很久以前，一位中国的诗人写道，每一支竹笋自身都蕴涵着成竹时将发的竹节与竹叶的印迹。这就是鸿韦从陶土中发掘出来的那种深邃、有机的记忆——基本的原材料在大自然中落地生根。如同竹子一样，鸿韦所栖居的世界由他所自的初始中国文化记忆编码，继而由他在西方的经历续记。

　　在声名卓著的中央美术学院学习的时候，鸿韦主攻雕塑，尤其是人物雕塑。他使用铜，木头，甚至冰，以及作为终极选择的材料——陶瓷去做雕塑。鸿韦作为阿尔弗雷德大学纽约州立陶瓷艺术设计学院的研究生，早期的作品是以泥片成型的可辨别的他自己的脸为特征的……经常会有夸张的，甚至滑稽的表情……以及大胆地使用了结晶釉的容器。

　　他后来一系列的雕塑作品都涉及到了像石头一样的形体，有很多面，明显的接缝，以及很强烈的具有人物面部特征的抽象线索。作品中的釉色往往是单色的影青。这种影青在不同体面上的变化很巧妙地增强了其表现力。

　　鸿韦最近的作品把他早期作品中所显现的三个主要观念综合在一起而形成了一种新的美感：沉思，建筑和自然。“沉思的重量”是鸿韦给他的一系列组装的头像作品起的题目；每一组都牢固地挺立在地面，然后向上逐渐变小，带有凹凸肌理的双肩成了头像本身的底座。一种可以气息通透的感觉贯穿在作品之中，每组的负空间自成形状，对直立陶柱的纪念碑性状形成一种补充。

　　作品的灵感来自于游览犹他州的大峡谷。在那里，气候，水和重力一直侵蚀着像人形的砂岩。鸿韦的作品表现了经久的耐力，平衡和平静。这组作品是对一系列宝塔或者碑林的回溯……沉默的敬畏中蕴涵见证，直达天穹。稍具亚洲人特征的面容，给予我们一种相互仔细观看的感觉，跨越文化，不光是在语言和符号中，也在恰到好处的没有任何遮拦的面对面的接触之中。每一张脸都有一个稍微不同的表情，每一个头像，眼睛都向下看，使其没有直接的目光接触，但这恰恰引起了更长久的注视。就这样，在观众和作品之间，一种对话便产生了。突出的耳朵暗示了在双向交流中，聆听的可能性。

　　每一个叠在一起的头像元素都是由厚厚的陶土泥片塑造而成的。首先，把泥片打平，然后卷成一个圆柱形，最后艺术家用手由内向外进行塑造……几乎但却不完全让表面裂开，这样烧完以后就会产生竖直的深深的裂纹。方木棒拍打泥片产生了棱角，肩膀将没有脖子的头像放在其中，既起到了支撑的作用，也产生了有坡度的水平手笔。渐变的圆和三角几何形，强化了叠加和增长着的每一个局部，跃然自信地存在于空间之中。铜色的，黄色的，橙色的以及灰绿色的釉，就像纽约州北部深秋时节山坡上的颜色。这些釉色使得具有肌理的表面变得更加漂亮和灿烂。

　　低温烧过以后，这些仍然炽热的头和肩膀的部件被放入装满稻草和废纸的桶中。烟灰使得皱状的条纹变成灰色和黑色，产生一种粗糙的树干肌理，风化斑驳，充满警世恒言，揭示了在内部保持成长能量的过程中，时间留下的痕迹。乐烧的过程永远不可能被艺术家完全掌控。鸿韦发现了表达意旨的即效性，发现了和他的愿望，他在控制与自由，法度与直觉，乃至艺术与自然之间寻求一种平衡的愿望相谐调的出人意表的色彩挥洒中的即效性。

　　鸿韦的雕塑作品讲述了他跨越文化的经历。他未来的作品将会继续展示他所带来的视觉上和精神上的记忆，新的与世界相遇的记忆。

卡拉•卡奇(CarlaCoch)2008年

　　Faceted Memory: The Sculpture of Hongwei

　　A very long time ago, a Chinese poet wrote that each bamboo shoot holds within itself the trace of every joint, every leaf that will be revealed in the mature plant. Such is the deep, organic memory of the kind that Hongwei mines from clay – that fundamental raw material grounded in nature. Like the bamboo, the world Hongwei inhabits comes encoded by memories from his first culture in China and reinscribed later by his experiences in the west.

　　While studying at the prestigious Beijing Central Academy of Fine Arts, Hongwei focused on sculpture, particularly the figure, and worked in bronze, wood, and even ice as well as his ultimate medium of choice, clay. Hongwei’s early work as a student in the Masters in Fine Arts Program at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University featured slab-built faces recognizable as his own – often with exaggerated, even comical, expressions – and vessels boldly pock-marked with crystalline glazes.

　　A subsequent series of sculptures referenced rock-like forms with many facets, visible seams, and increasingly abstract hints of human facial features. The glazes here tended to be monochrome celadons with tonal gradations subtly enhanced by the variations in planes.

　　Hongwei’s most recent work brings together in a new aesthetic three main concepts evident in his early pieces: meditation, architecture, and nature. “Weight of Meditation” is the title Hongwei gives to his series of heads arranged in stacks; each one holds fast to the floor, then tapers upwards delineated by a pair of flanged shoulders that make a plinth for the head itself. A sensation of breathability moves around the stacks, where the negative space has a shape of its own, a complement to the monumentality of the vertical ceramic columns.

　　Inspired by a visit to Utah’s Bryce Canyon where weather, water, and gravity have eroded sandstone into human-like forms, Hongwei’s stacked heads speak of durability, balance, serenity. They are reminiscent of a series of pagodas or a forest of steles – bearing witness in silent awe, reaching heavenwards. The slightly Asian-featured faces give us a sense of looking carefully at each other, across cultures, not in language or symbols, but in the very act of unmediated face-to-face contact. Each face wears a slightly different expression, each with downcast eyes that make no direct contact, but that invite a longer look. A kind of conversation takes place between viewer and faces, with the prominent ears suggesting the possibility of listening as in two-way communication.

　　Each head element in the stack is made from thick earthenware slabs first paddled flat, joined into a cylinder, and finally pushed out from within by the artist’s hands – nearly but not quite rupturing the surface which forms deep vertical creases after firing. Ribbed by the paddle, the shoulders cradle the neck-less heads to provide both support and a sloping horizontal stroke. Gently contrasting geometries of round and triangle elevate the individual parts as they stack and grow, upright and confident, into space. Glazes in browns, yellows, oranges, and celadon greens like the late autumn hillside colors of upstate New York beautifully illuminate the textured surfaces.

　　After a low-temperature firing, the still glowing head-and-shoulder elements are plunged into a straw and paper-filled bucket. Ashes darken the corrugations with streaks of grays and blacks, which evoke the rough-hewn textures of tree trunks, weathered and watchful, revealing the traces of time while holding within the energy of growth. The raku process can never be fully controlled by the artist. Hongwei finds the immediacy of effects and the surprise color splashes consonant with his desire for a balance between control and freedom, skill and intuition, art and nature.

　　Hongwei’s sculpture narrates his experiences across cultures. His future work will continue to speak about the visual and spiritual memories that he brings with him, memories to be further deepened by his new encounters with the world.

Carla Coch

2008