与’85新潮美术时期开始自己艺术生涯的大多数艺术家一样，左正尧对观念性也有一种特殊的偏好。无论采用重彩，水墨、陶艺语言，还是运用综合材料进行创作，他都追求在作品中表达自己对宇宙、社会和人生的思考，尽管这些思考通常是模糊和朦胧的。在1986年“湖北青年美术节”中展出的他采用传统工笔重彩画法创作的《生苹果、熟苹果—庄子·老子·妻子》和《回归》等作品就带有明显的象征寓意性质，被认为是“在超现实主义的意境中摆象征迷宫”。

　　在20世纪90年代初创作的《二元统一的图像表达》中，他以一系列正反图形构成的“太极”式结构来表达他的形而上思考，试图以超现实世界的深邃和神秘来抵抗世俗的滚滚红尘。而在1998年创作的陶艺作品《衣》《食》《住》《行》中，他又将一些汉字或类似汉字的符号融进肌理和质感各不相同的陶塑结构里，本意既在于通过生命的裂变暗示生命的生生不息，又在于反思传统文化的某种特定演进。但是问题在于当左正尧将自己的意图性附着在他的重彩的、水墨的、陶艺的图式或图像上时，这些图式和图像是否能如他所愿，将他的观念和意图传达给他的观众。这实际上是当代哲学的一个中心问题，即“语言怎样与现实相联系”的问题。关于物质现象怎样获得表现世界的令人惊讶的能力，并能以各种不同的言语形式表达无限多样的命题内容，语言哲学家的答案是：“思维通过有意图地把那些使意图状况获得满足的条件转移给相应的对象，而达到把自己意图性强加给本身并无任何意图性的对象。”

　　我认为就“有意图地把那些使意图状况获得满足的条件转移给相应的对象”而言，左正尧的上述几个阶段的作品均不及他1999年在“南方语境展”中展出的综合材料作品《流水账》及其衍生的同名陶艺作品来得成功。在《生苹果、熟苹果—庄子·老子·妻子》《二元统一的图像表达》及近期的《衣》《食》《住》《行》等作品中，作者要么无限地扩张能指，使能指空泛化、虚幻化;要么通过标题及图式、图像的错位、疏离来“给欣赏者提供一个较为广袤的思索的再创造空间”，或者是企图借助于既定的思维模式(太极、阴阳)来引发某种玄学思辨。总之都是“功夫在画外”，作者并未成功地将“使意图状况获得满足的条件”真正转移到作品中来，于是造成了能指与所指的游离、打滑。虽然如作者所愿，作品的确给欣赏者提供了足够广袤的再创造空间，但所指的“意义”却成了捉弄欣赏者的滑溜溜的“泥鳅”。

　　综合材料作品《流水账》摒弃了上述所有的从外部将观念性强加于作品的做法，作者只是汇集了与自己日常生活密切相关的各种实物单据：邮件、传真、机票、手稿、请柬、报刊、宣传品、入场券……琐碎但是具体而真实。当这些相当数量的生活物证被整齐粘贴在用300克全开张美国牛皮纸制成的巨型账册内时，我们意外地发现它们竟包含着丰富的叙事性内容。显然是美国牛皮纸制的巨型账册将“使意图状况获得满足的条件”转移到这些琳琅满目的实物单据上，使之成为对现代生活流水账般的繁忙、紧张、欲望冲动、无聊无奈等等的绝妙阐释。

　　而作为衍生创作的陶艺作品《流水账》，由于它们所呈现的具有普遍性和熟悉感的形象，以及经作者提炼过的形象与被赋予的抽象结构融为一体，再加上超常巨大的尺寸，使它们获得了超越现成品材料原作的模糊性内涵，借助于明白晓畅的

　　《流水账》标题，观众的被吸引是自然事情。对于用欣赏的眼光来观看它们的人，艺术家展示了他娴熟的中性化的技艺，而艺术家本人对这种技术本质的独到解释更是值得我们认真品味：“人对泥土的特殊情感以及泥土的天生的灵性;它对最轻微的触及都会产生反映，对想象力和情感难以捉摸的微妙变化都能留下印记。”

　　注：

　　①《中国当代美术史》(上海人民出版社，1991年)第445页。

　　②《思想家》(生活·读书·新知三联书店，1987年)第290页。

　　③《感受泥性》(辽宁美术出版社，1997年)第66页，左正尧《烧陶日记》。

　　《江苏画刊》，2000年第2期。

　　Zuo Zhengyao’s Waste Book—Their Meanings and Others

　　Pi Daojian

　　Same as most of the artists who began their artistic career in the period of the ’85 New Tide Arts Movement, Zuo Zhengyao has had a special preference for the conceptions. Whether using strong colors, ink and wash and the pottery art language, or working with mixed materials, he has been trying to express himself on the universe, society and human life in his works, though such thinking usually takes a dim and vague appearance. In the 1986 Hubei Young Artists Art Festival, he applied the traditional strong colors and gongbi techniques to his paintings, Green Apples, Ripe Apples --- Zhuangzi, Laozi and Wife and Return, which had a obviously symbolic and implicative nature and, consequently, were regarded as “representative maze in the surrealistic circumstance.”

　　In his Dual Unity Images Expression series created in early 1990s, he expressed his metaphysical conceptions in a series of paintings composed of reverse-obverse images in the style of the Chinese Diagram of the Universe and tried to defend against the waves of secular life with his expressions of the profundity and mystery of the surreal world. In 1998, he finished a series of pottery works including Clothing, Food, Housing and Transportation by merging some of the Chinese characters and symbols similar to the characters into the structures of those pottery works with various textures and qualities. His original intention was to give an implicative meaning of the endless succession of life by aid of the fission of life, on the one hand, and, on the other, to re-think profoundly a certain way of unique transformation of the traditional cultures. However, the problem is whether all the graphics and images could be a carrier to convey his conceptions and intentions to his audiences as he wished when he was adding his intentions to the graphics and images in the paintings of strong colors, ink and wash and pottery works. As a matter of fact, it is a leading issue of the contemporary philosophy, i.e. the issue of “how the language can be linked with the reality”. As to how the phenomenon of the material can obtain the capability to express the world and to express the contents of various propositions in different languages, the answer given by the linguistic philosophers is as follows: “By consciously transferring the intention to the relative objects when all the conditions are satisfactorily fulfilled, the thinking will impose its intentions to the objects which have no intentions in themselves”.

　　In my opinion, none of Zuo Zhengyao’s paintings from the above-mentioned periods is as successful as the mixed-media Day-to-Day Accounts which was exhibited in the “Southern Linguistic Context” exhibition in 1999 and the relative pottery works of the same title so far as “to consciously transfer the intention to the relative objects when all the conditions are satisfactory”. In such paintings as “Green Apples·Ripe Apples-Zhuang Zi, Lao Zi, Wife”, “Dual Unity Images Expression series”

　　and the recently created “Clothing, Food, Housing and Transportation”, the author has either made an unlimited exaggeration of what it can be directed at to generalize and illusionize them, created a broad space for viewers to re-create and re-think about them with the misplacement and dispositions of the titles, graphics and images in his works, or tried to trigger a metaphysical debate by aid of the established way of thinking such as the Taichi and Ying-yang philosophy. Generally speaking, the author has emphasized what is beyond the painting and made an unsuccessful effort in “truly transferring the conditions meeting the intention ” to his works, thus, leaving a space between what can be directed at and what has been directed at. As the author has wished, the works have given the viewers enough space for their re-creations, but the meanings of what has been directed at is none other that a trick to make fun of the viewers.

　　In his mixed-media Waste Book, the author has already abandoned the former ways to impose his conceptions to the outer appearance of all the above-mentioned works. Instead, he has simply made a collection of various receipts closely related with his daily life, including posts, faxes, air tickets, manuscripts, invitations, newspapers and periodicals, promotion materials, tickets and others. They are trivial, but they are particular and authentic. When such a great number of daily-life evidences are neatly glued to the giant account books made of 300g American kraft paper, we have unexpectedly found that they have contained a wealth of narrative contents. Obviously, the giant account books made of American kraft paper have “transferred the intentions with satisfactory conditions” to the superb collection of receipts and made them as a perfect expression of our busy and intense life, lust and impulse and depression similar to the day-to-day accounts in our contemporary life.

　　For the pottery works, Waste Book, which has been derived from the paintings, it is quite natural that the viewers have been attracted by the clay works with such an understandable title of day-to-day account as they present a universal and familiar appearance and a perfect combination of the purified images and abstract structures. Furthermore, it is of super size and contains certain vague implications beyond the ready-to-made materials. For all the viewers enjoying the pottery works, the artist has demonstrated his extraordinary techniques. What’s more, the artist’s unique explanation about the nature of the techniques is thought-provoking. “The special affection that man has for the clay and the natural quality of clay will produce unforgettable marks documenting our imaginations and feelings and subtle changes beyond description even if it is lightly touched.”

　　Note:

　　A History of Contemporary Arts of China, Shanghai People Publishing House, 1991, P. 445

　　Thinkers, SDX Joint Publishing Company, 1987, P. 290

　　A Sense of Clay, Liaoning Fine Arts Publishing House, 1997, P. 66. Diary of Firing Pottery by Zuo Zhengyao

　　The article was published in Art Monthly, Issue 2, 2000

作者：皮道坚