在英文中，自然（nature）和文化（culture）有着直接而有趣的联系，后者是施加于前者的“栽培”、“耕作”，以及由此而来的“文化”和“教养”。邓国源专门为本次新加坡双年展创作的《诺亚花园2》即是对此命题的一个颇具意味的表现。

　　In the English language, nature and culture have an immediate and fascinating connection: the latter signifies a kind of "cultivation" imposed on the former, which in turn generates culture and knowledge. The work "Noah's Garden II", which was specifically created for the Singapore Biennale by Deng Guoyuan, is a meaningful reflection on this theme.

　　中国园林是中国士大夫阶层对自然加以模仿、改造的一个文化典范，将建筑、文学、书画、雕刻和工艺等集于一炉，是一个有形的物质的园和无形的精神的场。邓国源的花园装置挪用了造园的方式，呈现了传统和当代视角的转变和差异，以及绘画、雕塑、建筑等传统艺术门类和装置之间的对话和对比。

　　The classical Chinese garden is a cultural model of the Chinese Literati class imitating and modifying nature, which draws on architecture, literature, painting, calligraphy, sculpture, and handcrafted art to make a garden of tangible corporeal material as well as a setting for intangible spirits. Deng's garden installation appropriates the methods of landscape architecture and reveals the discrepancies and transformations between a contemporary perspective and a classical one. Also, it creates a dialogue and contrast between different traditional classes of art and installation, such as painting, sculpture, and architecture.

　　这是一个由植物、假山组成的花园，也是一个用镜子构成的迷宫。步入这个装置，人们像是进入了万花筒，在被不断复制的镜像之中，会有主体消失的感觉，而不是在万花筒外置身事外地冷静欣赏。

　　This is a garden made of plants and scholar stones, and a labyrinth built with mirrors. By stepping into this installation, people are immersed into a kaleidoscope space. By experiencing the constant replication of images in the mirrors, people feel a dislocation of self, in contrast to appreciating everything calmly from outside the kaleidoscope.

　　观众进入其中，美好的童年记忆和游戏感会被唤起，也会产生乌托邦的联想，但同时会有疑惑和迷茫：自己究竟身在何处？眼睛所见哪一处是真实，哪一处是虚幻？一如一直以来人类对整个外部世界进行探索时的那种不确定的心理状态，所以人类需要制作地图加以确认。但是，这件作品同时也让我们质疑了人类对世界的认知和地图制作的真实性、准确性。这件作品让人们感受到了探索未知世界过程中的那种怀疑的，不确定的和不可名状的心理状态，它创造了一个乌托邦，同时也在自我消解。

　　In such a place, the visitors' childhood memories and a sense of playfulness arise, as does an association with utopian space, but with it comes a sense of confusion and being lost: physically where are we? How does one distinguish the real from the illusory in what is seen? As humans we experience a psychological uncertainty during exploration of the external world, and have a need to make a map to reconfirm the world we know. This work causes people to experience the same kind of doubt, uncertainty, and ineffable psychological states while exploring this unknown world. It creates a utopia, while engulfing itself at the sametime.

　　在《诺亚花园2》中，艺术家做出了关键性调整，把他以往花园装置作品中使用的梅、兰、竹、菊、松等自然植物换成了假植物，并涂以炫目的色彩。另外，艺术家还特别带入了地图的概念。假植物的色彩和假山上的点、线和色块都来自世界地图，象征了不同地貌、地域和国家的色彩在此失去了原本的识别功能。

　　In "Noah's Garden II", the artist made a crucial adjustment by replacing natural vegetation, such as plum trees, orchids, bamboo, chrysanthemum, and pine trees, which were used in his garden installations before, with fake plants coated in dazzling colours. Moreover, the artist has specifically introduced the concept of the map into the work. The fake plant colors and the points, lines, and colors on the scholar stoneare based on a map of the world. The colours, which symbolize different landscapes, territories, and countries, lose their original identifying function here.

　　从艺术家最初使用经过墨染的、传统文化中最具代表性的真实花草造园，到本次作品中以浓妆艳抹的假植物代替，造园这样一种寄情山水、充满诗情画意的风雅之举，如今变成了对艳俗的工业产品的组合和波普式的戏谑，花园成了游乐园。这是对人类和自然山水渐行渐远的关系的弥补，还是对人类大肆破坏和掠夺自然的行为的粉饰？显然，人类对自然的所作所为不再是以往那样“栽培、耕作”进而“文化”和“教养”的。

　　From originally using ink to stain real plants, which is the material most representative of traditional Chinese culture, to create a garden, to replacing them with "makeup heavy" fake plants, the artist has tried in his work to transform landscape gardening from a type of elegant, poetic act in the abandoning of oneself to nature, to a process that combines gaudy industrial products with a Pop-Art-style banter. The garden turns into an amusement park. Is this a remedy for the gradual estrangement between humans and nature, or a whitewashing of our excessive exploitation and destruction of nature? Apparently, mankind's mastery over nature is no longer based on "cultivation" or, even more pointedly, culture and knowledge as it was before.

作者：项丽萍