins and outs of the contemporary life also gets a chance for further delineation.
A rather mechanical way to group the displayed works according to their subject matters would put《Hero's Tomb》,《Imperial Concubine》,《Eminent Monk》,《Pagoda》,《Chairman》and《Mirror》together as the historical memory group. The contemporary life referred to in《Hero's Return》,《Convention》,《Big Shot》and《Soldiers》 focuses on politics and fashion; whereas《Pinball》and《I》have a hint on the artist's personal life and are therefore more autobiographical.
II
"Whatever takes hard work to find brings us enormous pleasure." Augustine's words state the pith of game playing. In fact, our arts and literature often content themselves with surface descriptions of reality. Burdened with the weight of morality, they are unable to face the quality of game-playing in arts. But an aesthetic game is not unlike a journey of adventure in a labyrinth. It functions both as a way of catharsis and mental regeneration. Just imagine, the audience may initially be seduced by the material reward. But without realizing it, they may start to wander away from the surface pictorial differences once their curiosity has been satisfied. They may begin to delve into the problem of 'Why are they different?' In other words, the act of seeing is led astray. It is led straight into an intellectual dialogue.
If Magritte's paintings are snapshots of unlikely events, then Li Qing's works are fragments of everyday life and historical events, heritage sites, television news reports, sculptures in the street, and old photographs and so on. But their paintings share one tendency - they go beyond the gratification of narrative urge. In their works, phenomena are captured for the purpose of conveying metaphysical ideas and concerns. One of Li Qing's earlier sets of works depicts a scene by a pavilion in the park. In the first painting, the photographer and the girl gaze into the distance on a set of steps assuming a similar posture. Another man and woman are shown to be sitting apart on the grass. Whereas in the second painting the man has stood up, touching the woman's shoulder with one hand. The difference in this minute detail seems to trick the sense. The time in this section seems to be ahead of the rest of the painting. It could be a few seconds, a few minutes or even a few hours ahead. In any case, the situation is no longer the same. But apart from this detail, the scenes depicted in the two paintings seem to be happening at the same time. Once we are aware of the temporal disparity of this detail and return to look at the photographer and the gazing girl again, we begin to sense a hint of sluggishness in them. They appear to exist outside of time. On a second reflection, does time not slip by imperceptibly in the acts of photo-taking and gazing? Do they not make people oblivious of the environment around them? Or if we take a very different perspective, we can also interpret the detail of the couple sitting on the grass as a reflection of the man's fantasy. While talking to the woman, he was actually fantasizing about having more intimate contact with her. In either case, a sense of estrangement looms out of the images.
In 《Hero's Return》, the astronaut protected by the guards is received by a welcoming crowd. In the first painting, he appears rigid, uneasy and overwhelmed by the scale of the event. In fact, he looks more like a criminal being marched to the execution ground. But in the second painting, he is shown to wave to the crowd and play the role of 'hero' with adeptness. We can almost begin to see the life he leads afterwards. He will be received by various top leaders and interviewed in television programs. In a succession of awarding ceremonies, speeches and briefings, he will become more and more experienced, relaxed and eloquent, so on and so forth. His self will be eroding. Whenever he looks at himself in the mirror, he will see a hero, a hero through and through. Via the contrast of images, the artist subtly reveals the process of hero-making. The truth is, deep in the space when the astronomer challenged the limit of mankind, he was indeed a hero. But as soon as he had landed and stepped onto the ground, he was turned into a propaganda tool, a politicised icon for advertisement. Whether or not the imitation is with awareness, his waving posture does seem to resemble that of Chairman Mao. In another set of works of the same series《Chairman》, Mao's statue on a pedestal assumes exactly the same waving posture. This posture is a classic image of Mao in the Nation's visual memory - as though he still stood on the Tiananmen Tower, proclaiming the establishment of People's Republic of China, or receiving thousands of red guards during the Cultural Revolution. But the artist tries to plot a difference in this iconic gesture. Mao's palm is painted in the shape of a hand gun. By doing so, he also instils a sense of violence in a solemn and imposing spiritual symbol. The replaced gesture evokes different kinds of historical memories - memories of civil war, memories of class struggles, as well as memories of total destruction.
In these works, there lies a deconstruction of ideology. Another two sets of works in the same series deal with a similar political subject matter.《Convention》 shows a scene of the recent six-party talks on the North Korea's nuclear issue. On the second painting however, a few more details are added. These include a cone-shaped object pointing downward from the centre of the chandelier in the middle of the conference room, and a female attendant is added on the side of the room. These two details both carry sexual connotation. The cone-shaped object symbolises the penis, implying that politics is nothing but a sexual competition over power. The presence of the female attendant both confirms and strengthens this argument. In another set of work of the series《Hero's Tomb》, the inscription on Yue Fei's tombstone is shown to have eroded. The character Song marking the name of the dynasty he lived has disappeared. On the surface level, it is about the tomb inscription eroding over time. But the implication is that any dynasty or any political regime will eventually recede into oblivion. The memory of these political entities does not even last as long as the memory of some individuals.
When the subject matter turns to political issues, the artist's style of expression seems to loosen up and begin to smack of mockery. In the work《Big Shot》, the Western star is shown to be surrounded by a crowd of beautiful women in the first painting. But in the second painting, a woman behind him rests her hand on his waist. In reality, it may be nothing more than a fleeting moment in the middle of an unintentional bodily movement. But when captured in the artist's work, it becomes a significant gesture. This frozen moment can be interpreted as implying the secrecy of backdoor dealings in entertainment circle, for instance a fast track to success and fame by means of sexual exchanges.
Perhaps the work《Imperial Concubine》can be seen as the climax of the series of the game. In the first painting, the eminent monk Li Shutong is aged and his face wears a sorrowful expression with eyelids downcast. The second painting, in contrast, depicts a middle-aged monk, eyebrows relaxed and looking radiant and cheerful. Anyone familiar with the life of this eminent monk would have known that his last words before he passed away were "Joy mingled with sorrow." This set of paintings is undoubtedly a pictorial interpretation of these words. But the effect of such a literal treatment of a consummate philosophical state - in which all flavours and experiences of life merge harmoniously into an integral whole - takes us by surprise. The two distinct expressions of the monk at different phases of life seem to split the integral whole into two contrasted parts. It is as if to suggest that far from the serenity on the surface, deep down in the monk's inner world there is still an ongoing dialectics or struggle between the different sides of the saint's self.
In these works, Li Qing is like a spy lurking in the labyrinth constructed with realities and memories. He pops out surreptitiously to lift the curtains that separate the inside from the outside, and the true from the false. The identical parts of paired paintings are in some way like the walls, corners and tracks in the labyrinth. They are nothing more than camouflage, waiting to be penetrated or seen through. Once you identify the camouflage, the artist will then reveal to you the 'true nature of things' shielded behind. By spotting the differences, the viewer is able to penetrate layers of blockades in real life and head toward the exit of the labyrinth. But be aware! The so-called 'true nature of things' is an image that has been separated out from reality by the artist himself through his effort of spying and identifying. It is a metaphor of truth, rather than truth itself. All images are tied with a specific subject matter. They become different facets that constitute the labyrinth. Through these alienated images, the artist attempts to reveal his understanding of truth to the viewer. By doing so, he tries to encourage us to exercise our intellectual imagination.
III
The dimension of time lies at the core of all artistic expressions. It is also my favorite aspect of this series of Li Qing's works.
The pagoda in 《Pagoda》 can be read as a symbol of time. The dilapidated pagoda in the second painting testifies to the passage of time. People having their photographs taken in front of the pagoda have changed. Their clothes and expressions also suggest the change of time. In the work《I》, the scars on the face seems to record the psychological history of the young person in the portrait. For me, the most delicate and poetic treatment of the passage of time can be fount in the work 《Mirror》. This may well be the most flawless pair of paintings in the entire series.
These two paintings depict a corner of a courtyard, possibly somewhere in the south of the Yangzhe. The corner is hidden just behind a door. The door has probably fallen into decay, and possibly not shut. Or perhaps the walls of the courtyard have already collapsed, and now only fended off with a stretch of hedge or wire fence. In the past, it may have been the courtyard of a notable wealthy family. The estate was probably divided into separate accommodations for many families later. Hence the garden design was completely destroyed and no trace of the original artful garden can be seen now. The flower platform is demolished, carved lattice windows and doors discarded during the 'Destroy the Four Olds' period, or probably used as fire wood and burned to ashes. There could have been a well in the courtyard, but sealed after someone committed suicide by jumping into the well out of desperation. It would not have been sealed to commemorate the dead, but to avoid inauspicious influences brought about by the tragedy. The courtyard has already lost its old charm. Nothing but the plants - old trees, climbing vines, flowers and weeds - have managed to escape the onslaught of history. They seem to bring back the memory of the old days.
The formal arrangement of this pair reminds me of Michelangelo Antonioni's
film Blow Up. If we see the courtyard as a fragment of the historical change, then what the artist does is to magnify a fragment of a fragment of history. In the same way as the leading character in Antonioni's film solves a murder case in the park with the help of the details of a photograph, Li Qing has solved a murder case in history. In the flux of time, the old world has sunk into decay and oblivion. Part of that old world remains with us today, but part of it is gone forever. The intricate and subtle amalgam of emotions and thoughts that arise when we reminisce about this period of history is truthfully captured in these paintings. Interestingly, when these two pictures are placed side by side and compared, they seem to evoke a far longer stretch of historical transition than the time lapse suggested by the actual differences in their details. Here are some signs of change in the paintings: the widening crevices on the wall, the displacement of a drain on the ground, the mark of a sticky tape on the dressing table, different footmarks reflected on the fuzzy mirror surface, as well as a window frame without a window. Wild flowers and weeds climb over the edge of the concrete plant trough, sprawling outward, just as the effect of time takes over the whole courtyard bit by bit, day by day.
If we use mirror as a metaphor, then the corner of the courtyard is a shard of the mirror mottled by dirt and scratches. The image reflected by it appears distorted and fuzzy, however at the same time, its reflection of the trace of time cannot be clearer.
III
When images betray our vision, not only are they pointing out the illusive nature of reality, they are also rebelling against painting as a way of expression. As we all know, painting as an expressive language is full of falsity and misconceptions. It is not an entirely trustworthy medium. In his famous work The Treachery of Images, René Magritte pits the images on painting firmly against reality. Li Qing is undoubtedly influenced by this idea, but he prefers a relation of seduction, rather than irrevocable rupture, between images and reality.
'View borrowing' is an important principle in Chinese garden design. Using a window to borrow the shadows of trees, using a pond to borrow the light of the sky, using a pavilion to borrow the scene of distant hills, all these methods allow us to achieve unlimited enjoyment within a confined and limited space. In a sense, gardens have the characteristics of labyrinths. In Jorge Luis Borges's fiction The Garden of Forking Paths, his imagination of a labyrinth-like Chinese garden serves to tie together different space and time. This series of Li Qing's works remind me of the idea of view borrowing. He uses principles of a game to accommodate all possibilities of history and reality in his paintings, and endow them with a spiritual dimension. On the one hand, the artistic format reflects the artist's wit and mischief, sensitivity and reasoning capability. On the other hand, it also replaces the almost violent uncompromising attitude of Western Surrealism with a gentler Oriental one. In his latest series《Images of Paradox: Contradictory yet Unified》，we will see even more radical and creative reflections on pictorial language from the artist.
As we know, the beauty of labyrinth lies in its difficulty. Intellectual reasoning provides artists with a way to surpass themselves. The path is full of treacherous diversions, dead ends and fortuity. Perhaps he has thought over the issue carefully when he decided to follow the path. Or perhaps the outcome is hidden in his works《Pinball》. When I asked him what a number shown on the pinball board signified, he replied,
"Yes, it means scoring. If you press the button, the light will start to turn and gradually come to a stop. If it stops at some points, the machine will spill out coins. At other points, you get to play a few more rounds. But at most points, you get nothing. "
August 2006
