北京前波画廊于9月18日推出《3,720：王天德近作展》。身为上海复旦大学艺术设计系的主任兼教授，王天德近期从中国美术学院获得书法博士学位。他最为知名的艺术创作方法结合了中国传统水墨与烟烫痕迹。而在其北京的首次个展中，王天德则将艺术创作与其近期在文学方面的兴趣相结合。2009年3月，王天德在堪萨斯大学应邀作访问艺术家时，经常一个人从住所走到斯宾塞美术馆。在来回的路上，经常看到人们以不同的速度锻炼、慢跑和散步，于是便萌发了创作小说的念头，而该小说也最终成为此次《3,720》展览的主题。

小说的主人公林外每天下班后都会从家中散步至附近的一个公园。一次，他偶然算出那天散步总共走的步数是3,720步。之后他每次散步都尝试去走同样的步数，但是没有一次是成功的，因为总是有各种各样意想不到的事件发生。故事呈现了日常生活的不确定性，尽管表面看来，生活总是在不停重复着一些事情，但却常常因一些无法预见的事件而有所变化。小说中，林外从一名国有出版社的记者转行成为一个自由的职业摄影师。从林外的故事中，可以窥视当下数百万中国人的生活，他们经历了从社会主义到以市场为导向的经济社会的巨大变化。

此次展览的其中一个展厅展出了王天德为该小说创作的一系列水墨作品。展厅被布置成为一间阅览室，内设有沙发和椅子，参观者可以随意坐下、阅读小说、并欣赏他的作品。另外的一个展厅内会展出王天德近期创作的其标志性的山水作品。

3,720:Recent Works by Wang Tiande
September 18 – October 23, 2010

Chambers Fine Art Beijing is pleased to announce the opening of 3,720: Recent Works by Wang Tiande.

Chambers Fine Art Beijing will open Wang Tiande’s solo exhibition 3,720: Recent Works by Wang Tiande on September 18. Wang Tiande recently received his Ph.D. in calligraphy from the renowned China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, and holds the position of Dean and Professor at the Art and Design Department in Fudan University, Shanghai. Wang Tiande is best known for his art creations that incorporate traditional Chinese ink and brush and cigarette-burn marks, but for his first solo show in Beijing Wang he incorporates materials related to his recent interest in literature. In March 2009 Wang was visiting artist at the University of Kansas and often walked back and forth to the Spencer Museum of Art. Observing people exercising, jogging and walking at different speeds, he envisioned writing a novel which eventually became the subject of the present exhibition he titled 3,720.

In the novel, the main character Lin Wai takes a walk every night after work from his home to a nearby park. One day he counts the number of steps he takes during the walk and discovers that the number is 3,720. From that day on he tries to repeat the number every time he takes the walk but as a result of all kinds of unexpected distractions and incidents never achieves the same number again. The story comments on the uncertainty of an ordinary life, which on its surface consists of repetitive actions but is always subject to unexpected diversions. During the course of the novel, Lin Wai’s career changes from a journalist at a state-owned publishing house to an entrepreneur of a photo studio. The story of Lin Wai can be read as a distillation of the lives of millions of Chinese citizens, whose lives went through dramatic changes when the country abandoned socialism as it turned towards a market-oriented economy.

For one of the galleries in the Beijing exhibition Wang Tiande has created a series of ink drawings and sketches to accompany and illustrate the novel. The gallery is set up as a reading room with sofas and chairs, where visitors are encouraged to sit down, read the novel, and enjoy his artwork. In the other gallery recent examples of his signature landscapes will also be exhibited.

以下后记源自艺术家王天德新作小说《3720步》，此次在前波画廊展览的系列作品也是该小说的一个延伸。

后 记

2009年4月，我应美国堪萨斯大学斯宾塞美术馆的邀请，做访问艺术家的时候，常常是一个人从住地走到美术馆。在来回的山坡上，经常看到锻炼的跑步和走路的人群。这时就设想能否以小说和文献背景资料所形成的方案、插图、以及《数码》系列以及视频的作品做一个展览。
由于去年下半年到今年5月一直忙于博士论文，也就把这个设想拖到现在。前波画廊与我合作有7、8年了，Chris一直希望我能在今年画廊10周年的时候做一个展览，这对我来讲时间上造成了很大的压力。

用文学的写作方式，与视觉图像的结合一直是我多年思考的一个核心主题。小说的主人公林外所演绎出的各种生活方式和故事情节以一种虚拟的状态出现。只是想告诉人们，在上世纪末到21世纪初，人们在择业的价值观上形成了一种新的个人判断力。在情感上，又被网络社会的虚拟交流方式得以释放与认同。《3720》是以小说、文献方案、水墨作品、以及视频的方式，综合的体现了当下人们对于虚拟与真实社会形态中数据的不确定性。

小说共分11章节，第四章节《走一步》、第五章节《算一步》作为一个开头，而不是结尾，在以后的每一次展览和写作中，将根据故事情节的转换，从左右两个方向展开，每次展开，都以一个展览的方式综合体现。

今年的夏天，上海最高温度达到40度以上。有一天，驾车行驶在沪闵高架上，汽车的仪表盘显示出 43.3度，能真实地感受到窗外的温度。8月，整整一个月每天都在工作室度过，每天都会慢慢地去寻找感觉，通常都是在下午5点到10点左右才会产生这些故事的虚拟情景。在前期的写作过程中，完全被故事的情节处于一种虚拟与真实的状态。而后期的修改工作更是让小说的故事转换与形式的确定，倾注了不少心血。

《3720》是我个人艺术创作背景中又一次新的艺术语言的尝试，通过文字与视频的交互形态来反映当下人的生活方式，以后不知道会走到哪一步。小说的情节转换和视觉样式就如“走一步，算一步”的自然形态，在未来与大家分享。

2010年8月31日于上海

The following text is the postscript from artist Wang Tiande’s newly published short novel entitled 3720. This short novel is the point of departure for his series of new works at shown at Chambers Fine Art.

Postscript

In March of 2009, while I was a visiting artist at the University of Kansas, I often walked back and forth from my house to the Spencer Museum of Art. On the way there, I saw many people exercising, jogging or walking on the hilly path. From that point on I envisioned writing a novel and supplying background material for a scheme, illustrations, and digital series and video work for exhibition.

From the second half of last year up until this past May, I have been busy completing my PhD. dissertation, and thus have postponed all other work. Chambers Fine Art and I have worked together for the past seven or eight years, and Chris had always hoped that I could provide an exhibit during their 10th anniversary year. To me, the timing created a lot of pressure.

The combination of text and image has long been one of the core themes in my work. The background and personality of the main character Lin Wai arose from a virtual state. At the dawning of the 21st century, society’s new career values create a new individual commentary while the Internet’s methods of virtual communication have permanently altered the landscape of emotional understanding and liberation. 3,720 is a novel, literature program, work in ink, and video that embodies the individual’s perceptions of both real and virtual society in a time of uncertainty.

The novel is divided into eleven chapters, with the fourth chapter “Take A Step” and fifth, “Count A Step” serving as the beginning. In all future installations of the exhibition and readings of the text, according to the changes in the story, the exhibition may be viewed from either the left or right, but must be installed in the same fashion each time.

This summer in Shanghai, the temperature regularly exceeded 40 degrees Celsius. One day, while driving on the elevated highway, the instrument panel of my car registered the outside temperature as 43.3 degrees Celsius and I could truly feel the heat outside my window. I spent the entire month of August in my studio, slowly finding the feeling, and it was often evening before the ideas for the story would come to me. In the early stages of writing, the most important element was the plot and its sense of the virtual and real. But during the revision process, I spent consideration effort shaping the story by form instead.

3,720 is my personal attempt to create a background for another new artistic vocabulary, one that reflects our way of life through the interaction between text and moving image, even though I do not know what the next step for this new language might be. The novel’s plot twists and visual style naturally follow the “Take a step, count a step” pattern, to share with you in the future…

Shanghai, August 2010