段江华是一个需要研究的画家，段江华的作品是一种需要思考的艺术。从作于1993年的《王与后》开始，他的作品在那些使人心旷神怡，或玩世不恭的绘画之林中，突出地呈现出文化的沉重。那是与“明快”、“潇洒”、“飘逸”迥然异趣的境界。在近年以建筑“遗存”为主题的作品中，画家仿佛坠入难以苏醒的沉重噩梦，但它确实是“文化性”的绘画创作，犹如文化积淀的断面，包含着无尽历史思绪。

    段江华的近作多描绘巨大的古今建筑，他把那些体现了（或正在体现着）特定历史阶段人的力量和特定地域文化影响的建筑，置放在深邃无尽的空间，形成永恒的时空与短暂的人力之间的较量。从哲学的角度看，这场较量是不成比例的，人的力量显然没有任何获胜的希望。正是这种宿命的悲剧，赋予人的力量以审美的崇高，这曾是历史上的诗人和画家反复吟诵的主题。但段江华的作品蕴含着更多的历史、文化与心理的感慨。画家展现的流逝的岁月和消融于流逝岁月的巨大建筑使我想到人类历史上轮番登场的文明与文化。如果一种文化在当下的文化格局中已经失去功能，它昔日的功能已经沦为陈腐和无关紧要的文化风俗和制度，那末这种文化可以称之为“遗俗”。如青铜器所象征的一整套与祭祀礼仪相关的社会制度和思维方式，和今天计算器时代的信息和基因编码文化，全然不在同一象征体系中。又比如今天的人们在博物馆看到的青铜礼器，与市场上出售的青铜仿制品之间，也没有文化上的对应性。玩具般的仿制品不产生恐惧、崇拜的情感威慑力量，不再是等级、威权的制度象征。

    由于千百年文化的熏染调教，人类已经具备了“优柔寡断”的“品性”。表现于一方面人们热情展望未来，为想象中的前景激奋；另一方面又眷恋昔日，“今不如古”就这样成为一代又一代人们对现实世界不满和疑虑的口号。与此同时，他们又困惑于未来难于把握的不确定性。这种复杂的心情，流传千载，并体现在古往今来的文学艺术里。在人的心目中，时间的不可掌控性显示了存在的不确定性和未来的不可知性。而当下的意义又无法从世俗溢出，人的欲望对应现实，是缺陷，杂乱，琐细，不完美，无方向。人在欲望的黑色海洋中漂浮和挣扎，无法保有完整和清醒的主体。随着生命走向尽头，主体意识也就归于空无……由此，生命和文化，就如此与死亡联系一起。这些困惑一直无所忌惮地缠绕着人们的思想，无休止地触动人们的感情神经，呈现了“生”与“死”话题的“永恒”特性。

    从段江华2007年以来的系列油画作品中，能够感到对这类文化命题的思考和表达。他的作品主题是关于“人类居住地”的意象，画面由城市、城墙、楼堂殿宇、纪念碑、祭坛等建筑和周围的环境组成，表现与人有关的存在问题，以及人与人造物之间复杂关系，和由此造成的人观看世界的态度，以及对人的命运和前途的预想。画中的建筑物常常孤立地被置放在暗色的空间。“天如穹庐”，但那是晦暗的幽冥世界，压抑而阴郁；而它们赖以存在的土地表层裸露，如战争破坏后的瓦砾碎石一望无际，只冷冷地反射着铁色的光。那些曾经是高大坚固的建筑物，在这种空间显得无所依托而即将崩溃。这场景的暗调不是一般意义的夜色，它加强了情绪的绝望。天空流宕的微光，也不是午夜天空能够暗示的飘渺希望，而是恐惧和阴暗压力的狰狞显露，象征永恒黑夜的漫无涯际。这黑夜就如一座座庞大、空旷、无表情的墓场，死寂凝固，了无生机；好像无法摆脱的噩梦，体现着异化的人造物与人的生存关系的纠结。

    透过这静止、凝固令人窒息的场景，仿佛看到的绵延中的人与自己营造的物体共同被一种不可知命运任性地淘洗和异化的结局。艺术家挖掘和想象时间痕迹的图像，并在这痕迹中注入历史时间意识流带来的“破坏性”意味。由此演绎出“废墟”的图式。让这种“废墟”图式作为人类文化的瞬间定格，不仅以个人的方式展开对某种文化样式现状和轨迹的演绎，同时也表现一种对文化和历史的感知方式，联系着刻骨铭心的感情和思考。

    这里当然不仅仅是有关“居住地”被“废墟”化的含义，不仅仅是因为时间的流逝而形成人造物自然地“废坏”的痕迹，而是此过程更多指向历史、文化、社会、种族的问题。因为这些建筑物不仅仅表现了“人居住此”的痕迹，也体现了人对这些物体的态度和观念的痕迹，也就是人为什么要这样建筑自己的居处？人如何“居住”在一起？为什么是“这种”方式而不是“那一种”方式，等。这里透析出的是一种文化意识和时间的关系，就是在更广阔的时间场域中观察人类文化行为得失和功过。从作品里，尤其是建筑物的形制，和周围环境关系，在其中的位置，象征意义，视觉作用等，能看出艺术家对此的分析和判断。

    首先艺术家揭示的是，人在“居处”是被自己的所造物埋没的观念，这是一种自觉自甘的行为，类似于自杀。如何能够被自己的制造物所埋葬，这在理论上是不可思议的事，但在现实中却一再发生。常常看起来好像是由于自然的威力，如地震、飓风肆虐致人死地，但普遍的却是人死于自己建造的居所，被自己的制造物压住、致残、窒息而死。深入一层要追究的是人的责任，是文化影响下的人的行为和观念的结果，和人的精神状态联系一起。选择这样的主题，表明画家所思考的问题不仅是画面上所看到的正在“风化”和趋于瓦解的人类建筑，也是喻意人的精神的困境。要说明这种精神体系并不是由于表征的文化符号的“高大坚固”而永恒，而是同样经不住侵蚀而毁坏，最后成为依稀的影子而消散于大地之上。就如在画中看到的那些当年帝王参拜天地的祭坛，曾经的旌旗号角，鲜花供果，到如今只剩下孤零“石坟”，面向苍穹。而《广场》、《遗址》系列，表现更为凄凉和衰颓的意象，因为过去它们对应人山人海，万头攒动的景象，如今却是断垣残壁，西风残照。这些曾与人群激昂情绪合而为一的集聚地，即将彻底沉沦入永恒的黑暗。

    再有，这即将被时空所湮灭的建筑，是某种社会模式或文化体系的象征，因为它的承载超出了社会生存所需的限度，而不堪重负。如《城》、《楼》、《馆》系列作品，暗示人类空间占有欲的极度膨胀。在画家笔下这些曾经被视为人类智慧、权力和财富的巨大城市建筑，现在画面中就像被抽离了骨架的萎缩模型，显得贫乏而空洞。这不仅仅是城市为废墟的精神抽离，更是在建造这类畸形建筑的开始，一种要与宇宙平衡规律相抗衡，与物理引力相对抗的人类决心和意志的体现。可脆弱的人类，最经不起宇宙的哪怕是一点点玩笑，所以要制造坚固的实体庇护，但实体是人造的，也就和人有同样的命运。是人的有限，决定了这些外观奇特的建筑群必然的下场。《墙》、《关》、《台》高大和厚重，似乎为了家族或种族的利益，以它来对付同类的反抗和争夺，隔绝千百万人的流动；也为了兑现威权，登高一呼，四海归心……而当没有人的精神生命注入时，这些废弃物也失去了威权和力量象征的意义。它们必然地融入大地，成为最普通的土石，好像那些轰轰烈烈的“事情”从来就没有发生过，一切将回归宇宙洪荒的原本面貌。

    建筑既象征人，也同时存在人的制度和规范，思维和行为方式。它们凸现人类带来的环境和制度，最终建筑物反过来对人的抛弃，或者说是人类对自己的抛弃和敌视，造成了荒芜。画家对这一点表达很清晰。如在《广场》、《坛》、《殿》、《碑》、《台》系列中所展示的那样，占据所有画面中心的，是一个突出的，具有象征符号的建筑物，它被废墟围绕，并作为一个控制全场的顶端。光影在此对比聚焦，用笔触用色，气氛烘托围绕此物。这也是画家这一系列的作品所要表达的中心意义，就是作为人类制度的等级，以及对人类的统治方式和手段，最终带来的是世界的繁盛还是灭亡？是宇宙秩序的象征还是谬误？是人类的希望还是绝望？悖谬的是，那些以死亡挟持世界的威权顶端和体系核心，也是死亡的开始和终端的象征。

    对人文历史的深度思考，并没有减低段江华对绘画形式表现力的探索。他前期作品将多种材料运用于平面的绘画，在传统的绘画材料如画布、颜色、油料中间，毫不犹豫地裱贴了粗糙、厚实的纸板和纺织品，这种综合材料的色泽和质地，改变了绘画的优雅与柔和，实际上画家是以一种强硬的方式，来改变了人们习惯性的欣赏心境，扭转对画面形象和艺术效果的习惯联想去向。在他的掌控下，高贵的“王与后”显出前所未有的感情张力。近年以古今建筑为题材的作品，他没有在画面上添加异质材料。而是以一种个性化的方式涂刷、堆砌颜料。这种画法既强调了描绘对象（如砖瓦、土石与天空、云霓）在质与量上的对比，也赋予对象可以“触摸”的历史沧桑感。当人们在近处观看他的作品时，不能不被画家讲述的历史故事、建构的可“触摸”的历史场面所震撼。

    段江华描述的是虚拟的“故事”和构造的“事件”，但是从人类历史的过程，从千年文明难以寻找的整体，从断垣残瓦的遗存中，不正是表现了一种真实吗？在这里，我不能不想到可感知的世界昨天、今天和明天——既然古代文明是以那种“踪迹”的方式显现于我们，难道今天的文明不会以同样的方式显现于将来吗？

    我们的画家很少在作品中追问洪荒宇宙的过去和未来，更不习惯探究古老文化的生成与泯灭。实际上数千年来，中国文坛一直可以听到“天问”的回响和“哀吾生之须臾……托遗响于悲风”的叹息。在现世的物质实利引领人间万象的时候，段江华以他的绘画探索，拓展当代中国艺术的思想境界，使我们看到当代中国艺术家在文化深度方面的努力。

 

The Wings of An Angel Reaching Out to the Ruins

---On Recent Oil Paintings of Duan Jianghua

 

Shui Tianzhong, Xu Hong

 

Duan Jianghua is a painter who demands research; Duan’s work is the kind of art that requires contemplation. Starting from the work “King and Queen” in 1993, his work stood out from those eye-pleasing or cynical realist paintings by presenting the heaviness of culture. His work was in an utterly different realm than those “lively,” “unrestrained,” “flowy” works. In the work of architectural “remains” from recent years, the painters seems to drop into a hard-to-wake-up from nightmare; however, it indeed is a painting practice of “culture,” as if cross-sections of the cultural accumulation contain endless historical dwellings.

 

Duan’s recent works mostly depict gigantic architectural edifices from the past and present. He places these edifices that represented (or still represent) human power from certain historical periods and certain regions’ cultural influences into spaces with endless depth, forming a contest between eternal space and temporary manpower. From a philosophical angle, this contest is out of balance, as manpower obviously has no hope of winning. It is exactly this tragic destiny that grants human power aesthetic nobility, which used to be a repeating subject for poets and painters of the past. However, Duan’s works contains more leanings toward history, culture and thought. The artist depicts the passing of time and gigantic architecture that are also disappearing over time, making me think of the civilizations and the cultures that took their turns on the stage of human history. If a culture has already lost its function under the current cultural structure, its old function has already been reduced to banal cultural customs and institutions that are no long relevant, then this kind of culture can be called a “relic.” Just as the ancient bronze vessels symbolize a set of social systems and thought patterns related to rituals and customs, it is in a completely different symbolic system as today’s culture of computer data and genetic codes. The bronze vessels we see in museums have no cultural correspondence with the bronze imitations that are sold on the market. The toy-like imitations do not cause emotional responses such as fear and worship: they are no longer a systemic symbol of class and authority.

 

Because of the influence and teaching of ancient cultures, humans are already equipped with an “irresolute and hesitant” “quality.” On one hand, it is exhibited as people look to the future with enthusiasm, excited by the prosperity in their imaginations; on the other hand, they are also nostalgic about the past, “the past trumps the present.” This has thus become the slogan of generations of people who are unsatisfied and doubtful of the world’s reality. At the same time, they are also confused over the uncertainty of the hard-to-control future. This emotional complication has been passed down for thousands of years and presented in the literary arts throughout history. In people’s mind, the uncontrollable factor of time shows the uncertainty of existence and the uncertainty of the future. Moreover, the significance of the present has no outlet in secularity when people’s desires face reality, exposing flaws, chaos, banality, imperfection and aimlessness. People float and struggle in the black sea of desires, incapable of keeping their integrity and the clarity of the subject intact. As life comes to its end, a subject’s consciousness returns to the void…Thus, life and culture are connected with death. These contradictions have always been entangled with human thoughts recklessly, presenting the “eternal” property of the “life” and “death” topic.

 

 

Starting with Duan’s series of oil paintings from 2007, the expressions and ponderings of such cultural subjectivities can be clearly felt. The subjectivity of his work is about the imagery of “human habitats.” The pictures consist of structures such as a city, city walls, mansions and palaces, monuments, alters and surrounding environments, presenting issues facing human existence and the complicated relationships between humanity and man-made objects, and the Weltanschauung that is led by such relationships, as well as the anticipation of destiny and prospect. The edifices in the pictures often stand alone among the dark-colored space. “The sky is like a canopy,” but that is a world of gloominess and ghosts, oppressive and dismal; moreover, the naked surface of the earth where their existences are depended upon, now seems like the endless aftermath of war, merely reflecting the coldness of an iron-colored light. Those gigantic edifices are seemingly going to collapse without any support in this space. The dark palette of the scene is not a nightly color in an ordinary sense; it adds to the desperation.  The dim light passing through the sky doesn’t offer the slightest hope that a midnight sky often suggests; rather, it’s a ferocious exhibition of fear and dark pressures, symbolizing the borderless eternal night of darkness. This dark night is an enormous, empty, expressionless graveyard: the deadly silence freezes, void of vitality. It seems an unshakable nightmare, revealing the complications between the alienation of the man-made and human existence.

 

 

Through this still, frozen and suffocating scene, we can see the end of this long-lasting elutriation and alienation of humanity and its creations. The artist excavates and imagines the images of traces of time, and injects a sense of “destructiveness” brought on by the consciousness of history and time, illustrating the patterns of “ruins.” This kind of “ruin” pattern, as a document of human cultures, not only expands with certain cultural patterns of actuality and the trajectory of inference, but also expresses a way of perception towards culture and history, connecting to an unforgettable sensation and pondering.

 

Here, for sure it is not merely related to the implication of “habitat” turning into “ruins,” it is not only because of the traces of the natural “damages” from man-made creations caused by the lapse of time, instead this process is directed towards historical, cultural, social and racial issues. Since these edifices not only present the traces of “human existence here,” but also embody the traces of the attitudes and thoughts that people have towards these objects, that is why the mortals want to construct their habitat like this. How do humans dwell together? Why “this” way instead of “that” way? So on so forth. This reveals a relationship between cultural consciousness and time, which observes the successes and failures of human cultural behavior in a vaster time frame. From the works, especially the forms of the buildings, relationships with their surrounding environments, their positions, symbolic meanings and visual functions are able to spot the artist’s analyses and judgment toward these.

 

First of all, the artist reveals the concept that human beings are buried by their creations in their dwelling places; this is an act of awareness and volition, similar to suicide. How can we be buried by our own creation? It’s inconceivable in theory, but it happens repeatedly in reality. Often it seems a result of the forces of nature, such as deadly earthquakes and hurricanes, but people commonly die from the houses they build, pressed, crippled and suffocated by their own creations. To further investigate our human responsibility is the consequence of people’s behaviors and conceptions under the cultural influences, which are connected to human states of mind. Choosing a theme as such illustrates the issues that the artist is contemplating are not only the “effloresced” and disintegrating human edifices that can be seen in the picture, but also the metaphor of the human spiritual predicament. To illustrate that this spiritual system is not eternal due to superficial cultural symbols’ “enormousness and solidity,” it’s destroyed by the hard-to-resist abrasion, finally becoming a thin shadow that evaporates from the surface of the earth, as if those altars we see in some pictures where the emperors paying their respects to the heavens and earth, the bugles and banners of the past, flowers and offerings, now there is only the lonely “stone grave” facing the sky. The “Square” and “Ruin” series nevertheless depict an imagery that is even more desolate and decayed, since they were facing the scenes of waves of people, but now just ruins. These used to be the gathering places of passionate people, but they are now about to sink into the eternal darkness.

 

Moreover, these edifices, soon to be devoured by time, are symbols of certain social models and cultural systems, because they carry beyond the limit of social survival needs, exceeding their limitations. Such series as “City,” “Hall,” “Pavilion,” which suggest the extreme expansion of human possessiveness towards space. Those massive urban edifices that were once viewed as human wisdom, power and wealth, now seem withered models that have had their skeletons taken out, appearing indigent and hollow. This isn’t just a spiritual dissociation of the ruin as a city; it’s rather an inception of constructing such deformed edifices, a kind of presentation of human determination and volition that counterbalances the laws of the universe and resistance to gravity.  But the vulnerable human being cannot stand the slightest joke from the universe, thus making the solid entity as shelter. However, the entity is man-made, so it has the same destiny as the human. It is the limitation of human beings that determines the unavoidable fate of these buildings and fancy facades. The height and weight of the “Wall, ” “Fort” and “Platform” series, as if they are for the interests of the family or race, use it against the resistance and fight with their peers, blocking the flows of thousands; also to redeem authority, gathering all with one call…however when there is no human spiritual life injected into them, these castoffs simultaneously lose their symbolic meaning of authority and power. They will unavoidably integrate into the earth and become the most ordinary dirt and stone, as though these vigorous and dynamic “events” has never happened before— all will be restored to the original form of the primeval chaos of the universe.

 

Architecture symbolizes humanity. It also concurrently exists in human’s orders, laws, ways of thinking and behavior. It particularly represents the environments and institutions that are brought about by man. Ultimately the architecture in turn abandons the human being, or to say the human being abandons it and it  is hostile to itself, causing a sense of aridity. The painter has expressed this point quite clearly. For instance, as is shown in the series “Sky,” “Alter,” “Palace,” “Monument” and “Palace,” what occupies the center of the pictures is an outstanding edifice that possesses symbolism. It is surrounded by the ruins, and acts as an apex that controls the entirety. The light and shadows in contrast focus on it, with brush strokes and color palettes to add on the atmosphere to surround this object. This is also the core meaning that the artist desires to express in these series of works, that is as the classification of the human institution, as well as the governing methodologies and means towards humanity, will ultimately bring the prosperity or extinction to the world? Is it a symbol or an error in the universal order? Is it the hope or desperation of human beings? What is preposterous is that those summits of authority and cores of the systems using death to seize the world are exactly the beginning of death and the pinnacle of symbolism.

 

The in-depth ponderings toward art history hasn’t limited Duan’s explorations toward forms of expression in painting. His early works utilize multiple media onto the surfaces of the paintings; he decisively employed rough, thick cardboard and textiles, mixed with traditional painting materials such as canvas and oil colors. The colors and textures of this mixed media changed the elegance and the tenderness of the paintings; in fact, the artist used a harsh method to alter people’s habitual ways of appreciation, turning the directions of habitual imagination towards the imagery of the pictures and artistic effects. Under his control, the noble “King and Queen” reveals an emotional tension like never before. In the recent several years of work with the theme of architecture from the past and present, he didn’t add any alien materials onto his canvases, rather he employs a personalized method of smearing, brushing and piling on of paints. These methods not only emphasize the contrast between the subjects’ (such as bricks, tiles, dirt, stones, sky and clouds) quantities and qualities, but also endow the subjects “touchable” historical sensation. When audiences view his work close up, they cannot help being shocked by the historical story narrated by the artist and the “touchable” historical scene constructed by the artist as well.

 

Duan depicts fictitious “stories” and constructed “incidents;” nonetheless, they are from the process of human history, from the hard-to-seek integrity of thousands of years of culture, from the remaining ruins. Doesn’t this present a kind of truth? Here, we cannot help thinking of the sensible yesterday, today and tomorrow of the world—since ancient civilizations are revealed to us through the method of “traces,” shouldn’t today’s civilization reveal itself with the same method to the future?

 

Our painters rarely inquire into the past and the future of the chaotic universe. Neither are they used to searching the birth and death of ancient civilizations. In fact from hundreds of years of Chinese literature, we have been hearing the echoes of “questions to sky” and sighs like “our lives are just a temporary moment…entrust our sadness to the wind.” At the moment when material reality is leading all aspects of life, Duan explores and expands the mental stature of the Chinese contemporary art world, enabling us to see the efforts of Chinese artist in the aspect of in-depth culture.

作者：水中天、徐虹