在中国当代艺术界，福建艺术家之所以能够成为一个瞩目的文化现象，就在于他们大都走出了架上绘画的平面束缚，或用装置，或以雕塑，抑或采取影像等多媒介语言来进行创作，从而形成了一个较为整体的艺术面貌，在传递出福建人“爱拼才会赢”的冒险与探索精神的同时，也与别处艺术家的大体形象拉开了距离。而在这样一个特殊的创作群体中，艺术家高孝午无疑是一个中坚力量，起到了推波助浪的作用。

　　In contemporary Chinese art circle, Fujian artists have become a remarkable cultural phenomenon. Most of them have stepped out of the bondage of easel painting, and have created their own arts in multi-media language such as installations, sculptures and images. Thus they form a more comprehensive artistic feature, which conveys Fujian people's spirit of "no pain, no gain"and distance themselves from the images of other artists. Among the special artistic groups, Gao Xiaowu is a backbone and plays a key role.

　　高孝午1976年出生于福建三明，自幼在三明的乡村长大，南方乡村茂密的生态与原始的景致，孕育了高孝午的性格，使他对一切生命形态与自然事物，都充满了欣喜与好奇；而福建民间极为丰富的传统艺术，如手工艺、漆艺、石雕、木雕等等，又启迪了高孝午的想象力与创造力，为他日后从事艺术创作，带来了源源不断的灵感。可以说，高孝午的艺术思维，是自幼养成的，与他的成长环境有着密切关系。当然，教育背景也很重要，是塑造他审美趣味的人文基础。高孝午出生于耕读之家，父亲能写善画，至今都保留着传统的生活方式。这对高孝午的人格成长，起到了价值观的导向作用。而他成年后就读的厦门工艺美术学院，又为他进入艺术之门，奠定了造型基础，开阔了文化眼界。

　　Gao Xiaowu was born in Sanming of Fujian province in 1976. He grew up in a southern village with pleasant ecology and primitive scenery, which developed his character of being curious and fascinated about all forms of life and natural things. Fujian was rich in traditional folk art, such as handicraft, lacquer, stone carving, and wood carving, which cultivated his creativity and imagination, and brought an endless stream of inspiration to his artistic creation in the future. In this sense, Gao Xiaowu's artistic thinking was closely related to the environment in which he grew up. Of course, educational background was also important since it was the humanistic basis for shaping his aesthetic taste. He was born in a farmer's family that prioritized education. To this day, his father who can do calligraphy and paint still keeps the traditional way of life. This background is instrumental in shaping his ideas and values. Upon reaching adulthood, he studied at Xiamen Academy of Arts and Crafts, which laid the foundation and broadened his cultural horizons.

　　厦门工艺美术学院，主要以设计类专业为主，前身是厦门工艺美术学校，其学院坐落在美丽的鼓浪屿，历史悠久，在教学上既注重技艺的实践，同时也强调思想的启发，曾为设计界与工艺美术行业培养过许许多多的优秀人才，福建的不少当代艺术家也都出自该校。高孝午就读于此，一方面学习了各种造型技能，另一方面也受到了其开放的思想氛围的影响。所以，毕业后的高孝午没有选择留在厦门找工作，而是只身到外面的世界去闯荡，赴上海，转北京，相继又在中央美术学院的雕塑系深造，以至于最后落户在京城，当了一名职业艺术家……

　　Xiamen Academy of Arts and Crafts (XAAC), which was formerly Xiamen School of Arts and Crafts, is known for its focus on art design. Located in the beautiful Gulangyu Islet, it has a long history. In terms of teaching, it not only pays attention to the practice of skills but also emphasizes the enlightenment of thought. It has trained many talented people for the design industry and the arts and crafts industry. Many contemporary artists in Fujian are graduates from this school. When Gao Xiaowu studied at the XAAC, he not only learned all kinds of modeling skills, but also was influenced by its open-minded atmosphere. Upon graduation, he didn't stay in Xiamen but went to see the world, going first to Shanghai and then to Beijing where he studied sculpture at China Central Academy of Fine Arts. In the end he finally settled down in Beijing to work as a professional artist.

　　可以说，高孝午的艺术生涯，正是从他北上京城之后，才正式开始的。尽管之前他也创作过不少雕塑作品，比如曾为寺院做过许多佛像等等，但那都是为日后的创作，做前期的造型铺垫。而真正回到艺术状态之中，以自己的文化立场出发进行艺术创作，还是高孝午到了北京，尤其是经过了中央美院的洗礼之后。这当然得益于北京文化环境的陶冶，同时，也源于高孝午的执著与敏感。所以，他到北京后，很快便切入到了时代潮流中，其雕塑作品也与当时的艺术流行样式一脉相承，均反映出了生活方式与时代心理的变化。比如他早期创作的一组雕塑作品，以鞠躬、微笑，以及憨态可掬的人物形象为语言特征，就跟当时的艺术潮流，有着同声共气的关联。这是高孝午的雕塑作品，很快受到业界关注的原因，当然也是他遭遇的创作困境。

　　Gao Xiaowu's artistic career, in all fairness, officially started when he went to Beijing. Prior to that, he had created many sculptures such as the Buddha-statues in the temple, which laid a modeling foundation for his artistic creation in the future. But it was after attending the China Central Academy of Fine Arts that he found himself truly in shape for artistic creation with his own cultural characteristics. This was all thanks to Beijing's cultural environment and his persistence and sensibility. He quickly found himself in tune with the zeitgeist of the time, producing sculptures that were in line with the prevailing art styles, reflecting the changes of life style and ideas. For instance, a collection of sculptures that he created early on, featuring cuddly figures with a bow and smile, was closely associated with the artistic trend. This was the reason why Gao Xiaowu's sculptures attracted more attention, and why he was caught in a dilemma, too.

　　事实上，高孝午很早就意识到了这个困境，并一直试图摆脱某些潮流的影响。所以，在创作了一系列夸张、变形和简约的人物形象之后，他又做过多种艺术尝试。比如增强作品的可爱元素与憨态形象；比如以《软暴力》为创作观念，展开另一系列作品的探索等等，就都是高孝午试图强化自己的艺术个性，与别的流行艺术样式拉开距离。然而，尽管高孝午在观念和语言上都做了多方面探索，但仍然在既定的时代风格中。这成了高孝午的苦恼，也使他一度陷于这种苦恼之中，殚精竭虑。不过，自由的天性，以及探索的意志，终就没有挡住高孝午自我超越的步伐。通过反复的试验与不断地思索，高孝午逐渐明白了“功夫在画外”。于是，他开始将视线从原来的视觉形象中挪开，转入日常生活，以及自我修行的宗教领域，思索一些更为深邃的人生命题。继而，他从生与死、出世与入世等矛盾关系中获得灵感，创作出了转型时期的代表作品《出入》。

　　Actually, Gao Xiaowu became aware of the plight, and had been trying to distance himself from certain trends. Therefore, he tried many kinds of art after he had created a series of images highlighting exaggeration, distortion and simplicity. For example, he enhanced the cute elements and improved the cuddly figure of his works. He explored another series of works by way of using Soft Violence as the creation idea. He was trying to develop his own artistic features, and be different from other popular art style. Although he experimented a lot in terms of concept and language, Gao Xiaowu was still trapped by the established era style. This became his distress, which exerted all his strength and wisdom. However, the nature of freedom, and the will of exploration did not block the pace of his self-transcendence. By means of repeated test and constant thinking, Gao Xiaowu gradually understood that efforts should be made beyond the art. As a result, he began to divert attention away from the original visual image, to focus on the daily life as well as the religious field where people do the self-practice, and to think about some more profound life propositions. Then, he was inspired by the contradictions between the life and death, as well as the "go out of the secularity"and"go into the secularity." Finally, he created the representative work, In and Out, in the transition period.

　　《出入》是以一位禅者为题材，他静坐在螺丝钉上，螺丝钉象征了工业化的结果，以陀螺的视觉形态耸立在地面上，底部铺上沙土制成漩涡，象征了人们无法掌控而身陷在后工业时代的漩涡里……这是高孝午创作《出入》作品的视觉效果，也是他的艺术观念。其实，更重要的内容并不在这件作品本身，而在于它解放了高孝午原来背负的某些束缚，为他日后的创作打开了诸多的可能性。正如在《出入》作品中，高孝午将禅者置于泥沙俱下的漩涡中，刻意营造其镇定自若的袖态一样。如此处变不惊、从容不迫的面对现实，正是高孝午投身信仰之后获得的自在。可以说，宗教信仰启发了高孝午心中的博爱，也赋予了他思想的自由。于是，那些被现实长久遮蔽的美好记忆，如儿时在乡村与大自然亲近，利用自然材料徒手制作各种玩具等等，诸如此类的成长经验，犹如潮水般涌入，不仅丰富了高孝午的艺术思维，也为他开启了一扇通向自我文化记忆的大门。由此，在出与进之间，高孝午通过记忆的穿透，将日常事物关联起来，从中捕捉到了无数生动有趣、活泼可爱的视觉形象，并最终催生出了个性更为鲜明的《再生》系列作品的问世。

　　In and Out features a zen practicer, who sits on a screw that represents industrialization. The screw stands on the ground with the visual form of the spinning top. Its bottom is covered with sand shaping like a whirlpool, which symbolizes the people can not control but are stuck in a whirlpool in the post industrial era. This was the visual effect and artistic idea created by Gao Xiaowu's sculpture. In fact, its significance was not in the work itself, but in it relieved certain pressure on him, which offered many possibilities for his creation in the future. In the In and Out, the zen practicer was put in the whirlpool with a mingling of mud and sand, which deliberately created a figure who looked relaxed and calm. It was calm and unhurried that Gao Xiaowu gained after he devoted himself to the faith. That is to say, religion inspired his fraternity, and endowed him with the freedom of thought. Thus, those beautiful memories of growing up sheltered from the reality, such as enjoying the nature in childhood in the countryside, and making various toys with natural materials by hand, flooded into his brain. It not only enriched his artistic thinking, but also opened a door to his memory of self-culture. Between"go out"and"go into,"he related all the daily chores through the memory, in which he captured countless vivid, interesting, and lively visual images. Ultimately, he produced a more distinctive series of works called Rebirth.

　　毫无疑问，《再生》系列作品的出现，是高孝午的艺术创作走向了另一个新的阶段。与其过去的艺术作品不同的是，《再生》系列不仅与高孝午的成长经验关联起来，以某种平常人的心态，以及回归于自然的文化命题，补充了当代都市化叙事的某些缺失；更为重要的是，它的语言创新，丰富了当代艺术的语汇，也为当代雕塑的视觉拓展，带来了活力与生机。这就像高孝午在这批《再生》系列作品中，喜欢把自然界的动植物，其相生相息的生长背景，比如青蛙与水珠、鹿角与树枝、蝴蝶与藤蔓，以及鱼与水草、翅膀与叶脉等等之间的依存关系，巧妙地粘合起来加以重新塑造、不断延展一样。如此巧夺天工般的架接与置换、组合与融汇，一方面运用了后现代的造型手段，另一方面取法于民间艺术的夸张与变异，由此呈现出诸多别开生面的视觉新形象，既夸诞又不失真实，既幽默又不乏严肃，让人熟路轻辙之间，却又耳目一新……

　　There is no doubt that the Rebirth marks another new stage of Gao Xiaowu's art. Unlike his past works, the Rebirth is associated with Gao's experience of growing up, and fills a gap in the narrative of contemporary urbanization with the mentality of some ordinary people and the cultural proposition that returns to the nature. More importantly, its language innovation enriched the vocabulary of contemporary art, and also brought vitality to the visual expansion of contemporary sculpture. In Rebirth, he loved to skillfully reshape and extend the co-dependent relationship between plants and animals in the natural world, and their growing environment, such as that of frogs and water, antlers and branches, butterflies and vines, fish and plants, as well as wings and vein, etc. Such a marvelous joint and permutation, as well as combination and fusion used the postmodern modeling means and learnt from the exaggeration and variation of folk art, which presented a lot of remarkable visual images. Thus, people feel familiar but fresh about those exaggerative and true, as well as humorous and serious styles of art.

　　自此，高孝午在艺术创作中的个人面貌，得以更加清晰和完整。那就是他用当代性的语言材料，诸如不锈钢、玻璃钢，以及影像等等，捕捉和挖掘了一些原始的自然生态，并运用多种综合手段，将神秘的东方美学与当代人的审美想象结合起来，不仅创造性地恢复了传统艺术的表现力，同时也为今天的当代生活，插上了飞翔的翅膀，创造了诸多意外与惊奇。而这，正是高孝午越出某种地域概念，立足于当代艺坛的原因。即在更大的文化与社会关系中，高孝午用自己的艺术探索与语言创新，演绎出了一个个传统与当代、自然与异化之间的思想主题。

　　Since then, Gao's personal style in the artistic creation has become more clear and complete. He has used contemporary language materials, such as stainless steel, glass steel, and image, to capture and seek the original ecology. He has taken various comprehensive measures to combine the mysterious oriental aesthetics and the contemporary aesthetic imagination. It not only creatively restores the expressiveness of traditional art, but also attaches wings to today's contemporary life, which brings surprise and amazement. This is the reason why he breaks the limits of geographical areas, and has a foothold in contemporary art circle. In the larger relationship between culture and society, he uses his own artistic exploration and language innovation to display the theme of tradition and contemporary, as well as nature and alienation.

2017.7.6于通州

July 6, 2017

Tongzhou