当下文化观念的开放性和艺术形态的多维化，使东西方各艺术门类的外沿具有了不断拓展延伸并相互交融的动因。近几年，我除了沿袭自己熟悉的水墨、线描表现形式外，由于创作理念的突破，促使我先后涉及雕塑和油画等表现形式，这些作品从材质到表现都呈现了特有的边缘性。这种表现形式的拓展，无疑有助于我重构自己的艺术创作形态。

　　2006年下半年，我曾实验性地用宣纸拓塑的形式，创作了一组表现当代女性意象的系列浮雕作品。我使用“拓塑”这一新词组，缘于其成型的制作方式和过程有别于“纸塑”和“纸浆成型”，这一制作工艺具有非常鲜明中国民间特性。

　　说明纸雕作品的创作理念和制作有两个层面：一是精神文化层面，二是材料表现层面，而二者是互为依托的。旧有文化理念在继承的同时又不断被消解和转换的今天，在叙述我们不得不借用旧有的词汇，比如我们习惯说的“题材”、“表现对象”，在我的作品里应当是呈现一种意象状态，只能说，我作品表现的是“牡丹意象”。牡丹这种已被诗化的花卉承载着中国普通百姓和传统文人认定的精神及文化品格。当然，这当中也呈现着多维的精神向度，特别是在当下语境中，其表象特征可“借用”而衍生为更具自我的诠释。我的取象表现为中国传统绘画的大写意牡丹，中国大写意花鸟画的出现是中国绘画史上在精神和表现上的一次解放，文人画所推崇的简雅、奇倔、纵恣、畅神、偶然在充满激情的挥写中得到淋漓尽致的表现。我特别喜欢徐渭、吴昌硕、齐白石写意牡丹在表现上的自由行和高格的文化内涵。可以这样认为，他们在一定程度上是在“借用”中作自我表现的“诠释”。也可以说我的泥稿在表现上承接了这一传统的意度，应该算是“写意浮雕”。

　　当然，作为当代艺术家面对文化已经已发生大变化的今天，我的这组作品绝不是对传统苍白的诠释和简单的承接。我更愿意张扬当代雕塑艺术语言自身的表现特性及人性本我真实的一面。在继承的同时又消解着中国传统元素，使我的作品呈现传统和当代的双重维度。让传统牡丹意象在消解、转换过程中得到当代性重构。

　　同样，上述的创作理念也必然要呈现在材料和表现形式上。首先，我采用的浮雕和圆雕形式古老而又本质，尽管我们曾企图颠覆这种形式。材料是通过泥、石膏转换为最后呈现的纸品，而所用的纸均为中国最传统的安徽成品宣纸，成品宣纸具有深厚而鲜明的中国传统文化品质，成品宣纸自身就是一个文化符号。宣纸自身的形成就是自然材料消解、转换并重构的过程。手工宣纸具有长久的保存性，古语称：“纸寿千年”。这就是我为什么拒绝用其他纸质材料，拒绝用纸浆(哪怕是宣纸纸浆)的理由。因为这样会消解最为珍贵的中国文化元素，消解了已沉积在国人心灵深处的那份慰藉。作品制作从泥稿、浇模到拓塑，我都强调手工工艺，尽可能排除机械和现代工具。我想真切地体验心、手、泥、石膏、纸之间交流的过程，因为这一过程在传统的人文精神被物化的今天已显奢侈。

　　我的整个创作是精神和物质在消解、转换的过程中得到再生性的重构。首先，我用陶泥来作写意画，利用泥的柔畅性凸显表现的直接性，在作泥稿的过程中，每一块泥我都视作毛笔饱蘸墨色直取形，绝少重复堆塑，保留泥在用手、用锤、用刀在一瞬间产生的运行原态，体现创作过程中的激情，让泥敏锐地留下彼时的心迹。作泥稿时的大刀阔斧彰显一种雄博粗放的气度，加上足够大的体量尺寸，有关东大汉摇板击鼓歌：“大江东去”之雄浑。免却了作花卉易陷于玲珑剔透、精雕细刻的小家气，从而消解了传统绘画中牡丹娇艳柔美的审美定性，但却留住了中国传统大写意花卉的表现特性，在保全传统文化精神内核的根基上重构审美形态的当代性。

　　在泥稿完成后，我用石膏将泥稿浇铸为阴模，石膏对形质细腻的敏感保留了泥稿的原态，石膏材质明快的特性和硬度，对陶泥的柔性、涩性在审美意度上相应作了又一次切换。最后的制作，我采用安徽成品宣纸在石膏阴模上由内向外用手工多层拓贴，使用的粘合剂为裱画用的浆糊(加矾防腐)而不用化学胶水，在细节上尽量保持传统手工材料的单纯，拓贴的第一层、第二层为安徽泾县生产的生宣纸，生宣纸的吸水性和表面光洁细腻敏感地留下了石膏阴模上形的微妙激励，再后多层我采用同一地方生产的具有一定拉力的富含韧性纤维的皮纸，增加作品的塑性和强度。由于泥稿创作时随意性强，体形变化十分复杂，待纸板彻底晾干后，必须采用敲掉石膏的方式脱模，其中小部分石膏陷入凹形内无法取出，我作了有意保留，这种保留直接呈现了材料和工艺的转换过程。其结果是作品具备了唯一性。

　　在创作和制作过程中，当看到石膏模具中留着我鲜活生命痕迹的那最后一块泥稿黏土被水冲掉后；当看到被敲掉的有这独特材质感和负空间视觉效果的石膏模具时，都曾让我感受到失落和惋惜。但是，当那每件不过数千克纸质成型作品呈现在我眼前时，成品宣纸那特有的白色和材质感使作品显得格外清雅和高贵，显得格外的洁净和单纯，骨子里透出一种东方式的优雅，我为那曾赋予过她们生命而又复归于泥的二十多吨陶土，以及那破碎的数吨模具石膏感到慰藉，因为她们同我创作时的整个身心历程都共同留在了那一片片纸上，那片洁白和轻盈也留下了老庄的玄思，留下了属于我的鲜活而淡泊的生命痕迹。

　　由于这组作品具有平面和立体的双重性，特别是实体纸品拓塑形成的正负空间及材质的轻盈性，使该作品的展示方案具备了多向多维的自由度。

　　宣纸拓塑创作是我整体艺术探索的一个过程和构成部分。其消解、转换、重构的理念是当代艺术最本质的特性之一。我将在学术理念上、特别在与其他材料链接上作更进一步的延伸。

　　Reinterpretation, Transformation, Reconstruction

　　Currently, the liberal outlook on culture and the increasing diversity of art as such are not only extending the boundaries of art but also promoting the integration of art in the east and west. In recent years, thanks to the liberation of my mind as an artist, I began to experiment with diverse media including sculpture and oil painting instead of sticking to the familiar ink painting and line drawing. This has resulted in a body of cross-boundary works that are hard to categorize in terms of both the material and the method of expression. The widened scope of expression is definitely beneficial for the reshaping of my artistic creation.

　　In the latter half of the year 2006, I began to experiment with Xuan paper “rubbing-molding” technique, which led to a relief series depicting contemporary women. I coined the term “rubbing-molding” to refer to my new technique, which shows distinctive characteristics of Chinese folk art and embodies procedures and methods quite different from that of “paper sculpture” and “pulp-molding”.

　　Any explanation of the paper sculpture involves two interrelated dimensions, namely, the mental and cultural dimension and the material dimension. Currently, old cultural notions, though undergoing constant reinterpretation and transformation, have to be borrowed to refer to new things. Old words and expressions such as “subject matter” and “object” actually refer to images in my works. Therefore, I prefer to say that my works show “images” of peony. Peony is a flower that recalls numerous poems, which infuses it with particular spiritual and cultural qualities easily appreciable by both the ordinary people and the traditional literati. Such an image, however, also embodies multi-dimensional significances, especially in contemporary society where physical qualities may be “appropriated” to symbolize spiritual qualities. The image I appropriate is the free-style peony in the traditional Chinese painting. The birth of traditional free-style flower and bird painting symbolizes a spiritual liberation in the history of Chinese painting. With this particular genre, the qualities of simple elegance, peculiarity, free imagination, and chance are given full expression through energetic gestures. My favorite works are those free-style ink peonies by Xu Wei, Wu Changshuo, and Qi Baishi, which stand out as example of free expression and lofty cultural connotations. To some extent, these artists are “interpreting” their own individual spirits by “borrowing” from tradition. My mud drafts inherit this expressive tradition; therefore can be classified as “free-style sculptures”.

　　Created in a time when culture is undergoing swift changes, this series are neither boring interpretations nor simple successors of tradition. I prefer to emphasize the expressive qualities of the art of contemporary sculptures and reveal human nature as it is. Inheriting and reinterpreting the elements of tradition, my works are at the same time traditional and contemporary, in which the traditional images of peony are reconstructed.

　　At the same time, these ideas should be realized through materials and other means of expression. First, I focus on reliefs and sculptures that look primitive and essential, qualities rejected by Chinese artists some time ago. Based on the mud or plaster models, I use the most traditional kind of paper, Xuan paper made in Anhui, which, bearing distinctive characteristics of traditional culture, is itself a symbol of this culture. What’s more, the production of Xuan paper embodies the processes of dissolution, transformation, and reconstruction. Plus, as an old adage has it, “paper lasts for a thousand years”. Handmade Xuan paper is enduring. These are some of the reasons why I prefer Xuan paper instead of other paper-based materials and paper pulp, including Xuan paper pulp. Otherwise, the most valuable elements of Chinese culture, those that comfort the hearts of the Chinese will disappear. From the creation of the mud draft, the casting process, to the final procedures of rubbing-molding, I stick to handmade techniques, rejecting machinery or other modern tools. In so doing, I hope to experience the interaction among the mind, the hand, the mud, the plaster, and the paper, which has already become a luxury in modern society where the traditional humanistic spirits have been materialized.

　　The whole creative process of mine is the rebirth and reconstruction of the spirit and the materials in the process of reinterpretation and transformation. First, I use clay to make free-style paintings, giving full play to the immediacy of the soft clay as a means of expression. When making the mud-draft, I treat every piece of clay as if I were painting with a brush saturated with ink. I seldom reshape or “correct” my drafts, trying to retain the natural form of clay in the instant when it is shaped by the hand, the hammer, or the knife. By doing so, I hope to express the enthusiastic creation process and leave the mark of my moods and emotions in the clay. The bold and enthusiastic gestures embodied while making the mud draft and the large scale of the works show magnificent roughness, which reminds one of a rough man in the east of Shanhaiguan singing the song “Eastward Flows the Changjiang River”, accompanying himself on the drum. This may help to infuse a sense of grandeur into the usually elaborate and subtle peonies, deconstructing the fixed image of peonies as delicately beautiful flowers in traditional paintings. In so doing, the aesthetic perspectives of the flower is renovated while the essence of traditional culture is retained.

　　After finishing the mud draft, I cast it with plaster, a fine-textured material highly sensitive to shapes. The pleasing simplicity and hardness of plaster brings about an aesthetic transformation on the basis of the soft and coarse clay. Finally, I paste and rub Anhui Xuan paper onto the plaster mold with rice paste (using alum as antiseptic) which is often used in the mounting of traditional Chinese paintings. I try to retain the simple nature of traditional handmade materials. The first and second layers consist of raw Xuan paper made in Jingxian County, Anhui Province. This kind of paper is fine-textured and can absorb water, therefore able to show the subtle marks of the plastic mold. The outer layers consist of bast paper made of elastic fiber to increase plasticity and strength. The production of the mud draft is unpredictable and may result in various complicated variations in the shape. When the paper dries, the plaster mold has to be hammered off in order to get the final sculpture. I deliberately keep the plaster left in the recesses. By doing so, the transformation of the material and the technique leaves its mark in the final work, and each work becomes a unique one.

　　In the whole process, I experience senses of loss and pity while the last patch of the clay of the mud draft is washed away from the plastic mold, which bore traces of a certain part of my life, or while looking at the removed plastic molds with their distinctive texture and negative space. However, when the finished work, which weights about several kilograms, is revealed, I may feel relieved for the twenty tons of clay and the several tons of broken plastic molds, aware that they have left their marks on those pieces of paper, together with all the physical and mental experiences of mine during the process. The snow-white and light surface also embodies at the same time the metaphysical ideas of Zhuangzi and the fresh and simple marks of my life.

　　With both flat and three-dimensional characteristics, plus the positive and negative spaces created in the rubbing and molding process of real paper and the lightness of the material, this series allows possibility of multi-dimensional and multi-directional display.

　　Xuan paper rubbing-molding is an integral part of my artistic exploration. The ideas embodied in these works, namely, reinterpretation, transformation, and reconstruction are the most essential qualities of art today. I will go further in the pursuit of artistic ideas and more various materials.

作者：张修竹