《反应—生命—艺术》
郭海平

谈到“反应”，一般是指动物对内外刺激做出的一种回应，如果是人，通常也是针对人的神经和本能。至于艺术创作和欣赏，人们一般不会使用“反应”这个概念，因为大家都认为艺术是人深思熟虑的一种高级精神活动，用“反应”这个概念显然是对人和艺术的一种贬低。但我们却不这么认为，在我们看来，今天的人恰恰需要注重的是自己的自然属性，自然属性的丧失恰恰正是当代人面临的一个十分严峻的挑战，如对喜怒哀乐、春夏秋冬等生命表现反应的不再敏感等等，这或许是人的自然本能正在发生退化和变异。

身处在现实中，社会文化、知识取代了人的自然本能，结果使我们失去了与自己生命和自然的联系。我们之所以在这次展览中使用“反应”这个概念，就是希望强调人的本能和自然属性在艺术创作中的重要性。当然，这并不意味着是我们在这次展览中展示的作品就已经实现了向自己本性和本能的回归，或者说在此选择“反应”，至少可以表达我们的一种愿望和努力。

在具体的创作实践中，为了最大可能地唤醒自己的直觉和本能，我们会努力排除任何杂念的干扰，直到让自己进入到一种没有思想的“虚无”状态，只有这样，真实的生命需要才有可能实现真实的流露。一旦见到这种真实地流露，我们便会获得一种安慰，即使流露出来的形式常常是一种焦虑、挣扎、冷漠和空虚，但它们毕竟是属于自己真实的生命。

我们的作品，就是自己与自己生命、自然、社会联系的见证，在这个见证中，我们既感受到了自己的困境，同时也察觉到了一线光明。在这个困境和光明中，我们看到了自己生命的欲求，以及阻碍这些欲望实现的重重障碍。为此，我们不得不寻求超越，虽然在实现这种超越的过程中常常会感到异常艰难。我们在此选择“反应”，就是希望通过某种形式来激发生命的潜能，并通过这些潜能来抵御和超越那些阻碍生命自由生长的力量。

陈墙二十多年来沉浸在一个抽象的世界里不停地探索，他为什么如此迷恋属于他的那个抽象世界？在我看来，这都是为了证明他自己生命的存在，虽然这种存在最后只剩下了一种纯粹的视觉，但也正是这种纯粹视觉的表现，才让我们领略到了陈墙的一种坚持和不愿放弃。我曾对陈墙说：“你这些抽象形式是美丽的，但在这些美丽形式的背后隐藏的却是一种悲剧。”这既是陈墙的悲剧，也是上海的悲剧和现代文明社会的悲剧。

孙大量自大学毕业后就一直不能适应这个社会，最终他选择了一种“苦行”。为了保存自己，他逃到南京城外的一个孤岛上，一待就是八年。在岛上，每当夜晚降临，他说自己“就像一个孤魂野鬼”。他那些或大或小的作品也许正是那个孤魂野鬼出没留下的身影，异常的安静和诡异。他的画多数都是反反复复覆盖后的结果，也正是这种反反复复地覆盖，才使他的作品中隐藏了许多在他看来是不能让人知道的秘密。与其它艺术家意识清醒的表述相比，我更喜欢孙大量这种孤魂野鬼和那些精神病人们的作品，因为在这些作品中，我们找到了一个个看似陌生，但又的确属于我们自己不可分割的那个部分。

我对艺术的迷恋完全是因为艺术中的神秘力量，如果有一天，我不再觉得艺术神秘了，我也就不再需要艺术了。为什么会如此迷恋神秘？因为只有保持这种神秘感，似乎才能对自然始终保持着一种敬畏，这也许就是一种生命的归属感。我的创作主要是为了捕捉那些神秘力量的存在，一旦有所觉悟，我便会努力将它们呈现出来，每当捕捉到它们时，就会获得一种莫大的安慰。

生命是一种循环，文化也不能例外。我们相信，当一种文明进入到一种绝境时，唯一的出路也只能是循环了，这就是有与无、生与死、痛苦与快乐的循环。当然，这种循环常常会表现出它的残酷，但这一切又都是为了生命的继续，从这个意义上说残酷恰恰又是生命得以延续的一种必须，或者说，自然本来就无所谓残酷可言，我们在这里所说的残酷，其实也都是我们社会的生产和制造，若要消灭这个残酷，尊重自己的反应，也许这就是一种最好的选择。

2010-8-10

《Response—Life—Art》
By Guo Haiping

Response is usually definite as the animal’s reaction to a stimulus. For human, it is related to the nerve and instinctive of people. For art creation and appreciation, the word response is not used very often, because people may think art creation is the super activity of human which results from people’s careful consideration, and the adoption of response for describing the art creation is a discrimination to human and art. But I don’t think so. People today pay much more attention to our natural property. The lost of natural property has become a severe challenge for modern people. The slow response to various feelings of people and various climates of nature is a degeneration of human nature.

Now the social cultures and knowledge are replacing human nature, and people start to lose the link with the essence of life and nature. The reason why we use Response as the subject of the exhibition is that we shall emphasize the significance of human instinct and nature for art making. Of course, it doesn’t mean that our works for show has realized our dream of returning to nature, but at least the choice of Response as subject shows our desire and efforts for it.

To awake our instinct to a great extent when we are making art, we will try to remove all the interferences and enable ourselves to be into a state of emptiness. Only by this means can the true need of life be revealed, and we therefore have a comfort. What we express by art works are usually our anxiety, struggle, indifference, and emptiness, but they are part of our life.

Our works are the witness of our life, nature, and society. We can feel the dark of our plight and the light of our hope, through which we see our desires and the barriers for achieving those desires. We have to find a way out, despite the extreme difficulties. We choose the word Response as the subject of exhibition with the purpose of stimulating our potential to break through the barriers of stopping the growth of life.

For 20 years Chen Qian is working in an abstract world. Why is he so obsessed with his abstract world? In my point of view, what he is doing is to prove his existence which is reflected by his pure visional works. We can feel his persistence through his visional works. I once told Chen that the form of his abstract works was beautiful, but there seems to be a tragedy behind those beautiful forms. This tragedy is about Chen, and about Shanghai and modern society as well.

Sun Daliang fails to adapt to this society after his graduations from university. Finally he chose a way of life called “asceticism”. He escaped to an island far away from the downtown of Nanjing and stayed there for eight years. He said he looked like a ghost on island when night falls. His works might be the print of ghost, extremely quiet and weird. His works are made by repeatedly covering with colors, which may conceal many secrets. Comparing with the works of other artists, I prefer Sun’s works concerning ghost and mental patients. How can those art works sober-mindedly made arouse our interest in them?

My obsession with art is due to the mysterious strength in art. I may lose the interest in art if someday I think there is nothing mysterious any more in it. The sense for mystery often contributes to our respect for nature. For me, the purpose of making art is to catch those mysterious strengths, and then reveal them. I often felt a great comfort when I did.

Life is a circulation, and so is culture. We believe when some culture goes into a hopeless situation, the only way out is to circulate it. There are circulations between existence and disappearance, birth and death, pain and joy, which show something cruel. The circulation, however, is for the continuity of life, and in some sense, the cruelty is necessary for continuing life; or in other words, there is nothing cruel in the world. The word cruelty is created by us. To respect our natural response, perhaps, is the best choice for us to face our true life.

2010-8-10

参展艺术家：陈墙 孙大量 郭海平
展览日期：2010年9月4日——9月30日
开幕酒会：2010年9月4日 16:30
展览地址：圣菱画廊　上海市长宁区淮海西路570号A2-101

Exhibition Name：《Response》

Artist：Chen Qiang, Sun Daliang, Guo Haiping
Exhibition Dates：2010/9/4——2010/9/30
Opening Time：2010/9/4 pm.4:30
Address：Bldg A2-101, No.570 West Huaihai Rd, Changning District,Shanghai
Phone/Fax：021 5230 2981