在文学的创作中，有一种叫做“通感”的修辞方法。具体说来就是指人的视觉、听觉、触觉、觉等各种感官功能可以通连，不分界限。在通感中，声音似乎有形象，冷暖似乎有重量，颜色似乎也会有温度。比如说“热闹”和“冷静”，冷和热本来属于感觉，却又和听觉相通，这就是典型的通感。这也可以解释为，人为了理解外部世界而发展进化出来的一种独特的心理机制，本文的题目亦可作如是观。

　　在解读艺术作品时，也需要借用这种通感方法，特别是当一个系列作品都基于一种色调，这个时候的色彩就不能仅以色彩观之。毕加索在其艺术创作的早期，就曾经有过一段极其重要的“蓝色”时期，代表作品有20世纪初完成的《蓝色自画像》和《人生》，浓郁的蓝色调表达了艺术家人生的低潮与贫老孤独的苦难。

　　此次在尤伦斯当代艺术中心展出的杨少斌新作“蓝屋”，同样是一批基于蓝色调的作品，这一系列的“蓝色”会给观众带来怎样的味道，相信只有使用跨感觉的通感才能将其描述得更加清楚。

　　通过艺术家本人的讲述，我们得知杨少斌在国际政治题材中零星创作了一些“蓝色”作品之后，一直想以“蓝色”作为一个创作方向，只是苦于一直没有找到与他心中的“蓝色”相契合的主题。直到2009年12月在丹麦哥本哈根召开的世界气候大会，杨少斌忽然受到启发：这是一个“与蓝色有关的国际话题，气候问题可以与蓝色互为联系”。蓝色，在他看来正是一种“深邃而有强度的忧郁”，这种忧郁正好用来表现人们因气候问题的困扰所引发的担忧和焦虑。

　　和同时代的艺术家相比，杨少斌的作品显得很“酷”，当这种“酷”表现为个体之经验时，其背后所蕴含的更多是人性中对极致的一种追求。当这种“酷”表现为一种群体的冲突与平衡时，其背后所呈现的更多是“残酷”：人与人之间的残酷，一如他的“红色暴力”和“国际政治”系列所表现的挣扎、痛苦和绝望。而人与自然之间的残酷，则如同他此次的“蓝屋”系列，敏感、忧郁而震颤。当气候如此“残酷”地改变人类生活的时候，人们是否也会反思自己曾经是怎样“残酷”地对待自然?或许，这也正是杨少斌想透过“蓝屋”带给观众的一些思辨,“蓝屋”给观者带来的通感是颜色、温度、情绪和理性相互混杂的统一体。

　　“蓝屋”系列画面中的人物，在杨少斌看来更像是大自然的一个局部，尽管这些局部对于整个环境的保护和改变有着各自不同的立场，但当他(它)们被一个统一的蓝色调所包裹，所反映的正是这些不同的局部分别面对环境问题时所表现出的同一态度。在同一片蓝色下，人们应该放弃政治、经济、军事等诸多领域的分歧与成见，放弃纷争、推诿和逃避，共同应对一个“残酷”的、气候改变的事实。

　　身处科技如此发展的时代，“地球村”的形成把越来越多属于人类的共同问题摆在大家面前，艺术家也从未像今天这般多元而深入地去关注人类共同的命运和话题，去进行超越地域、民族的精神探索。“路漫漫其修远兮，吾将上下而求索”，这种关注和探索反映在当代艺术的创作中，无疑拓宽了当代艺术反映现实题材的广度和深度，杨少斌此次的“蓝屋”系列作品，正是其中有分量的一次尝试。正如毕加索在经历了“蓝色”时期之后进入了“玫瑰”时期一样，我们期待经过“蓝色”阶段的杨少斌能够继续为观众呈现出一些不同风格但同样精彩的艺术佳作。

　　郑 妍(尤伦斯当代艺术中心艺术部总监)

　　In literature, the rhetorical device known as synesthesia refers to a state in which the five human senses – sight, sound, touch, taste and smell – become linked, so that there are no longer any boundaries between them. In synesthesia, it is possible for sound to manifest visually, temperature to possess weight, and colors to feel hot or cold. The words renao ("lively/bustling") and lengjing ("calm") are classic examples of synesthesia because they contain both tactile and aural elements: renao = "hot" + "noisy" and lengjing = "cold" + "quiet". Another way for us to understand synesthesia is to see it as a unique psychological mechanism that human beings evolved to better understand the external world. In this sense, the title of this essay is apropos.

　　Sometimes when interpreting a work of art, it is helpful to take a synesthetic perspective, particularly if the work is a whole series based on a single hue. In such a case, one cannot view hue in simple terms, as color for color's sake.

　　At an early stage in his career, Pablo Picasso went through a very important and formative "blue period." In Self-Portrait with Cloak and La Vie, two paintings produced between 1901 and 1904, the years that mark his blue period, Picasso used intense shades of blue to represent a low ebb in his own life, as well as the suffering of the poor, the old and the lonely.

　　Yang Shaobin's Blue Room at UCCA is a series of paintings that form a single cohesive work based on the color blue. As for how audiences will experience Blue Room, I believe that the only way to describe it clearly is through the cross-sensory language of synesthesia.

　　We know from the artist himself that after producing a few sporadic "blue paintings" on the theme of international politics, Yang Shaobin had hoped to use the color blue as an artistic direction and make it into a series, but he had trouble coming up with a theme that suited the blue he envisioned. When the UN Climate Change Conference opened in Copenhagen in 2009, he found his inspiration. This was "an international topic related to blue... there are a lot of connections between blue and climate change." For Yang Shaobin, blue is "the profoundest, most intense form of melancholy," a melancholy that reflects the anxiety and concern brought about by global climate change.

　　Compared to his contemporaries, Yang Shaobin is an artist whose work deals in extremes. His depictions of the extremes of individual experience are an implicit commentary on the extremes of human nature. His red series, for example, speaks of struggle, pain, despair, and the cruelty that we inflict on one another as individuals. But when Yang Shaobin explores the extremes of group behavior, the dynamic of conflict and harmony that exists within the collective, he is alluding to humanity in the extreme and to the cruelty of the human mob. Blue Room depicts the cruelty of man and nature in a way that is melancholy, sensitive, and tremendously powerful. At a time when climate change is altering our way of life, do we also reflect on how cruelly we have treated nature? Perhaps this is exactly what Yang Shaobin wishes us to speculate on when we experience his Blue Room, with its synesthetic mingling of color, temperature, mood and human reason.

　　Yang Shaobin seems to view the human subjects in the Blue Room paintings as discrete parts of a larger natural landscape. Although they have conflicting views on environmental protection and climate change, when they are wrapped up in the same parcel, the same uniform shade of blue, we see how different people present the same attitude when confronted by environmental problems. As individuals sharing the same patch of blue, we must abandon our economic, political and military differences and prejudices; stop disputing, passing the buck and evading the issue; and work together to address the cruel reality of global climate change.

　　In this technologically and scientifically advanced age, we inhabit a "global village" in which problems facing all humankind occupy center stage. More than ever before, today's artists are engaging with these universal human questions on a deeper level, exploring our common dilemmas in a way that transcends geography, ethnicity or nationality. Over two thousand years ago, the poet Qu Yuan lamented: "The day was long, and wrapped in gloom did seem / As I urged on to seek my vanished dream." This sentiment and spirit of exploration is still evident in today's art world, and it has undoubtedly contributed to a deeper and more complex relationship between contemporary art and real world issues. Yang Shaobin's Blue Room is an attempt to weigh the possibilities and strike a balance between the two.

　　Pablo Picasso's Blue Period was followed by his equally-impressive Rose Period. In much the same way, we can expect that Yang Shaobin, having gone through his own Blue Period, will continue producing outstanding works of art in a variety of styles and hues.

作者：郑妍