在田园的绘画中，总是在“素静”或“金质”的底子上呈现“物”（things）及其属性和状态，这形成了她的一种绘画语境。在那些“素静”的画面中，事物所存在的原环境以及被画家有意抽离原环境而置换为不同阶度的“灰白”背景让那些原本较为平常的物体获得了一种“被凝视”的价值，由此传递出一种不同的含义。而在另一种类型的“金质”底子的绘画中，原本出现在欧洲中世纪的“黄金背景”被田园进行了意义转换，从宗教性的语义实现了向世俗与现实生活的转换，由此出现在画面中的物体和对象存在于一种陌生化的视觉情境中，显得难以与习惯中的“事物状态”形成信息的意义对接，这种另类方式逼迫眼睛从凝视物体的状况调整为重新判断。这种“金质视觉”的背景方式及其所带来的阅读效应是田园依据其经验方式和生活感受逐渐形成的作画意识，金质的视觉成为画家对现实环境及其个人生活的日常经验进行表达的“底色”，由此也逐渐形成了田园的这个绘画系列。

　　纸醉金迷中的“金”一度被人们用来描述和批判生活的奢靡化及其追求过于华丽的表象所带来的异化，也提示人们容易被这些华丽的假象所引向“失真”的迷幻甚至堕落。世俗生活中的“金色”总是给人带来关于欲望的直接性并引来极具矛盾性的哲学议题，以金色作为绘画的底子也就很自然成为独特语义的发生环境。田园的敏锐性在于，她将艺术家与生活视为不可分割的同一状态，她很明确地知道自己不想也不可能成为那种完全放弃自我生活而将“艺术世界”作为与生活世界相割裂的状态。她于是将自身生活经历的真实感受和人生体验作为一种“材料”入画的切入方式很自然成为她的绘画所独有的一种品质。“金质的世界”成为田园对现实的一种概括，她将绘画变成与日常生活和个人经历进行转换和联系的途径，用绘画的方式作为一种语言的途径去联系自我的精神世界，将“感受”和“经历”这种难以保留的抽象存在通过一种时间性和空间性的编码方式对应到“眼前”的某个特定的“静物”，通过在画面中描绘这个特定的物体一方面消解和转移来自现实的遭遇，而在这个过程中，对这一物体的描绘过程又成为内心的体验与其相互“标记”的过程，由此形成了一段时间中的特定“记忆”，绘画的过程与生活的经历以及内心的感受建立了一种“编码”，形成了一种微观叙事的“自我逻辑”。田园的绘画在这种不知不觉中确立了一种“内在的稳定性”，也形成了一种绘画的工作方式。

　　逐渐地，金质的视觉语义成为田园绘画的一条“线索”，她沿着这条线索与个人最为熟悉的日常经验和身边的日常事物发起了一种独特的开启绘画的方式。当生活的某个很具体的个人经历发生的时候，绘画也随之发生，她把这种经历的“感受”和“记忆”沁入绘画，画家的人生与画家的画面成为相互对应的真实。这种真实打破了原本两种不发生关系的事物的边界，使得画家本人成为生活经历和绘画内容的“媒介剂”，将事物的概念、形状、色彩和结构等要素通过“手绘”的过程与内心的感受、情绪、体验和感觉“定格”和“标记”在一起，使之相互渗透。生活的世界与画中的世界就这样“跨逻辑”地相互渗透，这种渗透是打破原有“现实秩序”所规定的“事物状态”的，两种“非关系”的事物以画家作画的方式发生关系，画家成为融合的媒介剂。这是一种只有在艺术世界中才可能发生的“事物状态”，来自生活中的真实“感受”以一种事物原有属性之外的属性“隐含性”地“沁入”事物，造就了画面中的经过“特定转化”的事物形象和质感。这就使得笔触与感觉、色彩与经历、形状与情绪、结构与体验这些来自主客体不同秩序下的因素实现了“互渗”，由此来自生活中的“质朴属性”的物体转换了原本的“事物状态”而成为一种“描绘感受”的载体。在这里，绘画原本再现客观对象或者表现主观情绪的方法论完成了综合转换，即“再现”与“表现”综合转换为一种“呈现”的方法论。在“呈现”中，画家的体验与事物的状态既不是单纯描摹的客观性也不是极度表现的主观性，而是一种“互相渗透”的转换，这种转换的“自我逻辑”与社会生活中的“金质世界”发生关系，形成了一个二级系统的“符号学”，不同的能指和所指系统合构到一起，形成了那些“陌生”与“另类”的画面，唯一流动于其中的是画家隐含在其中的“记忆标记”，这使得物体脱离了凝视的语境而获得了通过阅读而引起思考的丰富含义。

　　在田园绘画中的那些“金质的视觉”中，我们看到了一种媒介关系在绘画中所呈现的物体的一种“哲学含义”。在那些金质的箔的底子上，油画的颜料及其所呈现的物体也是附着在底子上而无法与“金底”合一相融的，它们总是存在一种隔阂无法相互沁入，就像我们的人生可以附着在金碧辉煌的世界中，但始终那层“金”与我们柔软的肉体和灵魂无法相融，它们之间始终存在一种“相斥”的叹息之墙，无法介入而只能附着。这种来自绘画媒介的哲学含义仿佛与我们的日常生活经验达到了高度的契合，田园选择“金质的画面”也是出自人生的体会。她要在金质的语言和底子上去呈现个人的生活印记，让金质成为这个时代的一种视觉语境，而生活，则不可逃避地附着于其上，画家敏感的感觉和感受及其身边和眼前“事物”在画面中被转换为一种“感受的符号”，成为一种独特的“记忆标记”。

　　在田园的那些《物》的系列中，充满了女性视角下敏感的气息，一盘古旧的带有历史感的瓷花水果盘中放置许久的食物与金质的背景显得那么陌生，又那么怀旧，仿佛刚刚完成的“故事情节”被画面所永久地定在其中但又没有叙述；烟灰缸压在一块随意折叠的餐巾上，里面有几块掐掉的烟头和烟灰与缸面摩擦的痕迹，在这个场景中思绪可能正在进行，也可能刚刚结束；一打立在金质环境中的纸在梳妆的镜子里呈现出它不同的侧面和角度，这是否是出于对某种经历的感受和心绪需要寻找稳定的心理状态而刻意将注意力分散到观察物件的关注之中，抑或对事情分析过程中的某种一心二用和转换思绪；还有在金质画面中任颜料流淌中显现于画面的废旧鱼缸中的假山及其与房间中桌面物体以及墙角的关系又暗指对应了哪个“故事”或可能发生的事？还有那些看似随意又好像特意“摆放”的物件和油画笔触所描绘的花卉（以及那些流淌在画面中的暗红色颜料），总是不断带给我们思考的契机但又无果而终。田园在画面中留下了确定的气息和情感的痕迹，抽去了事件和思绪的基本内容，只留下那些确定的“事物状态”在金质的画面中，带来悬疑的“标记”。然而，目光又从物体回到了那片让人联想起中世纪光芒和现实世俗生活指向的那片“金色的质地”，或光鲜或龟裂，但是答案是确定的，金质的表面始终难以与我们的世界相融，这与画面中留下的气息相呼应，给阅读和思考提供了语境。

　　如同弗兰西斯·培根（Francis Bacon）、卢西安·弗洛伊德（Lucian Freud）以及乔治·莫兰迪（Giorgio Morandi）等艺术史上那些独特的画家，他们各自一定有自身的一套与别人完全不同的观察、理解与介入事物（或对象）的方式，才能终其一生“稳定于”一种独特、奇怪、陌生和另类的“个人方式”并铸就一种艺术史上的经典风格。好的画家需要一种与众不同的作画方式，而这种方式需要一种独特的观看方法和思维模型的“内在稳定性”，画家需要一种“内在独立”的真实感受才能形成一个阶段乃至终其一生去不断深入和完善的题材，也呈现一种绘画模式。作为画家，最为幸运的是存在绘画这种方式能够将自身对自我状态的“感觉”呈现和转换到画面中去，他们拥有这样一个稳定的出入口。田园通过绘画，将自我的状态与事物的状态建立了一种绘画的关联，找到了一种将“自我逻辑与经验”进行标记的方法，它可以凝固自己内心的体验，同时将绘画进行下去。可以肯定的是，金底中的“物状态”既是田园“自我逻辑”方式的绘画出口，也是阅读可以重返旧时光唤起“记忆重现”的入口。期待田园绘画中的“物秩序”能够不断带来更多的启发性。

　　王萌（知名策展人和艺术批评家）

　　2018-9-10于北京东城

​The State of Things on a Gold Ground：The Artist‘s Logic and the Representation of Memory in Tian Yuan’s Paintings

　　In her paintings， Tian Yuan always presents things and their properties or states against a plain or golden ground， which creates the context for the work. In those plain images， the original environment in which the objects existed is consciously removed by the artist and replaced with different gradations of grey， making these rather ordinary objects into something worth examining closely， thereby conveying a different meaning. In her other type of painting， the one with a golden ground， Tian Yuan transforms the meaning of the gold grounds that originally appeared in the Middle Ages in Europe， shifting them from a religious context to real， secular life. As a result， the things and subjects that appear in the paintings exist in an unfamiliar visual circumstance， which is difficult to match with the habitual state of things. This alternative method forces the eye from focusing on the condition of the object to re-evaluating it. This golden vision of a background and its legibility are based on her experiential methods and lived experiences， which have gradually shaped Tian Yuan‘s painting mentality. This golden ground became the ground color for her in expressing the real environment and everyday experiences from her own life， which have gradually come to shape Tian Yuan’s painting series.

　　A Chinese phrase for “a life of luxury” （literally “dazzling with paper and gold”） was used for a time to describe and criticize the alienation brought about by the extravagance of life and the pursuit of excessively magnificent surfaces； it hints that people are easily drawn to hallucination and even corruption by these magnificent surfaces. In secular life， gold always leads directly to desire and extremely conflicting philosophical themes. Gold as the background to this painting very naturally becomes the environment in which these distinctive semantics take place. Tian Yuan‘s sensitivity comes from the fact that she sees art and life as inseparable parts of a single state. She very clearly knows that she does not want to and cannot completely abandon her own world and see the “art world” as a state separate from the living world. Therefore， she uses her real feelings about her life experiences as a material for engaging with painting， which very naturally became a quality unique to her work. A golden world is Tian Yuan’s shorthand for reality； she transforms painting into a pathway for the transformation of and connection with everyday life and personal experience. She uses the methods of painting as a linguistic pathway to connect her own spiritual world， incorporating abstract presences that are hard to retain， such as feelings and experiences. Through a temporal and spatial coding method corresponding to a specific static object before our eyes and through describing the given object in painting， she eliminates or transforms encounters from reality. In this process， the depictions of these objects become marked by her internal experience and vice versa， which in turn shapes a specific “memory” of a period of time. Painting process， life experience， and inner feelings establish a code， creating a micro-narrative of the artist‘s logic. Unconsciously， Tian Yuan has established an inherent stability and formed a way of working in painting.

　　Gradually， the context of this golden vision became a thread in Tian Yuan’s painting. She followed this thread and found a distinctive way of starting painting with her own familiar， everyday experiences and the ordinary items around her. When certain personal experiences happen in her life， a painting is sure to follow； she infuses the painting with these feelings and memories of experiences， so the life of the painter and her paintings become truths that correspond to one another. This fact breaks the boundaries between two unrelated things， making the painter into a “medium” for the experiences of life and the contents of paintings. In the process of painting， the concepts， forms， colors， structures， and other elements of objects and the artist‘s feelings， moods， experiences， and emotions are fixed and marked together， permeating one another. The world in life and the world in painting permeate one another with   a bridging logic， and this permeation breaks the state of things stipulated by the order of reality. “Unrelated” things become related by Tian’s painting methods， with the painter as the binding medium. This is a state of things that could only happen in the art world： real emotions from life， through the specific transformations of properties beyond the original ones， implicitly seep into the objects and create the forms and textures of these objects in the paintings. This makes elements that come from different subject-object orders， such as brushstrokes and emotions， colors and experiences， forms and moods， structures and encounters， permeate one another， thereby transforming the simple properties of things in life into their original state， or a vehicle for describing emotion. Here， painting‘s methodology for representing objective things or expressing subjective emotions is comprehensively transformed； representation and expression are transformed into a methodology of presentation. In this presentation， the painter’s experiences and the states of things reflect neither the objectivity of pure description nor the subjectivity of supreme expression； in this interpermeated transformation， this transformed artist‘s logic has a relationship to the golden world of social life， creating symbology for a second-order system. Different systems of signifier and signified are joined together to create strange and alternative images. The only thing flowing between them is the markers of memory that the artist has hidden within them. This takes the objects out of the context of the gaze， thereby obtaining rich meanings from the ideas inspired by their reading.

　　The golden visions in Tian Yuan’s paintings are a medium in the philosophical meaning of the objects presented in the works. On that gold leaf background， oil paint and the objects presented are affixed to the gold ground and could never become one with it. A barrier will always exist between them so that they cannot permeate one another. Similarly， our lives can be affixed to a magnificent golden world， but invariably that layer of gold cannot fuse with our soft bodies and souls； they have a wall between them that always repels. Our lives can only be affixed and cannot intervene. This philosophical meaning from the painting medium seems to fit very closely with our everyday life experiences. Tian Yuan‘s choice of golden paintings also comes from life experience. In the golden language and ground， she wants to present traces of her individual life， making the golden ground into a visual context for this era， and life cannot escape being affixed to it. The painter’s sensitive feelings and emotions and the things around her and before her eyes are， in the paintings， transformed into an emotional symbol， a distinctive memory marker.

　　Tian Yuan‘s Things series is full of the sensitivity of a female perspective. Food that has been there for a while is placed in an archaic floral fruit plate with a sense of history that， along with the golden background， appears strange and a bit nostalgic， as if the plot of the story has just ended and is perpetually fixed in the image without any narrative. An ashtray is placed on a casually folded napkin， and it contains several cigarette butts， ash， and traces of the cigarettes being rubbed out. This scene feels like it might be ongoing or may have just ended. A folding makeup mirror standing against the gold background presents its different sides and perspectives. Is this a painstaking scattering of attention in observing things that comes from a focus on feelings and moods about experiences that need to find a stable psychological state， or does attention become divided and thinking become changed in the process of analysis？ What story or thing that might possibly happen does the pigment trickling down the ornamental rocks in an old goldfish tank in the golden image and its relationship to the table and corner in the room insinuate？ Or does the seemingly casual yet specifically placed object and the oil painting strokes used to depict the flowers （and dark red pigment that trickles down the image） always give us a turning point in our thinking that ends fruitlessly？ In her paintings， Tian Yuan leaves certain traces of flavor and emotion， extracting the basic content of events and thinking； she only leaves a certain state of things in the golden image， creating suspended signs. Thus， our eyes shift from the object to the golden texture that we associate with medieval radiance and real secular life， whether shining or rough， but the answer is certain： golden surfaces will always be difficult to assimilate into our world. This echoes the atmosphere of the works， providing context for looking and thinking.

　　Francis Bacon， Lucian Freud， Giorgio Morandi， and other distinctive painters in the history of art had to have their own visions， understandings， and ways of intervening in things （or subjects） that were entirely different from those of others， in order to be able to stabilize a distinctive， novel， strange， and alternative personal method and forge a classic style in art history. Good painters need a different way of making paintings， which requires an inherently stable yet distinctive viewing method and way of thinking. Painters require personal， independent， and real emotion in order to constantly delve into and perfect a subject for a period or a lifetime， thereby creating their own model for painting. As a painter， the most fortunate thing is that this method in painting exists to present and transform her feelings about her own state in painting. She has this stable entry and exit point. Through painting， Tian creates a connection between her own state and the states of objects， finding a way to mark out her own logic and experiences； this solidifies her own experiences as she paints. We can affirm that the state of things on the gold ground is the painting outlet for Tian Yuan’s logic and the inlet for the representation of memories awakened when looking brings her back to times past. I hope that the order of things in Tian Yuan‘s painting can provide further inspiration.

　　Wang Meng （Curator and art critic）

　　10 September 2018， Dongcheng District， Beijing