Zi 字媒體

東方藝術·大家｜雙重現實——呂山川筆下的《事件》

2021/12/25

yidianzixun

雙重現實

呂山川筆下的《事件》

文／范迪安

呂山川所做的工作並非一種藝術考古學的研究，而是表達自己對於現實事件的反應。作為一個當代藝術家，他對「當代」的理解是藝術家的表達應該與現實有關，這實際上也是當代藝術最重要的特徵之一。生活在社會急劇變革中的藝術家都切身地感受著現實對於他們的作用與影響，他們處於全球與本土、自我與社會強烈互動的張力之中，由此內在地生髮起表達現實的願望，可以說，以「當代」—當下現實—為資源的藝術創造成為當代藝術最為引人入勝的文化特徵。但是，就呂山川而言，他對於現實的表達又是與眾不同的，他的藝術有魅力之處在於他的創作體現了自我與事件、語言與媒介、繪畫過程與行為這三個方面的統一，概而言之，他的藝術是事件、媒介和行為三位一體的結果。

2007.5.1 500X300cm

首先，進入呂山川的作品的事件都是「社會性」的或可謂之「大」的事件，包括政治、軍事、經濟、文化等方面，這些事件既有的內容，也有國際的內容。在2007年，它們是影響的大事，也幾乎是在世界範圍內產生影響的大事，這反映了處在全球化時代與世界密不可分的事實，也反映了一位藝術家的全球視野。這些「事件」首先作為「新聞」能動著呂山川的感覺，使他產生一種「再現」的衝動。對於他來說，重要的不僅僅是各種事物的「內容」而更是事件發生的「現場」，在那些「現場」之中，充滿著感人的氣氛和瀰漫開來的力量。這種「現場」令他興奮。作為畫家，他所要捕捉和再現的正是這種可以轉換為藝術形象與形式的「現場」，於是他把畫布當成了「現場」的容器，在描繪的過程中緊緊控制著氣氛與力量這兩個因素。也許他所畫的事實不完全與每一個觀者的生活經驗有關，但他作品中膨脹的「現場感」卻能在視覺上構成對人的衝擊，使人進入到事件之中，在那裡感受曾經發生的存在。在這個意義上，呂山川成功地實現了社會學內容向藝術性表達的轉換。

2007.8.21 400X250cm

在今天的日常生活中，報紙已經成了人們與外部世界溝通的重要媒介，在報紙這種媒介上的圖像也成為事件的代言人。呂山川緊緊抓住報紙這種媒介—這種與他的日常生活有關，也與他的藝術語言有關—就抓住了藝術表達的出發點，使他能夠建立起一種持續的藝術生活。只要新聞中有事件，就有報紙的傳播，也就有了他作畫的契機。通過報紙這個媒介，他意欲抒發的情感一方面有了通往畫布的橋樑，也使媒介本身成為他藝術中的「內容」。指明這一特點是重要的，在現實與媒介難以分離的今天，媒介本身成為一種真實的存在，這對於藝術家來說提供了創造的資源，現代以來無論中外的許多藝術家都以這種方式畫出了關於現實的圖像，只是呂山川在這種方式上更加徹底。只要看到報紙上傳播出重要的事件，無論白天還是黑夜，他馬上開始作畫，而且一氣呵成，直到完成。另一方面，他用了巨大的畫布將報紙的圖像放大，使圖像極為醒目地展現在眼前，就像真正進入事件發生的現場一樣，使作品的「新聞性」得到最大限度的肯定。由此可以說，呂山川以報紙這種「媒介」為藝術表現「媒介」的做法，刷新了媒介進入藝術的記錄。

2008.2.1 500X300cm

毫無疑問，呂山川是一位具有極高的繪畫感悟力和表現能力的畫家，在當代藝術整體形態走向綜合媒介運用的時代，他堅信繪畫這種最基本的藝術語言仍然具有表達當代主題的價值，但他同時也知道必須為繪畫注入新的生機，從而使繪畫具有足夠的與其他媒介形成視覺上抗衡的魅力，因此，他在運用繪畫語言進行藝術表達時融進了繪畫的觀念性表達。他的繪畫首先是「即興」的，真正做到有感而發，無感而歇;他的繪畫過程是充滿行為方式的，在圖繪中既用畫筆塑造，也用手塗顏料，使繪畫過程成為一個注入體能的過程，留下難以料測的形式痕迹;他通常將畫面的色調作「降調」處理，使畫面的色彩更加單純，突出了顏料物質性的力度;他規定自己在「新聞」還在「新」的時間段里完成作品，當天的事件當天畫完，觀念性地體現「事件」這個主題的時效性......所有這些，都構成了他的繪畫獨特的觀念與表現有機統一的風格，這是他對當代藝術的一種貢獻。

作品局部，攝影：郝科

Double Reality
Events in Lv Shanchuan』 s Painting

Fan Di'an

Lv Shanchuan』s works are not extensive research of contemporary art methodology, but expressions of his own reflections on certain social events. As a contemporary artist, he deems that artists』 expression should relate to the reality, and in fact this is also one of the most important characteristics of Chinese contemporary art. China has been undergoing periods of rapid modernisation and artists are inevitably influenced by the social reality experienced during their daily lives. They are affected by the robust tension and contradictory relationships between globalisation and localisation, between societies and individuality, which therefore intrinsically aspires the artists to present their notion of reality. Art that confesses this ideology then becomes one of the most fascinating identities of Chinese contemporary art. However, Lv Shanchuan』s expression on reality differs from the abovementioned approaches. Lv』s unique artistic style comes from realising the unification of individuality and social events, languages and the media, painting process and performances. As a result, Lv's art integrates social events, the media and performances into one.

2008.9.13 400X250cm

Firstly, Lv Shanchuan』s paintings use social or the so-called significant events involving politics, military, economics and cultural affairs that affect China or around the world as his subject matters. On one hand, these works imply that during the era of globalisation, China has an interwoven relationship with other countries in the world; on the other hand, these works indicate that Lv is a contemporary artist with a global perspective. These social events stir his emotions and compell him to re-represent them. For him, it is not only important to convey the underlying social issues, but also to present the actual 「scenes」 of where they happen. These 「scenes」 are filled with emotions and energy in a contagious manner, and these 「scenes」 excite him. As an artist, Lv needs to capture and re-represent these scenes which can be reinterpreted and integrated with his personalised artistic style. He turns the canvases into containers of the scenes, tightly controlling the atmosphere and energy within. It is possible that some events in his paintings bear no relationship with certain audiences' own experiences. Nevertheless, the accumulating sense of presence instilled in his works creates massive visual impacts, pulling viewers into the events to feel what actually happen there and then. In this respect, Lv successfully induces the transformation of contents within sociology into expressions in the artistic contexts.

作品局部，攝影：郝科

Nowadays, newspaper has become one of the most important media for communications with the outer world. News images have therefore become a symbolic manifestation of the events themselves. Lv Shanchuan utilises news relating to his daily life as references for his artistic language, and uses it as a starting point to build his artistic expression. So long as there are social issues in the news, newspaper will circulate and provide inspirations for Lv to create. Lv conveys his feelings onto the canvases by referencing to newspaper images he has seen, in which the media or news is visually transformed into a crucial content in his art. Remarkably, in today』s world where it becomes difficult to separate the reality and the media, media contributes to the existence of reality. It becomes a resource for artists as their source of creativity. Many artists in China and abroad use the media to create diversified imagery about the reality, and yet Lv Shanchuan does it all the more. As soon as he sees an important event in the news, regardless of whether it is day or night, Lv starts to paint immediately, not stopping until the work is completed. He deliberately magnifies the images onto his colossal canvases. The images are so glaring that viewers are deeply engaged as if they are drawn into the scenes, confronting the news aspect of the works in a multiplied manner. Lv uses newspaper as the media to artistically represent the media or news, refreshing the way for the media to enter into art.

世界廣場-上海 600x250cm 2009

Undoubtedly, Lv Shanchuan has an excellent talent for painting and artistic expression. While the trend in contemporary art nowadays is to shift towards the use of multimedia, Lv firmly believes that painting, being the most basic artistic language, still has the worthiness in representing contemporary topics. He strives to integrate new elements into paintings in order for them to compete with the visual appeal of the other media. Lv integrates conceptual expressions within his artistic languages. His paintings are spontaneous; he paints what he feels, and stops when his feelings subside. His painting process is performative; he paints both with brushes and with his bare hands smearing paint onto the canvases, injecting movements and physicality into the process, leaving traces of unpredictability. Lv also intentionally suppresses the tones of the works, making the colours appear simpler, thus in turn emphasising the materiality of the paint he uses. He sets to finish the paintings when the news is still new, often on the same day that it comes out, reflecting conceptually the timeliness of the subject matter of 「events」. All these constitute towards the uniqueness of his paintings in terms of concept as well as a unified, organic style, making these his contributions to the contemporary art domain.

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