上苑艺术馆

程小蓓解读：

这些待宰的猪与王小冬的心灵联通起来了，发生着强烈的感同身受。一个优秀的艺术家面对世间万物，都用自己的身体去亲历，并敏感地将亲历中的信息处理在自己的艺术作品中。
画面中的猪，它们成为了有情感，有思想的生灵，它们面对自己的命运，往远说，如二战时的犹太人，有着无奈，抗争，飞翔的灵魂……。往近说，也可以影射当下社会生存环境。
由于王小冬毕竟就生活在当下。难道我们就比这些猪更能掌握自己的命运？我们哪一个不是待宰的羔羊？这幅画的创作时间正好是“雷洋案”事发期，不得不让我产生这样的联想。

Interpreted by Cheng Xiaobei:

These pigs waiting to be slaughtered are connected to Wang Xiaodong’s heart, making him strongly sympathizing with them. A good artist should experience the world with his own physical being, absorb the information and integrate it into his works in a sensitive manner.

The pigs in the painting,started to become creatures with emotion and intelligence.They face their own fate, in a remote sense, like the Jews in the Second World War, helpless, trying to resist the oppression, and yet having flying souls.And when we look at our own lives, these pigs also reflect the contemporary social condition. After all, Wang Xiaodong livesin the present. Are we really having more control over our lives when comparing to these pigs? Aren’t we all just sheep waiting to enter the slaughter house? This painting was made during the period of the Death of Lei Yang, inevitably it invokes such a feeling among the audience.

王小冬的身上有着对生活的热情和乐观的心态，生活中随时能感受到他的幽默和睿智，但是从只言片语中，可以体会这些幽默和俏皮却是苦涩的,他的绘画作品仿佛是一个永远不醒的黑色梦魇，萦绕在你我的心头。他们那一代人，他们大多在大学时经历了理想主义的幻灭，来自西方的一系列哲学，美学，艺术的信息在八零年代中叶，涌入中国的大城市和大学校园。在经历了十年文革的浩劫，复苏的各个领域，都极力的在一种后理想主义的底色中，吸收外来的文化营养。在诗歌，绘画领域出现了一大批先行的创作群体，但是并不意味着现代性在这一时期得到一定的构建，在一种五四运动以来传承的情绪化的语境下，困惑地经历了理想主义最后的幻灭，但是市场地位在中国九零年代初的最后确立，在经济层面，中国社会在经济开放冲力的倒逼下进行着现代性不完整的构建。由于相关政治改革的滞后，和市场的过度激进，使得极度撕裂的社会转型期，出现了种种痛苦体验。我想这是王小冬作为一个艺术创作者之所以呈现出如此面貌的大背景和流变的环境因素。

王小冬早期的绘画实践体现了对历史事件及其影响的反思，虽然出生于六零年代末，对于文革的记忆是比较模糊的，但是在七零年代的末期，在他少年时代，生活的细节还是能够感受到文革作为一个历史事件对各个方面的影响，比如墙上留下的各种标语，父母单位里各种人事纠葛，都有着那个时代特有的模式和底色，报纸新闻上各种平反的新闻头条，也都会对王小冬产生了深刻的印象，甚至在课堂上，语文课本都有着五四式样的语言特点。可以说在王小冬少年时的那个时代依然能感受到那种强烈的文革气息，人与人之间那种充满权力对抗和分边站队的独特话语，还残存在一个正在接受外部信息的孩子周围的生活细节中。
所以我们就可以看到王小冬一系列的关于文革的绘画，里面有标志性人物的面孔的图像，无论是大人物，还是一些悲情的小人物都是那个时代最经典的个案和符号，而在画面的处理上，小冬以黑白的色调来突出那种沉重的历史问题，大尺幅的头像涂绘，包括适度的变形和玻璃裂隙的运用，都有着那个时代人们对于文革这个事件对每个家庭个体的细微的影响，我想这些图像是来自于小冬少年时代，甚至是更早的记忆。

自然而然，小冬关注的另一个重要的主题：意识形态相关的言语暴力和组织压力，国家机器对于个体的压迫与清除，所引起的一系列死亡事件。在小冬众生系列的绘画作品上，我们看到堆积如山的骷髅，使用流淌和穿插的笔触，表达出死亡的真切地实在感，我想这不仅仅是肉身的死亡，这里面隐含着作为八十年代下半叶经历过那场理想主义幻灭的青年人的集体记忆，堆积如山的骷髅眼睛的黑洞，昭示着一个巨大的空虚的时代的来临，在头骨组成的废墟上，荒诞的飞着天使，坐着在思考，假装思考，仅仅做一个思考动作的孩子，我想小冬是体会到了一种荒诞，他并没有参与到九十年代初那种政治波普的图式当代艺术运动中，作为一名特立独行的艺术实践者，他同样也经历了理想的幻灭，但是也醉心于生活的冒险。在人间的纷乱中，保持着敏感，和残余的理想底色。

进入上苑艺术馆之后，北京作为当代文化信息的集散地，艺术北京，草场地，黑桥，798的观看经验，无疑在方法论上给予了小冬新的启示，虽然在他《彼岸花》、《生灵》、《悲歌》、《诗人之死》中仍然有着过去的延续，和及其强烈的政治隐喻，有的甚至是明喻，但是我们可以看到他对于一种语境的解构，和图像多义性的努力，当然这对于他那个年龄群体的人来说，这是需要很大的勇气和决心的。这并不是说我们现在不需要政治底色浓重的表达，而是这个时代，我们需要更加多维度的触摸，现象的各个层面都要顾及，那种简单，图示化的表达，那种革命口号式的语言模型是我们要小心重蹈的陷阱。现代性的构建它并不是一个简单可以描述的过程。也并不是标准化的向前推进的演化，承认世界的多元，对经典模型进行质疑，同时保持一个稳定态的认知路径，在表达的呈现上始终处于开放的状态，我想这既是一个艺术家要有的状态，也是要对当代文化各个层面有所把握的必经之途。

在一些绘画实践，特别是最近的一些列作品中，我们可以看到，他对过去惯常语言转向的努力，更加明显，在《love》、《娃哈哈娃哈哈》、《西游》等作品中，出现了自觉地色彩运用，他有意的在强化作品中荒诞的意味，但是我们还是能从一些隐喻的层面，品味出他一贯的对一些政治敏感问题的关注，我想这是他自身的一个特点，不可能会有大的决绝的改变，但是我们应该看到他对于作品呈现多义性的努力。整体来说他的绘画实践逐渐的走向了一种自觉地探索，逐渐的跳脱出一种情绪和主题的表达，朝着更加切合自己肉身经验，和复杂社会实践体验的方向发展。

相比较他的绘画，他的影像和摄影作品，就具备了更加的敏感的肉体经验和开放的多义表达的特点，在他的上苑艺术馆日记式的记录《2016我在沙峪口流浪》中，他忠实于日常生活片断的呈现，偶尔看到的角落光影，经常光顾的理发店内景，村子里的小吃店招牌，艺术馆外墙的标语和涂鸦，这都是看似琐碎的时光定格，但是这正是小冬内心的经验折射，这批照片可以说具有了他绘画中不具有的那种模糊性和自身生发的新鲜感。

他的影像作品《锁》，通过开锁的过程的记录，呈现了一个事件，这个事件本身是日常生活中经常发生的，但是通过影像的方式记录下来，就有一个标本的意义，通过这个标本，可以反射出对于心理和社会学层面的多重视界。门作为私有的标的物，在通过非正常强力打开后，这本身有着对于社会契约和身体政治层面无常的隐喻，我想这是这段影像值得我们思考的G点，但是，唯一不足的影像的制作还是要进行技术上的强化，稍微粗糙的影像和音轨有了一丁点遮蔽的效果。

而在他的观念纸本和装置中，还是有着极强烈的寓言风格，在金色手纸和金蔬菜和你的好、你的错里，都有一种倾向于结果的目的性表达，这种目的性表达，在路径上似乎是有了开放的可能，但是其中蕴含的政治隐喻和语言反制都还是延续他早期绘画实践的思维定式，无论是通过对物涂金还是意念控制墨色，这其实还是注重结果和主体性的表达，在整体上看是闭合的路径。

王小冬既有着成长中形成的理想主义情结，也有着通常那代人稀缺的反思和解构的精神，他的绘画有着一定的延续的面貌，娴熟的绘画技巧平衡了略显直接的表达，而他丰富深刻的肉身与心灵的经验，又让他的作品成为了中国社会转型期经历各种阵痛见证的文本，从文革的图像记忆到对死亡的荒诞解构，以及对于语境权力的反制的运用，他在做着最艰难的努力和尝试。他的图片作品生猛鲜活，反映出他作为艺术家的敏感和细心，有着对于经验碎片收集的热情。他的装置影像和观念作品反应出他使用视觉语言参杂观念碎片的局限。整体来看，王小冬的艺术实践最值得关注的还是他启示录般的绘画，尤其是后期的作品值得我们驻足细品，他的作品为我们描述了生活中被掩盖的部分，为我们提供了一个完整的，富含营养，满满的负能量的文本，时刻提醒我们这个时代所面临的陷阱与困惑。

Wang Xiaodong lives a life of passion and optimistic attitude. In daily life, you can feel his sense of humor and wisdom anytime. However, from a few words, you can also appreciate that the humor is bitter and witty. His paintings are like a never wake-up nightmare haunting you and me. In their generation, most of them experienced the disillusionment of idealism at university. A series of information on philosophy, aesthetics and art from the West pour into major cities and college campuses of China in the mid-1980s. After ten-year catastrophe of the Cultural Revolution, all fields in recovery strongly absorbed cultural nutrition from foreign countries under the background of post-idealism. In poetry and painting appear a large number of antecedent creative groups. But this doesn’t mean the construction of modernity in this period. Under the emotional context inheriting from the May Fourth Movement, they experienced the final disillusionment of idealism. But upon the final establishment of market status in the beginning of 1990s, in economy, Chinese society is experiencing the incomplete construction of modernity under the force of economic liberalization. Because of the lag of related political reforms and the extremely radical market, various painful experiences appeared in the extremely tearing period of social transition. I think this is the overall background under which How Wang Xiao has shown to us as an artist and the environmental factor that caused his change.

Wang Xiaodong’s early painting practice shows his reflection on history events as well as their influence. Although he was born in the late 1960s and has a blurry memory on the Cultural Revolution, in the late 1970s in his youth, he still can feel from the details of life the influence of the Cultural Revolution as a historical event on all aspects of life. For example, various slogans left on the wall and personnel disputes in his parents’ work unit have an unique model and mark of that period. A lot of headline news about rehabilitation on newspaper also left a profound impression on him. Even on the Chinese textbook in the classroom, the language was infected with May Fourth style. As it were, in the generation of his youth, it was still easy to sense the strong influence of the Cultural Revolution. The unique utterance filled with power confrontation among people still remained in the life details of children who were receiving more and more information from outside world.

Therefore, we can find portrayals of iconic figures in a series of his paintings about the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is a somebody or a miserable nobody, all of them are the most classical symbols of that generation. As for the skill in representing the general appearance of his painting, he use black and white colors to highlight heavy historical problems. Head portraits of big size, using skill of moderate deformation and glass crevice, reflects the subtle influence of the Cultural Revolution on every member of a family in that generation. In my opinion, these portrayals originate from his youth or even earlier memories.

Another theme that Wang Xiaodong focuses on is a series of death incidents caused by ideology-related speech violence and organization pressure as well as oppression and elimination of country machine on individuals. From the Beings series of his painting works, we see skeletons piled up like a mountain, using fluid and penetrating style to express the vivid feeling on death. I think it is not only the death of body but also implies the collective memory of the disillusionment of realism of the youth in the later half century of 1980s. The black holes of those piled-up skeleton eyes indicate the coming of a era of huge empty. On the ruins of skeletons absurdly fly an angel, who is sitting there, pretending to be thinking but just posing a though action. I think Wang sensed the absurdity. He didn’t take part in the movement of contemporary Politics POP arts in the 1990s. As a maverick of art practitioners, he also experienced the ideal disillusionment but is still obsessed with the life adventure. In the world of chaos, he still keeps his sensitivity and his last ideal.

After he moved into Shangyuan Art Museum, Beijing as the gathering place of contemporary cultural information, the visual experience of Art Beijing, Caochangdi Workstation, Black Bridge and 798 undoubtedly gave him new enlightenment from methodology. Although from his works Equinox Flower, Lives, Sad Melody and the Death of Poet, we still can find the continuity of the past and strong political metaphors or even simile, we also see his destruction of context and efforts on image ambiguity. Of course, for the group of people of his age, that needs courage and determination. It doesn’t mean that we don’t need expression with heavy political color. Instead, it means we need touch from more dimensions and give consideration to all aspects. Those simple graphical expressions and revolution slogan model of language are traps we should avoid carefully. The construction of modernity is neither a process that can be easily described nor evolution that moves forward according to standard. Admitting the diversification of this world, remaining skeptical to classical models, keeping a steady recognition route and holding an open attitude toward the presentation of expression are psychological states an artist should have and also the only way to grasp contemporary culture from all kinds of aspects.

In some painting practice, especially in some recent series of work, we can see his effort on transformation of past usual language. Obviously, he consciously used colors to strengthen the absurdity in his works like Love, Wahaha Wahaha and Journey to the West. However, we still can sense his usual concern on some sensitive political issues from some metaphors. I think it is his characteristic that is impossible to remove. But we should recognize his effort on the ambiguity his works present. All in all, his painting practice is gradually going towards kind of conscious exploration, escaping from expression of only mood and theme and developing towards more pertinent body experience and experience of more complicated social practice.

Compared with his paintings, his photography and video works have the characteristics of more sensitive body experience and open ambiguity expressions. In his dairy documentary made at Shangyuan Art Museum, 2016 I Roam Shayukou, he was very faithful to the presentation daily life. Occasionally seen shadow in a corner, internal design of a frequented hairdresser’s, signboard of a snack bar in the village and slogans and doodles on the outside wall of art gallery, all these seemingly trivial moments are experience reflection of his heart. These photos have the ambiguity that his paintings have not and the self-generating freshness.

His video work The Lock presents an event through the recording of the process of unlocking. This event itself is something often happening in our daily life. But recording through video, it has the meaning of a sample, which can reflect multiple sights of psychological and sociological fields. Door as a private subject, opened in a violent improper way, is a metaphor of the inconstancy of social contract and bodypolitics. In my point of view, this is the G point of the video which worth thinking. However, the only weakness is the manufacture of the video which needs to improve in techniques. A bit rough images and voice have sort of screening effect.

In his concept paper edition and device still has strong fable style. In images like golden toilet paper and golden vegetables as well as utterance like “your goodness” and “your fault”, you can find purposive expression inclined to the result. This kind of purposive expression seems to have the possibility of being open on the route. But the political metaphor and language countering imbedded continue the thinking model of his early painting practice. Whether through painting things in gold or though controlling color by mind, it is still expression that emphasizes on the result and subjectivity. On the whole, it is a closed route.

Wang Xiaodong has both the idealism complex that formed in his growth and the spirits of reflection and deformation that his generation lacks. His painting has certain continuity. Adept painting skills balance his slightly direct way of expression. And his rich and profound mental and physical experience makes his works the witness text of the paint caused by the social transformation. From the image memory of the Cultural Revolution to the absurdity deformation of death and the usage of countering of context rights, he is making the hardest effort and attempts. His image works, fresh and alive, mirror his sensitivity and thoughtfulness as an artist and his enthusiasm in the gathering of experience fragments. His device video and concept works reflects his limitation on the usage of visual language mixed with concept fragments. As a whole, the most notable part of his art practice is his apocalyptic painting. Especially, his later works are worthy of our stop to taste them. His works describe to us the covered part of life, provide us with a complete and nutritious text full of negative energy and always remind us of the traps and confusion of our generation.

Attend the seminar of the oil painting department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1998

Participated in Beijing Youth Oil Painting Exhibition, Associated Exhibition in 1995

Participated in the First Chinese Landscape Painting, Oil Painting Exhibition in 1997

Participated in the Exhibition of Contemporary Outstanding Young Oil Painter in 2001

Participated in the Exhibition of Beijing Resident Artists of Shangyuan Art Museum in 2016

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[现场] “黑夜给了我黑色的眼睛” 王小冬个展