| 工作中的鄧箭今 |
面對自我與非我——與鄧箭今對話
文/楊小彥
鄧箭今的油畫作品中有一個基本的母題，那就是畫家自己。畫家讓自己出現(xiàn)在各種場合，同時作著各種不同的反應(yīng)，有怪異表情的，有懸浮動作的，有莫名姿勢的，有與人對峙的，也有置身于人海中而顯然與眾無關(guān)的；或在拉扯著膠手套，或在品評著鮮花，或麻木地與所有人一起張嘴結(jié)舌地笑，或盯著觀眾卻讓人覺得盯著觀眾純?nèi)粵]有什么特別的情感要交流。只有一張畫作者明顯表達(dá)了一種強烈的抗拒：面對一支侵犯性過強的手電筒發(fā)出呼叫。我以為這張畫很有些點題的作用，一下子把鄧箭今的意圖給揭示了出來：他一直在無奈地面對著自我與非我，或者說他一直生活在自我與非我之間那一片夢一樣的空間中，仿佛做戲似的，一方面回答著自我所提出的可能是難堪的私密性問題，一方面又不停地面對非我嚴(yán)厲的責(zé)難，由此而透視出個人領(lǐng)地的不完整，透視出人性中共有的渴望窺視與害怕窺視的矛盾心理。從這一層面上講，鄧箭今的作品明顯區(qū)別于新生代的無聊與潑皮，他的畫是一種心理幻象的結(jié)果，是存在于個人夢境深處的圖像，是在個人獨處時，在昏黃燈光下和大量啤酒的充盈中所浮現(xiàn)的情境，是一種無聲的抗拒，抗拒陌生卻不幸又最終導(dǎo)致了陌生與隔離。
我與鄧箭今相識多年，幾乎是看著他的藝術(shù)從摸索和試探中走到了今天的這一步。這其中既有技術(shù)與風(fēng)格的因素，更有畫家個人對問題深化的因素。我想，他的成績首先倒的確歸因于他的堅持，在廣州這樣一種氣氛中堅持自己繪畫領(lǐng)地的完整與不可侵犯。由此可見，鄧箭今一直都在兩塊領(lǐng)地——夢中的領(lǐng)地與現(xiàn)實的領(lǐng)地中不懈努力。兩個領(lǐng)地都不可缺少，都對作品的成功起著舉足輕重的影響。
面對著自我與非我的糾纏，鄧箭今努力在作出他最恰當(dāng)?shù)幕貞?yīng)。
以下是與畫家的對話。
[對話從一張具體的畫開始]
楊：這張畫有一種顏色分離的效果，與原來的不一樣，造型上是硬邊的。
[畫面是兩個懸浮的人，戴眼鏡的人顯然是畫家自己]
鄧：我下面幾張都會照這個路子畫下去。至于輪廓，我一向畫得比較硬，那樣會有力些。
楊；你把自己擺進(jìn)畫面，是因為你對自己比對別人有興趣么？
鄧：不能這樣說。我覺得我不是在畫自畫像，我不是對自己的形象有什么特別的興趣，我只是想尋找一個支點，好讓我觀察。我自己就是一個支點，我在看你，實際上也反映出你在看我。
楊：你的意思說，把自己擺進(jìn)去，只是確認(rèn)了一個視角。
鄧：自畫像象是在自言自語。自畫像只關(guān)心自己。我并不僅僅關(guān)心自己，我關(guān)心的是我如何看別人和別人如何看我。我畫的是一種近乎夢幻般的反應(yīng)，個人對外界的反應(yīng)，個人如何從群體中分離出來，又如何返歸群體。我相信這是一個相當(dāng)棘手的問題，幸好我只是個畫家，我無法解決這個問題卻可以表現(xiàn)由這問題所引致的情緒變化。
楊：顯然這是有難度的，因為不是在琢磨自己的長相特征，而是判斷一種關(guān)系。
鄧：我覺得我有點像孤獨的觀察者，有點自言自語，但并不太自戀……
楊：有一種心理的真實空間，有一個心理的深度？
鄧：我更喜歡說是夢，夢境，漂浮的夢境。在個人與群體的關(guān)系中做夢，核心的主題則是侵犯與被侵犯、窺視與被窺視、陌生與不陌生，等等……
楊：一個社會學(xué)的問題。
鄧：也是一個視覺問題。我覺得把自己擺進(jìn)畫面中很難，尤其是持續(xù)了這么多年。我畫自己，把自己擺在一個合適的位置上，是想提供一個模式，暴露一種普遍存在的心理上的隱私，或者是一種假想的隱私？
楊：最后一句話很有意思，一種假想的隱私。但這和個人表現(xiàn)有什么不同？
鄧：我不想那么狹隘，只關(guān)心個人的表現(xiàn)，個人在不停地嘮嘮叨叨。畫我自己，只是一個方便的選擇。我選擇了自己，然后就畫到畫布上，而且越畫越明確。
楊：這個方便怎么解釋？就近方便的方便還是迫不得已的方便？
鄧：不見得是就近，有點迫不得已。因為只有個人的體驗、經(jīng)歷才是最令我信任的內(nèi)在動力，自己對過去的事情有一種執(zhí)迷和追述，后來發(fā)現(xiàn)這種執(zhí)迷和追述有某種普遍性，可以做為一個問題來處理，可以演變成視覺上的表達(dá)。
楊：表達(dá)一種對個人領(lǐng)地侵犯的非議？還是一種由窺視產(chǎn)生的恐懼，恐懼自己時時也在被窺視？
鄧：恐懼說得有點過份，但維護(hù)個人領(lǐng)地的完整的確是一項艱巨的、甚至是難以完成的使命，從中導(dǎo)致了一種嚴(yán)肅和健康的正劇。我的畫是健康的，與新生代的潑皮、無聊有相當(dāng)距離。我覺得我不無聊，也缺少潑皮的精神。
楊：這個健康的意思是：你有嚴(yán)肅的問題需要探求，你是在一個心理的層面上，也即個人對群體的敏感反應(yīng)這一點上揭示生存的涵義。幾乎每個人都能體會到與人相處、與自我相處的困境。我們真的都不是那么坦然地活著的，焦慮是從不知不覺的日常交往中產(chǎn)生的，然后每天擴(kuò)大，以至于掩蓋掉個人全部有價值的生命。
鄧：所以我畫自己僅僅是一種選擇。
楊：不是個人表現(xiàn)，或者說個人發(fā)泄？
鄧：不是那樣的。我選擇自己，不斷地把“我”這個母題持續(xù)下去，就這么簡單。你知道，持續(xù)這么多年畫一個自己太過熟悉的“母題”，這不容易。
楊：你對畫別的形象有沒有興趣？
鄧：很熟才會有興趣。我更喜歡瞎編，編一些半陌生不陌生的形象，安放到畫面上。
楊：你畫你夫人，還有你的學(xué)生……
鄧：是讓她們來做模特，并不是在畫他們。我心中始終有別的一些符號。我還是在編形象。
楊：你大概是在90年以后才把興趣集中在自己的形象上的。90年以前呢？
鄧：主要做陶藝。這是我的專業(yè)，做了很多，都是粗陶燒制。當(dāng)時想追求一種原始感。
楊：那時也畫畫么？
鄧：也畫，不過不值得一看，畫的都是些85新潮之類的東西，浮躁，自我膨脹。
楊：這有一個過程。我反倒覺得你不容易，不是油畫科班出身，卻能在油畫方面有這樣一種突破，我看還是堅持的結(jié)果。有相當(dāng)一段時間你其實是頗寂寞的。
鄧：是這樣的。我一直都想弄出點東西來。還是剛剛那個說法，太浮了，不耐看。
楊：我覺得應(yīng)該歷史地看這問題。那時剛打開門窗看世界，陽光炫耀得人眼都睜不開，以后習(xí)慣了，才看清些外面的世界。我總覺得對歷史是沒有什么好苛求、好過多指責(zé)的。還是回到你的畫上。你逐漸把自己擺進(jìn)去，甚至站在陌生的地方觀看自己……
鄧：我覺得觀看這個詞用得好。我想我是一個旁觀者，有時甚至不免為自己的觀察而得意，但更多的倒是緊張。我的畫面總是有一種無奈的緊張……
楊：又回到漂浮的夢境上去了。沉重的漂浮。如果我給你的畫定位的話，我想你表達(dá)的可能是一種存在于個人與群體之間的懸浮的幻想，也有點像佛洛依德早期所說的那個“潛意識”。注意，不是“無意識”，也不是“意識”，而是這兩者間的一種精神狀態(tài)，一種瞬間的恍惚。
鄧：我要補充一點，我的畫有一種連續(xù)性，我覺得我是逐步進(jìn)入角色的，逐步把自己擺在一個窺視與被窺視的位置上，這個位置的狀態(tài)可能有點像你所說的那個“潛意識”，一種瞬間的恍惚，不過我真的沒聽過這個詞……我一直都在畫自己，但我很怕變成自畫像，我不想別人問我：你老畫自己干嘛。我不得不一再地說，我不是畫自己，我是畫一種關(guān)系。
楊：你能解釋一下你畫面中的那種緊張的懸浮感么？
鄧：我想那是一種心理的特別狀態(tài)，一種強烈的對刺激的反應(yīng)。其實我不僅畫懸浮，我還畫無目的迅跑，畫很多很多人擁擠在一起，被一種莫名的利益所導(dǎo)引……
楊：我還想問別的問題。
鄧：可以。
楊：在廣州，能像你這樣堅持這么多年畫自已風(fēng)格的畫的人可能已經(jīng)不多了，因為這將面臨兩方面的攻擊，一是經(jīng)濟(jì)的滿足，二是成名的欲望。由于廣州的氛圍問題，我們這一代人以畫名而立于國內(nèi)的尚不多見。內(nèi)地畫家被曝光的倒不少。你覺得這其中的問題在那里？
鄧：怎么說呢？我覺得有點難回答。可能是有點封閉吧。另外就是持續(xù)性不夠，堅持得不夠。有些問題其實就是堅持。
楊：你覺得你在廣州美院的位置如何？
鄧：還行。關(guān)鍵是人們都認(rèn)為我這個人在不停地畫畫，所以對我很放心。我也覺得沒什么壓力。關(guān)鍵是不要去妒嫉人家如何掙錢。反正人各有各的活法，我只能對自己負(fù)責(zé)。我唯有畫畫。
楊：這是性格所致。
鄧：是的。
楊：我覺得一種個性化的藝術(shù)之所以能在一個群體中生效，全在乎其中所蘊含著的問題是否具有涵蓋性。為什么有的人表達(dá)出來的概念蒼白無力，而有的人則富有擴(kuò)張力呢？我看就在于其中所包容的問題的大與小了，或者說是文化深度吧，這樣更好理解些。
鄧：我想正因為在母題中潛藏著有深度的與群體有關(guān)系的問題，才能使極端個性化的藝術(shù)有一個廣闊的前景。
楊：不少畫家畫了一輩子，卻不知道要畫什么，這是頂可悲的。沒有一個文化的歸結(jié)點，沒有問題是不能使畫家的個性變得對別人也有價值的。如果僅僅在自言自語，與我有什么相關(guān)？但你居然在說自己的話的同時，也反映了我潛在的困境，表達(dá)了我的期待，我能不關(guān)心、不緊張么？特別是一旦我們跨越了風(fēng)格化的屏障，我們就能在作為文本的藝術(shù)作品中匯合了。我接受了你的話語系統(tǒng)，我被你話語中的力量所打動，我成了你的對象。
鄧：我明白你的意思。
楊：我一直都反對流行于廣州美術(shù)界的所謂“自娛理論”，畫畫是我的事，自己開心就行了。
鄧：既然如此，為什么還要去擺展覽？去發(fā)表？
楊：你知道，開心的方式有很多，僅僅為自己開心，這并不難。但藝術(shù)總歸要去影響一個層面的生活，而不是為了自己的嘮嘮叨叨。依我看自娛理論則更像是托辭，好掩蓋藝術(shù)上的蒼白、貧弱與無能。我看你一開始就希望在你所選擇的母題中確定一個話語系統(tǒng)，在你的文本中尋找一種明確的風(fēng)格通道，從而達(dá)到高層次的溝通。
鄧：自娛是一種逃循，自戀不免卑微。藝術(shù)的前提是自立。我的想法是：尋找一種自由的漂浮狀態(tài)，在自己的經(jīng)歷中取得一種動力，把自己做為一個出發(fā)點，從而完成一種風(fēng)格的塑造。
楊：這是一個簡單的概括。
1995年
In The Face of Self and Non-self
---- Conversation with Deng Jianjin
By Yang Xiaoyan
There’s a basic motif in Deng Jianjin’s oil painting which is the painter himself. The artist himself appears in various occasions, with various responses：some is with strange expression, some is moving suspendedly, some is with inexplicable postures, some is confronting with others, some is in the crowd but indifferent with others, some is pulling a rubber glove, some is enjoying flowers, some is numbly laughing together with others, or some is looking into the audiences but without any emotional communication. Only one piece is expressed a strong resistance in which he is shouting through a strongly aggressive flashlight. I think this piece quite has the function of bring out the theme, revealing Deng Jianjin’s intention: he has been helplessly in the face of self and non-self, in other words, he has been living in the dreamlike space between self and non-self, like acting. On the one hand, he is answering the private even embarrassing questions supposed by himself, on the other hand, he is facing the severe censure supposed by non-self. From this level, Deng Jianjin’s works are obviously different with the boredom and cynicism of the new generation. His works are of the result of a psychological illusion. They are the images present in the depth of personal dreams; they are the situations emerging in the yellow light together with a large number of bear when one is alone. It’s a silent resistance, resisting strangeness but unfortunately causing strangeness and isolation at last.
I have known Deng Jianjin for many years, and almost see him from the exploration stage to today’s achievement. In addiction to the factors of technique and style, there are the factors the painter has to deepen problems. I think his achievements should be firstly attributed to his insistence adhere to the inviolability and the territorial integrity of his painting in such an atmosphere of Guangzhou.
So far, Deng Jianjin is making unremitting efforts in the two territories of dream and reality. Either of them is essential and plays a decisive influence for the success of the works.
In the face of the struggle between the self and the non-self, Deng Jianjin is making efforts to give his most appropriate response.
The following is the dialogue with the painter.
[The dialogue starts from a concrete piece of painting]
Yang: This piece is with an effect of the separation colors, different with the original. The modeling is of hard edge.
[There are two persons suspended. The one wearing glasses is obviously the painter himself]
Deng: I will adhere to this way in the coming pieces. As for or the profile, I always prefer the hard edge which could be more powerful.
Yang: You drew yourself in the painting. Is it because you have more interests in yourself than in others?
Deng: It cannot be said in this way. I feel that I am not painting self-portrait. I don’t have special interests on my own image. What I want is just to find out a fulcrum for me to observe. I am this fulcrum. Actually, I am looking at you, which also reflects that you are looking at me.
Yang: You mean the reason you putting yourself in your works is just to confirm a perspective.
Deng: Self-portrait is like talking to oneself. Self-portrait just concerns about self, but I not only concern myself. What I concern is how I look at the others and how the others look at me. What I paint is almost a dreamlike response that the individuals have to the outside world. It’s about how the individuals separate from the group and return to the group. I believe it’s a thorny issue. Fortunately, I am just a painter. I cannot resolve the problem but I can express the emotional changes caused by the issue.
Yang: It’s obviously difficult, because it’s not pondering the self’s physical features, but a judgment of a relation.
Deng: I feel I like a lonely observer, like soliloquy but is not narcissistic…
Yang: There’s a real psychological space? A psychological depth?
Deng: I prefer to describe it as dream, a floating dream, making dreams in the relationship between individuals and groups. The core theme is violation and being violated, peep and being peeped, familiarity and unfamiliarity and so on…
Yang: It’s a sociological issue.
Deng: This is also a visual issue. It’s really hard for me to pose myself into the screen, especially it has been lasted for so many years. Painting me and posing me in an appropriate place are to provide a mode and expose a common psychological privacy or an imaginary privacy?
Yang: The last sentence is very interesting, “an imaginary privacy”. But what’s the difference with personal performance?
Deng: I don’t want to be so narrow-minded that only concerned personal performance with non-stopping talking. I paint myself, because it’s a convenient choice. I chose myself and painted on the canvas more and more clearly.
Yang: How do you explain the convenience? Is it the convenience of the nearest or the compelled convenience?
Deng: It’s not necessarily about the nearest, and a bit forced. Because only personal experience is the internal driving force that I most trust, an obsession to the past things. Later I found the obsession is universal that can be dealt as an issue turned into a visual expression.
Yang: Are you expressing a criticism of the violation of personal territory? Or a fear derived by peed which is also a fear of being peeped?
Deng: Fear is a little excessive expression, but safeguarding the integrity of personal territory is a tough mission even hard to complete. It leads to a serious and healthy play. My paintings are healthy, quite distant from the cynicism and boredom of the new generation. I don’t think I am bored. I am also lack of cynical spirit.
Yang: Health means you have serious issues to explore and you expose the meaning of existence from the sensitive responses individuals have to groups on a psychological level. Almost everybody can experience the plight of getting along with others and self. We don’t live frankly. Anxiety generates unwittingly from the day-to-day contacts, expands everyday and covers all of the valuable lives of individuals.
Deng: Therefore, painting myself is just a kind of choice.
Yang: Is it personal expression or vent?
Deng: It’s not like that. I chose myself and keep the motif “I”. It’s as simple as that. You know, it’s not easy to keep on such a motif which is too familiar for so many years.
Yang: Do you have any interests in painting something else?
Deng: I only have interests on the familiarities. I prefer to fabricate some semi-familiar images and put them into the screens.
Yang: You painted your wife and your students…
Deng: I asked them to be my models, but I didn’t really paint them. There are always some other symbols in my heart. I am fabricating images indeed.
Yang: You have probably focused the interests on your own image since the 90s. What did you do before the 90s?
Deng: I mainly did pottery. It’s my major. I did lots of rough pottery fired. I wanted to pursue a original sense.
Yang: Did you paint at that time?
Deng: Yes, I did, but they are not worth of viewing. All of them are about 85 New Wave, impetuous and self-expanded.
Yang: There’s a process. I feel you are not easy. Your major was not oil painting but you can make such a break in the field of oil painting. I think it’s the result of persistence. You were quite lonely for a period.
Deng: Absolutely right. I always want to come up with something. But as what I just said, they were too impetuous and easy to be boring.
Yang: I think we should see these issues historically. When the door was just opened, the sun was too shining that no one could open his eyes. When we become used to it, we can see clearly the outside world. I always feel that we shouldn’t make too many demands and blames on history. Well, return to your painting. You gradually put yourself into it, even observe yourself from a strange place…
Deng: I think the word used well, “Observe”. I think I am a spectator; sometimes I am even proud of my observation, although more is nervous. There’s always a helpless nervousness in my picture…
Yang: We return to the floating dream now, a heavy float. If let me locate your pictures, I think what you expressed is a floating illusion between individuals and groups, something like the “sub-consciousness” for early Freud. Be careful, note that rather than “unconsciousness” or “consciousness”, it’s spiritual state between these two, a moment of trance.
Deng: I want to add a point: my painting has continuity. I feel I enter into the role step by step, gradually posing myself on the position between peep and being peeped. The position is like the “sub-consciousness”, a moment of trance. But I really never heard about this word… I am always painting myself, but I am afraid that it would become self-portrait. I don’t like the others ask me, “why did you always paint youself?” I have to explain again and again, “I am not painting myself. I am painting a relationship.”
Yang: Can you explain the intense sense of suspension in your screen?
Deng: I think it’s a special psychological state, a strong response to stimulus. Actually, not only do I paint the people suspended, I paint the running people aimlessly, the crowed people led by a nameless interest…
Yang: I have some other questions to ask.
Deng: Sure.
Yang: There are few artists in Guangzhou can insist on their own styles for so many years like you, because it could face two attacks: one is economical satisfaction, the other is the desire of fame. Due to the atmosphere of Guangzhou, few painters of our generation are famous in the country, but many mainland painters are being exposed. What’s your opinion of the problem here?
Deng: How should I say? It’s hard to answer. It may be because of a bit closure. Another reason is the lack of continuity, without enough insistence. In fact, many issues are about insistence.
Yang: How do you think your position in Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts?
Deng: It’s ok. The key is that all of the people think I keep on painting, so they rest assured. I also feel no pressure. The key is not to envy the others making money. Anyway, everyone has his own living style. I am responsible for myself. The only thing I want to do is painting.
Yang: It’s caused by your personality.
Deng: Right.
Yang: I think whether a personalized art has effect on a group depends on how far the issue inside can cover. Why are someone’s ideas so pale and the other’s ideas so richly expansive? I think it depends on whether the issue inside is big, in other words, the cultural depth. It’s easier to understand in this way.
Deng: I think only the issue hidden in the motif related to groups can bring a broad prospect for the extremely personalized art.
Yang: Many artists paint during a whole lifetime, but don’t know what they want to paint. It’s saddest. Without a cultural node or issue cannot make the artist’s personality become meaningful to the others. If it’s only soliloquy, what’s the relation with me? But for you when you soliloquize you also reflect my potential plight and express my expectation. Can’t I concern or being nervous? Especially when we cross the obstacle of style, we can be convergent in the text of art works. I accept your discourse; I am moved by the power of your discourse and I become your object.
Deng: I know what you mean.
Yang: I am always against the alleged theory of “self-entertainment” popular in the Guangzhou art world which advocates painting is my own thing and only entertaining myself is enough.
Deng: If so, why do they have exhibition and publication?
Yang: You know there are many ways of entertainment. Just being happy for one’s own is not difficult. But art has to influence one level of life rather than for one’s own requirement of soliloquy. In my opinion, the theory of self-entertainment is more like an excuse to cover the paleness, weakness and disability on art. I think you hope to ascertain a discourse system in the motif you chose from the beginning, finding a channel of a certain style to achieve a communication on a higher level.
Deng: Self-entertainment is a kind of escape; narcissism is too mean. The premise of art is self-reliance. My point is that: find a free state of floating and gain a drive from own experience. Take oneself as a starting point to complete the shape of style.
Yang: This is a simple summary.
1995
| 工作中的鄧箭今 |
不解之結(jié)——鄧箭今作品及其它
文/栗憲庭
“不解之結(jié)”是我準(zhǔn)備作展覽用的一個標(biāo)題，企圖概括當(dāng)代藝術(shù)中的一種話語現(xiàn)象，即作品無論畫的是人還是畫其他東西，藝術(shù)家在表現(xiàn)的過程中，都不同程度地呈現(xiàn)出疙里疙瘩的結(jié)狀造型。比較著名的如天津的蔡錦，安徽的陳宇飛，四川的何森、趙能智，等等，還有本文要敘述的廣東的鄧箭今。
繩結(jié)的“結(jié)”作為物象名詞，在中文里經(jīng)常被用作形容內(nèi)心難解的、郁結(jié)的意象。早在魏晉時，社會的黑暗使一些有良知的知識分子內(nèi)心充滿了痛苦，因此，諸如“胸中塊壘”的詞匯就常出現(xiàn)在他們的詩中。此后，“塊壘”也多被歷代文人所喜用。塊壘即“結(jié)”，著名的蘇東坡也曾在他的繪畫中用“樹結(jié)”比喻他心中的結(jié)。“結(jié)”變成通俗漢語即是“疙瘩”，口語里也常說他心里有“疙瘩”。塊壘、結(jié)、疙瘩，即是形容物象的詞匯，也是描繪內(nèi)心感受的語言，這是漢語的一種特征，也是中國藝術(shù)的一種特征，所謂比、興、意象化之類。其實，英文中同樣的名詞結(jié)“knot”也作心之結(jié)解：Knots in the mind（思想上的疙瘩）。看來人類在使用文字語言表述自身的感覺上有共同之處，也許西方美學(xué)上的“模仿說”過于強大，在二十世紀(jì)以前的藝術(shù)中，我們鮮有見到類似中國比、興一類的作品。
鄧箭今的自畫像時期就已經(jīng)顯示了“結(jié)”般的筆觸，1996年以來的作品尤其《青春期》、《味道》、《夢幻的情歌》、《呼吸》等同期的作品，筆觸過程所呈現(xiàn)的結(jié)狀造型，成為作品話語的重要因素。自然，鄧箭今作品話語的首要因素是他“畫什么”，男女性欲望中的人物動態(tài)是顯而易見的，這些動態(tài)都很直接，如《一抹晚霞》、《呼吸》、《閃逝的風(fēng)景》、《夢幻的情歌》中的伸舌頭的動態(tài)，《味道》中的閉眼張嘴和煽著鼻翼的動態(tài)，《青春期NO.2》中近似手淫的動態(tài)等等。但這些動態(tài)都不是直接表現(xiàn)性，而表現(xiàn)性的欲望，或者借性來表現(xiàn)某種內(nèi)心的壓抑。因為這些動態(tài)幾乎都是單個人的私密狀態(tài)下的動態(tài)，即使畫的是兩個人，也是一種壓抑得無法接觸的狀態(tài)。人物動態(tài)的背景是鄧箭今作品話語的第二個“畫什么”因素，如《呼吸》背景中擁擠地露出水面的頭，象缺氧的魚。在這里作品被轉(zhuǎn)換為一種意象話語，以擁擠和缺氧喻壓抑的感覺。其他作品多采此方法，以飛機(jī)和疙里疙瘩的云作《閃逝的風(fēng)景》的背景，也許以此喻作者與妻子兩地生活的感覺。鄧箭今作品話語的第三個因素即“怎么畫”，回到本文的重點——筆觸的結(jié)，這是造型語言中最不可替代的因素，鄧全部以疙里疙瘩的筆意畫所有的形象，正是憑借疙里疙瘩與郁結(jié)的心情有一種通感，作者才可以通過疙里疙瘩的筆意表達(dá)出內(nèi)心的郁結(jié)。中國傳統(tǒng)文人畫多用此法，這得益于書法美學(xué)的早熟，古代文獻(xiàn)多有記載。作品如倪瓚疏落的筆意與他寂寥的心情，石魯疙里疙瘩的筆意與他晚年的梅花等等。當(dāng)然色彩也是一種話語因素，鄧多用強烈的色彩，且很生、猛、焦，尤其按常理他用的都是一些忌諱的發(fā)“焦”的色彩，缺乏潤以及透明度，如他常用的發(fā)焦的紅、綠、黃，常給人一種惡心的感覺。但也正是如此，才表達(dá)出他的那種難言的被壓抑而焦渴的欲望，色彩的焦與心理的焦在這里也是一種通感。這種生存感覺長期郁結(jié)于作者的內(nèi)心，以至成為一個不解之結(jié)，并通過一定的人物動態(tài)、寓意的背景、筆意、色彩表現(xiàn)出來。
在鄧箭今的近期作品中，《味道》較特別，那是一幅畫體會性感覺的人物表情——閉眼、張嘴和煽動的鼻翼，色彩一反平時的焦而變?yōu)槿岷偷呐?，特別之處在于筆意：大量使用了油，筆觸比平常流暢，使整個畫面有種液體般的流動感，人物形象在此便超越了寫實而成為作者性的感覺的意象。其中關(guān)鍵在于作者把繪制的過程當(dāng)作自己的體會過程，于是心之結(jié)在這種體會中被化解，筆觸的結(jié)也因此化解為一泓粘乎乎、濕漉漉的蠕動的液體。
以上所敘只是解讀，不是評價，評價是把作品放在特定的語境里尋找它的意義。當(dāng)性的壓抑成為特定環(huán)境里人的共有生存感覺時，性的壓抑就成為一種文化語境（可用“文化情境”，但情境和語境同出英文context），藝術(shù)家對這種個人感覺的表達(dá)也由此獲得某種當(dāng)代的共識，就此而言，鄧箭今的作品具有一定的當(dāng)代意義，盡管他的作品還顯得有些單調(diào)，因為在人的性壓抑的背后，應(yīng)該隱含著更為復(fù)雜而豐富的生存感覺。其次，藝術(shù)的本質(zhì)是語言，因此必須把要評價的作品，放在整個藝術(shù)中的語境里，去看它的創(chuàng)造性的含量。鄧的作品話語基本來源于表現(xiàn)主義以及象征、意象、超現(xiàn)實主義這兩條語言線索。就此而言，無論世界還是中國當(dāng)代藝術(shù)，此類作品可謂汗牛充棟。中國此類作品大多在語言上趨向“緊梆梆”的感覺，這一特點在國際當(dāng)代繪畫中，可以說使人望而即知這是中國人的作品，我想一是由于中國藝術(shù)家過多地受到寫實主義訓(xùn)練的束縛，且寫實主義總體上又不完善，欲罷不能，所以放不開。其二最重要的原因還是人們普遍上的精神壓抑，造成了總體語言上的緊張感，而鄧箭今的作品尤其緊。當(dāng)然，這僅僅局限在繪畫的范圍里，擴(kuò)大到整個世界當(dāng)代藝術(shù)的范圍，中國此類作品就顯得過于依賴傳統(tǒng)尤其寫實主義的傳統(tǒng)語言結(jié)構(gòu)，而在語言上缺乏更多的創(chuàng)造性。在當(dāng)代文化的全球化的過程中，幾乎找不到與世界當(dāng)代藝術(shù)無緣的地域當(dāng)代藝術(shù)，除非不是當(dāng)代藝術(shù)，因此，當(dāng)代藝術(shù)的地域特征的創(chuàng)造，一方面需要在地域情境中找到一種文化針對性，一方面又必須在整個藝術(shù)史的語境中找它的創(chuàng)造性的位置。
1997年
Indissoluble Knot--- Deng Jianjin’s Works and Others
By Li Xianting
“Indissoluble Knot” is the title I prepare to use for one exhibition, intending to summarize a discourse phenomenon in contemporary art, that is the wart-like knot shape emerging in varying degrees in the expressions of the artists regardless of their paintings are about people or other stuffs. The comparatively famous ones such as Tianjin based artist Cai Jin, Anhui based artist Chen Yufei, Sichuan based artist He Sen and Zhao Nengzhi, and so on, and Guangdong based artist Deng Jianjin this article will describe.
“Knot” as a noun of object is often used to describe the undissolvable and pent-up emotion. Early in Wei and Jin dynasties, the dark of society made the intellectuals’ hearts full of pain, therefore the words like “a block in chest” often appear in their poems. “Block” is “knot”. The well-known poet, Su Dongpo once metaphorizes the knot in his heart by “tree node”. “Knot” in the popular Chinese means “lump (GeDa)”. In spoken language, it is frequent to say that we have lumps (GeDa) in hearts. Block, knot, and lump are the words describing objects but also the words describing the inner feelings. This is a character about metaphor in Chinese and Chinese art. In fact, the “knot’ in English also has the understanding of “Knots in the mind”. It seems that there are many common characteristics for people’s use of language to express feelings. Perhaps the theory of “imitation” in the western aesthetics is too strong. In the art before the twentieth century, we seldom see the works of metaphor in Chinese definition.
In Deng Jianjin’s self-portrait period, the touch of “knot” has emerged. His works since 1996, especially Adolescent, Taste, The Love Song of Dream, Breathing and some other works in the same period, have the key factors through the brushes showing the knot-like shape. Naturally, the primary factor of Deng Jianjin’s works is “what he painted”, in which the activities of the figures about the sexual desire are obvious. These activities are direct. For example, the activities of stretching tongue in A Piece of Afterglow, Breathing, Evanescent Landscape in A Flash, The Love Song of Dream, the activities of closing eyes, opening mouth and slightly vibrating nose in Taste, the activity similar to masturbation in Adolescent No.2, etc. However, these activities didn’t directly express sex, but express sexual desire or express the inside oppression by sex, because all of these activities are of single person’s private movement. Even in the picture with two persons, it’s also a kind of inaccessible depression. The background of the activities is the second “factor” of the discourse of Deng Jianjin’s paintings, such as a crowd of heads above the surface like hypoxic fish in the background of Breathing. Here the work is transformed to be a discourse of image, metaphorizing the feeling of oppression by the crowded and hypoxia. Most of the others works also adopt this method. The background of Evanescent Landscape in A Flash with aircraft and lumps of cloud might metaphorize the feeling of being separated with his wife. The third discourse factor in Deng Jianjin’s works is “how to paint”. Back to the focus of this article—knot of brushwork, this is the most irreplaceable factor in the modeling language. Deng paints most of the images in the form of knots. It’s just because knot has a synaesthesia with pent-up emotion, then the painter can express the inside knots by the image of lumps. The Chinese traditional literati paintings always use this method, which benefits from the precocity of the aesthetics of calligraphy. The ancient literatures have more records, such as Ni Zan’s little pen and his solitary mind and Shi Lu’s brushwork of lumps and the plums in his later years. Of course, color is also a kind of discourse. Deng often uses strong colors, and uses them in a raw, vigorous and scorched way. In particular, he uses the “scorched” colors taboo for others in common sense, lack of moist and transparency. For example, the scorched red, green and yellow always give audiences a feeling of nausea. However, so far he can express indescribable the pent-parched and thirsty desire. The scorched color and the burned psychology here is also a synaesthesia. This feeling was entangling in the painter’s heart for a long time, becoming a indissoluble knot and being expressed through certain activities, backgrounds, brushwork and color.
In Deng Jianjin’s recent works, Taste is quite special. It is about the emotion of experiencing sex--- closing eyes, opening mouth and slightly vibrating nose. The color is totally different with the scorched color usually use but turn into the soft and warm grey. What special is the brushwork: heavily using oil, and the more fluent brushwork than usual make the screen has a liquid-like sense of flow. The figures here are beyond realism and become the image of sex that the painter has. The key inside is that the painter takes the making process as the process of his own experience, and then the knot in heart is dissolved in this experience. The knot of brushwork is thus dissolved as peristaltic liquid which is sticky and wet.
The above is just reading not judgment. Judgment is putting the work in certain context to find its significance. When sexual repression becomes the common sense of people in a certain environment, it also becomes a cultural context. The expression of personal feeling the artist has therefore gains a sort of contemporary consensus. In so far the discourse of Deng’s works has certain contemporary meaning. However, his works are a bit monotonous, because behind the sexual repression of human being, there should be more complicated and rich sense of survival. Second, art nature is language, so it is necessary to put the works waiting for evaluation into the whole art context to measure its creative quantity contained. Deng’s discourse basically comes from the two language clues: expressionism and surrealism of symbol and imagery. In this way, there is a large amount of works in either world art or Chinese contemporary art. The Chinese works of this kind mainly tend to the “strenuous” sense, which directly features Chinese arts in the international contemporary art. I think it’s because the Chinese artists gained too many shackles from the training of realism and realism is not perfect in general. They cannot help doing realism, so they cannot free themselves. The second most important reason is that the generally spiritual depression causes an overall sense of tension on language. Deng Jianjin’s work is especially tense. Of course, this is only limited to the scope of painting. Expanding to the worldwide contemporary art, the Chinese works of this kind seem too dependent on the traditional linguistic structure of realism and short of creativity on language. In the process of globalization of contemporary culture, it almost hard to find local contemporary art unless it’s not contemporary art. Therefore, on one hand, the geographical features of contemporary art needs to find a cultural focus in the geographical context, on the hand it has to find its location of creativity in the whole context of art history.
1997
鄧箭今：對欲望“頂禮膜拜”
文/賈方舟
鄧箭今的作品既然帶著經(jīng)驗記憶的自述性質(zhì)，他就不能不面對一個真實的“自我”。而這個真實的“自我”又常常在自然人性與文化理性的沖突中發(fā)生偏離。在人與人之間，男性與女性之間無法溝通的心靈地帶，阻隔了欲望，卻滋生了暴力。“一切暴力都起源于性”，這個處于無奈與焦慮中的真實“自我”，終于在夢游中手持槍械，走向凌虐、施暴與犯罪的“黑色幻想”之中（見《有關(guān)目擊者的夢游記錄》系列作品）。這種優(yōu)雅而又迷離的幻覺使鄧箭今在尋求生命存在的價值和意義時，對自我發(fā)生了懷疑。而作為一個有血有肉的男人，正是導(dǎo)致這一精神危機(jī)的根源。“男人”，這個與生俱來、不可更改的性別身份，如他所說，它的“強制性、侵略性”，“總讓人處在終極、被動的迷茫之中”。
2000年
Deng Jianjin: Pay Homage to Desire
By Jia Fangzhou
Since Deng Jianjin’s works have the nature of readme of experience and memory, he has to face a real “self”. However, the real “selfness” often departures because of the conflict between human nature and cultural rationality. The desire is blocked and the violence is bred between people and people in the spiritual zone where men and women cannot communicate. “All violence originates from sex”. The real “selfness” in helplessness and anxiety finally held firearms sleepwalking to the “dark fantasy” with abuse, violence and crime. (See the series of The Sleepwalking Records About Witness). The elegant and magic illusion makes Deng Jianjin to doubt himself when he is looking for the value and significance of life. The spiritual crisis originates in being as a flesh man. “Men,” the birthright and unchangeable gender identity, as he said, its “mandatory and aggressive quality” “always leaves people in the ultimate and passive confusion.”
2000
| 鄧箭今 |
