实验的起点
中国当代艺术至今已经经历了二十余年的发展，其中大量的作品针对中国自身文化的历史和现实，具有鲜明的中国属性。除了这些迅速地进入国际视野而引人注目的作品之外，中国当代艺术发展的过程本身还显现着它的丰富性和多样性。其中有一类作品，超越了地域文化的差异，强调单纯的视觉实验，虽然不占据主流的位置，但对于艺术内涵和疆界的探索，视觉表现空间的开拓等方面，做出了非常有价值的贡献。例如在90年代前期北京的新刻度小组、上海的钱卫康、施勇等人的作品，他们以概念和文本以及只具有物理属性的装置的形式，运用概念化的测量、统计和理性分析来构成作品。当然这些作品是在当时特定的文化历史背景之中产生的，对作品的解读也不可避免地与当时所处的文化氛围相关联。然而从作品本身来看，构成作品的各种元素都排除了民族和文化的背景和内涵，而单纯从最普通的哲学上的认知和逻辑推演入手，作为结果的作品是一组超越经验体系的概念、图形和物品。这一倾向与那些广为人知的中国式波普艺术等等潮流中的作品有着很大距离。虽然这一倾向多少受到了国外概念艺术的影响，并且这批艺术家在当时及之后都有不同方向的探索和发展，但其所显示的纯粹实验的精神是非常可贵的。
这是一种返回最初的原点的创作方式。在艺术创作中，实验本身并不是目的，而是创新的途径，实验是允许失败的。只有从概念上回到最本质的源头，才能摆脱思维的定式，得到变革和创新的自由。实验精神贯穿了中国当代艺术的发展，在今天，视觉领域的实验探索又有新的表现，其中的各种情形和问题值得探讨。本次展览的艺术家们的表现很好地说明了这一方向的各种面貌。展览和作品所涉及到的诸如视觉实验与文化背景的关系，技术和材料的实验与创新的关系，艺术实验中艺术家的身份作用，方案构想与完成实施的复杂关系等等，都在展览的艺术家的作品中有很好的体现。
王晓宇的视频作品运用的视觉语言单纯、简洁，有很强的控制力。作品将天空、飞鸟、积云、街道、流水等时间性很强的元素拼合起来，形成一个视觉印象上的心理结构：期待、提问和回答与结果并不是一个必然的递进关系，它们合二为一，成为一个自在的整体。图像含义的重新发现也在蔡卫东和陈卫群的作品中集中地体现出来。蔡卫东用设定场景的方式探讨图像的制造、传播，以及对现实的干预、图像意义的变异等问题。这些对图像的概念和意义的重新审视和探究构成了他作品实验性的品格和气质。陈卫群的摄影作品利用了绘画技法中“用色彩塑造形体”这一训练模式，这种模式尤其在中国的艺术教育中被加以特殊地强调，无数的艺术考生和教师们沉浸于这一夸张和异化的表现形式。陈卫群所做的是将这种绘画模式在摄影中进行模仿和转换，这一直接的做法产生了奇幻的效果，对真实的模拟发生了逆转，准确地触及了图像意义的立足点。
于伯公的作品虽然运用了狼和佛陀的形象，但正如同佛教教义所讲，表象会产生执迷，作者正是借用这些形象来阐释我们所用的概念在意义上的脆弱，以及单纯的因果关系的狭隘。可以看出，倾向于本体实验的艺术家们已经开始不回避带有明显文化符号的题材，但这种引用没有给观者一个执着于文化价值评判的入口，而是立刻将观者引入到对艺术家、艺术作品本身的意义和作用的思考。这一情况也出现在张兆宏的雕塑作品“伏羲女娲”中，人文始祖被塑造为现实当中的普通人的形象，男女两性之间的差异和共性以及两者之间的关系超出了一般意义上的原则，展现了一种回归本体与幻化演进的奇妙统一。邓华和傅真合作的几件作品借用了棋盘、焚香、书籍等物品，在空间进退和时间进程等概念的演绎中完成了一个基于作品本身的作用和意义的构造系统，在这一系统中，艺术家将存在的意义赋予了过程、物品和图像，使作品不仅仅成为被动的被观看和欣赏的物品，而是具有本体涵义的主动的存在。
在邵康的作品中，创作和解读的切入点并不在于立体构成的秩序感或者极少主义的形式感，而是在于方糖和水泥砖块以相近的质感互相构造。人们对这两种物质属性赋予的情感因素在这一作品中进入了一个特殊的空间。随着观者思绪的流动，普通材料的物质属性游移穿行于想象和思维构成的异质境遇与感官决定的现实之间。同样的状况在杨春临的作品中也能看到，无论是用纸浆造型的变形的人体和马，还是用兽皮包裹的半兽人，材料、雕塑技巧、题材内容等造就了一种变异的构造系统，从存在的反面释放出存在的力量。
展览中的八位艺术家用实验性的视觉转换方式着力突破事物日常表象的外壳，呈现了视觉的重量感。艺术家们是从各自生活和艺术的经验出发，但没有停留在日常叙述的层面。这些作品以追溯事物本质的方式避免外在事物的干扰和纠缠，用直接而锐利的语言展现视觉形式的逻辑演进，直率地、毫无保留地将超越日常经验的可能性呈现给观者。艺术家们利用各自的专业素质和构造语言回到思辨的本源，以改变所涉形象的语境的方式，对这些惯性地保留在人们意识中的“像”进行突破和超越，使观众体验到表象崩溃之后的真实。
张黎
2008年8月
Starting Point of the Experiment
Contemporary Chinese Art has so far undergone more than 20 years of development. Many of the resulting works of art stem from the history and reality of Chinese culture, and therefore are imbued with clear Chinese characteristics. In addition to the artworks that have snappily made inroad into the international scene and have thus become conspicuous, the evolutionary process of contemporary Chinese art itself exhibits a sense of both abundance and diversity. There is one type of works of art that transcends geographical boundaries and cultural differences, and accentuates pure visual experimentation. Although not among the mainstream, this kind of artworks has made valuable contributions to art connotation, to the exploration of boundary and to the space expansion of visual manifestation. Cases in point include the New Measurement Group of Beijing in the 1990s, and works by Qian Weikang and Shi Yong of Shanghai, who created their works by using conceptions, texts and installations that had nothing but physical attributes; and through such means as conceptualized measurement, statistics and rational analysis.
Certainly these works were born out of the specific cultural and historical backdrop of that era, and interpretation of these works is inevitably associated with the corresponding cultural atmosphere. However, judging from the works themselves, the varied elements constituting the works have all been deprived of their ethnic and cultural context and connotations, and are derived purely from the most common philosophical cognition and logic. The resulting works are a group of transcendental concepts, images and objects. There is a long distance between this trend and such trendy works as the widely known Chinese Pop Arts. Although the former had been somewhat influenced by the influence of foreign conceptual art, and later on all the artists took on different explorations and artistic pursuits, the sheer experimental spirits they had exhibited were very precious.
This method of art creation involves going back to the starting point. In art, experiment is not an objective in itself but a way to innovate. Experimentation allows failure. But the freedom of reformation and innovation is only possible through going back to the most fundamental conceptual headstream, which breaks away from the preset critical mindset. The experimental spirit runs through the development of contemporary Chinese art. Today, new manifestations have emerged in the visual experimentations, many scenarios and issues of which are worth investigating. The manifestation of the artists in this exhibition shines a lamp on the landscape in that regard. Such issues as the correlation between visual experiments and cultural background, the relation between technical & material experiments and innovation, the function of artist identity in art experiments, the intricate relationship between the conceptualization of a scheme and its implementation, are well presented in the art works of the participating artists.
Depicting a simple, terse visual language, Wang Xiaoyu’s video work has a powerful overbearing effect. Piecing together the rather time-limited elements such as the sky, flying birds, cumulus, flowing water, the work forms a mental framework of visual impressions: anticipation, questioning, Q&A and outcome are not in an inevitable step-up relationship. They are combined to form one entity and to become an autonomous whole. The rediscovery of the meaning of the images is also holistically presented in the works of Cai Weidong and Chen Weiqun. By predetermining the scene, Cai Weidong explores such issues as the production and dissimilation of images, intervention in reality by the images and their variation in meaning. The re-examination and exploration of the concepts and meaning of these images constitute the experimental character and features of his works. Chen Weiqun’s photographi
中国当代艺术至今已经经历了二十余年的发展，其中大量的作品针对中国自身文化的历史和现实，具有鲜明的中国属性。除了这些迅速地进入国际视野而引人注目的作品之外，中国当代艺术发展的过程本身还显现着它的丰富性和多样性。其中有一类作品，超越了地域文化的差异，强调单纯的视觉实验，虽然不占据主流的位置，但对于艺术内涵和疆界的探索，视觉表现空间的开拓等方面，做出了非常有价值的贡献。例如在90年代前期北京的新刻度小组、上海的钱卫康、施勇等人的作品，他们以概念和文本以及只具有物理属性的装置的形式，运用概念化的测量、统计和理性分析来构成作品。当然这些作品是在当时特定的文化历史背景之中产生的，对作品的解读也不可避免地与当时所处的文化氛围相关联。然而从作品本身来看，构成作品的各种元素都排除了民族和文化的背景和内涵，而单纯从最普通的哲学上的认知和逻辑推演入手，作为结果的作品是一组超越经验体系的概念、图形和物品。这一倾向与那些广为人知的中国式波普艺术等等潮流中的作品有着很大距离。虽然这一倾向多少受到了国外概念艺术的影响，并且这批艺术家在当时及之后都有不同方向的探索和发展，但其所显示的纯粹实验的精神是非常可贵的。
这是一种返回最初的原点的创作方式。在艺术创作中，实验本身并不是目的，而是创新的途径，实验是允许失败的。只有从概念上回到最本质的源头，才能摆脱思维的定式，得到变革和创新的自由。实验精神贯穿了中国当代艺术的发展，在今天，视觉领域的实验探索又有新的表现，其中的各种情形和问题值得探讨。本次展览的艺术家们的表现很好地说明了这一方向的各种面貌。展览和作品所涉及到的诸如视觉实验与文化背景的关系，技术和材料的实验与创新的关系，艺术实验中艺术家的身份作用，方案构想与完成实施的复杂关系等等，都在展览的艺术家的作品中有很好的体现。
王晓宇的视频作品运用的视觉语言单纯、简洁，有很强的控制力。作品将天空、飞鸟、积云、街道、流水等时间性很强的元素拼合起来，形成一个视觉印象上的心理结构：期待、提问和回答与结果并不是一个必然的递进关系，它们合二为一，成为一个自在的整体。图像含义的重新发现也在蔡卫东和陈卫群的作品中集中地体现出来。蔡卫东用设定场景的方式探讨图像的制造、传播，以及对现实的干预、图像意义的变异等问题。这些对图像的概念和意义的重新审视和探究构成了他作品实验性的品格和气质。陈卫群的摄影作品利用了绘画技法中“用色彩塑造形体”这一训练模式，这种模式尤其在中国的艺术教育中被加以特殊地强调，无数的艺术考生和教师们沉浸于这一夸张和异化的表现形式。陈卫群所做的是将这种绘画模式在摄影中进行模仿和转换，这一直接的做法产生了奇幻的效果，对真实的模拟发生了逆转，准确地触及了图像意义的立足点。
于伯公的作品虽然运用了狼和佛陀的形象，但正如同佛教教义所讲，表象会产生执迷，作者正是借用这些形象来阐释我们所用的概念在意义上的脆弱，以及单纯的因果关系的狭隘。可以看出，倾向于本体实验的艺术家们已经开始不回避带有明显文化符号的题材，但这种引用没有给观者一个执着于文化价值评判的入口，而是立刻将观者引入到对艺术家、艺术作品本身的意义和作用的思考。这一情况也出现在张兆宏的雕塑作品“伏羲女娲”中，人文始祖被塑造为现实当中的普通人的形象，男女两性之间的差异和共性以及两者之间的关系超出了一般意义上的原则，展现了一种回归本体与幻化演进的奇妙统一。邓华和傅真合作的几件作品借用了棋盘、焚香、书籍等物品，在空间进退和时间进程等概念的演绎中完成了一个基于作品本身的作用和意义的构造系统，在这一系统中，艺术家将存在的意义赋予了过程、物品和图像，使作品不仅仅成为被动的被观看和欣赏的物品，而是具有本体涵义的主动的存在。
在邵康的作品中，创作和解读的切入点并不在于立体构成的秩序感或者极少主义的形式感，而是在于方糖和水泥砖块以相近的质感互相构造。人们对这两种物质属性赋予的情感因素在这一作品中进入了一个特殊的空间。随着观者思绪的流动，普通材料的物质属性游移穿行于想象和思维构成的异质境遇与感官决定的现实之间。同样的状况在杨春临的作品中也能看到，无论是用纸浆造型的变形的人体和马，还是用兽皮包裹的半兽人，材料、雕塑技巧、题材内容等造就了一种变异的构造系统，从存在的反面释放出存在的力量。
展览中的八位艺术家用实验性的视觉转换方式着力突破事物日常表象的外壳，呈现了视觉的重量感。艺术家们是从各自生活和艺术的经验出发，但没有停留在日常叙述的层面。这些作品以追溯事物本质的方式避免外在事物的干扰和纠缠，用直接而锐利的语言展现视觉形式的逻辑演进，直率地、毫无保留地将超越日常经验的可能性呈现给观者。艺术家们利用各自的专业素质和构造语言回到思辨的本源，以改变所涉形象的语境的方式，对这些惯性地保留在人们意识中的“像”进行突破和超越，使观众体验到表象崩溃之后的真实。
张黎
2008年8月
Starting Point of the Experiment
Contemporary Chinese Art has so far undergone more than 20 years of development. Many of the resulting works of art stem from the history and reality of Chinese culture, and therefore are imbued with clear Chinese characteristics. In addition to the artworks that have snappily made inroad into the international scene and have thus become conspicuous, the evolutionary process of contemporary Chinese art itself exhibits a sense of both abundance and diversity. There is one type of works of art that transcends geographical boundaries and cultural differences, and accentuates pure visual experimentation. Although not among the mainstream, this kind of artworks has made valuable contributions to art connotation, to the exploration of boundary and to the space expansion of visual manifestation. Cases in point include the New Measurement Group of Beijing in the 1990s, and works by Qian Weikang and Shi Yong of Shanghai, who created their works by using conceptions, texts and installations that had nothing but physical attributes; and through such means as conceptualized measurement, statistics and rational analysis.
Certainly these works were born out of the specific cultural and historical backdrop of that era, and interpretation of these works is inevitably associated with the corresponding cultural atmosphere. However, judging from the works themselves, the varied elements constituting the works have all been deprived of their ethnic and cultural context and connotations, and are derived purely from the most common philosophical cognition and logic. The resulting works are a group of transcendental concepts, images and objects. There is a long distance between this trend and such trendy works as the widely known Chinese Pop Arts. Although the former had been somewhat influenced by the influence of foreign conceptual art, and later on all the artists took on different explorations and artistic pursuits, the sheer experimental spirits they had exhibited were very precious.
This method of art creation involves going back to the starting point. In art, experiment is not an objective in itself but a way to innovate. Experimentation allows failure. But the freedom of reformation and innovation is only possible through going back to the most fundamental conceptual headstream, which breaks away from the preset critical mindset. The experimental spirit runs through the development of contemporary Chinese art. Today, new manifestations have emerged in the visual experimentations, many scenarios and issues of which are worth investigating. The manifestation of the artists in this exhibition shines a lamp on the landscape in that regard. Such issues as the correlation between visual experiments and cultural background, the relation between technical & material experiments and innovation, the function of artist identity in art experiments, the intricate relationship between the conceptualization of a scheme and its implementation, are well presented in the art works of the participating artists.
Depicting a simple, terse visual language, Wang Xiaoyu’s video work has a powerful overbearing effect. Piecing together the rather time-limited elements such as the sky, flying birds, cumulus, flowing water, the work forms a mental framework of visual impressions: anticipation, questioning, Q&A and outcome are not in an inevitable step-up relationship. They are combined to form one entity and to become an autonomous whole. The rediscovery of the meaning of the images is also holistically presented in the works of Cai Weidong and Chen Weiqun. By predetermining the scene, Cai Weidong explores such issues as the production and dissimilation of images, intervention in reality by the images and their variation in meaning. The re-examination and exploration of the concepts and meaning of these images constitute the experimental character and features of his works. Chen Weiqun’s photographi
