群英荟萃
——序《光芒十射》十人中国当代艺术展

杨卫

我用“光芒十射”来命名这个展览，是取了光芒四射的谐音。光芒四射的原意是指强烈的光线射向四面八方，我改四射而十射，是因为参加这个展览的艺术家恰好为十（有一组为两人合作）。中国人喜欢说十全十美，十射便是寄托了十全十美的祝愿。同时，十射的另一层意思是表明了这个展览的多元状态，参加此展的十位（组）艺术家有十种不同的表达方式，可谓“一人一世界，一花一天堂”。通常情况下，就主题性展览而言，大都是寻找艺术家之间的相似性，以此来构成一个共时性话题。而这个展览却恰恰相反，是以各不相同组成群展的格局，尽最大可能来展现艺术家的个人成就与创作地位。这种水果拼盘式的安排，当然与杨艺术中心的掌门人杨小姐不拘一格的开放思维有关。即作为中国当代艺术的推广者，杨小姐极希望能够向世人展示中国当代艺术的丰富性。事实上，中国当代艺术在近几年已发生了一些明显变化，首先是意识形态的削弱，中国当代艺术不再是以表达某种不同的意识形态来取悦于西方了，而是回到自身的文化语境，成了一种日常性的人文叙事。正是因为日常生活的丰富性，构成了今天中国当代艺术的多元生态，使其呈现出了“横看成岭侧成峰，远近高低各不同”的千态万姿。此展即是为了呈现这种远近高低各不同的丰富性，尽管参展的艺术家不多，但他们都颇具代表性，组合在一起几乎可以涵盖近三十年中国当代艺术的发展历史。岳敏君是中国当代艺术的标志性人物，其创作的笑脸符号早已响誉艺坛，为大家所熟知。此次展览岳敏君没有继续他的笑脸形象，只是取其戏谑的语言方式，开始尝试一种新的现成品装置。他从市面上找来无数马桶刷，将其组合成形，取名《亲近杜尚》，在解构艺术史神话的同时，也将艺术还原到了人的日常生活之中；王川是中国当代艺术界的老布尔斯维克，早年曾介入“乡土绘画”，为中国新艺术的肇始者之一。“85新潮”之后，王川彻底走出具象绘画的束缚，开始尝试抽象艺术，并由此获得了现代性的启迪。此次展览展出了王川的最新成果，从中我们可以看到一个艺术家对现实超越的心路历程；刘虹是王川的同学，也是中

国女性艺术的代表人物，早年的作品倾向于自我身体，带有强烈的自证意识。后期作品开始转向外部世界，但仍以女性的生存命运为主，透着深刻的文化自省；潘德海为“85新潮”的主将之一，曾以《掰开的苞米》系列闻名于世，后将其语言方式从《掰开的苞米》系列中提取出来，转入现实社会，由抽象而具象，演绎出了一种新的人类景观；陈文令是中国当代艺术界将现代雕塑推向当代雕塑的关键人物之一，其作品涉及到人的各种生存处境，通过夸张手法的运用，将荒诞不经的内涵带入我们的生存现实，也使我们感受到了存在的忐忑与困境；何汶诀为“70后”艺术家的代表，过去的作品以水中游泳的人物为主，表现了人在当今物质条件下沉浮不定的焦虑，后来的作品转入记忆的发现，通过对老电影的挖掘，不仅将自己的艺术语言引向了历史深处，也使整整一代人找到了自我成长的证据；武明中是中国当代艺术界近年来杀出的一匹黑马，其独特性就在于他创造了一种带有玻璃质感的语言方式，通过这种语言方式对今天这个存在世界的投射，使我们深深地感觉到了易碎的危机；于凡是中国当代艺术界的独行侠，长期一个人默默地探索物态的变化，尤其是将中国古老的旧式家具加以新材料的改装，不仅激活了传统的审美内涵，也给当代人的视觉心理植入了一种优雅的古韵；陈卓和黄可一为一个艺术组合，近年来他们共同合作，创作了不少大型的观念摄影，其气势之宏伟，物象之丰富，都能够让我们感觉到陈卓和黄可一的创造雄心与文化气魄；冯峰是中国当代艺术界的“守旧派”，其作品深深扎根于中国的历史文脉，带有强烈的“中式意识”……可以看出，这十位（组）艺术家的作品，均代表了中国当代艺术的不同类型。我以“光芒十射”来命名这个展览，不仅是因为他们的类型不同，更重要的还是他们的代表性。正是基于他们在中国当代艺术界的代表性，我喻之以光芒，应该说并不为过。

是为序。

2011.6.1于通州

Gathering of Heroes
——prefacing ‘Splendor’Ten Peoples Contemporary Art Exhibition.
YANG WEI
       
I use splendiferous as title of this exhibition as the word shows the interplay between its original meaning and its figurative significance.

From origin of the word we find it signifying ‘containing or carrying dazzling brightness’ and gradually it becomes to mean full of splendor, this is definitely not a word you may often encounter in everyday life, yet I find it most precisely designate the spirit of our exhibition. We exhibit works of ten artists; as ten in Chinese is a number standing for comprehensiveness we hope the audience will find this comprehensive character as ten artists will carry their splendor to you. The other significance of splendiferous is the brilliance ‘contained’ in each artist, each of the ten artists shows in their works their unique style, just like a poem says ‘one man, the world he lives in, one flower, the heaven it blossoms’.

Usually, exhibitions of a subject matter emphasize similarities among artists so that one can tell the subject matter from works of those several similar artists; this exhibition is to the contrary, the subject matter is constituted by differences among those artists, so that each individual artist shows his own style and creativity. This hodgepodge layout certainly bears on the open mind of the chief of gallery Yang. As promoter of Chinese contemporary art, Miss Yang endeavours at showing the multitude the resourcefulness of it. In fact, Chinese contemporary art has in recent years changed drastically, firstly, on slimming down of form of consciousness; Chinese contemporary art no longs flatters the west by expressing a different kind of form of consciousness, but is going back to its proper cultural context and becoming a kind of humanistic narrative of everyday life. The abundant possibilities of everyday life cultivate the richness of Chinese contemporary art and the latter displays the complex characteristic that are constantly changing under different perspective of  readings from the audience. This exhibition tries to show such a diversity, though there are only ten participated artists, they are all exemplars, combined together they cover almost the thirty years of the history of Chinese contemporary art.

 Yue Min Jun is an icon of Chinese contemporary art, the celebrated symbol smile that he created has long been held in esteem. This time Yue is not continuing his logo smile but adopt only its burlesque approach to show a new ready-made instrument. He bought innumerable toilet scrubbing brushes and put a form to place them, entitling this work “making acquaintance with Marcel Duchamp”, in deconstructing legend in art history he is also restoring art to everyday life of the folks.

Wang Chuang is the good old Bolsheviks of Chinese contemporary art, he engaged in ‘soiled in country painting’ in his early days and became the pioneer of Chinese new art. After ’85 new mode’ Wang got completely rid of painting the concrete and started to try to draw the abstract and was inspired by this experience of modernity.  Wang shows his newest works in this exhibition and we can follow steps after the artist in it of his life-experience of transcending the realism.

Liu Hong was classmate of Wang Chuan in college as well as representative of Chinese female art, her early works tend to the body in first person perspective and was strongly swayed by the will to affirm the self. Her newer works turn to the outside world but still take as the subject the fate of women, with profound cultural self-examination.

Pan De Hai, a key person in ’85 new mode’, had set his fame by “corns pulled apart” series. Later he extracted his visual language style from this series and applied it to the society, from concept to the concrete, developed a new vista of human beings.

Chen Wen Ling is one of key people who bring Chinese artists from modern sculpture to contemporary sculpture. His works refer to all situations a man faces, employing exaggeration, he brings back the ridiculous to the world we live in and force us to confront embarrassments and angst of our existences.

He Wen Ju is the representative of the ‘born after the seventies’ artists, his drew at first people swimming, expressing anxieties that people experience under contingencies of material conditions, later his turns to discovery of remembrance, through depicting scenes relevant to old films, he not only leads his art language to the hidden history but also

found witnesses of coming of age for the whole generation that he is a member.

Wu Ming Zhong is a serendipity that Chinese contemporary art world has just received recently. His singularity consists in his creating an art expressive method fabricated of glass, through this means he projects in his glacial world our world and remind us of the fragility of our situations.

Yu Fan is a Don Quixote among Chinese contemporary artists. He concentrates over years on mutations of mode of things, this is most eminent in his refashioning ancient Chinese furniture employing new fabrications, which not only stimulate traditional aesthetic value, but endow also to the moderns a touch of the gentleness of classical age.

Chen Zhuo and Huang Ke Yi is a team of artists. In the last several years they have cooperated to create several large scale concept photograph, the grandeur of its force and abundance of its images have both moved us to appreciate the team’s ambition of creativity and bold cultural vision.

Feng Feng is a ‘conservative’ among Chinese artists, his works root deeply in the historical context of China, carrying itself with ‘Chinese spirit’.

……..it can be seen that works of the ten artists all stand for different types in contemporary Chinese art. I entitle the exhibition ‘splendiferous’ not only for the difference of their types, more importantly are their being exemplars. It is not inappropriate, based on their being representative of Chinese contemporary art, that I call their splendor.
So be the preface.

At Tong Zhou June 1st, 2011