有一次参观一个画家的展览，给我留下很深的印象。这个画家很有意思，他到乡下采风，不是像惯常的那样画一堆农民的头像，而是和农民一起作画，他画一幅农民的头像，农民也画一幅他的头像。画出的时候还把他的画与农民的画并置在一起，一边是他画的那个农民，一边是那个农民画的他。农民从没有画画的训练，在他的鼓励下战战兢兢地画了“完全不像样子”的东西。农民的年龄、性别各不相同，画出来的东西也有很大差异，有些画得还像个人，有些则只像个符号，有些还抓住了一些特征，如画家的长发和胡子；有些画得很小，有些画得很大。画家的形象在农民的笔下千姿百态，但你很难看出画家是什么样子，却会感受到一个农民从一种原始状态感觉世界的方式。相反，对画家画的农民的形象不会有什么期待，因为中国的艺术院校培养出来的人画出来的都差不多，即使有些变形，也是那几个变形的路子。

　　农民的画为什么吸引你，是因为你看到的不只是这张画，而是透过天真的眼光看到一个真实的生命，这是一种原始的生命状态，这种状态早已离我们而去，当我们的生命被现代社会异化为“非人”时，面对这样的东西而感到一种生命的回归，就像看那些真正的儿童画，仿佛回到自己的童年时代一样。如果是一个画家的作品，即使是很简单的素描或速写，你看到的都是各种作画的规则，各种风格的影响，用那些熟练的线条记录的形象实际上也是记录的规则。这其间并没有审美趣味上的价值高低之分，原始的、笨拙的线条并不优于熟练、优美的线条，不能识别的形象也不优于准确的形象。其价值在于生命的体验，在于寻找回归的自我，在现代文明日益消解人的自然本性的时候，这一点尤为重要。在重读雷子人的作品时，也是同样的感受。

　　自现代主义艺术以来，西方很多艺术家都在追求表现人的自然的、原始的状态，用以抵制现代文明对人性的侵蚀。稚拙、天真、原始、图腾等各种形式都是为了追寻失落的人性，但都是从语言的反叛和形式的创造为起点。雷子人当然已远离现代主义，他更接近的是后现代主义，这并不是说他采用了什么后现代主义艺术的样式，而是一种非现代主义或非形式主义的经验。这么说好像用了一个很大的题目，实际上还是很简单，也就是说，他是从自己的经验出发，一步步地回归自我，这个自我是大自我，即原始的生命。这个过程并不简单，他不是像米罗或亨利·摩尔那样直接搬用原始的样式，或用水墨来抄袭古代文化的符号，在他的画中看不到一点符号的痕迹，同时也看不到做作的痕迹，一切都非常自然。

　　自然状态的价值是在日益脱离人的自然本性而成为异化的、物化的人时体现出来的，但从文明状态回归自然状态却不是容易的事情。像雷子人这样，生活在城市里面，受过严格的学院训练，很难想象，他白天在画室里做出原始的画面效果，晚上又坐在酒吧里面听摇滚。那不是一种真实，只会导致样式化的形式。雷子人一开始就没打算这么做，他是从记忆开始的。我们假设他从农村来到城市，由一个自由的天然的人变成规矩的人，这个规矩不仅指学院的训练，也指生活的方式。甚至当他与原来的追求目标越接近的时候，也越不自由，越远离自己的本质。对于现状他可能无法改变，在他的理性意识中，他仍然是要成为一个城里人，成为一个专业艺术家，但在他的潜意识中却有一种呼唤：回归自然，回归本性。这种呼唤在他的创作中很快显露出来，那就是他的田园爱情题材。这个田园当然是很宽泛的，不一定指乡村，即使是都市中的田园也是一种向往。在雷子人的这类画中，潜藏着两个主题，一个是回归自然，一个是爱情。从表面上看，田园只是一个背景，爱情在自然中自由地展开；实际上，爱情具有与自然一样的性质，是人性的最本质的体现，爱的“野合”是人与自然的完美统一。正如自然相对于都市一样，爱则是相对于人的异化。由此，我们就能很自然地把雷子人的画从田园转向画室。

　　雷子人的田园题材还是比较表面的，虽然画面很有味道，但离原始状态还差得远，因为还没有找到语言的原始性。雷子的人体题材是在读研期间画的，他从院外回到院内，人体题材实际是画室的作业，这两类题材也是雷子人在人生上的两个阶段，两者之间好像没什么联系。实际上联系是很密切的，虽然没有了田园，但爱还存在，不过爱在这儿转换为性。人体艺术是离不开性的，但传统的道德意识总是小心把它掩盖起来，只留下美的外壳。雷子人的人体已经不是作业的概念，他把人体作为原始的、本能的生命存在来表现。在那些作品中，造型的准确、笔墨的关系等都不重要，重要的是他在把人作为本能的生命存在来表现时，自身的本能意识也投射在作品上，那些不准确的形，粗野的线条和笔墨都统一在生命对生命的发现之中。可能是这批作业的启示，雷子人很自然地把这种发现运用到新的创作中。事实上，性爱并不是雷子人的真正主题，他是通过性爱把人还原到本能的、原始的生命，当我们感受到其形式的表现力时，他实际上也还原了自己的生命。他的形式来自于他的生命体验，这不是对现实生命的直接体验，而是对生命本能的体验，所谓原始状态，就是指他的艺术产生在这种还原的过程中。他的作品调动起我们的生命冲动，我们才会被他的形式所感动，他所具有的，正是我们缺失的。

　　这是我在看雷子人的近作，包括他的陶艺作品时的一点感想，他是怎么想的我不知道，他的画和别人的不一样，而别人的都有太多的一样。这种不一样就像我们看一个农民作画，你无法期待他会画什么东西，因为那儿潜藏着真正的本能的生命，而我们自身被一样的文明所同化了。

　　The Original State

　　--on Lei Ziren's paintings

　　Yi Ying

　　An exhibition once impressed me a lot for the painter of which made some interesting tries. When he went to the countryside for collecting inspiration, rather than painting a pile of farmers' portraits as usual, he encouraged the farmers to join him in painting. Once he finished a farmer's portrait, the farmer would draw one for him. When exhibited, his painting was put next to the farmer's painting. These farmers hadn't received any training before, but with his encouragement, they actually drew something with great care and nervousness, although the "something" doesn't look like anything. Because of the farmers' different ages and genders, their drawings vary a lot in content and size: some look like a person, some are even like symbols, some capture the painter's features such as long hair and mustache; some are big in size and some are small. Although it's hard for us to recognize the painter's appearance in the variety of farmers' paintings, we could sense how a farmer feels the world from his original perspective. On the contrary, we may not be interested in the farmers' portraits drawn by the painter because those painters educated in (came from) Chinese art academies would present almost the same thing, even there are some changes, they would also follow the same pattern to change it.

　　Why are you attracted by the farmers' paintings? Because those are not just paintings for you, those creative works show you real life which needs an ingenuous eye to see. They present an original life state which has long gone away from us. When we have been "depersonalized" by modern society, we would feel a kind of return to the originality in face of these paintings, just as we would recall our childhood when seeing pictures drawn by children. In a painter's works, even a simple sketch, you would find various drawing rules and effects by diverse genre. The recorded portrait in skillful lines is actually recording rules. However, whether you love the farmer's painting or the painter's does not mean you have a high or low taste. The original, unskillful lines are not necessarily better than the skillful, beautiful lines. Neither are the unrecognizable images than the accurate ones. We could experience life and re-find the original self via these original lines or images. Here lies their value which is particularly important when the modern civilization is dissolving our original nature. The same feeling occurs to me when I re-appreciate Lei Ziren's paintings.

　　Since the establishment of modern art, many western artists seek to display human's original and natural state, so as to protect human nature from the erosion of modern civilization. Such themes as innocence, originality and totem are all to pursue the lost humanity, in a form of rebellious language and creative expression. Lei's works have certainly gone away from the modernism, but approximately belong to the post-modernism, which doesn't mean that he employs the post-modernism art techniques. It would be more appropriate to say that his works demonstrate a kind of anti-modernist or anti-formalist experience. It sounds like a huge topic. Actually, it is simple, that is to say, drawn from his own experience, Lei returns to the Big Self-the original life-one step by another. However, the process of return is not so simple. His works are natural, neither appealing to the original model just as what Joan Miró and Henry Moore did, nor copying the ancient Chinese cultural signs. In his works, we find no trace of signs and artificiality.

　　The value of original state becomes more and more important when our nature is slipping away from us, because it is hard for the "depersonalized" us to return to the original state from a civilized state. It is difficult to imagine a person like Lei, who lives in the metropolis and received formal academic training, could draw pictures full of original feelings in his studio during the day, but listen to rock music in the bar at night. These are two different feelings. If following these mixed feelings, the painter would only produce patterned works. Lei didn't intend to follow them from the beginning; rather, he started his production from his memory. Suppose Lei came to the metropolis from the rural area and he turned into a well-disciplined person from a free and natural man. The discipline comes not only from the academic training but also from the social life. The closer he gets to his original goal, the farther he is away from his nature. He is unable to change the situation because in his rational mind, he still wants to be a city dweller and professional artist, but he has an unconscious desire to return to nature and humanity. This desire exposes itself in Lei's paintings on rural areas and love. The "rural areas" here refer to not only the countryside, but also a garden in the city. This kind of Lei's painting contains two themes: one is his return to nature, the other one is love. On the surface, it seems like that the rural areas just form a nature background where the love demonstrates itself. In fact, the love, like nature, is the most essential reflect of humanity and the sex is the perfect unity of human and nature. The love is to the alienation from human as nature is to the city. Thus, we could image how Lei produces his pastoral paintings in his city studio.

　　Lei's pastoral paintings are relatively on a surface level, although the pictures may trigger some feelings. He still has a long way to go to achieve the true original state because his works haven't discovered the original state of language. Lei's figure paintings were drawn during his postgraduate studies. His painting theme turned from countryside to the figure, the two of which represent two stages of Lei's works. It seems they don't have any connections, but actually they do. Although there is no countryside part in the figure paintings, the love still exists and is transformed into sex. Figure paintings could not be separated from sex which is covered up by the traditional morality. Lei's figure paintings display the human body as an original, natural life, having surpassed the standard of school assignment. What matters in his paintings is neither the precise figure nor the arrangement of color and lines, but that he casted his own instinct consciousness on the paintings. Those loose structures, wild lines and colors are united in the awareness of life. Maybe inspired by these school assignments, Lei applied this awareness into his new works naturally. In fact, the real theme of his paintings is not sex, which is only a way to reflect the instinct and original life. His expression comes from his own experience, which doesn't mean the real life experience, but an experience of life instinct. The title "original state" means his works are on a route of return to the originality, to the instinct. We are moved by his paintings because they mobilize our instinctive impulse which we have lost.

　　That is what I thought when seeing Lei's recent works, including his ceramic works, unaware of what he really thought in his own mind. I believe his works are different from the others' works which make no differences. Just like we couldn't predict what a farmer would draw, because his paintings have the real instinct life in store. Unfortunately, we have been assimilated by the same civilization.

作者：易英