隋丞用各种形式——油画，水墨，版画——来表达他对环境的思考。在某种意义上，这些思考是相近的，甚至可以说是完全一致的。用这些不同的形式来表达同一个主题，就像用不同的语言在讲同一个故事一样。这样的结果就是，人们看到了每一种语言的特殊性。人们正是在这些不同语言的对照下，发现了绘画语言的特殊性：油画是如此地不同于水墨;水墨是如此地不同于版画;甚至是木版如此地不同于铜版。当然，它们跟装置和影像的差异就更大了。这就好比是，只有在说一个相同句子的时候，人们才发现上海话，广东话和北京话居然是如此地不同。如果要去寻找语言的独特性，就让它和别的语言在对照中去完成吧。人们无数次讨论过水墨和油画的差异，甚至有意思地去融合二者的差异，但是，很少有人将这种差异以隋丞这样的方式呈现出来，他长期持续地用多种语言来表达一个主题，正是在这种持久的实践中，他会深深体会到不同绘画技术的差异。就像一个人长期使用两种语言就能够把握两种语言的深刻差异一样。他会理解它们的各自表述习惯。尽管隋丞的主题非常突出，但是，我还是要说，他的一个隐秘主题，他隐藏在画面之外的主题，或者说，他的一个隐秘欲望，就是要探讨不同的绘画形式在表现力方面到底有什么不同。这些不同形式的绘画，如果同时在一个展厅中展出的话，它们的语言差异，就会一目了然——人们会得出自己的判断和偏爱，这不是对主题的偏爱(主题都是同一的)，而是对一种单纯的绘画方式的偏爱。人们会快速地在油画，版画和水墨之间挑挑拣拣。就如同人们在广东话，北京话和上海话之间总是有一种偏好一样。

　　但是，隋丞的这同一主题仍旧很重要——他绝不是单纯探讨绘画的形式差异。他试图告诉我们——用最简单的方式说就是——如今的高楼取代了往昔的高山。如今的大街取代了往昔的湖泊。人们以前是在高山面前感到了自己的渺小，如今是在高楼面前感到了自己的微不足道。隋丞的这些作品有一种奇特的效果，他同时将过去和现在勾连起来，作品中同时容纳了过去和现在，他让它们在画面中同时现身：这既是有关过去的，山水云烟，层峦叠嶂;也是有关现在的，高楼林立，熙熙攘攘。这两种完全不同的景观，完全不同的生活方式，在隋丞的作品中居然毫不牵强地呈现出来。他一方面削弱了古典山水画的意境和气势，使之向着一个抽象的高度开放，从而通向现在的都市高楼;另一方面，它又磨平了现代都市高楼的硬朗和倔强，使之不断地弯曲，回旋，从而向一个自然的山脊开放。他寻找二者之间的一个中间地带从而确保了这两种表意的潜能。他也以同样的方式来处理水——他在水的涟漪和街道的平坦之间保持了平衡。最重要的是，他将山，水，人的关系作了一种反讽性的处理。以前，人们和山水之间有一种存在的默契，一种共生的关系，如今，山水退隐了，人们只好和高楼，和大街，和马路之间存在着一种默契的共生关系。而历史和现在是以这样的共振但又是对立的方式存在于隋丞的作品中。就如同在此版画，油画和水墨同样是一种共振和对立的关系一样。

Resonance and Contrast

Wang Minan

　　Sui Cheng has expressed his concerns about environment via different forms of art---oil painting, ink painting and printmaking. In a way these concerns are similar and even consistent. To express the same theme in different forms is like to tell a story in different languages, and ultimately the particularity of each form and language can be shown. By contrasting these different styles, people will find the particularity of fine arts: oil painting is so different from ink painting and ink painting is so different from printmaking. And woodcut works are not like copper plate works at all even though they are both called printmaking works. Of course, they are far away from works of installation and image. This is like when we speak the same sentence, we will find that shanghai dialect, Beijing dialect and Cantonese are so different. If we want to find out the specification of a language, we have to compare it with another one. It has been discussed a lot about the differences between ink painting and oil painting. And someone has even tried to blend the difference of the two together. But there are very few who can show these differences in Sui Cheng’s way. He has constantly tried to express the same theme in different languages. And it is this constant practice that renders him realize the differences of various art techniques, just like a person can grasp the differences of two languages after he has spoken them for a long time. Though the theme in Sui Cheng’s works is obvious, I can feel something hidden in the images, a theme out of the images of his works. That is his secrete desire, a desire to study on the different expression of different art forms. If these various forms of art are exhibited in the same hall, their language differences will be as plain as daylight. And people will naturally make their own judgment and get their preference. This is not a preference for theme (the theme is the same), but a preference for an art form. People will choose their favorite one among works of oil painting, ink painting and printmaking, just like they will choose to speak in their favorite language: Shanghai dialect, Beijing dialect or Cantonese.

　　However, the consistent theme in Sui Cheng’s works is still very important. He is not simply studying the differences of art forms. He is trying to tell us in the simplest way that the skyscrapers nowadays are taking place of the past mountains; the boulevards are taking place of the past lakes. People used to feel small in front of mountains, and now feel tiny in front of these skyscrapers. Sui Cheng’s works have an amazing effect. He can connect the past and the future, and his works contain the past and the future. He makes them appear in his images simultaneously. They are the past---rolling mountains and flowing rivers; meanwhile they are the future---skyscrapers and bustling streets. These totally different sceneries and living styles are shown in Sui Cheng’s works harmoniously. On the one hand, he has weakened the artistic mood and imposing atmosphere in ancient landscape painting, opening a way leading to the urban skyscrapers from an abstract height; On the other hand, he has smoothened the toughness and obstinateness of the urban skyscrapers, opening a way leading to a natural mountain ridge in bending and spiral lines. He is looking for a middle ground of the two to guarantee the possibility of combining these expression ways together. He expresses water in the same way---to keep balance between the ripple of the water and the flatness of the streets. Moreover, he manages the relationships among mountains, rivers and humans in an ironic way. There used to be a tacit agreement between human beings and the nature. They had a symbiotic relationship. But now mountains and rivers have retreated, human beings have to reach a tacit agreement with skyscrapers, boulevards, and streets. Thus both history and reality exist in Sui Chang’s works in a way of resonance and contrast, just like his different forms of expression---printmaking, oil painting and ink painting---exist in the same way: resonance and contrast.