粉红色的记忆:占山油画的几个关键词

Pink Memories: Key Words in Zhanshan’s Oil Paintings

　　Zhanshan is an artist known to be infatuated with rural landscape painting, and his incessant portrayal of such themes has won him wide acclaim. However, his recent works completely changed the familiar artistic style. We can hardly see any trace of his nostalgic fascination with the countryside. What we now see is how subtly he feels about and how accurately he portrays modern life. In his recent works, one can find the longing, anxiety, perplexity, confusion, and even desolation and loneliness in the process of modernization, and also his passionate reflection on and symbolic expression of modern art and life. Appreciating these art works is a journey of rediscovering Zhanshan’s world of visual images. 　　
　　Zhanshan, a graduate from a renowned Chinese art academy, has witnessed and experienced the whole process of the rapid development of Chinese contemporary art, in particular the 1985 New Wave Art Movement. However, he was sober-minded enough not to follow suit, and unswervingly continued his eternal pursuit of art and life. Thanks to his outstanding performance and to the envy of most others, he was able to teach at his mother university after graduation. However, the institutional constraints severely blocked his freewheeling thoughts. Zhanshan, not born as a docile follower of rules, does not quite abide by established rules during different stages of his life. And as an artist, this precious trait never fails to bring people new hopes and surprises. He resolutely quitted his job in order to be independent and spiritually free and devoted himself to creating diversified art. After years of art creation, he has increasingly felt it is hard for his former artistic style to respond to the ever-changing reality. He has always taken care not to be devoured by new trends in art, and has deliberately kept a distance from them, but in his restless heart, he is forever prompting himself to seek a more dynamic approach to stimulate his enthusiasm for art creation, and define his own stance in the modern cultural field.
　　Therefore, we can easily see why Zhanshan’s recent art works all boast a modern touch. The key words for appreciating and decoding Zhanshan’s recent paintings are frequently-used pink, horses, trees, ropes, shackles and morbid aesthetics.
　　Ⅰ Pink
　　Zhanshan’s early works, most of which are painted grey and brown, look depressing, and reveal the artist’s classical spirit and aspiration of rural scenery. But his recent works, which apply bright red, cold gray, brown and white as the primary colors, indicate a transition to metropolitan themes even though they maintain a hint of nostalgia and fondness for rural scenery. Pink is always the right color for depicting modernity and lively presenting the bizarre and motley modern world. Pink also reflects the artist’s pursuit of a modern way of portrayal. Final Memories · Red and Speed · Cohesion are examples of the artist’s reflection on the experience of modern life and visual effect. Zhanshan has outgrown from his former style in terms of subject matter and self-accomplishment, and has embarked on a new artistic journey. He created a doomsday picture, solitary and melancholy, by painting only fragmented symbols of modern world ---- viaducts and reinforced concrete roads stretching to the horizon without even a single man and vehicle. His paintings are always reminding us of the unforeseeable crisis and the helplessness and isolation of people in the modern age. And the series of pink paintings conveys how he interprets modernity: The passion, strength, speed, intervening time and space genuinely felt in modern society and the tension, restlessness and anxiety are eating away people’s lives, devouring their memories and depriving art of its profoundness and criticalness. Seeing these paintings, we can’t help but wonder where modernization is leading us to?
　　Ⅱ Horses and divine Trees
　　Unlike the past portrayal of horses, Zhanshan treats humans and horses as equals, which are created by nature and deserve the same respect and protection, by observing horses in real life and adding a modern visual effect in a bid to arouse people’s respect for other creatures. In the Tree of Life series, the artist applies large angle elevated view to highlight the divinity of trees in an attempt to deter the endless greed of mankind and stop desertification, sand storms, environmental degradation, and vicious cycle of survival brought about by mankind’s crazy exploitation of nature. By applying metaphor in the expression, the artist sends out a message powerful enough to awaken people. He combines the natural world and the modern society, trying to create a colorful spiritual utopia where equality, benevolence, and vitality prevail. By integrating depiction and expression, realistic images and memories, the journey of soul-searching experience and redemption through the art of painting, he is able to present a grand picture resembling a startlingly colorful fable. The art works easily arouse people’s respect for nature, and on top of that, the respect for life, themselves and others.
　　Ⅲ Ropes, Shackles and Morbid Aesthetics
　　In Zhanshan’s art works, the shackled horses and divine trees enlaced by ropes radiate with morbid beauty. The horses look so lonely, helpless, dolorous and resentful, just like how humans feel in the process of urbanization. While we are making progress and creating unprecedented wealth, we are constantly changing our own living environment, making our living space more and more cramped, polluting the air we breathe in, and making hectic noises… As we are increasingly getting trapped in the reinforced concrete jungle, are we any different from the shackled horses? The ropes used to enlace trees, as well as colors, lines, shapes and spaces in the painting, symbolize various moods and dispositions including sorrow, depression, adamancy or weakness… The artist, by observing the symbolic significance of real images in modern life, and giving easel painting a sentimental touch, successfully inspires people to resist loss. And this demonstrates the artist’s concerns and expectations relating to the reality of today’s art and the status quo of contemporary art. His concerns are not about external constraints and depression, but about the profound injury to the artist by the interest-driven reality in the art circle, life itself, and self-degradation so commonly seen in society. And artists, tempted and entangled by material gains and interests, are gradually losing hold of their firm belief and necessary introspection, thus ignoring their inalienable responsibility of resistance against worldly interests and material desires that so often distort personal bearings. The worldly interests, like the rope knots enlacing the trees, have art in the grip of economic market, slow down the pace of cultural development and hamper its momentum.
　　Of course, these recent works are not invariably rational analysis of social issues, yet they do directly or indirectly reflect the current state of existence and survival. Subconsciously, Zhanshan has been longing for rural life and escape from the city. His paintings, symbolic of metropolitan life, reveal his innermost feelings with the pink memories.

　　At 5:20 a.m., July 1, 2008 in Shimen

　　在人们的印象中，占山一直是位钟情迷恋于乡土绘画题材的艺术家，而对乡土绘画题材的坚守也曾着实为他赢得了阵阵赞誉，但占山近期的作品则彻底改变了人们对他那久已习惯了的艺术风格的认知。人们再也难觅他那乡土乡愁迷恋时的踪迹，映入人们视域内的是占山对当代生活的细腻感受与敏感把握。既有一种对现代化进程的渴望与焦虑，困惑与迷茫，甚或是落寞与孤寂，也有一种对当代艺术与生活的激情思考与象征性的表达，由此也让人们不得不重新考察和认识占山的视觉图像世界。
　　考察占山的学习背景不难发现，他的求学经历是和中国当代艺术的发展进程密切相关的，他亦曾历经“85思潮”的洗礼，但并未一味地跟风趋同，而是在内心始终坚定着自己对艺术与人生的永恒追求。由此他以优异的成绩留校，并成为众人艳羡的大学教师，但体制的约束、学院的藩篱严重束缚着他思想的流动，而占山天生也不是那种循规蹈矩之人，他在生命的不同时段总会彰显出那种不安分的天性，体现在艺术上，即他总能给你带来一种视觉的期盼与惊奇。为了在艺术上获得一种身份的独立和精神的自由，他毅然决然地离开了体制，义无反顾地投入到多元的艺术生态中。在多年的艺术实践中，他愈来愈感觉到原有的艺术图式已难于让他对纷繁多变的艺术现实做出回应，尽管他时刻警惕不被那些新潮的艺术潮流所吞噬，并刻意地同他们保持着距离，但在他那躁动的心灵背后，时刻在激励着自我去寻求一种有活力的绘画，并且能够在绘画中重新点燃自己那旺盛的创作激情，进而确立自我在当下文化场景中的一种立场和态度。这也就不难理解，为什么占山近期的图像世界充溢着的是一种当代的征候和表征，而视觉图景中反复出现的粉红色、马的肖像、树、绳子枷锁及一种病态的美学则又构成了占山油画的几个关键词，由此也构成了我们解读占山视觉文本的元素和基础。
　　一、粉红色
　　占山早期作品多以灰褐色调为主，画面沉郁压抑，透露着的是一种古典精神的情愫和对田园风光的守望，而他近期的作品则以亮红、冷灰、生褐和白色为主调，虽然从表象看仍然有乡土情怀的影子，但实则隐喻着一种向都市题材的转变。粉红色在都市化的表达中显得很贴切，它不仅适于都市化那种光怪陆离的鲜活表达，更是占山在极力寻找的一种当代的叙述方式，这从《最后的记忆·红色天空》、《高速·凝心聚力》即可窥见其思考的端倪——力图表现当代生活中的体验和视觉经验。这应该不仅是占山是在绘画题材上的一种跨越，更是对他的自我完成的一次超越，亦是他艺术的一次新的开始。高架桥、钢筋水泥、马路，一望无际，没有人影车影，有的只是那些现代化的符号碎片，营构的是一派孤寂与惆怅的末日景观——现代化这条路究竟能把人类引向何方？自始至终在强化着一种不可预知的危机与当代人孤立无助的情绪，最终透过这批带有明显粉红色表示的作品完成了一种当代性的表述。都市中的激情、力量、速度、时空交错等现代感受的真实载体和紧张浮躁、焦虑不安的现代心灵的对应物，正日渐销蚀着人们的生命，吞噬着人们的记忆，也使艺术日益丧失思想的深度和批判的锋芒。
　　二、马的肖像及神性的树
　　不同于以往人们对马的描述方式，在梳理日常的现实和当下的视觉经验中，占山以一视同仁的态度看待人与马。在他的心目中，人与马都是自然的造物，他们理应得到相应的尊重与保护，而在《生命之树》系列中，占山又用大幅度的仰视来突出树的神性，通过对树的仰望、凝视来终结人类那无止境的贪欲及疯狂索取大自然所带来的环境恶化和生存状态的险恶。占山的表述诚然是隐喻的，但不能不促使人们警醒。在这里，占山完全站在自然世界和当代社会的结合点上，力图使自己能够进入一个充满平等、博爱，洋溢着生命气息的乌托邦的精神国度。他把描绘与表现相结合，纪实与记忆难分彼此，真实的心灵体验与绘画的救赎相交织，使画面产生一种寓言般的形式和令人震惊的色彩。站在画前，对自然的敬畏油然而生，只有对自然充满敬畏，人们才能更好地敬畏生命，敬畏自身，善待他人。
　　三、绳子、枷锁、病态美学
　　无论是占山笔下的马的肖像，还是充满着神性光芒的树，它们都被层层枷锁和密密麻麻的绳子所缠绕，体现的是一种病态的美。马在枷锁下多流露出孤独与无奈，忧伤与哀怨，宛如人类在都市化进程中所遭遇到的那样，即人类在创造着进步的同时，也在不断地改变着我们的生活环境。我们的空间越来越拥挤，空气越来越污浊，环境越来越喧嚣嘈杂，我们日益被钢筋混凝土的丛林所包围，这和枷锁下的马的命运又有什么两样呢？而缠绕树的绳子，画中的色彩、线条、形状或空间都是一种特定情绪特征的提示——或悲伤，或压抑，或强壮，或软弱……他抓住对当下现实的针对性，试图将传统的架上绘画转换为一种新的感性方式，由此产生了抗拒丧失的想象，这是当代艺术现状的忧患和企盼。所谓忧患，不是来自外部的限制和压抑，更多是来自内部系统的自甘堕落，利益化的艺术现实和生活本身对艺术家精神深度的强制性伤害，而艺术家面对多重利益的诱导与纠结，也越来越无法找回自我坚定的信念和必要的自省能力，忽视了作为一个艺术家对一切扭曲个人立场的世俗利益与物质欲望的必要反抗。层层利益关系一如缠绕树木的结实的绳结，不仅使艺术难逃经济市场的制约，从某种程度上讲，也使文化发展的进程滞缓而难以获得前行的动力。
　　当然，占山的近期作品并不是一味地对社会问题作出理性的分析，但它的确直接或间接地反映出了当下人们的生存状况和生存境遇。其实在占山的潜意识中，他始终向往的是一种田园生活，内心还是对城市充满着逃避，他只不过是把城市做了符号性的表现，而粉红色的记忆即是这种符号。

 2008年7月1日凌晨5:20分于石门