展览名称 /《触极》杨锴个展
策展人 / 了了
特约批评 / 朱其、王春辰、阎安、夏可君、胡斌、陈国辉、蔡俊、曾伟峰、魏祥琪
诗 人 / 江非、李轻松、潘洗尘、蔡俊、李之平、阿翔、东荡子、湖北青蛙、伤水、钟硕、兰雪、老剑
时 间 / 2010. 4. 10.——2010. 5. 1
开 幕 / 2010年4月10日15点
地 点 / 朱子画廊
媒体支持 / 国家美术、画廊



Touching Extreme
Yang Kai Works
Curator / Leo
Guest Critics / Zhu Qi、Wang Chunchen、Yan An、Xia Kejun、Hu Bin、Chen Guohui、Cai Jun、Zeng Weifeng、Wei Xiangqi
Poets / Jiang Fei、Li Qinsong、Pan Xichen、Cai Jun、Li Zhiping、A Xiang、Dong Dangzi、Hubei Frog、Shang Shui、Zhong Shuo、Lan Xue、Lao Jian
Exhibition Date / April 10 , 2010——May 1 , 2010
Address / Lane 28, Yingzhou Eight Street, Haizhu District, Guangzhou





请束

你知道我有多想你
题杨楷的画


伤水/诗
不，你不知道。暗
已经被抽走了黑色
漫天的蓝星也贬值成红草莓
抚摸你的琴声
和我手指一起消失

等待无望可为什么还要等待
你不会响应一个没有来由的乞求者
一抹无色的影子
一片散光的眼神

可我没有根基的思念，无法排遣！
肌肉开始无声地腐蚀，肋骨
无济于事地发白
我坚持不了多久了，亲爱的

你在姹紫嫣红，你在良辰美景，你在赏心乐事
只有我知道
我滴血的心脏其实是被你剜走的
永远不会责怪你，亲爱的
死亡对我是多么幸福
就因为曾经无望地希望。风呀

只一口气就删除了我
而我的思念，混沌星辰中，仍不散架

意念的棍棒
——题杨锴画

诗/李之平


那一刻的决定是没有任何预期的
下一秒的结果已经是前世和今生

这话怎么说呢
我只是注视着你的手指
和手指滑向的目标

他们曾经那么亲密
握在一起，抱在一起，厮守在一起
可是如今，对方已坍塌
身首异处。

再也没有相守的愉悦与共荣的担当
没有棍棒的吆喝与轻抚眼角的叹息
你还想解释，看到汹涌而来的泪光如明灯
照耀矗立路边的那对身影
以及那么一瞬

2010年1月20日晨2：50

《真实》

——题杨锴画



诗/李之平




你以为安静了
却能感到很多细小的事物在涌动
比如摩擦在心底的流水
逝去的梦幻，那些书写和凝视

曾让你日夜思念过的人
从未实现的情感

所有的存在都是不存在
就像你看到奇迹
奇迹却要自行灭绝

你也许还要继续冥想
抗衡身边的事物和死亡的预感

谁来了，谁走了？
世界尽头一定有它真实的礼物

一个绝对正确的答案
等着你领取

《灰尘》

——题杨锴画



诗/李之平


这一年，发觉鼻腔、口腔、肺部明显清爽
灰尘正在移除体内？
在空气中，也感觉它们变得稀薄

我能想象到未来的生活
那时的日子里少有灰尘
我相信自己能进入澄明中
走在净洁的空里

秋天，山里红挤满山岗，
山上也有很多象征圆满的萸壳
秋风荡漾的午后
我拾检梦游者凌晨丢失的纸片和家什
那些密码和遗踪都证明了什么？
那些孩子曾经那么无助，被幻梦缠绕

家乡的风始终在身旁脑际回荡
远离诗歌、书写和革命
众多文人的运动与我无干
“我是被逐出失乐园中命运的无名子”
如此这般，最寂寞的日子已经过去
好在落难之时还有人帮扶

走在无人流连的小路
城市里的繁华，曾经的荣光都曾在这路上绵连
曾装载闲言碎语，被挤兑和抢白的证词
现在，被无声的笑意与清静的歌代替

所有的空装满了有
现在又空了

好像从未有过如此多的爱恋与欢乐
舞蹈汹涌，是秋风里的灰尘，冬阳中的灰尘，睡梦中的灰尘

忒装b

《片段》



诗/李之平



如果回应此刻的心情
我这么形容这个死灰之状：
无人可去的路上
去过的人不愿意回忆

只有野鸭子站在船边张望
动作迟钝的鸬鹚叼来过冬的小鱼
它们曾眼看着一些生命消失在沼泽地
下陷的过程中
两只手绝望的搜索，呼救的声息彻底消无

对于活下来的人
它们希望他们快乐，并连带着慰安自己
同时帮助良马走出沼泽
帮助困顿的龟鳖拉出一条腿再一条腿

活下来的人，有了更坚强的心
出于良善的秉性，让遗忘的功能一再生效
有多少岁月以供消磨呢
想想那些消失了的声音，我们搀扶下吧

《解锁记》

—题杨锴画



诗-李之平



事先通知好热爱舞蹈的人
在解除枷锁时真心地跳一回

把烦恼全戴在脚髁和手臂上
把心晾在肚皮上
把仇结，把心像，把恩怨的前生，把决计离婚的誓言
都挂在所有人看得到的地方

为不致在结果之后让你委屈
请你看明白
及早做个理智的选择：

痛苦和分裂既然是一起出生
你该早早把他们分开
把日后的痛悔消灭

The absurd existence
------interpretation of Yang Kai’s oil painting
by Chen Guohui
（余博雅译）

In contemporary age, it seems that Chinese painting is sinking into an image environment swarm with symbols, when symbolic vision with a large number of mediocre flat painted symbols is in originality crisis, we are pleased to find that alternative artistic qualities of "New Expressionism" represented by a group of young artists in Guangdong like Huang Shichang, Xiao Wucong, Hu Cheng, Yang Kai, after the wave of sign painting.
I had written an essay which has pointed out that their concept of art is for the creation principle of "disenchantment" while against the strategic technique and vivid image symbols. On the one hand, they have actively absorbed the creation style and idea from foreign Neo-Expressionism which emphasizes individual’s inner feeling and expression, paying a lot of attentions to the spirit, not just the innovation of form on surface; on the other hand, they deliberately get rid of the shallowness and frivolity of politics, the naïveness and innocence of cartoon drawing, keep distance to the popular sign painting, even the contemporary mainstream way of painting, try to pursue vague and even obscure meaning. As a result, they attempt to reconstruct a new visual experience through their own sensitivity in expressive individual language: it is not only different from the expressive painting with intuitionistic emotion, but also different from appropriation of image resources and the "Richter-style” way of pursuing of painting; but seeking a breakthrough of spiritual concept in the form of expressionism, which obviously reflects a true attitude after getting away from symbolic creation. In order to fully express the individual's inner feelings, they even deliberately decline the painting language or try to hide them in the atmosphere of emotional and vague images, and defend the purity of their paintings in a simple form. The problem is that the narrative themes and metaphorical psychological spaces which have been trying to be expressed in paintings are vague, hazy. This has showed the contradiction of unity of rational and emotional spirit: it has to maintain natural, non-rational spiritual experience, as well as convert the empathy of reality theme to the form of expressionism in a certain distance, so that the painting can be an expressive carrier of deep inner spirit - a kind of record of self existence, so is called "new expressionism" style.
Yang Kai’s oil paintings have a strong sense of life, in which has hidden the worship of instinctive vitality and the lash of absurd humanity. Therefore, the deformed and absurd iconography of life has become his potential subject matter of oil painting. For example, the works like "The doll of Gods" which depicts the chaos between the gods and the devils after reversal of their roles; "My Bride" does not portray the dressed and beautiful bride, but skulls symbolize turbidity and disorder of humanity; in "The Story of Earth Mother" the digestion and separation of characters in the painting cannot restrain the stagnant, indifference, impassive atmosphere ... ... Although every piece of Kai Yang’s works has its own precise theme and content, but strictly speaking, the theme and content of a work is not the essence and focus of expressionism. Though there are basic provisions about forms, such as the form of representation, black and white color, expression of personality and freedom of using paint strokes and so on, but objectively speaking, the artist's emotional expression is still the most important. Perhaps it is difficult to define Yang Kai’s style as Expressionism, but it still has some opportunities of to become Expressionism, particularly the absurd life images, strong emotional psychology and unique spiritual stimulation, which makes the core strength of his works show a power of outward expansion. This is the result of artist’s thoughts and performance about the sense of alienation of human nature, rather than a process promoted by reason.
In fact, Yang Kai had gone through a period of anxiety about artistic style, and gotten rid of the confusion and binding brought by realistic painting from academism, then he has found a way of expressing inner depression, nihility and gray images which have been trying to build on vision. He takes his personal experience as the focal point of art and life, trying to show the falsity of humanity, ridiculous and boring "existence". In a series of disordered and expressive works, artists are searching for the true self in the criticism, pursuing personality and emotional extreme in form. There is a kind of indescribable life attitude and understanding of his lifestyle in Yang Kai's artworks ---- obviously artist's brushstroke language shows a strong tension of language, at the same time strengthens the intensity of expressionism.
From a technical point of view, the deformation of characters is an important feature in Yang Kai’s painting. The distorted and flat painted figures are particularly isolated on the background --- in the expressionist brush strokes languages, the characters seem to have lost the skeleton and become strange, blended motion of matter and spiral shape. The almost abstract, smoke-like iconography on the painting, among the strongest artists’ emotions, like Nietzsche said "exciting depression", no wonder there are critics directly describe it as "only lingering breath left on the picture". It goes without saying that these absurd and depressive emotions are from the strained and stressful modern life, from the extreme absurdity and horrifying dark side of real life "existence", while the deformation of Yang Kai’s painting characters is exactly the portrayal of modern people’s pain and unrest.
Furthermore, in order to eliminate narrativity of painting, Yang Kai has introduced irrational factors into painting. It depends largely on the effect of contingency, such as the use of greasepaint effect which is similar to water spot or ink mark as the shadow of painting; dripping the color from the agitated brush, strokes unconsciously slipping; or making a base on the canvas directly, applying impasto in order to show a sense of hierarchicy, etc. These intentionally or unintentionally caused factors have changed the desired effect of the painting, and strengthened the impromptu factors. To Yang Kai, the brushstroke is the key of creating shape, each movement of the stroke on the canvas is changing the shape, which has a positive meaning to the expression of shape. In terms of the effect of thick impasto, the texture shows the artist's perception and illusion, cohered with all his touch of nature and spiritual life.
When I was enjoying Yang Kai’s oil painting, it reminds me that once I published an essay about young artists Huang Shichang’s artworks with the title of "With Regard to Huang Shichang’s Problem Consciousness in His Recent Artworks". I think his work "not only concerns formal language expression as abstract expressionism do, more importantly, he concerns a symbolic form of expressionism, attaching the psychological feeling or thought to the expressive form, which endows with insight into modern life and anxiety. " Similar to Huang Shichang, Yang Kai is also an artist with strong emotional expression. His works have "symbolic images" of absurd humanity existence, which reflect the insight and symbolic expression of the real life. The difference is that in Yang Kai's painting concept, there is a digestion of the sense of works. In other words, artists want viewers not to identify the contents of painting, but rather to explain the meaning of image on the life, as well as the symbol of the artist’s personal attitude towards life presented in the works. Thereby Yang Kai intentionally or unintentionally has created the integrity in expressive paintings which is a present irrational painting, also chosen a way of personalized language in the real painting context with the greatest freedom, Yang Kai was seeking new aesthetic value precisely during this process in form of art. Frankly speaking, the absurd and depressed emotionality in Yang Kai’s painting is like wildfire burning freely - this may be the brilliant part of his paintings, just as boiling energy. The absurd "existence" in Yang Kai’s works blends the unconscious creation impulses, feelings of depression and images of experience life. This is rather an artist’s desire for walking out of visual utilitarianism and back to the salvation of people who is absent of spirit in utilitarian society than a fictional iconography Kai Yang has extracted from realistic experience. At least, Yang Kai has raised the issue in his works, but this kind of question remains in the process of exploration. (The author is teacher from the Department of Arts and Humanities, Guangdong AIB Polytechnic College)

《谁替我永生》

—题杨锴画



诗-李之平


可是这有生的你如何嫁接于命运呢？
仔细算起来，我还不能明白其中的关系
我，究竟是谁

我的呼吸，我的肉体维持，还有我的五官，我的五行附会
都靠什么保持旺盛的精力搏斗于人世？

我终究不能简单认定我了
忽然想到这一点，不禁惶恐难耐
我是欠了很多自然物，很多生命的债啊
那些水，那些空气，那些青菜，那些肉食依附的动物，
我欠着你们的供奉和你们的命。

说来，就是你们替代了我并供我活着
我作为假象，一个躯壳，一个无间道者
人模人样混迹人间

这世界如何得以相安无事
我如何安心自在做我的人呢？

这么一来，我的睡眠难安稳了
我的饮食再难从容不迫
我的命随时跟我索债

我应该继续走一条非人的道路
还是还报滋养我的恩者？
如此搅心着，又开始了一天

恶梦的迁徙
——致青年油画家杨锴

诗/李之平


我走到路上
看到很多裸体的行人
事实上他们不仅仅是裸体
而是骨骼

我说的人们行走在路上
似乎消除了记忆和对历史的依靠
对于已经脱离的肉体和永别了的大地
难以与生命和生命的主人画上等号
天堂依然遥远，此刻的路途没有任何导航

他们是骨骼，不，是骷髅。
为能够找到一座坟堙将自己安葬
他们又开始了漫漫无期的漂泊

天下已大乱，靠什么维系命运和血脉呢？
你的画布上满是血红、艳黄、紫翠
那是死去的心和他们的泪水吗

仅仅是因为缺失的一份爱啊
好在你明白这个真理

如果还有余温，如果还有意识
如果还对未来坚持你的信仰
请说出理由和目的
画出你对世界理解的本相

趁着秋风还在路上
趁着雨水正错失方向
上帝还未准备好新生的序幕
打碎虚拟的图景
亮出明丽的光芒吧

10、1、20凌晨

不要在我的脖子上安放你的颅骨

—题杨锴画
伤水/诗

不要在我的脖子上安放你的颅骨
祈祷声洗脏了毛发。雪
吞吞吐吐，没有了盐的味道
黑抱紧了我，却把你捂成了薏米、铁屑、断简残章
数个陶罐。几味中药。嘘着灰烬的气息
我看不见你的脸，你摸到的嘴唇
其实是很远地方的肠胃
乳河。唾沫之岸。深夜打更时分，轮渡凹陷。
没有购买却要支付，魂灵在赊账
寒冷打散七颗星星
骰子被随意丢出
不要在我的脖子上安放你的颅骨。雾
噤声。

杨锴画题

老剑

A
她呼吸的波浪比房子要高，比任何一种毛发，
要错综复杂。她从室内到遥远的户外，哭泣
与真实的距离，只有一张纸的厚度。
在燃烧的背景下，她的呼吸一滴一滴，
把房子染红，染黄，染黑，染及其他各种色彩。

B
她把嘴张开，默认成黑夜的样子。
周遭与二月相关的事情，像骨头一样，
排成有秩序的明天，后天，及更多的未来。
这些骨头像气泡一样，每天相信一个谎言，
每天，把柔软的时光送上天堂或地狱，然后吃饭。

C
她分泌的物质，她的调料，
可以用青铜去记载，用石头去记载，用眼睛去看。
到处都充满了她的生命，那些螺旋式的水
在白天和夜里奴役彼此。所有的物质，
包括女人，随后就消失在记忆之中，画面之外。

一群贱人.一群湿人

题杨锴绘画：《你知道我有多想你》



兰雪/诗



她是被一毫克
一毫克……一厘米
一厘米……一分钟
一分钟……剥夺干净的
包括一个女人的色、香、味儿，血和肉
灵与魂，情与爱……
剩下的
剩下的
才是一个女人，对你
对这个世界
最后
也是，最好的——

阐释



2010-2-11

9种坏孩子之盎然诗意
>
> ——印象青年画家杨锴
>
诗/钟硕
>



> 之一
>
>
> “何惧未知者至高无上，
>
> 命名者已其乐无穷。”光阴里的影子，
>
> 要在造物的大爱中得到还原。
>
>
> 所以他一次次破坏仪轨
>
> 口衔后退的阳光，成为那阴影里不停弯曲的风。
>
>
> 之二
>
>
> 马槽里的那个小生命，
>
> 承许过谁都有事可做。那旅途集体主义
>
> 他们组团坐包机。惟有他穿过镜子，雕刻海水。
>
>
> 之三
>
>
> 大脑里生长的一切才是真正的排泄物。
>
> 他不会信仰骏马，把蝼蚁的小脚趾放大了三千倍
>
> 调色板一次次腐烂
>
>
> 从不用力的，也不动心，他只是堆溶化物
>
> 被任何线条、色块和肌里重复使用。
>
>
> 之四
>
>
> 一条走不完的城市到乡野的路
>
> 他承许这些，骨节，一团多毛的花粉
>
> 乌有之乡，许多流状的伤口。热爱面包的囚徒说
>
> 八瓣的格桑花并不遥远，就在我嘴里。
>
>
>
> 之五
>
>
> 那影子锁骨精瘦
>
> 他的新娘必带静电
>
>
> 她热爱蛇，蓝色的，沿直立的脊柱
>
> 摇摇欲坠。寻找隐喻的人
>
> 跌倒在第一次的惊艳
>
> 那么容易就渗出了身体里的盐。
>
>
> 之六
>
>
> 黑色反弹成白色，物极必反的事
>
> 大多下落不明
>
> 他所忍受的美多么残忍
>
> 清风练习的妖术，八面，铃珑，那光明，粉尘一样细微又精确
>
>
> 透明的身姿不停打着哈欠。几粒尘土敲窗
>
> 他忽然与下水道无比接近
>
> 怀着分割成530克拉的野心
>
> 以一切可能，他让废料发出了声响。
>
>
>
> 之七
>
>
> 一只倦鸟被石子击中，忽地落下来。
>
> 他快速耷下眼帘，双眼盯在某处
>
> 那鼻尖下凝固的一寸空间
>
>
> 影子纷纷掉进水里
>
> 不再受力不均匀。这唯一的抒情时分。
>
>
> 之八
>
>
> 那些影子在死亡的日记中被解救
>
> 坏孩子已彻底抛出体温，重量。
>
>
> 之九
>
>
> 四轮的马车开走后，他掠过日轮
>
> 肉身的事当在别处，自有安排。
>
>
> 哦，哒哒的声响终于自上而下
>
> 他在碾迹上漫无目的地走
>
> 划过许多柔软的城市
>
>
> 每个柔软的城市，其实都不曾有过他
>
> 但每个柔软的城市都在传播他的圣名。
>
>

当面具去掉之后
——对杨锴近期创作的阅读

蔡俊



杨锴，一个湖南大男孩，1986出生，目前就读于广州美术学院油画系。他近期的创作让我想起了一个几近被遗忘的个人故事。22年前，那时我刚刚进入大学不久，当时正处在“黑色青春迷惘期”中，特别想恋爱，却没有女友，我的内心忧郁而绝望，思考着生命的意义，有时觉得自己特别像一个精神上的“先知”，敏锐，虚无，甚至有点自暴自弃。一天晚上，我形单影只地去了学生活动中心开的周末舞会。当时我并不会跳舞，只能看着那些快乐的伴侣们尽情地在舞池中旋转。灯光昏暗，人们的笑脸和音乐声在面前沉浮着。一种“恶狠狠”的感觉忽然笼罩了我，我眼前交织着的那些面孔、胳膊和腿忽然都剥去了皮肤和肌肉，变成了一具具的骷髅。这感觉如此强烈和震撼，让我完全不能确信那是一种幻觉，当眼前的景物消失，出现了那种“超现实的真切”的时候。二十年后的今天，我又在一位青年艺术家的作品中唤起了那令人震惊的惊醒。
事实上，与这种惊醒类似的个人经历并非是特别“个人化的”，而是一种共有的“视域融合”与噩梦经验。从六岁左右开始到十岁左右的童年末期的轴心时代，我们都经历了梦境中“重复的启示录”——比如“无休止的向深渊内的绝望堕落”，“被某种死亡力量的顽固追杀”，“母亲的丧失”等等——它们会成为一个又一个不断重复的梦境。但是，当青春期到来之后，那个属于终极追问的先知时代就被性的觉醒所取代和淹没了。好比个人生命历程映射的人类文明史一样，性的觉醒让中世纪的终极关怀结束了，人于是进入了精神溃败的“现代时期”。也许这是个人史和人类历史的一种“视域融合”。
好的艺术家都保持着最原始的直觉和敏锐，表达着自我最淳朴真挚的体验。只在这个意味上，艺术高于技艺，直觉大于理性和语言。对死亡气氛和最后的意义的注意会带走所有虚浮的面具，它突然使你觉知到每个生命的某种真相。肌肉，骨骼，脂肪，血管，器官，变形的身体，难以辨认的五官，爪子或者是手……这些超现实的生命形式在杨锴的作品里成为了“就是”，而不是“可能是”，和“大约是”：那些似乎经过挤压并发生物理变形的人体就像是经过解剖一样，在肉体的云朵中，骨头就像是一根一根的闪电，它们在杨锴的作品里是直接用纯白的颜料挤上去的，因此具有突出的质感。实际上他的这种对生命形态和生死关系的追问在较早的一幅作品里就表达得很清晰了，只是在最近的系列中他发展了这个主题的话语背景——他把自己作品的背景拉大到了梦境与现实的临界点——宇宙与广大的星空之中。迷惑、焦虑与看清了世情的冷酷交织在一起。就像当我们看到花朵的时，花蕾消失不见了。当我们看到果实时，花朵也被否定了。然而实际上，无论是花蕾、花朵还是果实都是植物不可缺少的组成部分，只有把它们综合在一起，才能展现事物活的生命。
在杨锴的语言中，那个确定的、自足而又凝固的理性自我瓦解、破碎了，成了一个在时间性中永恒流动的碎片。就像在现代社会的人的异化中那样，人变成了一个面具，一个角色，一个牺牲品，它充其量只是一种意识形态的建构，至多也不过是一个使人怀旧恋昔的肖像。人成为了一个心理的碎片，或者是一个欲望的闪烁，正如后结构主义者德里达和福柯所说的，所谓的自我只是一个话语的效果，一个在语言中的处境，它已经并非我们自身中的本质，而是寄存于语言、飘忽不定的踪迹、符号和解释之中的幽灵。福柯的著名口号就是“人死了”。“人死了”。一个具有普遍、永恒、凝固的本质的观念的人不再存在了。人自身成了一个下落不明的东西。在杨锴的作品里，我们又回到了人的白垩纪和冰河时代。
人类的始祖就象是刚刚睁开眼睛的婴儿一样，他不仅对周围的一切充满了疑惑和好奇，而且还对自身的来历产生着浓厚的兴趣。“认识你自己”，这句刻在古希腊德尔斐神庙墙上的铭文，确实说出了人的心声。人似乎是宇宙间的最奇怪的一种动物。一方面，人有肉身，生老病死无法避免；另一方面，人又有精神，似乎可以留存久远。从肉身方面来讲，人同其他动物是没有什么差别的。但是从精神方面来讲，人确实有他独树一帜的地方。这也是艺术继续存在的根据。在现实经验和理想设定的组合下，哲学家把自然状态下的人类描绘成了两种截然相反的形象：一种是自私自利的恶人，人和人就象狼一样，完全处于你争我夺的“战争状态”；一种是慈悲为怀的善人，人和人就象兄弟姐妹一样，完全处于私欲未开的“自然状态”。有个叫霍布斯的哲学家，他将机械唯物主义和无神论溶为一炉，对人的自然本性作出了性恶论的解释。在他的哲学思想中，人作为一种自然物体，事实上就是一架按照力学规律进行活动的机器。人的心脏如同一台发动机，各个骨关节如同齿轮，神经系统如同连接带，人体就是由各种部件组合起来的一架可以运转的生命机器。人身上所发生的一切，都要服从人体机械运动的因果规律。这种因果规律促使人去追求快乐而避开痛苦，促使人去捍卫“自然权利”而摒弃人为的压制。按照自然物体的运动规律，人总是在追求自己利益的最大满足，因此人身上总是不断地滋生出各式各样的情欲。我们在每个人身上都可以看到一些无法抑制的情欲，这就是我们都十分熟悉的权力欲、财富欲、知识欲以及荣誉欲。在这些永远都不知道满足的情欲中，最为主要的还是权力欲，因为其它的情欲都可以归属到它的名下。在现实生活中，只要你拥有权力，你就能够满足自己的情欲，实现自己的利益。事实上，争权夺利是人身上最为强烈的本能冲动。为什么说人的天性是自私的和贪婪的，原因就在于此。在“自然状态”中，每个人为了实现自己的利益，都会不择手段地谋取自己的好处，从而与他人形成一种竞争的关系，甚至是一种敌对的关系。人们为了最大限度地满足自己的私利，不得不互相伤害，甚至是互相残杀。我们正身处在一个咆哮的、但是没有海岸的的海洋。至少这个海岸是如此陌生，遥远。天空不再给与希望，大地不再给与尊严的世界。漫长的精神疾病降临了。漫长的怀疑的折磨也降临了。
艺术的梦具有一种如诗般的完整性和真实性。这种思想的深渊既是非理性的也是为理性所控制的。它暗示了一种我们无法在清醒状态下感知的丰富而流畅的思想。在疯狂的尘世中，我们无法离开梦所给我们的预知的能力和智慧。每一个时代的预言的特质都会笼罩着人类的智慧，他们会常常不自觉地产生一些见解，不过我们早已具有了这种特质。我看见艺术家们参与一些看起来似乎很荒谬、不合时宜的行动。在梦中，他可能充满敌意，残忍和可怕。但是至少艺术使周围的环境除掉了伪装，并以思想的自由把我们武装起来，使我们能按照自己的意志行动。高明的艺术家为了了解自己而研究自己的梦境。在梦中无论妖怪多么可怕与古怪，它们都是真实的实体。歌德说：“那些反复无常的画面，只要是我们引起的，就会与我们的全部生命和命运有相似的地方。”不管好的艺术表达什么，都一定是“真的”。就像阳光进入下水道或是进入宫殿一样，它自身不会受到污染。那些值得存在的事物，同样值得被认知。
人自从在自然中“独立”出来，它就开始了一个“本原”丧失的进程，所以对精神故乡的追思就成为了许许多多艺术家最根本的“元反应”。大地能够粉碎一切表面智慧和虚假性，释放和收回一切，犹如空虚一般如如不动，冷静超然。那么我们也可以这样说：一切的“元诗性”都必然是对生命究竟的追问。
佛陀走路经常走得很慢，人们常常问他为什么走路走得那么慢，他说：“这是我静心的一部分：永远都要好像走在冬天寒冷的河流中一样，很慢、很警醒，因为那条河流非常冷；要很觉知，因为那条河流非常急；观照你的每一个脚步，因为你可能会滑倒在河里。”毫无疑问，佛陀是一个优秀的艺术家，他内观其心，心无其心；外观其形，形无其形；远观其物，物无其物，三者既悟，唯见於空。
希望优秀的青年艺术家杨锴走得慢一点，不要着急。一定会越走越深刻，越走越博大。

［人世间］
题杨锴画《我的朋友们》





诗/湖北青蛙





一定有人不知年月和年月深浅
睡在普罗旺敌卡上面
他不忧愁，他忧愁过了
他不叹息，他叹息过了。

一定有叫普罗旺敌卡的，她是一张白纸
有人一身涂满月色进入了
普罗旺敌卡。一定有人拍屁股走人，落笔时
魏晋之朝远矣，几无可捕捉的事迹。

一定有我西装革履，坐在外国公司的办公室里
假装一脱胎换骨的农民，读懂了年报中的
英文字句，普罗旺敌卡
记录着这些交易。

一定找得着证据，证实我依然活着
并不因岁月深浅而流失，并不因我睡在
普罗旺敌卡上面，就没有呼吸
就没有失去岁月的担心。

Significance and Bones
-        About Yang Kai’s Exploration of Bodyness
by Wang Chunchen
（余博雅译）

Nowadays, the bottleneck painting encountered is that every method seems to be used before, as if the road of painting has already come to the end. Critics of the painting's present situation and development is being debated, at the same time they also look forward to recreating a new sensation, new style of painting.
The first time I saw Kai Yang's works, I was surprised. Had I not been told that he was merely a senior university student, I would thought it was painted by a sophisticated painter with years of experience. He is decisive and thoughtful. From his painting one can feel that he is thinking much more when facing the canvas are far than the painting itself can present. He cannot be decisive without thinking for a long time; he is decisive because he has abandoned the two-dimensional illusionistic painting language given to the canvas; instead he tries to present directly the properties of the canvas and the material attributions to the paint, pursuing something else in the direct expression. This is a commendable self-standard for the new generation of young artists: they do not follow fashion and do not give up self and think when facing the canvas.
Although Yang Kai's paintings have cleared up the general composition of visual image, hidden underneath the crudeness is pursue of meaning, which has become Yang Kai’s way of interpreting the world, a unique one that readers will have to use to enter his work. The figures in his works could be religious or legendary persons, or characters, animals. All are presented in a skeleton form like a perspective. His paintings have constructed free, undulating convex-concave forms, but what impacts on the vision is their questioning of meaning. For the viewer, this is a query: When the internal things have been revealed, what shall we interpret? When the problem is unfolded, are we prepared with a good answer? If painting being counteracted is just a technique revolution seeked by modernism, then in contemporary art, the deconstruction and reorganization of painting is not just an avant-garde technique, but an inquiry of new value by a generation of artists. The skeleton here is life support, and also a symbol of life, but whether it is life itself is a puzzle worthy of speculation.
This is precisely the problem of corporality we have to face. Questions like the origin of life, social evolution and decipherment of life codes, are not only research topics for evolutionists and biologists, but also subjects of enquiry for philosophers and thinkers: the body is not material; gender is not physiological; life can take on a more advanced form of existence. The cultural meaning of skeleton is often, in medicine, a structure in anatomy for diagnosing symptoms; in religion, a symbol of death and possibility of rebirth. To Yang Kai, his possible thought is an inquiry, a questioning about how meaning to be achieved. Whether it is the painting object he has chosen or artwork title he has given, both have shown that he is looking for something which belongs to his art pursuit. For the moment, the pursuit seems to be highbrow, distressing , but to the new generation, this must be done, because we are the same beings who have not changed since ancient times, facing with the ultimate long-lasting question: the physical significance and meaning of life. If philosophy is not able to answer it, then it might be in religion; if it is difficult to reconcile in religion, then it shall be in fantasy and immerse of art.
As a young painter, Yang Kai can continue thinking and fantasy.
Written at China Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing on 13rd, February, 2010

一片小树叶

－－题杨锴油画《创世纪》



诗/东荡子





天堂有的，地狱也有

地狱有的，天堂早已发生

所有的事物都不过是一对同胞兄弟

一前一后，有时也会从一根肠子里同时到来



我曾怀念地狱的人，后来在天堂

听到他的声音，他说，终于过去

我也曾怀念天堂的人，遇见他

却在地狱，他回答，终于过去



我怀念的就是你，分身两处的兄弟

无论在哪里深睡和清醒，都一样疲倦

可疲倦本是没有的，犹如真理

真理是没有的，我们一开口，就在狡辩

并继续在狡辩中将自己的耳光抽打



一个疲倦的人分身两处，犹疑，闪烁

在并不存在的天堂和地狱之间

正如我的心分身两处地怀念你

它燃烧过，却不曾留下灰烬和气体



然而它却在笼罩世界，它在笼罩中

盗取自己所欲望的一切，哪怕是牺牲

也终是在盗取。虚设它的智慧

也并未在头顶闪现，它在忏悔

它要在人间长出它的一片小树叶

《一切都在完成，或者被完成》
——题杨锴的油画《众神的玩偶》



诗/阿翔


“而厌倦仿佛枯萎的脸
咀嚼着茉莉。”飞短流长的尘土，无从譬喻
盲道转过墙角
有限的树木，那些尚未回来的人
仍在途中。
瞬间即逝的生活总是美好的，众神变着法子减慢
黑乌鸦落下来
宛如烟花之后是无尽的寂寥，半失明的人练习
对玩偶的命运说：不！
从我身边走过，停在远处，直到水边的天空更加睿智
切开月光皎洁
他的阴影懒懒地覆盖着半截骨骼
把自己拧成团，手中的毛线团掉到地上
又滚到水池里。
熟稔消失之美，即使在肢离破碎的时候
只会剩下时间还在流转
剩下风
穿梭的声音
或者仿佛厌倦本身，继续着孤立和回忆
因此我看见他的童年，散发着
霉草的气味，在隔壁完成另一首诗。

2010年3月23日

触极

文/了了


认识杨锴是在广州的一个温煦的冬日，那是广州最好的季节。杨锴热情诚恳，脸上总挂着无邪的微笑。他不善言辞，总是略带口吃的语调和不太相干的话题，让他在一群新朋友中并不显眼。直到站在他的作品前，我被他作品的张力所震慑。我这才仔细端详身边这位身材高大的年轻人，他继续微笑着，眉宇间闪烁着机智、敏锐和这微笑背后的倔强。

广州位于珠江三角洲的正中，全国最早开放的城市。港台的流行文化在此地盛行，实用主义和高度商业化充斥着广州的每个角落。反观当代艺术的学术气氛在广州并不是那么浓重，广州也没有形成当代艺术评论和收藏的氛围。当我看过许多广州年轻艺术家的工作室后，觉得广州的艺术环境还是一个有待开发的处女地，艺术创作的各个方面显得很单纯、很安静。

杨锴长期在此地从事他的艺术创作活动，商业社会的严酷现实无时无刻不在挤压著艺术家的生存环境，然而，这些并不能使杨锴折服，他对艺术的追求，对现实社会的反思，对学术话题的探索、挖掘一刻都没有停息过。

杨锴一直在努力抵抗那注定的命运，试图探寻生命流动痕迹的记录。他说，骷髅对于他来说，亦是那“天使的面容”。它带走了他的痛苦和绝望。从语言上来说，这是“挪用与并置”，骷髅它本来是死的，但他却把它画成活的，让他们在流动，流淌出生命的汁液，有着气息，因此，骷髅已经被灵附体了，似乎是某种不完全的复活！他的作品画面出现许多骷髅，似乎在对死亡的追问。在他眼里，这些骷髅就像怪兽，骷髅才是英雄。而我们所看到的只是假象的假象。

骷髅对于杨锴而言，绝对不是行尸走肉，而更像是精神的符号。他已经不再关注那无法确定的外在形式，而是在信仰、安静和尖锐、激烈的东西之间找寻出路。从而产生了《骷髅新娘》、《排泄物的废话》、《众神的玩偶》、《创世纪》等创作主题，在杨锴的作品中骷髅的动作在作品中有着至关重要的作用，是动作赋予了骷髅情感、意志的方向，更重要的是传递出骷髅的某种内在心理表情。骷髅的表情是被创造出来的形象，同时又是被艺术家固定下来的在瞬间即将消失和正在消失的形象，这种存在和消失的矛盾特质，在杨锴的作品中确定了他对于“死亡与存在”的悲剧观念。骷髅和空间存在着巨大的压力，变形、挣扎的骷髅象是被空间挤压而形成的，空白的空间同时拥有自然的力量，空间是骷髅构成了物质的凝聚力，同时骷髅也产生了呼吸、低吟与嚎叫。骷髅的动作、死亡的时间与画面的空间交织在一起，呈现出作者的微弱却坚强的力量，形成了作品中的“模糊性”或“不确定性”的概念，而这正是思想家瓦伦蒂诺认为的：这个世界形成于偶然间，也将在偶然间消失。

不管人类看上去多么的伟大，实际上我们不断地回避自己的渺小、孤独、贫乏、低能和空虚。在杨锴的作品中，寓言作为一种表达方式，同时也是一种认识世界的方式，艺术的内在性往往表现为时空与人性的同一性。杨锴的骷髅形象寓言反讽现实生活的残酷，和对未来的不可感知之物。这个世界是从不可之中诞生，同时现实具有不可感知。

因此，从某种意义上说，杨锴作品所创造的场景是未知的死亡的情景。杨锴运用浮雕般的颜料，为我们呈现出迷幻的形象，这形象兼具真实与虚构的双重特质，即通往神话和历史的虚无空间，也通向自由和时空的运动与连续。杨锴在努力寻找真理，或者说与现实世界具有的“相似性”的“存在与虚无”之间的关系。

杨锴在努力寻找他想要的答案，但始终都不会有答案。杨锴的作品是一个具有启示性的探索过程，是一个没有终点的探索过程，真理的探寻是他的作品不断处于危机和失败之中。杨锴的作品是无法用精神的图像和具体的文字所定义的，他将现实的残酷以魔幻的面具指向我们今天所处的时代，探索未知的可能性。这些似恐怖焦虑的图式，与自然的永恒和死亡的终止汇合在一起，触及了残酷的、令人惊恐的、绝对的事物本质。杨锴将死亡和梦想、现实和批判、抑郁和兴奋、自省和无奈等不同含义的概念，组合在他的作品中，以个人的经验、记忆和直觉触及到存在和人性的根本问题，深度挖掘悲剧式的剧情。

本次展览名为“触极”。它将最大限度调动我们的感知，让我们感受的不只是声嘶力竭的呐喊和跨越时空的画面，它触及到我们的生存状态和人性社会的本质问题，它还将会是我们一次在秩序和紊乱中接受命运的心灵极端体验之旅。

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黑暗时代的骷髅：杨锴绘画中的死亡救赎



文/朱其



杨锴的绘画触及到了一个关于死亡的绘画主题，对于这个死亡的想象图景，是一种黑暗时代的精神骷髅。

从青春伤感、卡通可爱到时尚美女，当代艺术中的时代主题进入一个多元化的表现。这种艺术景观跟我们的国家一样呈现出一个荒谬而差异并置的“进步”画面，一方面是华丽的歌舞升平和灯光四射的盛世景观，如奥运会开幕式、春节晚会、各种房地产开盘仪式、夜总会和都市霓虹灯；另一方面则是充满邪恶和不公正的流氓经济的黑暗现实，如强拆、自焚、蚁族聚居区、上访村、街头卖唱乞讨甚至路有冻死骨。

这是一个让人精神虚无乃至绝望的年代，杨锴近些年画了一批《众神的玩偶》、《创世纪》、《排泄物的废话》、《WO的来源》、《死亡笔记》、《上帝之爱》等关于“死亡”的表现性绘画，他将这组画称作是关于“死亡的想象”。这是杨锴这一代必然会出现的艺术选择，因为每一个人都置身在中国社会的精神语境，没有人能逃避这个令人绝望的总体性。杨锴自述道：“80后一代人，或者说的范围再小些，处于大学毕业前后，对于未来，完全丧失了支配自己的能力，被各种力量追逐着、控制着、压迫着，在孤独与无名的恐惧中本能地不断挣扎，感到毫无希望。这些令人生畏而又无处不在的压力是什么呢？它们并非什么妖魔鬼怪，而是我们的平淡无奇的生活，和我们平平常常的未来。恰恰是这产生了某种强烈的荒谬。”

杨锴的绘画是一种象征的表现性图像，主体形象是被一个流动的变形的气团包裹着的骷髅，那些气团像阴魂一样的如影随形，有时候骷髅的手爪试图伸出灵魂的气囊外层，向另一个骷髅“气团”接近。杨锴的绘画不是一种抽象表现主义,更接近一种象征的表现主义。他的表现图像是一种分裂、变形、弥散的抽象形象与象征的死亡骷髅的结合。这样一个图像风格直接表现了某种抽象的精神经验，诸如绝望、死亡、恐惧、梦魇、失重、临界挣扎、主体的剥离等等。

对“死亡”的表现不是一种关于身体的死亡，而是关于杨锴这一代的精神死亡的临界体验。就像杨锴说的，他的绘画冲动来自“对人性一切的愤怒,以及死亡的冲动。”他的画面无论是一种抽象性或象征性，都与对这个时代的一种绝望经验有直接的关系。“分裂，变形和死亡”是他绘画的重要元素，“如迷宫似地构成一个残破的异化世界”。

现代艺术和文学史中，“死亡”并不是一个新题。从浪漫主义到存在主义，关于“黑暗、异化及其死亡”的主题，就是一个伴随着抵抗专制主义到资本主义的历史进程。中国目前的社会模式及其精神处境是史无前例的，即使有类似的关于“异化及其死亡”的精神语境，也具有中国自身的时代特征，即我们的专制主义的黑暗尚未退出，资本主义的异化又已降临。这两者的融合构成了一种全球化时代更黑暗的精神“地狱”。

这个关于“精神的死亡临界”的话题尽管沉重，但已不可避免地深入每一个人的心灵深处。事实上，很多知识阶级都没有为这个死亡临界的到来做好思想和抵抗的准备。令人意外又欣慰的是，这个在八十年代曾经伴随着现代主义思潮的“死亡”主题，时隔二十多年后，又重新被杨锴这一代重新提出。当代艺术近二十年受观念艺术和后现代主义的影响，即使70后一代在九十年代以“青春感伤”重启了对于痛苦与救赎的议题，但很快转向逃避痛苦和沉重及其游戏化的卡通艺术。后现代主义以一种对商业和政治的轻蔑和嘲笑的快感滑过了对精神现实更深刻地揭示，观念艺术以一种似是而非的形式主义的国际风格丢失了对中国本土的深刻经验的表达。

鲁迅的“失掉的好地狱”一文，就今天对中国的认识而言仍是一个标高，至今仍未出现超越这一篇文章的思想寓言。鲁迅认为北洋军阀时期的中国社会实际上不如地狱，地狱尚有善恶惩戒及公正秩序，而中国的现实则没有。现实是一个比地狱还要恶的“活地狱”。因此，鲁迅选择的人生出发点是“坟”，即我们所说的“向死而生”。今天的中国尽管不再是军阀混战，但一浪高过一浪的强拆运动、对恶的纵容、对正义之士的打压及其对人民的娱乐化的精神操纵，实际上是一个精神地狱。

面对精神黑暗的时代，有些年轻一代的艺术选择逃避，逃向商业卡通、唯美主义和后现代游戏。有些人则选择正对。杨锴这一代尽管不能马上达到对中国的自觉认识，但他的良知已经意识到这一黑暗时刻。对杨锴而言，死亡意味着灵魂已不能聚集起一个主体的形象，他被压扁及变形，最终变成一个气流弥散似的气团。灵魂“弥散的气团”因此成了他画面中的一个寓言形象，另一个形象则是在这个灵魂四散的气团内的“骷髅”，他正处在一个惶恐不安的挣扎状态。

“在主体弥散的灵魂雾团中挣扎骷髅”，这一极具象征的寓言形象没有往写实方向，而是往抽象表现的笔触风格走。这样处理似乎更能强化一种画面语言的体验性，由于消除了背景的形象暗示，画面就像一个自我空间，内心的情感和灵魂意识的在空气中四散成气浪。他希望用“死亡想象”的临界体验来冲击现实世界的边界。在此杨锴触及到了当代艺术近十年所缺失的救赎主义主题，正如他自己所言，他试图“在现实世界和寓言世界中赎回自己”。

通过寓言化的灵魂雾团中的骷髅，以及直接的表现性笔触，杨锴的画面与对现实世界的深层经验具有一种同构性。他的气团来自关于个体及其主体边界的形式化，象征每个个体之间彼此的隔离。无论是灵魂气团的变形及弥散，这意味着“人在根本上是处在异已力量中，处在空虚与无意义之中，人在根本上是匮乏的、无助的，是一个有限的并且终有一死的存在。”关于气团与骷髅的寓言关系，在杨锴的画面上，气团象征可以弥散并回归神的一种灵魂存在，而骷髅则是人的孤独身体，一旦灵魂的雾气消散，人就会及其脆弱，“就像闯入的无法挣脱的梦魇,被灵魂深处巨大的无依和恐惧所裹挟。”

杨锴因此意识到并表现了一种“人与神（无限）之间有一道无法跨越的鸿沟”，即灵魂因被消散可以回归神，而人则无法追随而去。因此，他的画面充满了一种灵魂的雾团与惶恐的骷髅之间的一种二元性，人对救赎所怀的希望以及救赎无望的绝望处境。当然，杨锴的画面体现了一个“向死而生”的视界，正如黑格尔在《精神现象学》中所言：“精神的生活不是害怕死亡，而是敢于承当死亡并在死亡中得以自存。”精神要正视他所否定的东西，“在否定的东西那里停留，这就是一种魔力。”

精神所正视近乎“死亡”的绝望处境产生的魔力，似乎是杨锴救赎主义的希望所在，正如他所言，它的骷髅是一种“书写着死者在绝望中的希望”。但杨锴所追求的从死亡中救赎的精神“魔力”主要在一个美学主义领域。他迷恋一切在画面上与“死亡”的表现主义的颜料释放及播散，如“压扁、透底、分团、边框、转圈的线，颜料直接还原挤抹、边线，”甚至还有蛋糕制作法，打点法，类似于一种“大脑中的视觉经验的爆炸”。这种对骷髅及灵魂雾气的流动痕迹的表现性“迷恋”使他得到一种解脱，这可能类似一种很多80后一代寻求解脱的精神“网游”。

杨锴的救赎主义实际上还是理想性的，即他还是试图寻求一种对死亡的超越，他希望在死亡气息下继续调动挥散画面上的生命流动，因为他相信“从自身的‘死亡’中所追求的正是生命”。在某种程度上，他甚至认为逼近“死亡”，才能远离甚至“喜悦”死亡。以这种途径去触摸卡夫卡式的“残酷真理”。

这意味着杨锴的救赎主义并未完全触及信仰层次，更多是在一个美学救赎的意义上，如他所言这个绘画系列只是提供了“一个另类的青春样本”。杨锴的绘画模式并不能说完全脱离了现代主义及其70后的青春寓言的模式，但是他试图在信仰的视界下继续触及深层的黑暗，从而达到一个文化的历史接力赛的精神“临界点”。这是一个极有意义的开始。

2010年2月16日 写于上海







Skeleton in the Dark Ages: redemption in Yang Kai’s Painting
by Zhu Qi
（余博雅译）

Yang Kai's painting concerns about a painting theme, death. The imagination of death is a spirit skeleton in dark ages.
From youth sentiment, cute cartoon to fashionable beauty, contemporary art’s theme has entered into a new age of diversified performance. This kind of art landscape is the same as our country’s absurd and discrepant “progress” scene. On the one hand, it is florid, gorgeous songs and dances and shining light of the golden age, such as the Olympic Games opening ceremony, the Spring Festival gala, a variety of real estate opening ceremonies, nightclubs and urban neon; on the other hand, it is the dark realities of the rogue economy full of evil and injustice, such as demolitions, self-burning, “ant tribe” settlement villages, petitioners villages, begging or singing for a living, and even “the bones of the frozen and the starved lying outside the red-lacquered gates”.
This is an age of spiritual emptiness and even desperation. In recent years Yang Kai drew a group of expressional paintings about death, like The doll of Gods, Genesis, The nonsense of Excrement, The Origin of Me, Death Note, God's love and so on which he claimed was about the "the imagination of death". This is the inevitable art choice of Yang Kai’s generation, because each individual is staying in the spiritual context of the Chinese society. No one can escape this desperate totality. Yang Kai said: "the post-80 generation, or more specifically, those who are about to graduate or have just graduated from universities, who have completely lost the ability to manager themselves for the future, who are pursued, controlled, oppressed by a variety of forces, and keep struggling instinctively in loneliness and nameless fear, feeling hopeless. What is this daunting but omnipresent pressure? They are not ghosts or monsters, but our prosaic lives, and our mundane future. It is this that has resulted in a strong absurdity. "
Yang Kai's painting is a symbolic expression of the image. The main image is a skeleton wrapped by a flowing and distorted air mass that is like ghosts’ stalking shadow. Sometimes the skeleton tried to reach out of the outer layer of the soul, getting close to the other skeleton’s "air mass". Yang Kai's painting is not an abstract expressionism, but closer to a symbolic expressionism. His image is a combination of the split, distorted, and diffusing abstract image and the symbolic death skeleton. Such a picture style directly expresses an abstract spiritual experience, such as despair, death, fear, nightmares, zero gravity, the critical struggle, the dislocation of main body, etc.
The expression of "death" is not physical death, but is about the critical experience of spiritual death of the Yang Kai’s generation. As Yang Kai said, his painting impulse is from "the wrath of all humanity, and the death impulse." His images, whether abstract or symbolic, are closely related with the despair experience of this era. "Splitting, deformation and death" - important elements of his paintings, "form a broken alienated world like a maze".
In modern art and literature history, "death" is not a new theme. From romanticism to existentialism, the theme "dark, alienation and death" is accompanied by the historical process of resistance to despotism and capitalism. China's current social pattern and the spiritual situation is unprecedented. Even thought there are spiritual contexts similar to "alienation and death", they have taken on China's time characteristics. In other words, we have not gotten out of the darkness of despotism yet; while the alienation of capitalism has already come. The integration of them has constituted a darker spiritual "Hell" in the era of globalization.
Despite being a heavy topic, “the critical death of spirit" has been deep into every individual's soul inevitably. In fact, many of the intellectual class are not mentally prepared for the arrival of and the resistance to critical death. To our surprise and relief, the theme of "death" which has been associated with Modernism in the eighties was put forward again by the generation of Yang Kai’s 20 years later. Contemporary art has been under the influence of conceptual art and postmodernism for nearly two decades. Although the post-70s generations restarted the subject of suffering and redemption in the nineties with "youth sentiment", but within a short time they shifted to avoid the pain, distress and cartoon art which has turned into games. Postmodernism skipped a deeper disclosure of the spiritual reality with a delight of contempt and ridicule of commerce and politics. Thus conceptual art has lost the expression of profound experience of local China in an international style which seems to be formalism.
Lu Xun’s essay "A Lost Good Hell", compared with contemporary people’s understanding for China, is still a benchmark today. So far there is no parable that can surpass this one in thoughts. Lu Xun thinks that the Chinese society under the regime of the Northern Warlords was in fact no better than hell. In Hell there is discipline and justice order, but none in Chinese reality. The reality is a "living hell" which is even more evil than the hell. Therefore, the starting point of life which Lu Xun has chosen is "grave", that is what we call "being towards death". Although today’s China is no longer sees warfare among warlords, an increasing upsurge of demolitions campaign, condonement of evil, suppression the righteous, spiritual manipulation of people with entertainment, is actually a mental hell.
Facing with an era of spiritual darkness, some of the young generation artists have chosen to escape to commercial cartoons, aestheticism and post-modern games. However some other have chosen to face it. Although Yang Kai’s generation cannot immediately reach a conscious knowledge of China, his conscience had already been aware of this dark moment. To Yang Kai, death means that the soul can no longer gather into a main image. He was crushed and deformed and eventually became a diffusing air mass. Therefore the soul as “diffusing air mass" became an allegory image in his paintings, and the other image is the skeleton inside the air mass where soul is scattered, which is in a state of panicked struggle.
"The struggling skeleton in the soul air mass from the main body", this highly symbolic allegory image is not heading towards realism, but the brushstroke style of abstract expression. Such a treatment seems to be able to reinforce the experience of the picture language. Due to the visual implication that has been stripped off background, the picture is like a self space, where the inner emotion and soul consciousness is scattering into waves in the air. He hopes to use the critical experience of "imagination of death" to strike the border of the real world. Here Yang Kai touched upon the theme of redemption that has been missing for nearly a decade in contemporary art, just like what he said, he tried to "redeem himself in the real world and the allegorical world".
Through an allegorized skeleton in soul air mass and direct expressional brush strokes, Yang Kai’s painting has stricken an isomorphism with the deep real-world experience. His air mass is from the formalization of individual and main body’s border, symbolizing the isolation of each individual. Whether it is the deformation or dispersion of the soul air mass, it suggests that "people are fundamentally in the force of alienation, in void and insignificance. Human beings are, in essence, poor, helpless, limited and ultimately mortal beings." As to the allegorical relationship between air mass and skeleton in Yang Kai’s paintings, air masses symbolize the existence of soul which can be dispersed and returns to God, while the skeleton is a lonely person's body which will be extremely fragile once the soul fog lifts. "It’s like breaking into an inextricable nightmare, being coerced by massive helplessness and fear in the depth of soul."
Therefore Yang Kai has realized and showed “an insurmountable gap between man and God (infinite) ", that is to say, soul can be dispersed and return to God, while man can not follow with it. Therefore, his painting is filled with duality between the soul fog and the scared skeleton, people’s wish for salvation and hopeless desperation. However, Yang Kai’s picture shows a stature of" being towards death ", just as Hegel said in Phenomenology of Mind: "The spiritual life is not to be afraid of death, but daring to accept the death and survive in it." Spirit should face up to what he denies, and" staying in the negative things---this is a kind of magic."
The magic generated by spirit facing the desperate situation close to "death", seems to be the hope of Kai Yang’s redemptionism. As he put it, the skeleton is a symbol of “the hope for the dead in despair." However, the magic of spirit-salvation from death which Yang Kai pursues lies mainly in aestheticism field. He is fascinated by any release and spread of paint related to expressionism of "death" on the paintings, such as "crush, reveal, diving into brocks, frames, twirled lines, applying pigment directly, sideline," and even cake making method, stipple method, which is similar to "the explosion of visual experience on the brain ". This kind of expressive "obsession" with skeleton and traces of soul air mass gives him a relief, which might resemble the spiritual “online game” where a lot of post-80s generation people try to seek their extrication.
Kai Yang’s redemptionism is ideal in nature, in other words, he is still trying to transcend death. He wishes to continue to mobilize in the breath of death the flow of life on the paintings because he believes “it is life that is pursued from its own 'death ' ". In a way, he even thinks that only by getting close to "death" can one stay away from or even "enjoy" death and touch Kafkaesque "brutal truth" in such a way.
This means that the Kai Yang’s redemptionnism does not touch on faith level as much as in the sense of aesthetic salvation. As he has mentioned, this painting series only provide "an alternative youth sample ". Yang Kai's painting mode cannot entirely separate from the pattern of youth allegory of the modernists and post-70s, but he has tried to continue touching the deep darkness under the guide of faith, in order to achieve a critical point of spirit in the history relay race of culture. This is a significant beginning.
Written in Shanghai on 16th, Feburary, 2010

I Have To Fight Against History
-An Interview with the young artist Yang Kai

Participators: Liao Liao ,Xia Kejun, Yan An, Chen Guohui, Li Zhiping, Yang Kai
(Liao Liao, the chief editor of National Art; Xia Kejun, an associate professor of Renmin University of China, philosopher; Yan An, the presider of art in PIFO Art Studios, teaching in Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts; Chen Guohui, a young art critic; Li Zhiping, a poet; Yang Kai, a young artist, studying in Oil Painting Department of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts )

(李宁博译)

Liao Liao: The Chinese contemporary art makes a huge contribution to today's world cultural construction, which is outbreak and indulgence in a sense rather than excess, however. To be more precise, it has fallen into a predicament. Artist can not be fully satisfied with the experienced and emotional life, he always wants to find the source of value beyond the experience world and behind the earthly life. As to your works, they have large areas of blank, with a large number of skeletons in sharp contrast. What does that reflect, a kind of predicament or not? What is your purpose for that?

Yang Kai: As to the blank: Let me talk about it from the stage of exploring linguistic schemata at the very beginning. Originally, my works was actually painted full. Then I was in my constant search for the form when suddenly one day I discovered why I did not erase these backgrounds of reality? So it came up by chance and formed naturally. Later I found that although there are those who also used this method, I was a bit different from them in one point that while my paintings had large areas of blank left, their flavor was all linked together, separate but united. Concerning the background, it seemed that I had always been in a state of the veil of ignorance, which every time made me start again. I was digging the evolution on this basis, making sure that all objects became individuals and changed into masses of air. The procedure was a bit like paper-cutting, that was the reason for the hardening of edges. With this purpose I painted the edge of individuals with very blunt coils so that they separated from each other. The Skeleton: Not the crowds of skeletons, but one alone, I just hope that somehow skeletons emerge out of the painting environment and they appear entirely by chance. Blank and skeleton, your question catches some interesting contrast, which originated in: I remember I was reading some post-modern books when I saw such a passage: In the immediate post-modern context, one of the most important elements is the "diversion and the juxtaposition", which means putting two disparate elements together and converting! I was also enlightened by "diversion and the juxtaposition" and got such an idea.
In addition, the white canvas is always giving people a kind of pure feeling, I am afraid to break this perfect state. I think I am a fatalist and always feel that there is no glimmer of hope. I am always in a hesitating dilemma, which seems to be a war, and fighting against myself, failure is the only result. And that white skeleton, I just think she is beautiful and gives me a hope of "reliving", with a new face.

Xia Ke-jun: Looking at the skeletons on your works, I was struck by some kind of heterogeneous thing which brings the reimagination of life, or we can say the skeleton is the experience in the leftover of life, or precisely speaking, it is also a reverse experience, experiencing life’s limit and fragility from the direction of death and even after death. Art, in this era, can serve as a way to express individual experience of life, and why did you draw the phenomenon of life like that?

Yang Kai: I think men are fundamentally in dissident, and in emptiness and meaninglessness, A person is fundamentally poor and helpless, and is a limited and mortal existence, there is an insurmountable gap between man and God (infinity). Moreover, I think that my nightmare is fragility, I feel that I am vulnerable, only this phenomenon of life is perhaps true, what we are facing are ourselves, and only facing ourselves, it is an individual consciousness. In recent years, fragility is like an intrusive nightmare which can not be got away from, it is caught by the huge fear deep in soul, so I use skeletons to "write the hope of the dead in despair."

Liao Liao: What your works expresses is far more than just the death consciousness of individuals, but universal and widespread existence of death. There are many skeletons on the pictures of your works, and it make me feel your questioning for life and death, please tell me whether you want to express a meaning of life or not?

Yang Kai: For life and death, I feel that I do not have so heavy experience, as to my personal life , only the death of my grandfather and grandmother made a great impact on me caused me to create the first works "Libation" ... What is the meaning of life? I do not know, but I know it is not necessary to use words to express the feeling of losing the most beloved, at that time I did not have the capability, but more or less planted some hidden ideas for my future creation ... When it comes to these skeletons and monsters, I feel that they are not just skeletons. As in the article of "Genesis", only the monsters and skeletons I talk about are heroes. And what we have seen is but an illusion of the illusion. No matter how great the human looks, in fact we continue to shy away from our slightness, loneliness, poorness, and emptiness. I have been trying to resist the doomed fate attempting to explore the records of life’s flowing traces. For me, the skeleton is also that "angel’s smile". It took away my pain and despair. "If death can escape everything", "it is far too lucky". Perhaps it is because we are far from "death", so we can be fond of "death" .In the past few years, I have been focusing myself on the ground of this "death" theme, this obsession makes me relieve, this a bit "ridiculous" silly idea makes me feel myself in the despair sobriety. Obviously, this behavior is cruel, like our cruel and despair youth, and drawing is only the most faint sigh, is dead light, is a hopeless sigh, is confused self-deletion, the meaning of life is just a nothingness and does not exist any longer.
From the linguistic point of view, the "diversion and juxtaposition " is mentioned here again. The skeleton is actually dead, but I paint it alive, and let it flow ...

Xia Ke-jun: The skeleton on your works is flowing, with the sap of life coming out, with breath. Therefore, the skeleton has been possessed by spirits, and there seems to be some kind of resurrection which is not complete, of course, not in a religious sense, but it is the monster said by you, or a spiritual beast! Nor is it the so-called primitive animism, but the manufacture of a phantom, or perhaps it is the imagination inspired by you generation who have been influenced by the images of the network.

Yang Kai: Of course, illusions of the virtual network, reality and non-reality placed together, is the result of the times. To some extent, online game is a reality which has become the a "sanctuary" for the liberation of our confused spirits .Actually, the network has a effect on many images in my works. Relative to the network, as for each people, destiny is once, and it is plain.

Chen Guohui: You think life is once and plain, but we are surprised at your creation, we are constantly trying to approach the picture, hoping to get a more realistic understanding of your inner conflict and struggle. But I know the limitedness of this interpretation, I still believe that the truest art is often hidden in the most ordinary lives, just as powerful waves are often hidden under the calm sea. I hope to savor the feeling from your life and works. As far as I know, there is mainly realistic painting style education in the second studio of the oil painting department of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, what is the reason to make your try your best to get rid of the shackles of realism style, towards expressionism?

Yang Kai: I "should not only clash with reality, but also be in war with art , the conflict can not be avoided" ,so that I fall into a loss again and again. I have been studying realistic style, and now refuse to realistic style, in essence constituting a more realistic intervention. I just struggle in this way. Regardless of the past, present, future, I will strive to become myself, as long as the heart is really enough. I do not know whether now my works belongs to expressionistic style or not, but I believe that my expression is much closer to the real form. Of course, it inevitably requires some technical factors. In an era of rapid technological development, I speak to myself a number of inner things, some matters relevant to struggle and pain.

Chen Guohui: What I think about is another meaningless question: If your environment is changed, can you still be Yang Kai? At least, you will lose that spirit of resistance within the bones. I can not imagine what you will be like with loss of pressure.

Yang Kai: As to the environment and rebellious spirit mentioned by you, I would like to use one story my teacher told me: There is such a kind of grass, whether he is living in the desert, or living in an environment with a variety of harshness, it will not die, and tenaciously survive. But it has only one feature,youcan not give it fertilizer, as long as given, it will die ....

Li Zhiping: The original image in your works is looking for another self in the paintings. Some people say "The essence of me is this: fear" .Your present abstract, distortion, and the sense of admiring ugliness are exposed evidently, this state comes from the fear within your heart. We mistakenly came to this world, and also unavoidably face all sufferings of the world .You established your painting style in the wrong. In front of your picture, I feel self-division beyond the convention and depression in human nature and identity. We do not fully understand your painting, after all, all your efforts still are worthy of recognition.

Yang Kai: First of all, I agree with that sentence said by you very much (You established your painting style in the wrong), indeed, every point I explore and every breakthrough came from errors, in the destruction they rebirth. There is no leaves like the same, how wonderful mother nature is! 600 years ago, Leonardo da Vinci talked about this issue, Pollock became American history's greatest artist by using a few drops of paint to invent a new way to paint, creating abstract expressionism. Duchamp changed the art history by a urinary ... ... In fact, everything in the world is painting, changing and flowing silently, there is infinite things for us to find, it depends on whether we have the kind of sharp touch.

Li-Ping: Right. Art should maintain a new face. Chinese contemporary art has two major problems: first, how to face the new reality;second, how to form a new artistic language. Your sensitive mind, very acutely felt some of the features in this era of rapid development, the most important point is that life and the future are agnostic, a phenomenon of the division of human nature wandering between reality and illusion.

Liao Liao: As Shestov said, "Only facing the greatest fear, does the soul decide to go all out, otherwise he will never be able to escape mediocrity; the pain and ugliness of death forces us to forget everything, even forget our' self-evident truth ',but behind reality , walk towards the area where there is full of ghosts in the past "Therefore, when standing before your painting, I not only feel a strong visual impact, but also strongly feel what you want to tell.
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Yang Kai: What is a human being? It can only be said what his past is. Facing the skeleton, Hamlet spoke out the classic words, "To be or not to be". For the little trace human left while alive, what do we actually think? Whether should we explore the truth of life ? In my works, what is seen makes me frustrated. I do not know whether I am right or wrong, because there is no precedent for me to refer. I am like a humble skeleton and accept merciless trial
Xia Kejun: You are very keen, the skeleton in Shakespeare's this well-known drama has rarely been concerned, in the last scene Hamlet talked to it. As you know, Zhuangzi talked with a skeleton in dreams. Chinese culture has always had the imagination of the skeleton, where Chinese people have some kind of a unique perception of life. Indeed, it is your own dream, what a happy and wonderful adventure for art to enter a dream.

Yan An: There are wonderful dreams, but also nightmares, and the reality is true and cruel. Technology has advanced to the present, but human nature has degenerated to under the bottom line of the ethics. We see society's darkness, but at the same time increasingly find our own inner divisions. "On one hand it is yearning for the new world, on the other hand we are unable to break the fetters of dark mind" .This "dark consciousness" comes from loneliness, failure m disillusionment, despair, and the fatalistic type. What do you think about artistic creation and the bottom line of moral ,what is the relationship between them? Does your environment support your creation? Is it possible for you to shift to filmmaking? What is the most unattainable art form?

Yang Kai: "There is no truth, only interpretation" .Understanding is the prerequisite of communication! All you see, are not necessarily ugly, but primitively real. I think the bottom line of morality has nothing to do with artistic creation, but we do not know, there is no effective communication. Morality is a social ideology, it is the standard and norm for people to live together. The artistic creation, or one’s own creation, is personal and private. Moreover, different times, different classes have different moral values, there is no morality that is eternal. Artists should break through the bottom line of morality. As to the second question, my environment does appreciate my creation, most people do not like my works of this series. The third question, for the future, I can not guarantee anything. I have no idea whether I will shift to filmmaking or not.

Liao Liao: We consider Cezanne, Duchamp and Warhol as true masters - or rather, the master of masters. The highest state of a master should be: He not only does not have to imitate others, but also can not be imitated by others. Their achievement is reflected by originality. Therefore, it is said that regardless of what it expresses, the good works of art is the most authentic, do you agree with this opinion?

Yang Kai: As Picasso put it, art is a real lie. I believe that any pure artist is sincere. I am often asked: Why do you paint with great efforts every day, what is your purpose! I reply: To achieve the highest level, it is necessary to forget everything in order to be successful, when the world is absolutely free, then the other side is not not far ..... Art should be lower than life, it is not faith, it is just a part of life, just like every day I have to eat and breathe at all times. Every day we have to deal with different people many things. Now I feel more and more difficult to be a person, I should learn a lot of things, including all the ugly human nature. Like painting, painting is originally painted for myself, however, it can not be completely pure . I know that I am standing in the crowd, very silly ~ ~

Xia Kejun: Art, no matter how deep it gets into the imagination of the illusion, it has the care for real life, not to reproduce or express real life, but it has a correlation with the real life. Otherwise, why do I drawn in such a way and not others. Art may not pursue the existing reality, or rather enter the wealthy imagination of reality. The relationship between reality and truth, is connected by the accuracy and richness of imagination
Liao Liao: Arts are superior to techniques, and intuition is more valuable than reason and language. Do you agree with this opinion?
Yang Kai: I don’t think so, because everything is false. As far as I am concerned, I think that a lot of things in visual art are unexplainable, and there should only be feelings in visual arts, not explanation .Intuition is certainly superior to reason and language, the most important elements on my paintings are not thought out by reason, intuition would tell me everything ...
My idea is to start from images, and gradually form my own language. The things expressed will clear up gradually, as all we do have a relationship with our lives, and some time I will realize that this is what I want.

Liao Liao: Imitation has a market, it is a craft. The person who operates the craft, also has markets, in painting particularly. Chinese artists like to imitate the West. Artistic creation needs inspiration, what does your inspiration come from?

Yang Kai: My inspiration comes from the understanding of death in local culture. The driving force of my painting is precisely from all my anger of human nature, and the impulse of death .I use the "death imagination" to break " all the borders of the real world ", " death imagination " is an important element in my painting. The world of death I try to build is just a little fable and joke.
Xia Kejun: As Nietzsche put it, the world has become a fable. On one hand, artists must respect the absoluteness and reality of materials, even though this is the remaining reality.

Yang Kai: I do not know whether the boundaries of art have been expanded, I just have explained the darkness of my heart. I really hope that "being saved in despair".

Liao Liao: In "On the suffering of others", Susan Sontag studies images of suffering in Western art history, thinking that the most expressible pain is often understood as the product of the anger of god or human. What do you plan for your own future, that is to say, do you have any ambitious goal?

Yang Kai: In the past 13 years, I have been painting every day, never thinking of giving up, because I love her, I regard her as all of my life, but loved her! Of course, men should have ambition, and also should have arrogance. Constantly hint that I am a master, I write as a master! There is no right and wrong!
Next, I would like to imagine and be happy for a brief moment. I am prepared to be a pure artist, that is the goal of my whole life, to lead a free life, without any constraints. I will also make more attempts, making she more like myself. Painting is my first lover, this exhibition is only my first try, but I feel it can initially represent me, then I will give it life, and this is just my beginning ... ...

Yan An: Why do you have such a disturbing sense of crisis while living in Guangzhou, which is a comfortable and calm city, making you appear to be very alternative among the artists of Guangdong. As a young artist who studies in Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and will hold the first solo exhibition in Guangzhou, regarding the oil painting of China or Guangzhou , what is needed to solve the problem?

Yang Kai: As teacher Chen Guohui put it, "the problem of contemporary Chinese painting is that it is falling into the ecology of images with symbols flooding".

Liao Liao: Whether China or the West, is facing the lack of meanings. God is dead, and the West still have persons following God. There is no art, but you are still warmly in love with the arts. You give life to your works, though you're young, and also a bit extreme, but I feel you are very thoughtful. Do you want to write articles, express your creative ideas systematically , and explain your theory of art?

Yang Kai: As a student, I can not say I have any theory of art. Particularly in the last two years, I try to keep a distance from others and find my own way. At the same time, I constantly deny myself. As to life and painting, of course, I have something to tell, it flows in my works. Division, deformation and death are important elements in my painting.
Liao Liao: People feel that your works is a story of strangeness. In your "Genesis", a large place of black overlaps in the background; the character goes out of the dark shadow and gets back again to the darkness. From ancient times to the present days, great artists must resist the darkness, constantly deny themselves , toughly resist, and bravely accept that endless sense of insecurity, as well as twist, distortion and humbleness and death. As Heidegger put it, "to be towards death" means that only the understanding of death can lead to a profound understanding of life and eagerness to be alive. Finally I understand why the poet Shang Shui wrote " how happiness death is to me" after seeing your paintings. Between the destruction and the establishment, painting is given new hope. As sir Zhu Qi said: "At this point Yang Kai touches the theme salvationism which contemporary art has lacked in the past ten years .... He tries to continue to touch the deep darkness in the realm of faith, so as to reach the spiritual “critical point” of a cultural history relay race. This is a very meaningful beginning. "No wonder Heine. Friedrich put it ," Art has no history - it has only a continuous present ....( Only) Art is present continuously ! Velázquez, Goya, Manet are in the same queue, the queue extends until Matisse and Warhol. If art is alive, he will always maintain a new face. " At last, could you talk about your creation or the feeling of life in one sentence?

Yang Kai: I would like to quote a poet's words "I have to fight against history" as the end.

我不得不和历史作战
——青年艺术家杨锴访谈
参与：了了，夏可君，王春辰，阎安，陈国辉，李之平，杨锴
（了了，国家美术主编；夏可君，哲学家；王春辰，青年艺术批评家；阎安，广州美术学院教师,副教授；陈国辉，青年艺术批评家；李之平，诗人；杨锴，青年艺术家，广州美术学院油画系学生）



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了了：中国当代艺术在今天的世界文化建构中做出了巨大的贡献，可这不是超越，而是某种意义上的爆发和放纵，更确切地说是陷入了某种困境。艺术家不能完全满足于经验的感性的生活，他总是要在经验世界之外，在现世生活的背后找到价值源头，而你的作品出现大面积的留白，与大量的骷髅形成强烈的反差，是体现了某种困境，还是其他？请问你的用意是什么？
杨锴：说到留白：这要从最开始的探索语言图式的阶段讲起，最开始，我的作品，其实是把它画满的，在我不断的寻找形式的时候，突然有一天我发现，为什么我不把这些现实的背景去掉呢？应该说是来自偶然，顺其自然形成的。后面发现这种方法做的人虽然也有，但我发现我有一点不同，就是我的画虽然是大面积的留底，但是它们的气韵都是粘连在一起的。隔离但是又不可分离。作为背景，似乎让我一直处于无知之幕的状态，让我每一次都必须重新开始。我就在这基础上挖掘进化，让所有的物体都成为个体，成为一团团的气团。有一点象剪纸，这也是边线硬化的来源。为此我把个体的边线用很生硬的线圈画起来，让它们彼此隔离。而骷髅：准确说不是大量的骷髅，而是独个的骷髅，我只是希望画面环境中莫名其妙的出现骷髅，让它们出现完全偶然。
夏可君：空白与骷髅，在绘画语言上，这确实给人以强烈的视觉冲击，很有想象力！这个观念如何激荡你神经的兴奋的？
杨锴：这起源于：我记得当时我是在看后现代的一些书籍，看到这么一段话：在后现代的当下语境中，其中最重要的一个元素就是 “挪用与并置”，意思就是说，把两个不相干的元素放在一起，然后进行转换！我也是由“挪用与并置”，启发而得来的这么一个想法。此外，白色的画布总是给人一种纯洁的感觉，我害怕破坏这种完美的状态。我想我是个宿命者，总是感到没有一丝希望。一直处于犹豫的两难境地，这好像是一场战争，和自己较量，失败的命运是唯一的结果。涂划再涂划，试探再试探，否定再否定，小心翼翼生怕一不小心坠入那注定的命运。而那白色的骷髅，我恰恰认为是美丽的，她给了我“重生”的希望，是一副崭新的面容。
夏可君：看到你作品上的骷髅，我一下子被某种异质的东西击中了，这是艺术作品给出了对生命的重新想象，或者说，骷髅是对生命余存的经验，准确说，还是一种逆转的经验，从死亡乃至死后的方向来经验生命的有限性和脆弱。艺术，在这个时代，乃是不多的对生命的个体经验的表达，你为何会画出如此的生命现象的呢？
杨锴：我认为，人在根本上是处在异已力量中，处在空虚与无意义之中，人在根本上是匮乏的、无助的，是一个有限的并且终有一死的存在，人与神（无限）之间有一道无法跨越的鸿沟。此外，我认为，我的噩梦就是脆弱，这是一种直视灵魂深处的表白，我感到自己是脆弱的，这样的生命现象可能才是真实的，我们面对的是自己，而且仅仅面对自己,是个体的意识。这几年来，脆弱就像闯入的无法挣脱的梦魇,被灵魂深处巨大的无依和恐惧所裹挟，于是，我用骷髅来“书写着死者在绝望中的希望”。
王春辰：你的作品表达的远不止是个体的死亡意识，而更是普遍的、无所不及的死亡存在。最初萌发这样的画面实验，有没有过恐惧？
杨锴：恐惧！是一直到现在每天都有的。现在想起最困难的那一年，现在都感到害怕，感到世界是黑色的，每一天都在惊慌，徘徊中度过。亲人的去世，最爱的人的背叛…似乎所有的不幸都降临于我。人在一种极度的贫困，贫乏之中，那种状态就像一只困兽，一只抓不到食物的狼。怎么画都是失败，一次次的失败，一次次的恐惧。无尽的挣扎，与黑暗的交错，似乎注定的命运。我想，我内心的恐惧远远要大于画面中的恐惧。它是一种释放，而不是吸收，一直我怀疑我是否能承受这样的恐惧。
了了：就象舍斯托夫说的，“只有面对最大的恐惧，灵魂才决定全力以赴，否则他永远也摆脱不了平庸；死亡的痛苦和难看迫使我们忘掉一切，甚至忘掉我们的‘自明真理’，而跟在现实后面，走向从前满是幽灵的领域去。”所以，站在你的画面前感受到强烈的视觉冲击的同时，也强烈的感觉你想要说些什么？
杨锴：人是什么？只能说他过去是什么。对着骷髅，哈姆雷特说出那异常经典的话，“是生存还是毁灭”。对于人类生前遗留的那一点点痕迹，我们究竟有怎样的思考呢？对于将来，它并不存在，现在也只是一个联系着“过去和将来的否定”。是否要对生命探究真相，又像昆得拉所说的对“被遗忘的存在进行探究”。在我的作品中，看到的一切都令我沮丧。就像“主体消亡”的概念，将会彻底的完成。我不知道自己是对是错，因为没有先例可参考。自己就像一具卑微的骷髅，接受无情的审判。当然，我想就一个二十几岁的人来说，是难用那锐利的眼光看，来深刻的透视这个社会的，与其虚假，不如用我一个单纯美梦来游戏一把，不如做一个梦，一个纯属自己的《创世纪》美梦！
夏可君：绘画并不排斥文学性，莎士比亚这个著名戏剧中的骷髅一直很少被关注，在最后一幕，哈姆雷特就是对这骷髅交谈的。你也知道，庄子就在梦中与骷髅对话，这也是后来人生如梦的某种暗示，中国文化后来一直有着对骷髅的想象，比如骷髅赋，骷髅戏等等，这里有着中国人对生命的某种独特感知。这也与后现代主体消亡的思想有着相通之处吧。确实，这是你自己的梦，能够进入一场梦中，这是艺术多么幸福而美妙的冒险。
了了：我还是想回到那些骷髅的形象上，从中可以感受到你对生死的追问，请问你是不是想表达一种生命的意义？
杨锴：对于生与死，我觉得我还没有那么沉重的体验，而对于我个人的20几岁的生命来说，只有外公，外婆的去世，当时对我影响是很大的，为此我创作了最早的一副作品《奠》… 生命的意义是什么？我也不知道，但是我知道失去最亲的亲人的滋味是不需要用言语表达的，当时我没有那个能力，但却为我以后的创作多少埋下了一些隐藏的思路… 这些骷髅怪兽，我觉得它们并不只是骷髅。就像在 《创世纪》一文中，我认为那些怪兽，骷髅才是英雄。我们所看到的只是假象的假象。不管人类看上去多么的伟大，实际上我们不断地回避自己的渺小，孤独，贫乏，低能和空虚。我一直努力抵抗那注定的命运，试图探寻生命流动痕迹的记录。骷髅对于我来说，亦是那“天使的面容”。它带走了我的痛苦和绝望。“假如死可以逃避一切”，“就太幸运了”。可能是我们远离“死亡”，所以才能喜悦“死亡”。我进几年来，一直专注并热忱地面对这“死亡”的题材，这种迷恋使我解脱，这种有点“荒谬”的傻念头，使我感觉自己处于绝望的清醒之中。显然，这个行为是残酷的，就象我们残酷绝望的青春，而绘画只是最微弱的叹息，是死光，是无望的叹气，是混乱的自我删除，生命的意义只是一个虚无，从此不在。 从语言上来说，这里又提到了“挪用与并置”，骷髅它本来是死的，但我却把它画成活的，让他们在流动… 就像胡斌老师说的，在当下生活中，我们这一代，骷髅更多的是戏谑化和游戏化的一个元素。
夏可君：你作品上的骷髅在流动，流淌出生命的汁液，有着气息，因此，骷髅已经被灵附体了，似乎是某种不完全的复活，当然不是宗教意义上的，而是一种你所言的怪兽，或者说，是灵兽！也不是所谓的原始的万物有灵论，而是一种幻像的制造，或者，也许是你们这一代人受到网络图像的影响所激发的想象吧。
杨锴：当然，虚拟网络的幻象，现实和非现实的并置，是时代流行的产物。在某种程度上，网游也是一种现实，网游就成了我们解脱精神困惑的一处“避难所”。我画中许多形象确实受到网络图像的影响。相对与网络，对于每个人来说，命运却是一次性的，也是平淡的。
陈国辉：你认为命运是一次性的，平淡的。我们却惊讶于你的创作，我们试着不断地走近画面，企望更为真实地了解你内心的冲突与挣扎。可我知道这种解读的有限性，我始终相信，最真的艺术，往往蕴藏在最平凡的生活之中，就像惊涛骇浪常常潜伏在平静的海面下一样。我希望从你的生活与作品中，去体味这种感觉。就我所知，广州美术学院油画系第二工作室主要以学院主义写实画风为主展开专业教育，是什么原因使你努力摆脱写实画风的束缚，走向表现主义的？
杨锴：表面美丽，看起来似乎真实的东西对我来说是不可忍受的，因为它是唯一的解释和唯一的需要，和我内心的需要是相抵触的。我“既要与现实交锋，又要同艺术作战，不可回避的矛盾”，一次次使我陷入茫然无助之中。我一直在学习写实主义画风，现在拒绝写实主义的画风，实质上构成了另一种更为真实的介入，我只是以这种方式进行的抗争，对自己的否定，和自己抗争。不管过去、现在，还是将来，我将努力成为自己，只要内心是真实的就足够了。我不知道现在自己的作品是不是表现主义画风，但我相信我的表现方式是“片断”的，是一种与真实更为接近的表现形式。当然，它们不可避免地需要掺合一些技术方面的因素。曾经很长一段时期，我陆陆续续地创作着这样一些想象的片断。
王春辰：看得出来，你是尽力摆脱学院的那种模式化教育，你是出于自我体验，还是出于某种概念的影响？
杨锴：这是我的自我体验，就像我这个人，有一个很大缺点，做不到那种按部就班的生活。我要自由的生活，我可以连续工作N天不睡觉，也可以连续睡N天任何事情都不理，是那种前三分钟还是情绪级度低落，但立刻就可以热血沸腾。从小我就是这样冷热急变散漫的性格，走到哪里，老师都要去抓我起床，说我不服管教。我只想做感兴趣的事，喜欢一种风尘仆仆的感觉。就像我平时骑单车和走路，会用一种极致的速度一口气到达我要去的地方，那种速度让我兴奋。在这个时候，路上一切的人我都看不到，因为我的脑海里想的都是其他的东西。所以别人都感觉我挺颠的。正如您提的问题，我想画画的道理也是一样…
陈国辉：我想的却是另一个无意义的问题：假如给你换一个环境，你是否还能成为杨锴？至少，你将失去那种骨子里的反抗精神了。我想象不出一个失去了压力的（来自外界的，来自内心的）你会是什么样子。你认为的颠也好，看不到其他人也好，都是在巨大压力下的自我保护。而“不可避免地需要掺合一些技术方面的因素”，这句话说明技术只是表现目的的副产品？有意思的是单单从画面效果来看，你在画面处理中运用了厚涂法，从而使得你的画面具有厚层的肌理效果，这是你的偏爱吗？或是另有原因？
杨锴：这要说说我的探索时期，大概前后花了一年的时间，我最痛苦的两个时期：一个是2008年的那个冬天.不足20平米的工作室,面对四米大的画面和堆积如山的油画,除了拥挤还是拥挤,在狭小的空间如动物一般生存。精神与灵魂被强大的气场所异化,有时候甚至感觉自己快坚持不住了,不是肉体上的摧残,而是精神上的瓦解......这个冬天我有些傻了。那个冬天我确立了这个系列。另一个时期，画来画去总有别人的影子，怎么努力都画不出来。当时我已经画到无比的绝望了，我感觉我画不成了，就把画布扔在地上，一次性把手里所有的颜料都抛入画布之中，一次画完它算了。突然，有种异样的效果出现了。从这可以看出技术是随着表现目的产生的，当要表现新的情绪和目的时，原有的手段就显得作襟见肘了，我之前的苦恼就来源于此。
了了：就象整个的以色列的族长史不就建立在一个错误的指令之上的，整个后来的以色列的历史不就是建立在一个荒诞的理解之上一样。恰恰你的绘画是建立在一个荒诞的行为上。一个荒诞的行为的解构！可你却找到一条通往希望的路。绘画的表达方式很多，你却用这样的方式，走出了属于你的第一步，是什么原因使你选择骷髅来进行创作的呢？
杨锴：其实最早我并没有想要画骷髅，我只是想画出一种压扁和压抑的感觉，但总是画不出效果，我给自己就开了个玩笑，在自画像上涂出了一个骷髅，这总看得出是压扁的了吧。
夏可君：有意思，这个最初形象的涌出，是与个体自画像有关的，是对个体生命形象的惊恐的辨认，是最初的镜像，但是又是对无名的力量的回应，最初是被动的回应，因此，不是自我的，而是来自第三人称的挤压。
杨锴：后来发现了其中有一种可能性，我就把它做了下去。慢慢地发现这很符合自己的状态，骷髅变成了我的一种手段，非常微弱的手段，把我从犹豫不决和两难中解脱出来，有了明确的方向。那死亡不管有多么不幸，面对它不管有多大的恐惧，但它终有结局。而这骷髅不涉及信仰，只是提供了“一个另类的青春样本”。破裂成碎片的骨头，如气团般流动，仿佛赋予了新的生命。看到这，我由衷地兴奋和喜悦。

李之平：你的最初的镜中之像是在寻找画中的另一个自我。从镜像阶段开始，人的一生始终受欲望的驱使，始终在寻找某个形象而将它们认同为自我，这必定导致一系列的幻想和异化。你目前的抽象、扭曲、审丑意识极大暴露的状态来自你心中的恐惧。卡夫卡认为“我的本质就是：恐惧。”于是在“存在性不安”的荒漠中，找到了那个缺口。我们错误地来到这个世界，也就无可回避的面对这个世界的一切苦难。你在错误中确立了你的绘画风格。在你的画面前，我感到了超出常规的自我分裂，感到人性和身份上的自卑和压抑，我们并不完全理解你的绘画，不管怎么说，你的努力依旧是值得肯定的。你的画作我比较喜欢形态内敛些，隐喻意义明显的作品。比如《WO的新娘》，《WO的来源》《聆听者》《♀♂》等此类具有主题思想象征意义的作品。你自己如何看这些作品呢？
杨锴：的确我每一个点的发掘，每一次突破都是来自错误。波洛克由几滴洒下的颜料而发明的滴洒法成为了美国历史上最伟大的艺术家。杜尚由一个小便池改变了美术史……世界上没有一片相同的树叶， 600年前达芬奇的（画论）中就说了这个问题。生活中的世界万物皆可为画，都在无声无息的变化流动之中，有无限的东西和可能等待我们发现。很多人都说，现在这个时代什么东西都被别人玩完了，我不认同这个观点。其次，我的作品是什么意思，那就看别人是什么样的心境来理解了咯，对于您点出的几幅画我简单说明一下：《WO新娘》,这幅画远看象一个怪兽的头，但细看是分上下，下面是穿白色婚纱的新娘（一个骷髅形像）是我的新娘？其实就是没有。后面那个怪兽就是我的化身。而骷髅手是伸向外面，欲要逃跑，但又被这个怪兽的鲜红的嘴紧闭，咬着不让她走。外面又似乎伸出一个手来抢，而骷髅手臂上掉下来的颜料，流淌出一种流动的精子红，暗示出一种性与爱，伤害与渴望，得到与失去，青春与死亡……是我对情人的一种害怕？一种失去，失落感？是我对一个女孩的怀恋。这让我无法忘记当时年少的我那幼稚又傻傻的心态，现在至少她已经不能再伤害我了。这幅画也让我想起《致橡树》，“仿佛永远分离，却又终身相依”。 对应的是《TA的新郎》那幅画，我觉得并不是很成功，因为画太小了没画出我想要的效果。同样是怪兽，也分上下，可后面那个是母的，怪兽的口这一次是张开的了，下面那个人可以说是我的化身。明明可以逃跑，但是被后面那个母怪兽的爪子死死抓住，脖子上似乎被套了锁链一样，无法挣脱。那一条白色的线（可以是整个怪兽头的口水，也可以是我的精液）是我对未来的一种害怕，一种束缚感……我想要自由，可是TA却不给我。 总之，是我对人性青春的心理变化提出的一些问题，青春的我们都是荷尔蒙式的蠢蠢欲动！ 《聆听者》，中间那个人抱着耳朵，周围充满了打着圈圈的线，可以是树，也可以是蛟龙，可以是青蛙，也可以是妖魔，也可以是彩虹的天堂…是那无定性的妖魔的某种静止的运动。他可以是我，但是又不是我，听说，他是一个聆听者。是不断变化，不断生成的万物！ 《♀♂》，本来是男人的小便池，但坐上去的却是女人…是我看到现在社会上出现了很多问题，后现代的今天，文化在不断的进步，却让人无法还原成个体。解开表面的虚伪，从个体心理角度来说，其实女人是很色的，她们也有渴望，我们这一代是否可以除去道德上的表皮。从文化角度来说，它是我们这一代当下今天文化的一个符号标志，男女位置的倒置！
夏可君：看得出来，你已经很自觉地在思考作品与自我，自我与社会等等之间的关系了，那个《WO的来源》呢？
杨锴：这个作品可以从几个角度来理解，1：从符号化的图式上来理解，其中注意一点W O 这个词的形状，当您把它与我的画面对应来看的时候，我整个画的形状就是这个词的形状，可以说是我对形式上的一种尝试摸索。2：刚好右边那个人就是我，提着只鸡， “WO+我”不就 = 我的来源吗？不过，不同的人有不同的理解，我也一直想寻找一个表达与观读中的一个最佳临界点。
王春辰：看你的画名，可以知道你喜欢宗教、哲学、人类学等这些抽象的思辨知识，你有没有想过艺术的变化与时代的关联？你对自己自信，还是对艺术史自信？
杨锴：我觉得这个问题有点大，但我明白一点，任何历史上的革命，都是来自小小的一点，就像安迪•沃霍尔模糊了原作与复制的界限，杜尚模糊了艺术与生活的界限…我现在只是一个学生，生活在学校，对时代的看法肯定是片面的。是什么构成了这样一个新的时代，又是什么促进了这个新时代的降临呢?艺术是否随着改变呢？可以确定的是将来与今天的艺术是有所不同的。从主体的失落到边缘化再到消失，许多东西是我们应该抛弃的，我们没有理由拒绝这样的时代。当下，艺术与日常生活的传统界限已变得无法严格区分。我认为艺术呈现越来越走向了虚拟世界的创造维度，艺术已不再是必然的存在而是靠存在的可能来证明其存在的。我有的时候极度自信，有的时候又极度害怕，我从大一开始，天天去图书馆看画册，上网看别人的作品，我的开销基本上是买最新的画册。总是感到很绝望，抄袭别人这种事我作不出来。达芬奇曾说，辛苦一日，得一日安寝；辛苦一生，得永世的长眠。自信谈不上，只是得一夜的好睡。不管怎么说，画画让我很爽！
陈国辉：文化艺术的主要职责也不应只停留在满足自己的情感宣泄与消遣的层面，而应引导人们超越自身的感性存在，上升到更为自由的精神境界。那么这种画法打算坚持多久？
杨锴：要说这个画法坚持多久，就像李小龙关于水观点中曾提到“----保持空灵之心，无形，无法，就像水一样。水倒入杯中就成了杯子的形状，倒入瓶中就成为瓶子的形状，倒入茶壶中就成为茶壶的形状……”我不会为了市场而去改变些什么，不管我的画卖得掉卖不掉，有没有人喜欢，我画画是画给自己看的，我爱怎么画我就怎么画，而且一旦我觉得她不适合我了，我要突破的时候，就会立刻的毁灭并突破，不会有任何的顾忌。
李之平：对。艺术要保持新的面目，中国当代艺术的问题主要来自两方面，一是如何面对新的现实，一是如何形成新的艺术语言。你敏感的艺术心灵，十分敏锐地感受到这个时代迅速发展中的某些特征，其中最重要的一点，是生命和未来的不可知性，游走在现实与幻觉之间的一种人性分裂现象。“断裂”和“绵延”是我们不得不面对的一个事物的两面。我们是继承传统还是抛弃传统。传统的中国绘画，重视笔的运用，而你却用颜料的挤涂来消解传统笔的运用，你是怎样看待“断裂”和“绵延”的？与国画相比，油画的出路何在？
杨锴：我用颜料的挤涂来拒绝把一张画画的很完美，我努力把技术隐藏起来，而通过从另外一种手段表现出来，让别人看到我的笨拙。用这种笨拙努力去还原绘画的本身的力度。而您提到的断裂与延续实际上就是创新与传统的另一种表述。应该说，没有无缘无故的断裂，也没有无缘无故的延续。艺术只能是处于历史之中的“断裂”或“绵延”。“断裂”是在形式上的外在感觉，而它的内核像真正的作品一样是对过去的作品的批评。对这种艺术的批评，也必然同传统有一种历史的延续性，断裂或许也只是延续性的一种。
我认为于国画相比，油画总是让人感到有种“断裂”的感觉，一般大家认为国画讲“绵延”，油画讲“断裂”。而实际，中国的当代艺术还是缺乏根基，还没有做到真正的本土化，象广州三年展所说的与后殖民说再见，我觉得还不够。之前我们所走的路都还是停留在对西方的一种学习上，在艺术全球化的今天，全世界都被挖掘完了，只有中国文化还没有被开发，是一块净土，就是出真正的中国大家。我们是否可以在本土的传统五千年的文化里与后现代今天的当代艺术语境需找一个最佳的临界点革命，体现这种东西方的包容性，越来越模糊它们的边界，从而进入另一种现代，那么下一个杜尚一定是中国人，也只有中国人能做到。前辈们50年把中国当代艺术的实验走完了。这就是油画的出路，是我们这一代至下一代该做的使命。
王春辰：艺术如何越来越体现这种包容性，越来越模糊它的边界？断裂也好，连续也行，只是一种说法，要看你究竟做些什么？ 实际上，许多艺术家正是通过这种反艺术方式来强调对“日常经验的生动体验和观念意识的解放”。你出于偶然，出于错误，这种小小的反艺术的方式与传统艺术保持了距离。你的作品目前是无法归类的，各种风格与绘画方法的痕迹都有。你受到哪一类影响想进行这样的尝试？
杨锴：我想引用毕加索的一段话：我希望达到一个阶段，那里没有人能说出我的一幅画是怎样产生的。这也是我的一个追求，我努力和别人拉开差距，我想有我独立的一个位置，至少让我这个人活着有意义一些。如果说画画是你的儿子，那么他就是您生命的延续，他可以穿越时空，几千几万年的活下去，那么首先得赋予他面容，就是您说的无法归类。就象一块海绵得先吸收才能饱和起来，才能释放。我喜欢很多的大师，如齐白石，米开朗基罗，梵高，苏丁，毕加索，波洛克，杜尚， 达明•赫斯特…可以说任何的东西都对我有影响，是多种综合的产物。从出生的那一天起，我们的眼睛就在看世界，无数的视觉，无数的生活，包括你能看到的和别人能看到的，这就是视觉语言的来源；学外语的人要记单词，画画的人都知道，视觉艺术有一个很重要的东西就是大脑里的图式储量，每一天我们都在看图，而这些图形进入大脑之后，会逐渐的消化并成为自己的一部份意识，就是视觉语言的经验；当某一天你因为一件事情而产生冲动，或是一个玩笑，经验与来源产生碰撞的时候，就会想有话要说，那么就会想要用某种最贴切的语言来表达…
陈国辉：“和别人拉开差距”是很重要的。是否给了传统艺术观念最致命的一击？极力去取消艺术与生活的界限，企图消除艺术与生活的区别，艺术成了反艺术的艺术，艺术是一种质问式怀疑。艺术作品不再承担对生活进行意义性的深层解释职责，而是实行对生活的还原。创作不再是具有真理的内知叙述，而是对传统创作意义的消解。
李之平：20世纪80年代末以来，中国文艺非常明显地进入了文化困境。艺术精神向度的逐渐丧失，艺术已经变成了物质的艺术，艺术物质化了。艺术表现出了难于想象的文化困惑与精神贫乏表征。对传统创作意义的消解导致了文化旧有的价值体系被摧毁了，人们似乎可以蔑视一切，文化没有了深度。“钱”这东西便很自然地被突出出来，随着“四大金刚”的出现，画画意味着挣大钱。那么，我们想知道你之所以投身于此而不怠的动机是什么？
杨锴：我不敢说我生来就是为了艺术而活。但或许说画画能让我觉得活着有意义,从小我的成绩就不好,老师都说我是个笨孩子,将来没有出息,我读一次学校就被开除一次。我害怕一种受伤的感觉,只有在画画的时候,我可以有一种勇气，我感谢上天给我一种与生具来的气魄,只要我站在这里,周围所有的人都给我死掉,我的气场可以把一切都腐食掉, 我是湖南人，我喜欢吃辣椒，也正如我的性格，是如火一般的，我有点爱霸蛮，画画这条路是我选的，当艺术家也是我选的…这条路我就是死在这里我也绝不回头。而且我就是知道前面的路该怎么走，人生的大方向我天生就有这种能力，我从来不要去想…… 同时，受伤的感觉让我陶醉，新鲜的滋味让我迷恋，只要画画让我能找回那一点点的感动我就满足了。这让我想起，就象在《寻找YANGKAI》那副作品当中，我的躯干被解体了，只剩下一支手，那个骷髅头说了一句话：“伤口已经关闭”。但是那支手还是在寻找，右边的倒过来的YANGKAI只留下了一个诡异的笑容… 在一个科技发展突飞猛进的时代，在人与人之间变得越来越疏远和冷漠的现实之中，我就像做着自己的梦，自言自语地说着一些内心的事情，一些与痛苦和挣扎有关的事情。
阎安：科技已经进步到现在，而人性却堕落至道德底线之下。我们看到种种社会黑暗的同时，更越来越发现了我们自己内心的分裂。“一方面是对新世界的向往和呐喊，另一方面却又无力挣脱某些阴暗意识的自我羁绊”。这种“阴暗意识”来自孤独、失败继而幻灭、虚无的宿命式的绝望，你认为艺术创作和道德底线各自为何，相互有何关系？你的环境是否认同你的创作？你是否有可能转向装置或影像创作？你最不能理解的艺术形式是哪些？
杨锴：“没有真相，只有解释”。了解是沟通的前提！你看得见所有，未必丑陋，只是本原的真实。我认为艺术创作于道德底线无关，只是我们不了解，没有有效的沟通。道德是一种社会意识形态，它是人们共同生活及其行为的准则和规范。而艺术创作，或者说自己的创作，只是个人化的，私密化。而且，不同的时代、不同的阶级有不同的道德观念，没有任何一种道德是永恒不变的。道德底线是人们应该遵循的社会道德最低警戒线，艺术家应该去突破这条界限。关于第二个问题，我的环境是不认同我的创作的，绝大部分的人是不喜欢我的这系列作品的，也就是没有人看好我。第三个问题，对于将来，我不能保证什么。是否有可能转向装置或影像创作，不得而知。最后，最不能理解的艺术形式是简单的模仿和抄袭别人的作品。
了了：模仿是有市场的，它是一门手艺。会操作这门手艺的人，也是有市场的。在绘画中尤其如此。中国的艺术家喜欢模仿西方，即使在某些著名艺术家的作品里，我明显地发现里西特、冯•哈根斯、杜马斯等的影子。而在西方冯•哈根斯、达明•赫斯特等都有关于死亡的创作，艺术创作要有灵感，请问你的灵感来自何处？
杨锴：西方的达明•赫斯特是基于达尔文为代表的西方文明对死亡的理解，是为了暴露某种真相。以及“质疑他的时代所持有的存在观和信仰观所仰赖的基本结构”。而冯•哈根斯把死人的躯体或者说是某种抽象的“死亡”在他们的手下被制做成可触可摸、形象逼真的标本。是他们在西方本土的基础上得到的灵感。而我的灵感来自于本土文化对死亡的理解，和他们在这一点上就有区别。我的绘画的动力恰恰是来自于我对人性一切的愤怒,以及死亡的冲动,我用“死亡想象”冲击“现实世界的种种边界”,“想象死亡”是我绘画的重要元素。我努力构建的死亡世界只是一个小小的寓言和玩笑，试图去完成寓言世界与现实世界之间的分离与相互的转化,并试图“在现实世界和寓言世界中赎回了自己”。
夏可君：如同尼采所言，世界已经成为寓言，一方面在材质上有着现实的边界效应，艺术家必须尊重材质的绝对性和现实性，尽管这是剩余的现实性或者现实的剩余，但是在此剩余上想象与扩展艺术的边界，你的作品已经在如此实行了。
杨锴：我不知道是不是扩展了艺术的边界，我只是解释了心中的黑暗。我真希望“于无所希望中得救”，在这样的陈述中找到一个空缺。
了了：我们把塞尚，杜尚和安迪.沃霍尔奉为真正的大师——或者说，大师中的大师。大师的最高境界应该是：不仅不必模仿别人，而且也是别人无法模仿的。他们的成就是独创性以及不可模仿性的综合。所以有人说，好的艺术品不管他表达什么，都是最本真的，你同意这种观点吗？
杨锴：就像毕加索所说的，艺术只是真实的谎言。我相信任何一个纯粹的艺术家，都是真诚的。经常有人问我：你为什么每天都要这样玩命画画，你为了什么！我回答说：要达到最高境界,就一定要忘记一切才能获得成功,当世界绝对自由的时候,那么标志着离彼岸已经不远了.....艺术应该低于生活，它不是信仰，他只是生活的一部份，就像我每天都要吃饭，无时无刻都要呼吸一样。我们每天都要和不同的人打交道，要处理很多很多的事。现在我越来越觉得做一个人很难，要学会很多东西，包括人性的一切丑恶。就象画画，画画本来是画给自己看的，却偏偏又无法完全纯粹起来。我知道我站在人群里,挺傻~~
夏可君：艺术无论多么进入幻觉的想象，还是有着对现实生活的关照的，并不是去再现或者表现现实生活，而是与现实生活有着相关性。否则，为什么是我如此画而不是其他人，艺术也许不是去追求现存的真实，而是进入对真实的可能的丰富的想象，现实与真理的关系，是通过想象的丰富性与精确性来连接的，精确的感知，这是艺术打开的真实吧。其中有着艺术的技艺的维度。
了了：艺术应该触及人们的灵魂 ，触及事物的本质；同时应该以感情深深影响别人。所以艺术高于技艺，直觉大于理性和语言，你认同这种看法吗？
杨锴：我认为不一定，因为一切都是虚假的。我就本人而言，我认为视觉艺术，首先得形式上的区别，才能谈上表达，而视觉上的很多东西都是无法解释的，视觉艺术应该只有感觉，没有说明。直觉是肯定大于理性和语言的，我画面上最重要的几个元素，都不是靠理性想出来的，象压扁，透底，分团，边框，转圈的线，骷髅，颜料直接还原挤抹，边线，蛋糕制作法，打点法……都是来自玩笑，可以说就是大脑中的视觉经验的爆炸，这个时候直觉会告诉我一切… 我的创作思路是先从图像入手，逐步形成自己的语言，所表达的东西是不需要想的，会逐渐浮现清晰起来的，因为我们所做的一切东西都是和我们生活有关系的，到了一定的时候，才明白这就是我想要的。
夏可君：尽管发现了这个骷髅形象，但是如何使之确立起来，不是一个外在的符号，这还是需要艺术家解决很多问题的。架上绘画有着自己的一些基本问题，首先是对材质的理解与发现，骷髅是剩余的生命，是生命本身无余死亡之后的残剩之物，因此油画颜料和画布就不再是现存的绘画媒介，而是必须经过同样的还原才可能成为骷髅的材质，当你把颜料挤上去，不是画，而是颜料带着某种原始的，被制作之后的材料，不是绘画，而是堆积出骷髅的形体，这个方式抓住了骷髅的非生命的本质形态；其次，骷髅图像不是可以凝视和观看的，因此，它们处于流动之中，不确定之中，如同某种混沌的力量骚扰与干扰着生活，让世界失去了它的面孔，它也可以是天使一般的，不一定就是恶魔，而是生命在欲望中呼吸。因此，图像不是图像，图像与剩余材质的关系，是通过画家的手感，身体的气息而关联起来的，因此，看你画布上的形象，我几乎可以听到你画画时身体粗重的呼吸了；最后，则不再有任何的图像，而是图像在材质中打开的张力，因此，一个个骷髅之间在空白的或者黑色的深渊的空间中，彼此渗透，或者彼此隔离着，打开了生命游走的虚拟空间。我很看重这个材质的重要性，绝不仅仅是中介或者媒才，而是绘画本身。
了了：绘画打开了一个崭新的空间，图像成其为图像，苏珊•桑塔格曾在《关于他人的痛苦》中，探讨了西方艺术史上有关痛苦的图像，认为，最常被认为值得表现的痛苦，往往被理解为神衹或人类愤怒的产物。这种被黑暗彻底纠缠并对黑暗的深刻认知，所以我认为你的作品归入偏激的，极端的一类，你那么年轻就能大胆探索，你对自己的艺术未来有什么规划，或是说有没有宏伟目标呢？
杨锴：从学画至今13年来，我每天都在画画，从来没有想过放弃，因为我爱她，我视她为生命的一切，而爱着她！当然,人要有野心，也更要有傲气，要知道别人都是不行的，要从骨子里瞧不起别人。不断地暗示，我就是大师，我下笔就是大师！没有对与错！当时，我就想给展览起一个这样的名字，叫《一又十三分之十一》，因为我学了13年的画，今年是24岁，用24除以13，就得出了“一又十三分之十一”。一是整体，十一是我没有画画的11年，是白活的。而中间的13年才是我真正的活着，我很快乐！现在，这是一个转折点，就像费里尼的转折点。费里尼的《八部半》的来源，影片的名字《八部半》对应的是费里尼导演的影片的总数，尽管这个数字并不精确，因为费里尼在这之前导演过八部长片，在加上四个导演合拍的集锦片《三艳嬉春》和六个导演合拍的《城中之爱》，本片准确地说是费里尼的第八又十二分之五部电影。 接下来，畅想一下，或者说短暂的幸福一下。我准备当一位纯粹的艺术家，那是我一生的追求，要过自由的生活，没有任何的约束。我还将进行更多的尝试，进行更多的否定，让她更象自己。画画就象是我初恋的情人，这一次展览只是我的一次尝试，但我感觉它能够初步代表我，那么我将赋予它生命，这只是我的刚开始……
阎安：你的作品个人化的自我张扬，你为什么生活在广州这样一个以舒适平静，老老实实干活挣钱享受生活的平民化城市，会产生这种令人不安的危机感，从而使得你在广东画家群中显得十分另类。作为一名在广州的美术学院学习，生活还要在广州举办第一个个展的青年艺术家，你觉得目前中国或广州油画急需解决什么问题？
杨锴：就象陈国辉老师认为的“当代中国绘画的问题是正陷入符号化泛滥成灾的图像生态之中，和大量平庸的平涂的符号视觉出现原创危机。”
陈国辉：是啊，我曾撰文指出，如杨锴他们的艺术观念乃为，“一反符号绘画的策略性技术和鲜明的图像标识，主张“去魅”的创作原则。一方面，他们积极吸收了国外新表现主义的创作风格和创作思想，强调个体内心的感受与表达，注重的是精神，而不仅仅是表面的形式创新；另一方面，刻意剥离政治波谱的浅薄轻悄，卡通绘画的幼稚天真，与当下的流行符号绘画保持着距离，甚至与当代主流绘画方式保持着某种疏离的姿态，力图追求模糊乃至晦涩的意义。”杨锴的绘画在当下的语境中，是有意义的。
了了：无论中国还是西方，都面临某种意义匮乏的悬空之中。上帝死了，西方依然还有追随上帝的人。没有艺术，但你依然热烈地爱着艺术。你赋予你作品以生命，虽然你年轻，又有点偏激，但我感觉你很有思想。你想撰写文章，系统的表达你的创作理念，阐述你的艺术理论么？
杨锴：作为一个学生，谈不上有什么艺术理论。特别是近两年来，我努力和别人拉开距离，一直在尝试找到属于自己的方式。同时，不断地否定自己。对于生活，对于绘画，当然是有话要讲的，他流淌在我的作品之中。分裂，变形和死亡是我绘画重要的元素，就象我喜欢的弗朗茨•卡夫卡的小说一样，如迷宫似地构成一个残破的异化世界。80后一代人，或者说的范围再小些，处于大学毕业前后，对于未来，完全丧失了支配自己的能力，被各种力量追逐着、控制着、压迫着，在孤独与无名的恐惧中本能地不断挣扎，感到毫无希望。这些令人生畏而又无处不在的压力是什么呢？它们并非什么妖魔鬼怪，而是我们的平淡无奇的生活，和我们平平常常的未来。恰恰是这产生了某种强烈的荒谬。使我越来越感到自己不过是命运控制下无足轻重的玩物，你任何的挣扎，不会改变它一丝一毫。每一副作品表现了当下人与人无法沟通的主题，个体的尖叫，倾诉，旁人是所无法理解的，虽然他们在屏息倾听。而变形，将恶梦变作现实，破坏了生活的原有的逻辑，更能直接表达事物的本质。有人认为“卡夫卡所有的真理就是对死亡的渴望，而他所有的作品都是对死亡的妥协。”从自身的“死亡”中所追求的正是生命。死亡，对于任何个体生命来说都是“残酷的真理”。我的绘画几乎都有象征死亡的骷髅形象。这死亡的气息不断的滋生，我们如何超越它？还是诚实而勇敢地接受它，并且从这一否定中汲取无穷的力量。就象黑格尔在《精神现象学》所说的，“死亡，如果我们愿意这样称呼那种非现实的话，它是最可怕的东西，而要保持住死亡了的东西，则需要极大的力量。……但精神的生活不是害怕死亡，而是敢于承当死亡并在死亡中得以自存。……精神是这样的力量，不是因为它作为肯定的东西对否定的东西根本不加理睬，犹如我们平常对某种否定的东西只说这是虚无的或虚假的就算了事而随即转身他向不再闻问的那样，相反，精神所以是这种力量，乃是因为它敢于面对面地正视否定的东西并停留在那里。精神在否定的东西那里停留，这就是一种魔力，这种魔力就把否定的东西转化为存在。”
了了：你的作品让人感到一种否定的力量，又是一个人与人的陌生感的故事，在你的《创世纪》一画中大块的黑色重叠在背景中，人物从浓重的黑影中走出来，又回到黑暗中。从古至今，伟大的艺术家必须反抗黑暗，不断地否定自我，进行韧性的反抗，勇敢地接受了那无止境的不安全感，以及扭曲、变形、卑微和死亡。在海德格尔笔下，“向死而在”意味着只有领会死，才能深刻理解生，渴望生。终于明白了诗人伤水看了你的画后写到，“死亡对我是多么幸福”。在破坏和建立之间，赋予了绘画新的希望。正如朱其先生说的：“在此杨锴触及到了当代艺术近十年所缺失的救赎主义主题，….他试图在信仰的视界下继续触及深层的黑暗，从而达到一个文化的历史接力赛的精神“临界点”。这是一个极有意义的开始。”这无疑暗合了海涅.弗里德里奇的话，“艺术没有历史——它只有连续的现在....（只有）艺术永不停息的在场！委拉兹开斯、戈雅、马奈都在一个队列之中，这个队列一直到马蒂斯和沃霍尔。如果艺术有生命力，他将永远保持一副崭新的面孔”。最后，请您用一句话谈谈您的创作或者生活的感受？

杨锴：我想引用一位诗人的话，“我不得不和历史作战”作为结束。

了了-译文

Touch Extremes

by Leo

Understanding Yang Kai was in Guangzhou in a warming winter that is the best season in the city. Yang Kai is enthusiasm, sincere, he always have a cherubic smile. He's a bad words, always takes the stuttering intonation and not too coherent topic, so that, he is not noticeable in a new group of friends. While I was standing in front of the painting, I was stunned by tense of his works. So I just looked around the tall man, who continued to smile, his forehead flashing with quick-witted, sharp and stubborn.

Guangzhou is the center of the Pearl River Delta, the first open city. Hong Kong and Taiwan pop culture is popular here, the whole city is pragmatism and highly commercial. Academic atmosphere of contemporary art is not so dense, and atmosphere of contemporary art comments and collection is not formed. When I was visiting many young artist's studios in Guangzhou, I thought that Guangzhou is a virgin land, where the environment of artistic creation is very simple and quiet.

Yang Kai's long working of his artistic creation activities here, the harsh reality of commercial society extruded the artist's living environment. That couldn't put Yang Kai down and his pursuit of art, the reflection of reality, exploration of academic topic never stop.

Young Kai has been trying to resist the fate that doomed an attempt to explore the life-flow trace records. He said the skeleton for him, is also that the "Angel face." It took away his pain and hopelessness. From the linguistic point of view, this is "diversion and the juxtaposition". Skeleton originally is dead, but survived in his paintings , and let them flowing out of the sap of life, and breath. Therefore, Skeleton has been possessed by spirits, and seems to be some kind of revival is not complete! There are many skeletons in his works, it appears that questioning of death. In his view, the skeleton like a monster, only skeleton is a hero. We have seen just an illusion of the illusion.

Skeleton for Yang Kai concerned, is definitely not zombies, but rather a spiritual symbol. He has no longer care about the outside form, but look for a way out between East and West about faith, quiet and sharp. Resulting in a "skeleton bride", "the nonsense of excrement", "the dolls of Gods," "Genesis", etc. In the works of Yang-Kai skeleton movement play as an important role, is given a skeleton emotions, the direction of the will, more important things is to pass out some sort of the psychological expression inside skeleton. Expression skeleton image was created while the artist was fixed in the moment will soon disappear and the image of disappearing, this contradiction between the existence and disappearance of traits. Yang Kai identified "Death and the existence of" the tragedy of the concept in his works.

There is tremendous pressure between skeleton and space, the skeleton of deformation, struggling was likely crushed and formed, and the blank space also has a force of nature, space is a material cohesion constituted by the skeleton, while skeleton also had breathing, crooning and howling. The action, the time of death of the skeleton and screen space are intertwined, showing the artist's weak but a strong force, formed "ambiguity" or "uncertainty" concept in the works , which is the thinker Valentino thought: This world was formed in the accident, and will also disappear in the accident.

Regardless of how the human looks great, actually we constantly avoid small of oneself loneliness, poor, low-power and emptiness. In the works of Yang Kai, fables, as a kind of expression way, at the same time, also is a kind of cognition of the world, the inner of art is often shown as space and human identity. Yang Kai skeleton image real-life cruel irony fable about the future, and not perceive content. This world is not born, and in reality is not perceive. Therefore, in a sense, Yang Kai's works created the unknown death scene. Yang Kai used relief-like pigment, carved for us to show the psychedelic image, the real and imaginary concurrently image of dual characteristics, namely to myths and historical nihilistic space, also leads to freedom of movement. Yang Kai is trying to find the truth and real world, or the relationship between "existence" and "nothing". Yang Kai is trying to find the answers he want, but always not have the answer.

Yang Kai's works is a revelation of exploration, is a process of discovery process, the endless of process of discovery process, his searching for the truth made his works fall in crisis and failure. Yang Kai's works is unable to be defined as the image and specific words of the spirit, he will be defined by the cruel reality to us today magical mask at that time, the possibility of exploring the unknown. These are seemingly anxiety. Yang Kai combined the different meaning conceptions of the death and the dream, reality and criticize, depression and excitement, introspection and helpless together in his works, and used personal experience, memory and intuitive to touch upon the existence and the fundamental problem of human nature, deeply excavated tragic story.

This exhibition entitled " Touch Extremes". It will be the maximum transfer our perception, let us feel not only the painting across time and space, it touches our living condition and the essence of human society, it will be a extreme experience trip in heart, which we accept fate once in order and disorder.

More real than soul and luckier than death
by Yan An
（李宁博译）

If the soul is immortal, we should love it, not only in this life, but love it forever ... ... If to die can escape all ,the wicked would be too lucky. - Plato
Yang Kai is exceptional in his environment. I feel surprised at this series of works which were created by Yang kai in an illegally-occupied studio, among waste paint tubes, behind the doors and windows closed all day long.
Yang Kai has been living and growing in his own works. Since 2009, he has found a kind of his own way of painting to illustrate the knowledge of the outside world. In 2009, Yang Kai had one painting called "WO" (120 × 160cm, Oil on canvas) which was rarely displayed in formal exhibition. Actually, it's just an experimental work, but in Yang kai’s series of paintings, this work should have two meanings: first, the painting technique full of expressionistic color has been clearly put to use in the work; Second, the images of men and skeletons intertwined show up together. In other words, this first experiment has already touched the content and form of Yang kai’s later series of paintings. Yang Kai’s shape comes from a photograph of his own, he place skeletons and himself together in the picture, and I do not know whether it is caused by the thinking of "id" and "ego" and other philosophical propositions. Perhaps this is a result of his consideration for the sense of painting form, and Yang Kai has realized this form is worth exploring, which then is successfully magnified. In Yang Kai’s dealing with the background and creating the shapes in the painting, you can see ways of smearing, wiping, and brushing etc. In particular, the right face with smile he painted, serves as a symbol of youth’s life with no burden and no worry for the future. This work of Yang Kai, completely depicts another obscure side of an ordinary life exposed through a casual glimpse under the lights in the middle of the night.
In the subsequent series of works, skeleton becomes one of the main images showed by Yang Kai. In "friend", Yang Kai merely uses skeleton as a symbol of good and evil, dimly revealing his own national sentiment in the tones of black , white and gray. In the work "Do you know how much I miss you", the skeleton has transformed into a stark, direct, realistic object; the fairy-tale-like stars in the night sky, and the grandfather and grandmother who both have no flesh and blood still trying to smile kindly, they make people fearful , and at the same time feel a warmth-like atmosphere of life; in "Genesis", the use of masterpiece is even bolder ,with the circumstances of embodying life replaced by the image of death .
When an audience begins to try to read the whole series of works together, he will find that from the painting of "WO", skeletons have become Yang Kai 's creative tools, he controls the skeletons with no expression of life , constantly changing the ways and props, performing pieces of human comedy.
Historically, the skeleton is a means of metaphor used by a lot of people, because it best embodies the paradox of life - life and death, good and evil, religiosity and oppugn , existence and nothingness, they are all cycling in the endless time.
Shakespeare's prince found the skeleton of a friend who liked joking during his lifetime among bones. He asked his friend Horatio: "Does Alexander also look like this under the ground ?" Horatio replied: "Yes". Again Hamlet asked: "With the same smell? "" That is true, my Royal Highness", Horatio answered honestly. Having heard these words, the Prince felt upset, "Who knows what degrading things we will become in future, Horatio! If we continue to use imagination to speculate, who can deny Alexander's noble body, is like the mud and soil in a barrel? "He pathetically lamented," Caesar is dead, your noble body may have changed into mud to fill up ruined walls; how heroic he used to be, and now had no choice but to help people shelter from the rain!" For Shakespeare, he saw the sad future of everyone through skeletons. After becoming a skeleton, nobility and dignity have become clouds dispersed.
On the way to the state of Chu, Chuang Tzu saw a skeleton by the roadside, and he said: "I let God in charge of life restore your physical shape, regrow flesh, blood and skin for you. And then will you return to your parents, wife and children, and friends? "At midnight, the skeleton said to the Chuang Tzu in a dream:" Once a person is dead, there is no king's rule and official control; and aslo no physical exertion, even an emperor can not live more happily than me. Will I get through the sufferings on earth again? "In the view of Chuang Tzu, the skeleton is a man's happiest state.
Rainer Maria Rilke said: "Because beauty is nothing more than / the beginning of the horrors we happen to be able to endure / The reason why we admire it is because it is too quiet to destroy us." For Yang kai , skeleton is a kind of props for metamorphosis, and terror is only the first layer of its skin. He directs the skeletons in his paintings to suffer vicissitudes of life ,experience the love and hate in society, and be opposed to those "men" who seem to be perfectly normal. Yang Kai has gradually added his psychological recognition and responsibility projection of society to his creative thinking domain, and the embodiment this projection reflects directly is the image of skeleton. This experience can be mastered , profound and without making a fuss ,so I think it sincere. The picture can take on a quiet face with a strong dramatic plot
The creation of this series, is Kai Yang’s attempt to walk among ideology, interpretation of concept, symbols of image, and games of text.

比灵魂更真实 比死亡更幸运
文/阎安

假如灵魂是不朽的，我们该爱护它，不仅今生今世该爱护，永生永世都该爱护。……假如死可以逃避一切，恶人就太幸运了。 ——柏拉图

杨锴在他的环境中是个异类。我曾惊讶于他的一个师姐连续开了两个服装店，一个餐馆，并以一篇探讨零售商业模式的论文来结束自己油画系的本科学业。现在我又惊讶于杨锴在一个不大的非法占用的工作室中，在满地的废颜料管中，在整日封闭的门窗后所创作出的这一系列作品。
杨锴，是在他的作品中生活和成长的。从2009年起，他找到了一种属于自己的图像方式来阐释对外部世界的认识。2009年，杨锴有一件名为《WO》（120×160cm，布上油画)的作品，这幅画很少出现在正式的展览场合。应该说，它只是一件实验品，但是在杨锴这一系列的绘画中，这张画应该具备两种意义：一、充满表现主义色彩的油彩使用技法，开始在画中明确的被使用；二、人和骷髅的形象互相交织的出现在一起。也就是说，这一次实验已经触及了杨锴之后一系列绘画的内容和形式的问题。人物的造型来源是杨锴自己的一张照片，他在画面上将自己和骷髅并置，不知道是否是出于对“本我”和“自我”等等哲学命题的思考。也许仅仅是出于画面形式感的考虑，但是杨锴从中已经意识到这种形式的值得挖掘，其后这一点被成功的明确和放大了。杨锴在画面前景的人物体积的营造与画框式背景的处理上，都可以看到涂、抹、擦等等方式，使得空间不会因为背景细节不多而缺少纵深感。尤其，他在对于画中人物的描写，微带笑容的右脸，象征着少年对于生命的毫无重力负担与对未来的全然无虑。杨锴的这幅作品，彻底把一个普通生命在深夜路灯的掩映之下，经由随意的一瞥而暴露出的若有若无的另一面，轻快地演绎出来。
在其后的一系列作品当中，骷髅成为杨锴主要表现的形象之一。在《朋友》中，杨锴仅仅将骷髅当做善恶的标志来使用，在黑白灰的调子之中，隐晦的展露着自己的民族情绪；在《你知道我有多么想念你》中，骷髅又转化成为一种赤裸裸的、直接的、写实性对象，黑夜天空中童话般概念化的星星和没有了血肉却仍在努力露出慈祥笑容的爷爷和奶奶，在令人不由自主觉得恐惧的同时，同时体会到梦幻温情般的生命氛围；在《创世纪》中，对名作图式的借用则更为大胆，用死亡的形象取代了赋予生命的情节……
当观众开始尝试把整个系列作品放在一起阅读，就能发现从《WO》开始，骷髅就成为了杨锴的提线木偶，他在控制着原本没有生命表情的骨架，不断地变幻着方式和道具，表演着一出出的人间喜剧。
在历史上，骷髅已经是很多人爱用的隐喻手段，因为它最能体现生命的悖论——生与死、善与恶、笃信与质疑、存在与虚无，它们皆在漫长的时光中循环不息。
莎士比亚笔下的王子，向掘墓的小丑打探每个骷髅生前的情况，甚至在枯骨间找到一位活着时戏谑成性的朋友郁利克的骷髅。他问身边的挚友霍拉旭：“你想亚历山大在地下也是这副形状吗？”霍拉旭答道：“也是这样。”哈姆雷特又问：“也有同样的臭味吗？呸！（掷下骷髅）”“也有同样的臭味，殿下。”霍拉旭诚实地回答。听了这话，王子怅然若失，“谁知道我们将来会变成一些什么下贱的东西，霍拉旭！要是我们用想象推测下去，谁知道亚历山大的高贵尸体，不就是塞在酒桶口上的泥土？”他感伤地叹息道，“凯撒死了，你尊严的尸体也许变了泥把破墙填砌；啊！他从前是何等的英雄，现在只好替人挡雨遮风！”对莎士比亚来说，他从骷髅上看到了所有人可悲的未来。在成为骷髅后，高贵和尊严都成为散去的云烟。
《庄子•至乐》中说，在去楚国的途中，庄子在路旁见到一个骷髅，于是他说：“我让主管生命的神来恢复你的形体，为你重新长出骨肉肌肤，返回到你的父母、妻子儿女、左右邻里和朋友故交中去，你愿意吗？”半夜骷髅给庄子托梦说：“人一旦死了，在上没有国君的统治，在下没有官吏的管辖；也没有四季的操劳，从容安逸地把天地的长久看作是时令的流逝，即使是人间的皇帝，也不如我快活。我怎么会想再次经历人世的劳苦呢？”对庄子来说，骷髅是为人的至乐境界，最能代表他“藏于匣中”的原则。
里尔克在《杜依诺哀歌》中说：“因为美无非是/我们恰巧能忍受的恐怖之开端，/我们之所以惊羡它，则因为它宁静地不屑于摧毁我们。”对于杨锴，骷髅是可以幻化的一种道具，恐怖只是它的第一层皮。他在指挥着画中的骷髅饱尝沧桑，经历着社会的爱欲纠葛，和看起来十分正常的“人”做对。杨锴已经在创作的思域中，逐渐加入自己对于社会的心理体认与责任投射，这种投射直接的体现，就是骷髅的形象。这份体认表现得隐讳而有迹可循所以可以掌握，深入而不无病呻吟所以让人觉得真诚。在浓郁的戏剧性情节中，能让画面渗透出宁静的气质。
这个系列的创作，是杨锴在意识形态、观念阐释、图像符号、文本游戏的缝隙间游走的一次尝试。

太狠了吧！

More real than soul and luckier than death
by Yan An
（李宁博译）

If the soul is immortal, we should love it, not only in this life, but love it forever ... ... If to die can escape all ,the wicked would be too lucky. - Plato
Yang Kai is exceptional in his environment. I feel surprised at this series of works which were created by Yang kai in an illegally-occupied studio, among waste paint tubes, behind the doors and windows closed all day long.
Yang Kai has been living and growing in his own works. Since 2009, he has found a kind of his own way of painting to illustrate the knowledge of the outside world. In 2009, Yang Kai had one painting called "WO" (120 × 160cm, Oil on canvas) which was rarely displayed in formal exhibition. Actually, it''s just an experimental work, but in Yang kai’s series of paintings, this work should have two meanings: first, the painting technique full of expressionistic color has been clearly put to use in the work; Second, the images of men and skeletons intertwined show up together. In other words, this first experiment has already touched the content and form of Yang kai’s later series of paintings. Yang Kai’s shape comes from a photograph of his own, he place skeletons and himself together in the picture, and I do not know whether it is caused by the thinking of "id" and "ego" and other philosophical propositions. Perhaps this is a result of his consideration for the sense of painting form, and Yang Kai has realized this form is worth exploring, which then is successfully magnified. In Yang Kai’s dealing with the background and creating the shapes in the painting, you can see ways of smearing, wiping, and brushing etc. In particular, the right face with smile he painted, serves as a symbol of youth’s life with no burden and no worry for the future. This work of Yang Kai, completely depicts another obscure side of an ordinary life exposed through a casual glimpse under the lights in the middle of the night.
In the subsequent series of works, skeleton becomes one of the main images showed by Yang Kai. In "friend", Yang Kai merely uses skeleton as a symbol of good and evil, dimly revealing his own national sentiment in the tones of black , white and gray. In the work "Do you know how much I miss you", the skeleton has transformed into a stark, direct, realistic object; the fairy-tale-like stars in the night sky, and the grandfather and grandmother who both have no flesh and blood still trying to smile kindly, they make people fearful , and at the same time feel a warmth-like atmosphere of life; in "Genesis", the use of masterpiece is even bolder ,with the circumstances of embodying life replaced by the image of death .
When an audience begins to try to read the whole series of works together, he will find that from the painting of "WO", skeletons have become Yang Kai ''s creative tools, he controls the skeletons with no expression of life , constantly changing the ways and props, performing pieces of human comedy.
Historically, the skeleton is a means of metaphor used by a lot of people, because it best embodies the paradox of life - life and death, good and evil, religiosity and oppugn , existence and nothingness, they are all cycling in the endless time.
Shakespeare''s prince found the skeleton of a friend who liked joking during his lifetime among bones. He asked his friend Horatio: "Does Alexander also look like this under the ground ?" Horatio replied: "Yes". Again Hamlet asked: "With th