Bird & Beast in the human world
Meng Tao.Qiu GuangPing Art Exhibition
展覽時間：2010年1月16日至1月26日
Duration: 16th to 26th Jan 2010
學術組織：陳 默
特邀批評：殷雙喜 高 嶺 吳 鴻 孫振華
杜曦云 何桂彥 陳 默 王 林
展覽場地：四川省博物院(成都市浣花南路251號)
展覽開幕式酒會：2010年1月16日下午3點
學術研討會時間及地點：2010年1月17日下午2點（展覽現場）
Curator: Wang Lin Academic Organizer: Chen Mo
Invited critics: Yin shuang xi Gao lin Wu hong Sun zhen hua Du xi Yun
He gui yan Chen mo Wang lin
Sponsor: Chengdu YiLang Space
Co-organizers: K Gallery No.10 Gallery Of Art Chengdu Nongyuan international ArtVillage Shanghai Basle Art space 733 Culture and Art Organization
Place: Sichuan Provincial Museum
Opening Date: 3pm 16th Jan 2010
Academic Seminar time and place : 2mp 17th Jan 2010 at Sichuan Provincial Museum
在禽、獸與人之間
About Relations among Birds, Beasts and Human Beings
——孟 濤、邱光平聯展述評
—— Commentary on joint exhibition by Meng Tao & Qiu Guangping
王 林
Wang Lin
孟濤和邱光平要做聯展，征求我的意見，我很贊成。不僅僅是因為他們同住成都濃園藝術區，交往甚密，是很好的朋友，更是因為他們倆的作品一個以鳥為主要對象，一個以馬為主要對象，都和傳統花鳥畫題材有關，盡管畫風差別甚大，卻有著值得探討的共同話題。這就是：在當代藝術中如何轉換中國資源，造就真正源自本土文化而不是尾隨西方潮流的創作成果。
Meng Tao and Qiu Guangping intend to hold a joint exhibition, and they come to me for some advice. I cannot agree on this any more, because they are intimate friends and both living in Chengdu Nongyuan International Art Village. Further more, both their works are related to traditional Chinese flower-and-bird painting, one focusing on birds, and the other on horses. Although their painting styles distinguish a lot from each other, there is still a common subject that is worth exploration. That is, regarding contemporary art, how to transform traditional Chinese resources into creative works which veritably originate from local Chinese culture rather than simply follow the suit of Western trend.
孟濤是學國畫出身的，畢業后一直畫帶有山水畫意味的風景油畫，借取水墨畫的皴法效果，擅長于用細線平鋪的肌理來構成平面化的空間關系。近幾年轉向花鳥，也是因其臻于嫻熟的油畫技法，特別適合描繪禽鳥的毛羽。一個畫家要轉變藝術觀念，并不靠一時的主意，而是思想、感覺、畫法多方面長期積累的結果。說孟濤轉向花鳥油畫，其實是只有鳥沒有花，花的意象為鳥的傷痕所替代。畫面上呼應藍綠孔雀的，不是鮮艷的牡丹，而是血淋淋的創口與內臟。這使我們想起廣東人吃猴腦和成都人吃鵝腸，都是從活生生的動物身上直接取用，動物的慘叫與食客的饕餮所襯托的，只有人的冷漠與殘忍。當然，難以解決的問題是人要生存，就不能不殺害動物。但人之為人，乃是因為能反省自身行為，所以從自身生態環境出發，人要去保護瀕危動物，保護鳥類，保護生物的多樣性。人作為精神存在，意識到自身生命與其他生命的共通性，所以要敬畏自然、珍惜生命，即便是取食動物，也決不能虐待動物。因為任何虐待生命的行為都是對人性的傷害都是對人的精神心理的傷害。孟濤的作品從不畫人，但人就在畫外，因為那些美麗禽鳥的慘狀都是人之所為。作為一個藝術家，他的任務不是譴責，不是道德批判，而是如何在感覺、感受中去觸及并揭示人的視覺心理，使那些被習慣鈍化的公理與常識，重新成為每一個觀畫者必須直面的問題。他用了很多心思把作品畫得如織錦一般輝煌而燦爛，絲絲入扣的筆觸、鮮活亮麗的色彩、精心講究的構圖，一切都像宮廷花鳥畫那么富貴、那么堂皇。只有當你為其所誘，逼視畫面的時候，才會發現你正面對著花團錦簇中的血腥，甚至那些血腥的傷口仍然漂亮好看！畫中的鮮紅與藍綠，通過中間色彩和深淺濃淡的過渡是如此協調，顯然畫家無意于強化色彩反差所構成的對比，他想在古典的和諧的審美方式中突然逆轉，讓觀者身心猛地感到痙攣，讓心理驚詫和精神震動不可避免地從內心噴出。就這樣，傳統工筆花鳥的精細之感在畫家筆下重獲愛惜，不是在文人書案上，而是在現實屠場里，就像是母親撫摸著死去兒子的頭發，和過去一樣平靜，悲哀到已無任何表情和言語。
Meng Tao majored in traditional Chinese painting at university. After graduation, he has been focusing on landscape oil-painting in style of traditional Chinese painting of mountains and waters. By virtue of techniques of representing irregular surfaces in wash painting, he is good at constructing a spatial relationship in plane view by means of tiling textures with fine lines. In recent years, as his oil-painting skills have grown mature, which is especially suitable for depicting birds’ plumage, he turned to flower-and-bird oil-painting. However, the focus change of him is resulted from the accumulation of thinking, sense, painting techniques and etc. in a long run, rather than from a transitory impulse. Moreover, in Meng’s flower-and-bird oil-painting works, there are only image of birds, and that of flowers is expressed as the scars of the birds. What echoes the bluish green peacock are the gory wound and viscera in stead of bright and beautiful peonies. This tableau reminds people of the scene that Cantonese eat fresh monkey brain and Chengdu people eat goose intestines, which are taken directly from animals alive. The contrast between the crying animals and the greedy gluttons reflects the cold blood and cruelty of human beings. Of course, as is known, human beings have to survive on animals, but they also examine their own behaviors. To protect the living environment, they will try to protect the endangered animals and birds, to maintain the diversity of living creatures. This is why human beings are human. As a spiritual existence, human beings realize the commonness between themselves and other creatures, so they revere the nature and cherish lives. Even though they eat animals, they never have any reason to maltreat them. Any maltreatment to creatures will destroy humanity as well as spirit and mentality of human beings. Human beings never appear in Meng’s works, but they are watching the tableau. All the misery in the painting is conducted by human beings. Being an artist, Meng’s duty is not to condemn nor criticize morally, but to find from sense and feelings the approaches to discover and reveal human beings’ visual psychology, to bring a revival to truth and common sense that are vanishing in habits, which everyone who watches the work has to directly confront. Meng pays great a lot of energy to weaving his canvas into gorgeous brocade, in which refined strokes, bright colors, and meticulous composition make the work as splendor and grandiose as an imperial flower-and-bird painting. Only when you are attracted by the tableau to stare at it, can you find the bloodiness in the brilliant splendor. And even the bloody wounds, then, are still so attractive. The bright red and bluish green in Meng’s works are so harmoniously balanced by smooth transition of intermediate shades. Apparently, the painter doesn’t mean to emphasize on the contrast between the two bright colors. What he wants is a sudden reversion in the classical and harmonious aesthetic, to render a convulsion in the watchers’ body and heart and make their surprise and tremor gush from heart. In this way, the sense of refinery in traditional Chinese meticulous flower-and-bird painting regains its vigor and appreciation in Meng’s brush. This is not a tale in writer’s pen, but a true story that does happen in the execution ground, where a mother is fondling her late son’s hair, as peaceful as usual, but so mournful that she is expressionless in her dead silence.
藝術觀念的表達必須在感覺中得到證實，傳統資源的利用也只有在當代文化意識和個人創作方法中才能實現，孟濤在這方面的探索是很具體、很實在，也很有深度的。
The expression of artistic concepts has to be proven through sense, and the utilization of traditional resources can only be achieved in contemporary cultural concepts and personal manners of creation. With regard to this aspect, Meng Tao has done a concrete and practical exploration, which is also of much depth.
稍有不同的是，邱光平盡管以畫馬出名，但與馬作為寫實對象及正面象征的繪畫傳統沒什么關系。他是學油畫出身，受現代藝術影響，一出手就有很強烈的表現性。筆下的馬總是為風云所驅，為野火所逼，處在極端緊張的狀態之中。或者是虎狼追逐，或者是鷹犬襲擊，或者是單騎逃竄，或者是群體狂奔，充滿喧囂、驚悚和恐懼，甚至不無邪惡。即便是“馬放南山”，即便是“落葉黃昏”，也永遠不得安寧。邱光平的作品給人以夢魘之感，其馬其人也極富象征性，但在超現實主義和表現主義兩種傾向間他側重后者。如果注意分析，你會發現他很少任意組合形象以造就荒誕夢境，相反，他總是在假設的場景中，以極度透視來造成對象的夸張變形，達到主觀化的象征性。首先是形體，激烈扭曲的身軀，呲牙咧嘴的馬首，表情十分豐富，充滿不可遏制的欲念。而不時出現的騎手作為縱火者，形似空心的稻草人，不僅和烈焰圍困的場景構成悖謬關系，而且和馬代表的內心沖動構成對比關系。在悖謬的對比中，現實被空殼化，而精神則被實體化，情感表達成為視覺形象本身。更進一步，畫家通過主觀化的色彩處理，把觀者置于情感激發的過程之中。病態的神經質的黃色，在暗紅色或灰藍色、灰白色的襯托下仿佛在燃燒，在沸騰。面對邱光平的作品，你是不可能靜觀的。
Qiu Guangping’s painting is slightly different. Qiu is famous for his horse oil-painting, but his style has little to do with the traditional way in which horse is a realistic object and positive symbol. Qiu specializes in oil-painting, with a strong expressiveness under the influence of contemporary art. Horses under his brush are always driven by wind and cloud, or compelled by wild fire, in an extremely nervous state. His horses are being chased by tigers and wolves or attacked by falcons and hounds, escaping solely or running wildly in crowds. The tableau is full of outcries, thrills and fears, even wickedness. Even the “Cloudy Peace” (Qiu Guangping, 2008, Oil on canvas) in “The Dusk” (Qiu Guangping, 2008, Oil on canvas) is still restrained. There is no absolute eternal tranquility. Qiu’s works imply nightmares. His horses and he are more a very symbol of expressionism than of surrealism. Through analysis, it will be found that he rarely portrays absurd dreams with random combination of images. Instead, he likes to gain an exaggerating transformation of objects through extreme perspective in an assuming circumstance, to achieve a subjective symbolism. The body comes first. All the violently twisted horse bodies, toothy horse heads and rich facial expressions extend the unrestrained desires. The rider appears sometimes as fire-raiser in a shape of hollow scarecrow, which not only opposes sharply to the surrounding roaring flames, but also becomes a contrast to the internal impulse symbolized by the horses. In the opposite contrast, the reality is hollowed, while the spirit is materialized, and the emotion itself is expressed as a visual image. Further more, through subjective color processing, the painter puts the watcher in the burst of emotions. Yellow, which seems sick and neurotic, is burning and boiling against the dark red, grey blue and grey white. In front of Qiu’s works, it is difficult to stay cool.
邱光平以馬和與之有關的既有圖像（如《阿爾卑斯的神話》）作為符號象征，再加上色彩隱喻（如《紅色誘惑》系列作品）的表達方式，揭示了自我在當下的
尷尬處境：一面是瘋狂的商品世界，一面是嚴格的社會控制，如此夾擊之下，中國人個體精神的生長的確充滿困惑。在這里任何英雄主義的幻想毫無意義，也許只有通過對野性的呼喚，才能讓我們重返精神心理的真實。
With horses and related existing images (i.e. The Myth on Alps, Qiu Guangping, 2009, Oil on canvas) being the symbol, and the expression through color metaphors (i.e. Series of The Flaming Joy, Qiu Guangping, 2007, Oil on canvas), Qiu Guangping describes the hot seat where Ego is sitting on: on one side is the crazy world of commodities, and on the other side is the strict social control. Under such converging attack from the two sides, in China, individual spirits do fall into deep confusion when growing up. Under this condition, any kind of heroism fantasy is meaningless. The only possible way back to our spiritual and psychological truth is the call of the wild.
還應指出一點，邱光平和孟濤從不同角度對紅色象征如此敏感并切入身心感受，顯然和生存環境有關，今日藝術已難以擺脫政治影響而獨善其身。而自我表現向社會和歷史的開放，正是當代藝術的特征之一。這種開放性不僅是意識的，也同時是媒介的。邱光平的圓雕和孟濤的浮雕、蘇繡，一方面延續并拓展了他們的創作觀念，另一方面，又在不同樣式和材料的制作中磨煉并深化了他們的藝術語言。特別值得注意的是他們根據展示空間創作的裝置作品。邱光平的雕塑性裝置“五馬分尸”置于圓廳之中，上下觀看，其空間張力是平面作品所不能比擬的，而拉扯、撕裂工業機械的隱喻，突現了傳統與工業化的較量，更是把狂馬于人的象征性推向極端。孟濤的繪畫性裝置則以彩繪沙發和蘇繡布置，把“美麗的血腥”與“血腥的美麗”日常化，讓人在習以為常、司空見慣的瀏覽過程中產生陌生與距離，使藝術問題直接介入到生活問題之中。因為是在博物館出展，他們有意無意將自己的某些作品文物化，使之更具有現場性。孟濤的浮雕本來就像是開方發掘的文物顯現，邱光平的陶瓷馬首以碎片及粘補的方式陳列，自然和環境有別樣的溝通。他們無論在創作題材、文化意識、制作手段和展示方式上，都不約而同
地表現出和歷史文化的有意關聯。這種傾向在青年藝術家作品中日漸增多，是中國當代藝術創作中非常可喜也值得關注的現象。
Another thing I would like to point out is that, the reason why both Qiu Guangping and Meng Tao, from different angles, are so sensitive to red symbols and inject their inward emotions into the works is that, it is related to the living environment. Nowadays, it is difficult for art to stand alone from politics. On the other hand, self-expression open to the society and history is just one of the symbols of contemporary art. This kind of openness not only refers to the concept, but also works as a medium. Qiu’s full relieves and Meng’s relieves and Suzhou embroideries, are a continuity and expansion of their creative concepts, and intensify their artistic expression in various patterns and materials as well. A most special noteworthiness is their installations designed on the basis to exhibition space. Qiu’s “Split” (Qiu Guangping, 2009, Sculpture installation), a sculpture installation, is laid in a round exhibition hall for top-to-bottom view, which possesses an unparalleled tension that planar works cannot do. The metaphor in the dragged and tore industry machines accentuates the contest between tradition and industrialization, which pushes the symbolization of crazy horses for human to an extreme. Meng, through arrangement of colored sofas and Suzhou embroideries in his painting installation, shows his “beautiful bloodiness” and “bloody beauty” in a common and ordinary manner, to make people feel a sense of distance and strangeness when looking at the work in a habitual and accustomed way, to reach the purpose of directly emerging art into life. Since this exhibition will be held in a museum, they try to make the works like historic relics consciously or unconsciously, in order to make the exhibition more live. Meng’s relieves look like excavated relics, and Qiu’s horse heads are made up of stuck china fragments. Thus the nature communicates with the environment in a particular manner. The two artists share a lot in common on intentionally connecting artistic works to history and culture, such as subject selecting, cultural concepts, techniques, exhibiting ways, and etc. This trend, which is growing among young artists, is such a delightful and notable phenomenon for contemporary art creation in China.
展覽命名為“禽獸人間”，是我的主意，如果要解釋，一是禽獸在人間的遭遇；二是人間有時禽獸不如；三是質問人與禽獸該如何相處。題目而已，僅為提示。看官之娛、觀者之思，全在于作品本身。
As I suggested, this exhibition is named as “Fur and Feather, with Man”. Firstly, we would like to reveal the suffering of animals in Man’s world. Secondly, we want to point out how immoral the human beings are at times. Lastly, we question about the right way for human beings to live with other living creatures in the world. Well, the title is just for reference. The amusement and thinking are to be arisen by the works themselves.