我不是在做梦　/  董重

I’m Not Dreaming – Dong Zhong

 

用文字描述自己的作品，实在是艰难的事情。动笔之前，总是有很好的想法，可一动起笔来，却又想不起什么了。这大概是我不喜欢阅读的关系，对文字没有太多感觉。我也时常恨自己，为什么就不能天天写写日记，把对艺术的感觉记点下来，以便应急之需，可就是懒得写字，没有办法。不过，我画画还是算勤奋的，尤其这一年多，由于我挣脱了单位上的一些工作（说是工作，其实是坐班，无聊得很。但却总有事，使你心情总是不太舒坦）。现在好了，我有整天的时间，也有较大的工作室，可以安心画画了。

It’s really tough to describe your own works in writing. Before I move my pen, I always have great ideas, but as soon as I start to move my pen, I can’t think of anything. This is probably linked to my dislike for reading. I’ve never felt much of anything for words. I often hate myself, for not keeping a diary every day, recording my thoughts about art, so I can access them in a pinch, but I’m to lazy to write the words, and there’s nothing I can do about that. However, I do work hard on my paintings, especially in this past year or so, because I escaped some of my work at my job (I call it work, but it’s more like keeping office hours, boring as hell, but there’s always stuff that keeps you on your toes). It’s better now. I have all day to myself, and a big studio, so I can relax and paint.

我最近的作品，大多是以梅花为主角的。在我的记忆中，我好像从来没有见过或是仔细观察过真正的梅花（可以明确的，是看见淡黄色的腊梅），只知道它开的时候还没长叶子，并且在寒冬的时候开放。印象深刻的倒是吴昌硕、齐白石的花鸟画中的梅花，还有八大，但他画梅花少用色，花瓣多为黑墨，感觉怪怪的。这是令我自己很是奇怪的事情，我竟然迷恋这少见（或就是没见过）的梅花这样久的时间。也许我画的，就是一种简单的花儿吧，可为什么这样多的人一看见便说是梅花呢？

The main character in most of my paintings is the plum blossom. In my memories, I don’t think I’ve ever seen or taken a close look at a plum blossom (to clarify, I have seen the light yellow ones). All I know is that when they bloom, the branches have yet to sprout leaves, and that they blossom in the cold of winter. What I have a deep impression of are the plum blossoms in the bird and flower paintings of Wu Changshu and Qi Baishi, as well as Ba Da, but his blossoms use too little color, with the petals usually painted in black ink, which feels weird. This is something that confuses me, how I’ve been enchanted for so long with this rarely seen (or maybe never seen) plum blossom. Maybe what I am painting is just a simple flower, but how come everyone sees right away that it’s a plum blossom?

这批作品，和梅花呆在一起的，还有令人心烦的非洲鬣狗（有人说是狼、狗熊），鸟儿（有时我叫它雏儿），一些虫子，少许的鱼。当然，人总是有的，我喜欢将这些东西和梅花一块儿并置在用丙烯平涂的同一个平面上，平面多为纯的蓝色、也有白色、黄色、灰色、深一点的蓝色。这些东西并置在这样的平面上，有一种特别的装饰性，制造出奇幻的视觉效果。我一直追求一种纯粹的绘画，没有叙事，没有观念，甚至没有形式，没有所谓文化和社会的意义，只有和身体有关的奇异效果。这样的绘画，西方人从来就没有达到过，而中国古代的文人们，尤其是宋元和明清时期的水墨丹青，已经很是接近了。我最近的作品，已经有点点纯粹的感觉了，我不知道还能走多远，但新的可能性一旦显露，就只有继续走下去了，我渴望能再接近一点，就一点点。

In this batch of paintings, along with the plum blossoms, there is the annoying hyena (some people say it is a dog, wolf or bear), the bird (sometimes I call it a nestling), some insects, and some fish here and there. Of course, there are always people. I like putting these things together on the same acrylic color background as plum blossoms, and the backgrounds are mostly pure blue, as well as white, yellow, gray, and a deeper blue. When these things are put together on a solid block of color, there is a special decorative quality, producing a fantastic visual effect. I have always pursued a pure kind of painting, without narratives, concepts or even form, entirely devoid of cultural and social significance, just an odd effect that relates to the body. Westerners never reached this, but ancient Chinese scholars, especially the red and green painters of the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties got quite close. My recent works already have a bit of the pure feel. I don’t know how far I can take it, but whenever a new possibility is revealed, I can only continue further. I hope that I can get a bit closer, even just a bit.

梅花我通常用浓淡不一，偏一点紫的红色来描绘，同样也是丙烯平涂。那些人、鬣狗、鸟儿、虫子则用黑色的油画颜料加大量的丙烯剂画上去，效果很是随意，只要保持外形就行了。最后，我用极细的圆形笔为这些生灵身上加上细细的毛，有时很密集。我特别喜欢给任何我认为有生命的东西都加上眉毛、胡子，给大多数的生灵叼上一根烟，因为我认为，叼上烟的嘴，特别性感。

For the plum blossoms, I often use a slightly purplish red to sketch them out in uneven thickness, also done in flat acrylic strokes. Those people, hyenas, birds, and insects are painted with black oil paint pigment with a large amount of acrylic added, and the effect is very surreptitious, as long as I maintain the shape. Lastly, I use an extremely fine round brush to add fine hairs to these bodies, sometimes very densely. I really like giving anything I consider alive eyebrows and a beard, and I give most of them a dangling cigarette, because I think that mouths with dangling cigarettes are, well, very sexy.

有很多人看了我的作品，肯定地认为我喜欢做梦，并且是大白天醒着的时候做，叫白日梦。起初，我一直认为他们说得很有理，艺术家嘛，就应该是个做白日梦的人。这几天，我把我这一年多画的作品在电脑上看了一遍，心里隐隐觉得这样的评论有些别扭。我忽然觉得，真正的绘画，其实和梦没有关系，它应该是触摸得着的。白日做梦，还不如做疯子，疯子可以乱来，胡思乱想，很是爽快。梦，太浪漫了，不对我的胃口。

Upon seeing my works, a lot of people are convinced that I like to dream, and that I dream in broad daylight while wide awake, which is called daydreaming. At first I thought they made sense. Artists should be daydreamers. I’ve looked at my paintings from the last year or so on my computer over these past few days, and somewhere in my mind I’ve come to feel that this theory is somewhat off the mark. All of a sudden I’ve come to feel that true painting really has nothing to do with dreams; it should be something you can touch. Why daydream when you can just be insane. Lunatics can mess around and think crazy things. It sounds nice. Dreams are too romantic. Not quite to my taste.

搞艺术近二十年，总算明白了一些事儿。很多的人，把艺术复杂化了，搞得大家不明不白，我倒认为疯子来劲，把事情简单化，疯子做事，不管章法，但尊重自己的感觉。我每天呆在工作室里，不是在做梦，而是乐于绘画本身迷人的奇妙感觉。我的作品，怪怪的没有章法，但有真真切切的感觉。我希望我的绘画是奇异的，能用身体去感受的。

I’ve been doing art for nearly twenty years now, and you could say I’ve figured some things out. A lot of people have complicated art, making it so that people don’t understand it. I think that lunatics are full of gusto, and make things simpler. When lunatics do their thing, they don’t worry about rules, but they respect their own feeling. I’m not dreaming when I’m sitting around in my studio every day, but taking joy in that wonderful enchanting feeling that the essence of painting gives you. My paintings are odd and don’t follow any rules, but they have a true and sincere feeling. I hope that my paintings are bizarre, and that they can be felt with the body.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

 

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　2007年9月26日下午

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　于“城市零件”工作室

On the afternoon of September 26, 2007

“City Spare Parts” Studio

作者：jinsegallery