最近经常在公共“视频号”中自动跳出艺术家吴梁焰在运输、布展、宣传的视频信息，连篇累牍全方位的介绍和报道了正在“荻原美术馆”举办的《童年 — 吴梁焰个展》的现场情况。展览空间规模之大，作品数量之多，宣传力度之猛，好像成了当前艺术生态环境中的“打卡”之地。也好，这样的信息量宣传会让人们好似“亲临现场”和作品一起重温“童年”时光，给大家带来往事的回忆与天真的快乐。熟话说“外行看热闹，内行看门道”。吴梁焰的这种“童真、童趣、童话”思路从哪里来？又是怎么始终坚持艺术创作的乐趣，构成了这样一种语言表达方式的系统性结构？这得要从实验艺术的“专业”层面来阐述解读吴梁焰艺术创作的所思所想和所作所为。

一、自觉

艺术创造是个体或群体间生生不息的转化过程，其表现的结果使“个体”和群体进入一个不停转变的层面，验证了一种遭遇，一种转换和一种重生。综观整个艺术创造发展的历史，一直有职业艺术家和自由艺术家的分野，前者是一种经过训练以及具有清晰的学术传承脉络，可以分门别类按范式去分析和分类，后者则是以艺术家的个性，特殊的知识结构，独特的表现方式，进行实践与验证。他们是一个个实体存在，更是一种种“自觉”的行动。显然，艺术家吴梁焰应该是属于后者，他从个体的“自我”呈现，走向了代表时代的“类我”表达，直至走向了共同话题的“人类”关怀，这是一种人性光辉的自觉意识。

吴梁焰2003年毕业于福建厦门工艺美术学院雕塑系，从他的早期作品中，就显示了他对于塑型结合“卡通”表现形式的极大兴趣，这使得他的作品有了明显的幽默感。勤于思考和艺术求变的性格，开始了艺术家吴梁焰的探索之旅。2020年到中央美术学院实验艺术学院“装置艺术与材料语言”高级研修班学习使他如鱼得水，期间做的各种实验性作品的尝试，参加了不同的实验艺术群展，这些经历都预示了他艺术创作方式的不停生发与转变，为今后的艺术发展种下了不断“生长”的种子和不断“壮大”的能量，这是行为习惯的一种自觉态度。

实验艺术的特点是，在艺术原有艺术呈现方式的基础之上，寻找出新的可能性，创造出新的增长点。强烈的使命感和对艺术的执着追求，“实验艺术”让吴梁焰从此踏上了永不停歇的艺术探索之路。同时，他让自己和自己的作品从此走向了更大的空间领域，开始了“自觉”的生长与重生的良性循环中，它们不断的“运动、变化、转换”构成了一个活生生的自给自足乐在其中的自觉力量。这是艺术家自我把控和自我修复、自我发现和自我完善的必经心路历程，这更是艺术呈现方式上的一种自觉行为。

二、自在

生成，自我建构被标识。这种自我建构的自在行为，会伴随着那种“劳其筋骨的体力支撑，为伊憔悴的耐力考验和晃然大悟的智力发现”整体解决的全过程。当然，艺术表达方式的最佳途径，是从以物为中心的物质化呈现转移到以人为中心的化物质生成上来。在物理学中，把事物之间能量的凝聚，形成转化和释放所依存的客观物质环境，又称为精神状态的“场域”，它被认为是物存在的另一种方式。具有能量、动量和质量，能传递实物间的相互作用，能游走于现实世界与理念世界之间，这便是“自在”的自我建构的能力。

从雕塑重视的形象到材料制作的形态，从图像提供的现实到非图像带来的想象，这些转变会让从静止的被观看到观众互动，直至从观念到行为的转变，使得吴梁焰又开始了一段自为自在的艺术之旅，他用“童年”作为自己艺术出发的原初动机，将自己的经历与体验结合起来，不慌不忙地娓娓道来，他的这些“童年”系列作品，与其说是对“童年“记忆的迷恋，不如说是他对“天真”状态的推崇。他以“童年”表达，用沉浸体验和语境化的方式来扩散弥漫，或者说以系统化的方式进行了大规模的延伸。“童年”展览现场，充分利用公共化空间的平台，使社会化传播达到了最大范围，实现艺术推广的自在状态，经过互动而构成“感同身受”的自在生活。在“童话世界”氛围的背景之下，人们沉浸在美好的回忆之中，甚至忘记了自己是在现实的生活中还是情感记忆之中。

艺术作为“童年时光”永恒的主题，在这“童年记忆”中自在地生长，也可能成为“童年时代”的各种“元素”不停的循环往复、层层递进、继往开来，实现“自在”的语境逻辑关系。“童年世界”的反复呈现过程、不再只是“回忆”这个世界，它就是“这个”世界，自在为其自身而成为了唯一，这便是艺术存在本身与存在者们的“童年”共创性的存在，这种关注“物我相融”和“灵肉相依”的自在状态。正是这种“童话”文化的特质，将人类创造出各种独特的存在物，以最小的意义单位和独特的方式存在着，自在着，发展着，并且构成了各种复合体，也构成了一个文化的价值体系，还构成了一个有意义的世界，这就是艺术上的一种自在。

三、自由

在这个信息负荷过于沉重的时代，重要的东西与其说是思想的自由，不如说是方式的自由 — 自由地改造你的自身。把自由最大化的方法，是要理解那些表面看起来混乱的事物如何变得有序，更要理解复杂性如何产生一致性。

从吴梁焰以“童年”方式的表达中，可以感受到，他追求的是一种关乎于小与大、情与理、生与死、有与无等等“命题”之间进行了自由的延伸。每一件“童年”系列作品，都是一种思维活动的能量释放，把作品还原于“童真”的自由境界，可能是他的“足智多谋”使然。“童趣”的把玩也暗示了某种自由的法则。“童话”般的语言体现岀来他的思考与感悟，是人类不可抗拒的一种“原初、枯荣、生灭”的各种逻辑关系的体现。从这个意义上讲，艺术家吴梁焰的艺术之路正是延着他本人的自觉、艺术的自在和精神的自由这条“轨迹”前行着的。艺术家良好的状态，是一种人与自然、人与人、人与艺术之间的最佳契合理想。在这里所说的“童年”具有超越的意义，是一种哲学意义上的自由精神。“自觉、自在、自由”的存在状态，也可以说就是一种“艺术表达呈现方式”心物交融的自由境界。

当代艺术的发展趋势，从个人“自觉性”意识的逐步确立，到艺术“自在性“系统的不断完善；从公共化的“自由性”的广泛传播，到社会化“普遍性”的共享，这是一个艰难而漫长的过程。实验各种艺术语言与方法，最终还是要回到人类“自身”的生命关怀之中。作为“自由职业”的艺术家吴梁焰，能够在纷繁的当代艺术世界中找到属于自己的表现空间，能够清楚“自觉”地自我调整，能够建立“自在”的结构特征，实现艺术“自由”的表现形式，难能可贵！祝贺《童年 — 吴梁焰个展》取得圆满成功！

张国龙

中央美术学院实验艺术与科技艺术学院教授

2024年5月于北京

Consciousness, Comfortand Freedom: AnInterpretation of Wu Liangyan's Works

Recently, the video of the artist Wu Liangyan in transportation, exhibition arrangement and publicity has been automatically displayed in the WeChat Channel, and the scene of the "Childhood---Wu Liangyan Solo Exhibition" which is being held in the "Di Yuan Art Gallery" has been introduced and reported in a series of articles. The scale of the exhibition space, the number of works, and the intensity of publicity seem to have become a ‘hit’ place in the current art ecosystem. Also, such information volume publicity will make people "come to the scene" and works together to relive the "childhood" time, to bring everyone the memories of the past and innocent happiness. As the saying goes, "while the layman enjoys the show, the connoisseur recognizes the artistry." Where does Wu Liangyan's idea of "Childhood, Childishness, Fairy Tales" come from? How does he insist on the pleasure of artistic creation all the time and constitute such a systematic structure of the way of language expression? It is necessary to elaborate and interpret Wu Liangyan's artistic creation from the ‘professional’ level of experimental art.

I. Consciousness

Art creation is a continuous transformation process between individuals or groups. The result of its expression makes "individual" and group enter a constantly changing level, proving a kind of encounter, a change and a kind of rebirth. On the whole history of art creation development, there has always been a distinction between professional artists and free artists. The former is a kind of trained and clear academic inheritance, which can be analyzed and classified according to different categories and paradigms, while the latter is practiced and verified according to the artist's personality, special knowledge structure and unique expression mode. They are all physical existence, but also a variety of 'conscious' actions. Obviously, Wu Liangyan belongs to the latter, from the presentation of individual 'self' to the expression of ‘class self’ representing the times, and then to the common topic of 'humanity'. This is a kind of conscious awareness of the glory of humanity.

Wu Liangyan graduated from the Sculpture Department of Xiamen Academy of Arts and Design in Fujian Province in 2003. From his early works, he showed his great interest in the combination of modeling and “cartoon” expression, which made his works have an obvious sense of humor. The character of being diligent in thinking and seeking artistic change started the exploration journey of Wu Liangyan as an artist. In 2020, he went to the advanced study class of "Installation Art and Material Language" in the Experimental Arts College of Central Academy of Fine Arts to train him like a duck to water, during which he tried various experimental works and participated in different experimental art group exhibitions. All these experiences foreshadowed the continuous growth and transformation of his artistic creation style. For the future development of art, he has planted the seeds of continuous "growth" and the energy of continuous "strengthening", this is a conscious attitude of behavior.

The characteristic of experimental art is to look for new possibilities and create new growth points on the basis of the original art presentation. With a strong sense of responsibility and the persistent pursuit of art, ‘experimental art’ has led Wu Liangyan to embark on a never-ending path of artistic exploration. At the same time, he made himself and his works move to a larger field of space, and began a virtuous cycle of "self-conscious" growth and rebirth. Their constant "movement, change and transformation" constituted the conscious power of a living self-sufficiency music. This is the necessary course of artist's self-control and self-repair, self-discovery and self-improvement. This is a kind of conscious behavior in the way of art presentation.

II. Comfort

Generation, self-construction is identified. This kind of self-constructing comfort behavior will be accompanied by the whole process of the whole solution of the "The physical support of laboring, the endurance of pining and the intellectual discovery of a great insight." Of course, the best way of artistic expression is to transfer from the materialistic representation centered on the object to the human-centered material generation. In physics, the energy condensation between things forms the objective material environment on which the transformation and release depend, also known as the "field" of the mental state, which is regarded as another way of the existence of things. It has energy, momentum and mass, can transmit the interaction between objects, and can walk between the real world and the ideal world, which is the self-constructing ability of "Comfort".

From the image valued by the sculpture to the form of material production, from the reality provided by the image to the imagination brought by the non-image, these changes will make the audience interact from the static watching to the transformation from the idea to the behavior, which makes Wu Liangyan start a period of artistic journey of comfort again. He takes the “childhood” as the original motive of his art, combining his experience with the experience and tells it like it is. He expresses ‘childhood’ in terms of immersive experience and contextualization to diffuse, or rather systematically extend it on a large scale. In his expression" childhood", diffuse it in a way of immersive experience and contextualization, or large-scale extension in a systematic manner. The exhibition site of "childhood" makes full use of the platform of the public space to make the socialized communication reach the maximum scope, realize the free state of art popularization, and form the free life of "feeling and feeling" through interaction. Under the background of "Fairy Tale World", people are immersed in good memories, and even forget whether they are in real life or emotional memory.

Art, as the eternal theme of "childhood time", grows freely in this "childhood memory", and may also become the endless circulation of various "elements" of "childhood age", progressive and successive, realizing the context logic relationship of "comfort". The recurring process of presenting the 'world of childhood' is no longer just a 'memory' of this world, but it is 'this' world, existing in its own right and becoming unique, and is the co-creative existence of art itself and the "childhood" of the human being. This focus is on a state of comfort in which "the physical is in harmony with the physical". It is this quality of 'fairy tale' culture that creates a variety of unique beings that exist, comfort, and develops in the smallest unit of significance and in a unique way, and constitutes a variety of complexes. It also constitutes a cultural value system, and a world of meaning, this is an artistic comfort.

III. Freedom

In this age of information overload, the important thing is not so much the freedom of thought as the freedom of way-the freedom to transform yourself. The way to maximize freedom is to understand how seemingly chaotic things become orderly, and more so to understand how complexity produces consistency.

From Wu Liangyan's expression of "childhood", we can feel that his pursuit is a free extension between "proposals" concerning small and big, emotion and reason, life and death, existence and non-existence. Every "childhood" series of works is the energy release of a kind of thinking activity, restoring the works to the free realm of "childliness", which may be the result of his "witness and resourcefulness". The play of "childishness" also implies a certain kind of law of freedom. The language like "fairy tale" embodies his thinking and feeling, which is the embodiment of various logical relations of "original, withered and prosperous, birth and death" in this sense, artist Wu Liangyan's artistic path is exactly following the 'trajectory' of his own self-awareness, artistic freedom and spiritual freedom. The good state of the artist is an ideal of the best fit between man and nature, man and man, and man and art. The "childhood" here has a transcendental significance, is a philosophical sense of freedom spirit. The state of existence of "consciousness, comfort and freedom" can also be said to be a free realm of "the way of artistic expression".

The development trend of contemporary art is a long and difficult process, from the gradual establishment of individual "consciousness" to the continuous perfection of arts "comfort" system; from the wide spread of public "freedom" to the sharing of social universality. To experiment various artistic language and methods, it is necessary to return to the concern of human life. As a freelance artist, Wu Liangyan can find his own expression space in the complicated contemporary art world, can clearly "consciously" self-adjust, can establish the "freedom" structural characteristics, and realize the artistic "freedom" form of expression that is very valuable! Congratulations on the success of "Childhood---Wu Liangyan Solo Exhibition"!

Zhang Guolong

Professor, College of Experimental Art and Science and Art, Central Academy of Fine Arts

Beijing, May 2024