“他者”逻辑下的“自我”认定

文/齐廷杰

 The “Self-identity”Under the Logic of “the Other”

By  Qi Tingjie

“他者”逻辑，对于目前的中国当代艺术而言，是一种摆脱了后殖民理论窠臼的语境预设，除了艺术家作为创作生命的个体，一切有可能影响到艺术家创作的外部环境的因素可统称为“他者”逻辑，它不再指涉具体的东方与西方、传统与当代、学院与在野的问题，也不如英国学者安东尼·吉斯登提出的那样，所谓现代性的独特之处在于全球化语境下的“扩张性”和个人失落带来的“私密性”之间日益增加的距离，而是作为研究当下中国当代艺术“在场性”、“合法性”以及“叙事逻辑”的线索之一，作为艺术家进行自我价值认定与判断的有效辅证，作为我们认知中国当代艺术呈现面貌与方法论转变的深层原因。

For the current Chinese contemporary art, “theother” logic is a kind of default context out of the stereotyped postcolonialtheory. In addition to the artist himself or herself as a creative individual,all the external factors may affect the creation of artist can be referred as “theother” logic. It is no longer specifically referred to the problem of east andwest, tradition and contemporary era and academy and opposition, nor themention of the British scholar Anthony Giddens that the uniqueness of modernismis based on the growing distance between the “expansion” of globalization andthe “privacy” of individual loss. Instead, “the other” logic is regarded as oneof the clues to study the “presence”, “legitimacy” and “narrative logic” ofChinese contemporary art, as the effective support for the artist to identifyand evaluate the self-value and as the underlying cause for us to recognize thechange of Chinese contemporary art’s presentation and methodology.

显而易见的是，当代艺术的叙事线索近年来发生着悄然的变化。从集体性的记忆空间到个人化的记忆碎片，从宏大叙事的关注、描绘到高度自我化的日常生活的视角转变，这种转变并不具有绝对意义上的非此及彼，不能说集体性的记忆空间就不具备个人化的生活、不具有内心的真实或者只对自我的日常生活关注就会完全忽略外部世界。只是说，作为被压抑的“他者”逻辑下的桎梏因素，我们尽量避免谈及，集体性的日常与个人化的日常，在某种程度上都具有表达艺术真实的一面。作为独立生命个体的存在，每个人都不免通过各种媒介与外部世界发生关系。从集体化的日常表述到私人化的日常表述，显示出当代艺术叙事方式的某种转变：从被动的、压抑的转向为一种更加主动的、自由的诉说的方式。 

Apparentlythe narrative clue of contemporary art has been quietly changing in recentyears. From the collective memory space to individual memory fragments, fromthe depiction and focus of grand narrative to the highly self-concerned dailylife, these changes don’t mean the absolute black or white. We cannot say thatthe collective memory doesn’t include the personal life and the inner truth oronly the focus on personal daily life will make us completely ignore theexternal world. Just to say, as the repressed shackle factors under “the other”logic, we try not to speak that the collective daily life and personal dailylife, to some extent, both have the part of expressing the real art. Existingas an independent individual, everyone cannot avoid the connection withexternal world through different medium. From the collective daily expressionto the personal daily expression shows a certain change of the narrative styleof contemporary art: from the passive and repressed narrative way to a moreactive and free one.

青年一代的绘画逻辑似乎与前辈有所出入，他们貌似对周遭的现实世界漠不关心，当然这种有意识的漠视并不意味着他们生活在真空中或者没有社会责任感，他们只是选择了一条更贴近生命体验、沉浸内心的叙事模式，这种微观叙事的模式与宏大叙事的模式都构成了当下中国当代艺术完整的样态。按照常规的观点，宏大叙事一般对应着社会的、历史的、人文变迁的元素，这点由诸多艺术家的图示语言可以看出，逆向推之，由图示语言的变化也可以推断他者逻辑的变换。假如说，“宏大叙事”是一种社会自上而下的对艺术创作的干预，那么，“内心自我”则是由里而外的对于创作模式、创作对象的自主选择。

Thepainting logic of the younger generation seems different from their predecessor’sand they seem indifferent to the surrounding real world. Of course this kind ofconscious disregard doesn’t mean they live in empty space nor have no socialresponsibility. They only select a narrative way closer to the life experienceand immersed to the heart. This microscopic narrative pattern constitutes thecomplete state of present Chinese contemporary art with the grand narrativepattern. According to the conventional view, the grand narrative generally hasthe social, historical and humanity elements, which can be seen from the imagelanguage of many artists. It can be reasoned reversely that the change of “theother” logic can be found from the change of image language. If we say the “grandnarrative” is a kind of social intervention to artistic creation from top tobottom and then the “inner self” is the independent selection to the creativepattern and object from inside to outside.

本次展览的七位参展艺术家，从表面看，每位艺术家切入问题的方式似乎都不一样：王家增以社会变迁、工业文明为切入点，描述了他作为经历过那个特殊年代的人对工业文明、工业社会的记忆以及带来的各种问题的批判与反思，图式语言具有生命的张力与历史的厚重感，个体的存在与社会的禁锢形成对比，拷问灵魂深处莫可名状的痛楚，这种感觉一直持续到最近的创作中；胡勤武放弃绘画在实际生活中的功能性，用理性的方式接近心灵的体悟，有意识的控制看似“无意义”的重复，他的作品，可以视为是反社会宏大叙事的一种“精神宏大叙事”，用虚无去对抗不断摧毁与重建循环往复的社会，无声胜有声；主玛于江阐释了对规则的理解，他对于日常生活中表面的规则持审慎的态度，一切人为的、表面的规则都具有其局限性，他试图通过对现实生活中规则的解构，建立起画面秩序上法则的伦理，它可以是冷冰冰的、非感性的，但是绝对含有人性的温度，这套法则来源于主玛于江的生活日常，经由艺术家的转换成为艺术日常，拒绝向现实社会妥协；蒋华君展示了一种荒诞的日常，从中可以感受到艺术家的敏感，他不再单纯以宏大叙事为创作逻辑，更多的是从个体生命的存在体验出发，将自我的情绪影射到画面上，以小喻大，略显病态的驱壳带有隐喻性，对个体的人文关怀代表追求自我的内心尝试；目前在法国工作学习的普拉提，对熟悉之物的陌生化处理是其艺术语言特征之一。他先选取欧洲古典主义建筑实景，然后将手掌置于观看对象的一隅，最后用相机记录下来，当底片成像，普拉提在手掌的部位进行再创作，或者画社会风景，或画自然风景，总之，机械的与人工的、熟悉的与陌生的交织在一起，形成了特殊的视觉效果；杨方伟的创作带有明显的80后叙事特征，即关注自我、关注内心，描述也多是碎片化、片段化，艺术成为一种追求内心、找寻自我的有效途径，以幽默、调侃、甚至有点梦幻的组合去肆无忌惮的、轻松的表述；王睿的作品，表达一种对自我的认知追寻以及价值观判断。他喜欢煞有介事的将一个存在个体置于看似很宏大的背景之上，比如沙漠、比如海洋，然后又植入了一些动物的元素、卡通的元素，这种混搭的形式让王睿的绘画看上去似乎是冷眼旁观，他只执着于自己的内心对周围的一切进行价值观判断。

Superficially the seven artists of thisexhibition seem have different problem-penetrating methods. With the socialchange and industrial civilization as the point cut, Wang Jiazeng describes hismemory about the industrial civilization and industrial society as well as his criticismand reflection about the problems it brought as a person experienced thatparticular age. The image language has the tension of life and the heaviness ofhistory, the existence of individual contrasts with the social detention andthe soul seems to be questioned about the inexplicable pain deep inside. Allthese are continued to his recent works. Hu Qinwu gives up the function ofpainting in real life, uses the rational way to approach the inner perceptionand consciously controls the seemingly “meaningless” repetition. His works canbe regarded as a kind of “spiritual grand narrative” against the social grandnarrative. To confront the constantly destructed and reconstructed cycle ofsociety with the emptiness is as silence speaks better than sounds. ZhumaYujiang explains his understanding of rules. He holds the cautious attitude tothe superficial rules in daily life and he thinks all the artificial andsuperficial rules have their limitation. He tries to deconstruct the rules inreal life and establishes the rule ethic above the image order. It can be coldand unemotional but definitely containing the humanity temperature. This rulesystem comes from the daily life of Zhuma Yujiang and is transformed by theartist to the artistic daily life, refusing to compromise with the realsociety. Jiang Huajun presents a kind of absurd daily life, from which we canfeel the sensitiveness of artist. He no longer simply uses the grand narrativeas the creation logic and more reflects his own emotion on the painting fromthe existing experience of individual life, trying to compare the big to the small.The seemingly sick body with metaphor and the humanistic care to individualsare the symbols of the inner attempt of self-pursuit. Pulati now is working andstudying in France. The unfamiliarity process to familiar things is one of hisartistic language features. He first selects the European Neoclassicalbuildings as the real background, then places his palm in the corner of hisviewing object and finally records the image with the camera. When the negativecomes out, Pulati conducts the recreation on the palm, painting the socialscenery or the natural scenery. In a word, those mechanical and artificial,familiar and unfamiliar things are combined together to form the special visualperformance. The works of Yang Fangwei obviously carry the narrative feature ofthe post-80s generation, namely self-concern, heart-concern and mostlyfragmented description. Art becomes an efficient way to pursuit the heart andknow himself. He uses the humor, ridicule and even the combination in dream towildly and relaxingly express. The works of Wang Rui express the pursuit toself-recognition and the judgment to value. He likes to seemingly seriouslyplace an existing individual on the seemingly grand background, such as desertand ocean, and then implants some elements of animal and cartoon. This kind ofmix and match makes Wang Rui’s paintings look like silent and indifferent andhe only persists on the value judgment to everything around from his heart.

所以，“他者”逻辑下的“自我”认定，并不是强调真实的自我、内心感受会超越或者推翻以往宏大叙事的线索，或者转向自我的当代艺术会失去它原有的锐度以及批判性。只是，经由艺术的叙事方式的转换，能够更大限度呈现艺术的现实时，也能够最大效果的揭示艺术的真实。

Therefore, the “self-identity” under thelogic of “the other” doesn’t emphasize that the true self and inner feelingwill surpass or overthrow the previous clue of grand narrative or the contemporaryart turning to self will lose its original sharpness and criticalness. Howeverthrough the change of artistic narrative way, the reality of art can bepresented to the greatest extent and the truth of art can be revealed to themaximum effect.