吕顺的绘画，一直饱含着一种独有的情绪，这种情绪，没有顾虑重重后的隐晦和含蓄，以及无动于衷的麻木和淡漠，而是愤怒和激越的直刺人心，以求一针见血。这种特质，使他的作品犀利如刀、清晰如镜，对当下文化语境中的人性进行准确和深入的剖析，痛谴、警诫，进而发出不祥的预言，虽然逆耳刺目，却因其真切而令人心惊。

　　吕顺自幼学习绘画，并有扎实的基础，但后来进入北京电影学院学习摄影，并参与了大量的电影实践。这种影像专业的系统知识背景，是大多数当代画家所不具备的，同时，也是作为画家的吕顺得天独厚的优势。但对于生存状况的敏感体验，以及旺盛的表达欲，却是作为一个渴盼本真生存的存在者和艺术家的吕顺的一贯气质。他对没有起码生存保障可言的底层平民生存状态有深重的切身体会，而且作为北京这个国际大都市的渺小个体，耳闻目睹和亲身经历了在苦苦挣扎中人性的种种临界状况……这些经验和体会，对他的艺术创作起了非常重要的作用，他摒弃种种粉饰太平的虚假美学观念和手法，不避讳和掩盖种种触目惊心的丑陋与沉沦，唯求真切地传达他所体悟的生存实况，并在表达方面力求达到极限，以具有深层穿透力，进而振聋发聩。

　　2000年以后的作品，如《动物的快感》、《我们面对谁的世界》等，是血泪交融之作。他的画面更像一个戈雅般的无边梦魇世界，充满动荡不安、危机四伏的气息，各种丑陋的魑魅魍魉潮涌而来，在低等动物式的本能欲望驱使下扭曲变形为异种生物，互相倾轧、撕咬、侵吞……这批语言粗犷的画作，腐臭和绝望的气息非常浓重，吕顺的愤怒与悲观意识毫不掩饰地倾泻出来。在他的眼中，这个世界污秽不堪，是一个弱肉强食的欲望漩涡，陷于其中的人，处于极端非理性的迷狂与谵妄之中，在贪婪、残暴的肮脏泥淖中越陷越深，万劫不复地沉沦下去。这批作品，是一个在衣食无着中苦苦挣扎和坚持的艺术家的真切经验的外化，在这种底层生存状态中，人性裸露的更为鲜明，对生存的认识也经由炼狱般的洗礼而更为深刻。更为重要的是，身居北京宋庄的他当时身处社会阶层金字塔的底端，又如游魂或波德莱尔所谓的“游手好闲者”般在大都市与小村镇中游荡逡巡，多方印证，他穿透种种主流话语的美丽谎言和虚伪的乌托邦迷雾，直觉地把握到了社会阶层差距之巨大和生存法则的残酷无情，以及在当下的文化-意识形态氛围之中的普泛化心理特征——以世俗欲望的无尽催生与张扬为中心，肉体化的享乐主义、冷酷的唯我论与精神的虚无并行。认识到这些问题，并不困难，但只有设身处地的体会到其中的种种切肤之痛，才能对这些问题有深切的乃至刻骨铭心的体会。正因为吕顺有了这种深度体验，才能让他的作品有可能蕴含如此饱满而真切的情绪。也正是这种深度体验，才让吕顺能在以症候式批判为主的当代艺术丛林中占有一席之地。

　　这批作品以情绪的真切和饱满而动人，但它们主要是艺术家的直觉情绪的本能渲泄。在此基础上，吕顺进一步推进他的深度体验，并逐渐融入了更多的理性思考。艺术家的思考，总是以一定的语言来进行的思考，作为掌握多种艺术语言的艺术家，他开始思考绘画与摄影、电影的本体性差异，并突出这种差异。对电影、摄影中光的理解，以及对绘画本体性力量的发挥，在他以花、猪、蛙为母题的作品中得到了进一步的发挥。

　　在这批作品中，一种四处闪烁的微光让他的画面具有一种冰冷、阴郁而莫可名状的心理特质，用笔、用色则更为细腻而敏感，与心理的微妙悸动直接关联。语言的推进，总是与一定的文化认知有所关联。在最近的几年，中国政府三十年的经济改革似乎形成了举世瞩目的成就，中国的政治地位也随之上升，国民的文化自信心前所未有地膨胀，盛世欢颜成为官方话语的基调。但正如上文所言，底层生存的真切体验和刻骨铭心的记忆，使吕顺对占总人口绝大多数的平民满怀悲悯之心，继而对骄奢淫逸者有无尽的愤怒。所以，他对这些冠冕堂皇的话语不但不以为然，而且满怀悲忧与危机感，虽然看似阳光明媚，心中的阴霾却难以驱散，似乎整个世界随时会陷落。尤其在近期，随着各种自然灾害和全球性金融海啸的屡屡发生，这种危机感正在日渐蔓延而有成为一种时代情绪的可能，对此，吕顺有生动的描述：“在当下这种巨型‘摩登’都市里，每天你走在任何一个角落，都会有一种感觉，就是危机感。比如，当我开车在公路上行驶时，有一种莫名的恐惧、可怕之感，好像随时随地都会发生危险。”

　　同时，真切的现场经验使吕顺意识到，在当下的文化语境中，高尚的道德、尊贵的信仰和深远的精神追求都被世俗的享乐主义践踏在脚下，透支未来的及时行乐和不顾他者的唯我论应运而生。除了功利性外没有任何社会责任感、义务感的“自我实现”似乎是高贵而健康的追求；穷奢极欲大快朵颐的身体因营养过剩引起的肉体病变发愁，却不会为他者因贫困而苦苦挣扎在生死线上损其胃口；私己的快感、工于算计的交换性关系使基于商谈伦理、真诚性要求和理想言谈情境的交往理性举步维艰。而且，这种享乐主义本身也是令人质疑的，因为快乐是多元的、多维度的、流动、变化、生成的，而非一味沉溺于感官享乐中。当身体被感官消费所编码、快乐被文化工业所塑型、欲望被知识话语所改装时，人其实已变成了快乐怪物。

　　吕顺敏感于世俗欲望的种种无度放纵及其自杀式后果，面对这种被编码化的饕餮恶欲的变本加厉式泛滥，他将个人的激愤和悲凄转化为创作的动力，用特有的笔法赋予这些形象以一种黏稠而湿冷之感，从而把它们肉身化、流体化、欲望化。花成为了淫欲之花，猪、蛙则是在潮湿、腐臭的污泥浊水之中生存的肮脏之物。这些形象的湿淋淋或热烘烘的质感令人浑身起栗，避之唯恐不及。吕顺用颤动的纷乱线条对画面进行切割，使得形象与空间完全破碎、纷乱而毫无确定性。这个冰冷、阴郁的污浊空间中，充满令人生厌的肮脏与腐臭气息，色彩虽然以高纯度的绿、蓝为主，却并非纯洁明媚充满生机，而是如肮脏积水表层的泛绿泡沫和妖异空间的不祥冷光，充满阴冷绝望的气息。花、猪、蛙在冷酷而不祥的光线和破碎污秽的“酒池肉林”中恍惚悠游地盛开、生长，除了日益腐烂与沉沦下去，别无它途，但它们自身却浑然不觉充塞天地的危机和死亡气息。吕顺以此来隐喻他眼中的当下现实，也以此来宣泄他对物欲横流的现状的愤怒与悲哀。

　　吕顺的激愤与悲凄，主要来源于他对当下世俗欲望的洞察，在这些欲望的不断催生与无尽泛滥下，这个世界愈来愈扭曲变形，成为一个巨大的破碎迷宫。随着这种洞察的进一步深化与明晰，在吕顺忧郁的眼神中，它越来越令人不安，充满危机并随时有可能分崩离析。罪恶的欲望使澄澈明净的心灵一天天迷失与蒙蔽，并使这个世界成为一个罪恶世界，不在天火的袭击下灰飞烟灭，也会在自身的罪性驱使下自掘坟墓。“当下，社会的经济水平是发展了，但我却感觉身边每个角落都可能是陷阱。尤其是在北京这个大都市，好象随时都有危机感，脚下踩得已经不再是往昔曾经踏实的大地，而是随时都可能分崩离析。除了在母体的羊水中之外，人生最安全的地方在哪里？”（吕顺自述）他没有选择从众式的沉沦，而是冷眼旁观这个世界，将他的忧郁与悲伤外化为触目惊心的画面，充当一个不讨人喜欢的预言者，以谶语来警示人群。这在他2008年的新作中明显地体现出来。巨大的都市充满冷灰与铁青色的迷雾，林立的大厦死气沉沉，车辆在空旷的高架桥上撞击为渣滓，具有神秘色彩的巨大球体横亘眼前……这些都具有明显的废墟和死亡意向。《消失的城市》系列中，以千疮百孔、死气沉沉的荒芜星球和仅存的猫为象征，情感的力度强化到令人窒息的地步。选择猫，是意味深长的，无论在西方还是东方，猫都是一种对灾难具有预知能力的灵异动物；而且，猫往往有较强的躲避灾难能力，故而有“九条命”之说。但当这个星球上最后只剩下一两只孤零零的猫时，其实也是生命的最后残喘。而且，连这一两只猫，都看似猫与猴的变异物种。吕顺在这一系列作品中突出了迷雾的力量，这浓厚而莫测的迷雾笼罩了整个画面，曾经清澈而生机勃勃的世界不复存在；而且，它又如涛涛大洪水般扑面而来，一切曾经生存过的丰盛物种都被湮没而无迹可寻……在浩瀚而孤寂的星空下，地球上残存的生物在灭亡之前对这个被人类自毁的星球进行绝望的最后一瞥。在欲望的放纵无度下，自诩为万物灵长、宇宙尺度的人类终于彻底地、无可救药地走向灭亡。

　　作为一个严肃而有责任感的艺术家，应以理想主义的存在观为潜在基准，密切关注社会、文化现场，对各种症候进行力所能及的把握与批判，敏锐地提出问题以引起反思。吕顺的这种愈来愈强化的危机感，其实并非杞人忧天，而是对一种时代情绪的捕捉。在今天，虽然经济看似繁荣，但资源日渐匮乏，贫困、疾病人群大量存在，环保、教育、社会保障、城乡关系等方面严重滞后……但不具备文化合法性的种种世俗欲望却如此的泛滥。而且，欲望之火可以在瞬间被生产和激发，但它一旦产生，就在心灵中扎根，要将其彻底扑灭、清除是非常难以达到的。人可以明确意识到它的意识形态性和不合法性，却未必能摆脱欲望的控制。对于当下的欲望和存在经验，吕顺敏锐地捕捉和深度体验，并将它们强化和推演，用充满绝望气息的画面来警示观者。这一方面是对时代基本情绪的传达和反思，另一方面也是作为先知先觉者的预警——“这个时代看上去很平静，但可能其实已经在潜移默化地发生转变，动物已经感到了恐惧，已经承受不了这种压力了，但人类还处于麻木的醉生梦死状态而未觉察到。”

　　Lv Shun’s painting has always been filled with an unique emotion, which has no obscureness and cannotation behind hard consideration, no numbness and indifference, but anger and profound sharpness to hit people on the raw. Such characteristic makes his work as sharp as knife, as clear as mirror. He has made accurate and deep analysis, accusing and warning upon human nature under the culture context today, and made ominous prediction which is unpleasant but shocking because of its honesty.

　　Lv Shun started to learn painting ever since his childhood and built a solid basis. However, he went to Beijing Film Academy to study photography and did a lot practices of movie later. Most of contemporary artists don’t have such professional and systemetic knowledge background of video and photography, which is the unique advantage of Lv Shun as an artist. But the sensitive experiences of existing situation and rich desire of presentation is the general quality of Lv Shun——an entity and artist desperated for true life. He has deep personal experience of the existing situation of common people which has no basic guarantee for survival. He had seen and experienced himself many critical situations of human nature under hard struggle…..These experiences are very important to his art creation. He gives up those fake aesthetic concepts and methods presenting a false view of peace and prosperity, never avoid and cover kinds of shocking ugliness and degeneration. He tried his best to convey exactly the true situation of existence he comprehended and to make his expression utmost, penetrating, and shocking.

　　His works after the year 2000, like “the Delightness of Animal”, “Whose World we are Facing to” and so on, are the result of blood and tear. His painting is more like a rimless Goyay-style world of nightmare, full of restless and dangerous smell. This world is crowded with kinds of ugly ghosts, twisting into monsters by basic desire of lower-level animals, biting and tearing each other. These group of works with a tough language has a very thick smell of rancid and desperation. Lv Shun has released his angry and pessimism without any cover. In his eyes, this world is so dirty, like a whirlpool of desire with the law of jungle. Those who sink into it would fall down deeper and forever in the mud of greedy and violence, being extremely irrational, mad and delirium. These works shows the true experience of a hard-struggle artist against poverty. Human nature exposes more clearly in such bottom surviving situation. The understanding of existence is more deeper also though the baptism of hellish life. The most important thing is that he was at the bottom of social level pyramid while he was in Songzhuang, Beijing. Like a ghost or “wanderer” said by Baudelaire, he wandered around cities and villages, cooroborating from different angles. He intuitively grasped the cruelty of survival rules and the giant distance between social levels, penetrating through the dense fog of fake Utopia and kinds of beautiful lies of mainsteam voices. He also grasped the general psychal characteristics in the culture-ideology environment today——centered by the unlimited midwifery and advocacy of worldly desire, collateral with fleshly gastronomy, cruel solipsism and mental nihilism. It’s not difficult to know these problems, but only by putting yourself into their position to experience their pains can you have deep understanding of these problems. It’s Lv Shun’s extreme experiences that make his works rich in true emotions. And it is such experiences that give him a seat in the contemporary art jungle dominated by symptomatological criticism.

　　This group of works is touching with their rich and true emotions, but they are mainly the instinctive release of artist’s intuitive emotions. Based on it, Lv Shun further developed his extreme experiences and combined in more rational thoughts. Artists are always thinking by certain languages. As an artist holding many art languages, he started to thinking about the nounmenal differences between painting, photography and movie, and emphasizing such defferences. The understanding of light in movie and photography, as well as the exertion of painting’s nounmenal power, developed further in his works subjected with flower, pig and frog.

　　In these works, a flickering glimmer here and there provides his painting a cold, gloomy and unknown psychal characteristics. More exquisite and sensitive color and brushstroke has a direct relation with the subtle mental throb. The development of language is always related to certain cultural knowledge. In recent years, the 30-years economic revolution by Chinese government seems to get a world-known success. The political position of China has also risen. The self-confidence in cultural of Chinese people has never been so inflated. Prosperous and happiness has become the basic tone of government language. However, just as previous talk, the true experiences and deep memory of bottom life has made Lv Shun full of sympathy to common people who are the majority of our population, and endless anger to those extravagant and dissipated. So, he not only disapproves those altisonant words, but also feels worry and danger. Though it seems to be sunny, the haze in heart can’t be blown away and the whole world seems to sink off at any time. Such feeling of crisis is spreading around by and by, esp with the frequent happening of natural disasters and global economic tsunami recently, possible to be the emotion of the age. Lv Shun has a vivid description for it: “In the giant ‘modern’ cities today, you will have a sense of danger everyday at every corner. For example, while I am driving on the road, I always have an unknow feeling of fear and horror, like danger may happen at any time and any place.”

　　Meantime, true experiences made Lv Shun know that in the cultural language environment today, noble morality, belief and spiritual pursuing had been trodden underfoot by worldly gastronomy. Solipsism ignoring others and gastronomy overdrawing future emerged as the times require. The “self-fulfillment”, which hasn’t any social sense of responsibility and duty but utility, seems to be a noble and healthy pursue. Luxury and extravagance brings worries about the diseases by superfluous nutrition, but the hard struggle of the poor will not spoil their appetite. Personal delight and tricky exchanging relationship blocks the steps of rational communication based on ethic of bargaining, demand of sincerety and ideal circumstances of discussion. Moreover, the gastronomy itself is doubtable, because happiness is pluralistic and multi-dimensional, whose emergence is floating and variational, not by pure addiction to organ enjoyment. When body is coded by organ consumption, happiness is shaped by cultural industry, desire is refitted by sciential language, man has become monster of happiness in fact.

　　Lv Shun is touched by the unlimited indulgence of worldly desire and its suicide sequent. Facing to such intensified overflow of coded gluttonous desire, he changes personal anger and sadness into the power of creation, endowing these images with a cold and sticky feeling by unique brushstroke, therefore making them fleshy, liquid and orectic. Flower becomes lewd, while pig and frog become the dirty things existing in wet and rancid mud. The damp or hot feeling of these images make people shuddering and retreating. Lv Shun uses trembling and involute lines to cut the painting, making the image and space totally fragmental and uncertain. This cold, gloomy and dreggy space if full of disgustingly dirty and rancid smell. Though the color is mainly pure green and blue, it’s not clean, sunny and dynamic, but like the greeny foam on the surface of dirty seeper and the hoodoo cold light of evil space, filled with gloomy and desperate atmosphere. Flowers, pigs and frogs are growing absentmindedly in cruel and hoodoo light, and fragmental and dirty “extravagant orgy”, having no other choices but to perish and sink down slowly without even knowing the dangerous and deadly smell filled inside the space. Lv Shun uses this as a metaphor for the reality today in his eyes, and to release his anger and sadness to the indulgence of human desire.

　　Lv Shun’s anger and sadness mainly comes from his percipience to the worldly desire nowadays. The world is more and more twisty into a big fragmental maze by the continuous midwifery and overflow of these desires. In the sad eyes of Lv Shun, it is more and more discomforting, dangerous and might fall into pieces any any time. Evil desire is deluding the pure heart day and day, turning the world into an evil one. “Today the social economic level has developed, but I feel traps at every corner. Especially in the metroplis Beijing, danger seems to be everywhere. The ground underfoot is no longer steadfast, but could collapse at any time. Where is the safest place in life besides the amniotic fluid of mother?” (by Lv Shun) He didn’t choose to sink down like others, but look on this world coldly, changing his sadness and desolation into shocking paintings. He chose to be an unfavorable predictor and warn people by prophecy. This could be seen clearly in his new works in 2008. Giant city is full of dense fog in cold grey and dark blue, lifeless serried mansions, crashed vehicles on empty viaducts, huge mysterious spheres lying across the eyes……all shows obviously intention of ruins and death. In the series of “Disappeared City”, he uses disastrous and lifeless desolate planet and the sole survivor cats as symbols, intensifying the power of emotion to a stifling degree. It is quite meaningful to choose cat, which is a mysterious animal who can predicting disasters no matter in the west or east. Also, cat is always better at escaping from disasters, said to have “nine lives”. But it is still the final lingering of life when there is only one or two lonely cats, which are more like variant species of monkey and cat, on the planet. Lv Shun emphasizes the power of fog in this series. Dense and mysterious fog spreads over the whole picture. The world used to be pure and lively is no longer existing. The fog blows over like floods, submerging all the properous species existed before……Under the immense and lonely starry sky, the survivals of the Earth made their last desperated glance at this planet which is destroyed by the human being themselves. Because of the unlimited indulgence of desire, man, praising himself as the primary species and the principles of the world, has stepped into perdition drastically and helplessly.

　　A serious and responsible artist should take idealist concept of existence as hidden standard, pay a close attention to social and cutural scenes, try his best to control and criticize different kinds of problems, and put forward sharp questions in order to call forth reconsideration. Lv Shun’s stronger and stronger sense of danger is not fike, but a catch of the emotion of the age. Though the economy seems to be prosperous, resources are running short, poverty and disease deluging, environmental protection, education, social security and urban-rural relationship etc. seriously lagging behind……while worldly desires without cultural validity are so overflowing. Moreover, the fire of desire can be produced and inspired out in a blink. Once it comes into being, it will root deeply in heart, very hard to be put out and clear up completely. Man can clearly know its ideology and invalidity, but may not be able to escape from the control of desire. Lv Shun catches incisively and experience deeply the desires and existing types today, reinforcing and developing them by desperate paintings to warn the audience. This is a transmission and reconsideration of basic emotion of the age, on the other hand, this is also a pre-warning of illuminati——“This age seems to be peaceful, but may have already been changing imperceptibly. Animals have already felt the horror of it and cannot afford such pressure, but human being is still unconscious of it in their numb befuddled life.”

作者：杜曦云