爱是朴素的也是复杂的，爱是普遍的也是深刻的。爱是艺术家关注并热衷于表达的主题，更是艺术史上弥久历新的咏唱篇章。虽然我们能从历史上找到很多关于爱的艺术经典，但是近年来艾敬的创作却给观众带来了全新的认识，让观赏者在耳目一新的同时更感受到爱的无限魔力和它对艺术创作的积极激发。

　　很多人说艾敬的视觉艺术创作是一种跨界，其实艺术创作本身就是一种跨界，它要求创作者要像哲学家一样思考，要像科学家一样钻研，要像文学家一样演绎，还要具备艺术家的超常想象力。艾敬在音乐上的天赋才能，使她关于视觉艺术的创作缘定天生，即如一件命中注定的事情。事实是艾敬在很早的时候就把艺术创作视为多侧面的工作，由此一方面在音乐、美术、文学等领域往来自由，一方面也形成了自我创作的丰富多样。

　　开始的时候艾敬很热衷于平面绘画的创制，迷恋于结构的秩序和色彩的多变；之后的艾敬转而由平面绘画出发，尝试以声音、影像、装置等综合性的手法来拓展自己艺术的表现力；近期的艾敬已经不再从单纯的语言形式思考入手，不再为了尝试而进行尝试，而是从综合走向综合，从实验走向观念。

　　艾敬的观念不是所谓的“玄学”，却是实在的存在，她通过对爱的执着探问，陈述了对精神情感的某种宣誓。因此，爱在艾敬眼中可以落实为色彩的语言、穿插的结构、坚硬的边线、粗糙的质感，也可以积极转化为情感的理念、悲悯的情怀、人性的挣扎、和平的希冀、战争的哀伤。从某种程度上，艾敬的观念就是爱之彻底的立场、毫不畏惧的坚持以及不为所动的淡定，也正因为如此，艾敬的创作开始超离艺术创作的既有领域和规定程式，从全新的角度发展出自我的路径，结构出自由自在的法则。

　　作为某种的集中呈现，艾敬有意识地选择国家博物馆来举办自己的第一个大型个人艺术展览。艾敬想用一种综合化的方式去展现自己的思考维度和多样化的艺术方法论。一些作品反映了个人的持续性思考的线索，譬如《Sound of New York》是对“爱”的深层关怀，但其创作具有了更强的实验指向性。艾敬通过对纽约最高地点和最低地点的声音采录，力图去揭示人生的痛苦和喜悦，而这件作品的实验性既充分强调了视觉艺术和声音艺术的混同的可能性，又保留了两者的独立魅力，体现了当代艺术家的综合能力。作品《枪和玫瑰》，同样延续着艾敬关于“爱”的主题和对平面艺术的兴趣，“更接近我的音乐作品《我的1997》的创作”，但是艾敬更意图“以大众熟悉的历史事件和时间包括人物为元素，以个人的立场重新定义这个事件的含义”，于是她一边大量运用起人们耳熟能详的图像资料和文化符号，一边又以“Love”的书写性覆盖去“二次创作”，“赋予作品新的艺术含义”。

　　艾敬对于装置艺术的兴趣与日俱增，这一点在本次展览中有着突出的呈现。艾敬认为艺术创作本身应该不受媒介的支配，就像她从不在意自己究竟是音乐家还是画家那样。她追求的就是自由的创作，不受任何的拘束，任凭想象力的驰骋。装置艺术的迷人还在于对观念的强大阐释以及对空间的占有欲望，由此更能够激发起艺术家的创作能力。

　　《海浪》和《每一扇门里都有鲜花》，反映的是艾敬在艺术创作上的宽阔的思想资源。《海浪》的灵感来自日本浮世绘画家葛饰北斋，但是传统的样式经典只是她创作的某种激励，艾敬追求的并非是对传统的顶礼膜拜，还是在更深入的思考之后将其转化为自我观念的图腾。艾敬说“这个‘海浪’更多的是对于心境的描绘”，“是一种既不是写实也不是抽象”的意象境界。如果说“海浪”是关于东方文化精神的观念转呈的话，那么“每一扇门里都有鲜花”更杂糅了多种文化元素，针对的是文化间的交融和并存的文化立场。艾敬以具有历史感的中国、印度尼西亚、欧洲大陆的门户为创作素材，既力图展现历史文化的不同来源，又通过当代性的现实体验去揭示历史与当下的复杂关系，追索文化间的分享精神和彼此认同。

　　在我看来，装置作品《生命之树》和《棋子》是关于“爱”的深度延伸。前者是将“爱”泛化为对人类生存环境的热忱关切，“当代中国人以惊人的速度在前行，然而生存环境的损失是令人痛心和需要反思的”；后者则是借助中国围棋的样式，去思考历史文化的错综格局，隐含着艺术家对和平的希冀、对和谐的向往，最终落实到人文主义的深度关怀。《生命之树》和《棋子》的共同之处还在于作品的包容性和开放度，艾敬希望这些作品能够建立起一种和观赏者之间的互动关系，并且借助于这样的互动关系走进观众的心灵，从而激发起大家的真诚愿望和美好想象。

　　艾敬的《My Mom and My Hometown》，可以说是对“爱”的朴素而真诚的一次礼赞。艺术家想带领我们回到遥远的记忆之中，感受到那些沉在心底却弥足珍贵的情愫。对应于这样的创作初衷，艾敬选择了“针织”的方式去仔细地谱写出关于“爱”的情感篇章。于是，旧毛线不再是旧毛线的本身，它的质感既是温柔的也是有温度的，而“针织”不再是无意义的手工，更像是母亲的手的劳作，记录着岁月的渐渐流逝，并伴随着我们的成长。事实上艾敬还以作品“针织”的绵长结构将“爱无尽”的主题娓娓道来，它预示着爱的永恒价值，以及艺术对爱的理念的永恒追问。
 

　　Love is plain yet complicated. Love is also common yet profound. Love is a topic that draws artists’ attention. Artists like to work on the topic of love and have left countless works in this genre. Ai Jing’s works bring us something new. In her fresh way she shows us the magic power of love and how love leads to the creation of art.

　　Many say that Ai Jing’s visual works arethe kind that straddles. If fact, art itself straddles. It requires its creator to think like a philosopher, to study like a scientist, to interpret like a man of letters and to have super creativity like an artist. Ai Jing’s talent in music has prepared her for her success in visual art. It seems predestined. Ai Jing has always created art in multiple dimensions. She thus walks freely between music, fine arts and literature and has created works of great diversity.

　　Ai Jing was keen on painting in the beginning. She was infatuated with order and color. She then triedusing sounds, videos and installations to expand her repertoire of artistic expression. Recently Ai Jing no longer focuses on form and no longer experiments for experimentation’s sake. She has moved from integration to integration and from experimentation to conceptualization.

　　Ai Jing’s concepts are not metaphysical but real. She inquires about love and makes statements on the spiritual level. To her, love could be a language of colors, a structure of intersecting parts, a hard border or a rough touch. Love concerns emotion, feeling, struggle, wish for peace and grief from war. For Ai Jing love is thorough and requires fearless persistence and indifferent calm. She has abandoned territorial rules and formats of art. Instead, she has developed her own path and made her own rules.

　　Ai Jing has chosen the National Museum to hold her first major exhibition so as to show her works in its entirety. Ai Jing wants us to seein an integrated way the dimensions of her thoughts and her methodology of artistic diversity. Some of her works reflect thoughts that occupy her mind, such as Sound of New York, which concerns love and is quite experimental. She recorded sounds from the highest and lowest points of New York City and tries to reveal life’s pain and joy. Here she makes it possible to mix visual and sound elements while at the same time allow them to keep their independence. It manifestscontemporary artists’ ability to integrate. Guns and Roses is a continuation of her interest in the topic of love and in graphic art, a piece “closer to my music work My1997”. But here her intention is more of “using familiar historical events, time and figures as elements to redefine the significance of an event from an individual’s point of view”. So she uses video images and cultural symbols in great quantity, and writes “Love” again and again to “recreate” and to “give new meaning to old works”.

　　In this exhibition we see that Ai Jing is becoming more and more interested in installation art. She does not believeart needs to be limited by its media, just as she does not care whether you call her a musician or a painter. When creating art she strives for freedom—to be constrained by nothing and let imagination fly. Installation art makes strong conceptual statementand claims a large space, therefore induces creativity.

　　Wave and Flowers behind Every Doormarkthe breadth of her spiritual resources. The inspiration for Wave has come from the Japanese ukiyo-e painter Katsushika Hokusai. However, classical works in traditional style are only an inspiration for her, nothing more. She is not preoccupied with paying homage to tradition. She is more interested in putting in her own thinking and transforming tradition into a totem of self-realization. Ai Jing saidWave is “more of a description of state of mind”, and is a realm of images “neither realistic nor abstract”. If Wave concerns more with Eastern cultural essence, then Flowers behind Every Door is more of a mixture of multi-cultural elements. It shows the blending and co-existence of cultures. Ai Jing used old doors from China, Indonesia and continental Europe to show the different sources of culture and to shed light on the complex relation between our past and our present. She tries to find the common ground between cultures and to see how different cultures can identify with each other.

　　To me, Tree of Life and Board Pieces are about the extension of “love”. Tree of Life generalizes “love” to concerns for our environment: “Contemporary China is moving forward at an astonishing speed, yet we are sad to see its disastrous effect on our environment, something well worth our reflection.” Go is a Chinese board game and Board Piecesuses the game’s form to reflect on complex historical and cultural patterns. One sees here artist’s wish for peace and harmony—also a humanist concern. Both works are noted for their inclusiveness and openness. Ai Jing wishes to engage her audience—to walk into their hearts in order to arouse their kind wishes and to bring out their imagination.

　　My Mum and My Hometown is a praise of simple and sincere love. She leads us back into her distant memory and makes us share her precious moments. For such an end, she has chosen the means of “knitting” to talk about love. Old yarn is no longer old yarn. They are gentle and warm. “Knitting” is no longer meaningless handcraft, but a mother’s labor that records the pass of time and our growth. The long piece of “knitting” also hints at love’s being without limit. Love is forever valuable and art will never stop examining love.

作者：赵力