第95期 自由“置”造—— “艺游未尽”的创造力

学术主持：宋振熙

主题艺术家：龚旭、陈陈陈、朱玺、游波、李舜、范安翔、袁可如、郭熙、郝世明、龚剑

新作艺术家：李继开、烟囱、徐勇民、佘松、杜大恺、于轶文、汪莺莺、金国明

Issue No. 95(2014)

Theme: Free Creation of ” Installation “: The Creativity Of “The Lingering Art”

Academic Host: Song Zhenxi

A.T: Gong Xu, Chen Chenchen, Zhu Xi, You Bo, Li Shun, Fan Anxiang, Yuan Keru, Guo Xi, Hao Shiming, Gong Jian

A.N: Li Jikai, Yan Cong, Xu Yongmin, She Song, Du Dakai,Yu Yiwen,Wang Yingying, Jin Guoming

自由“置”造—— “艺游未尽”的创造力
Free Creation of ” Installation “: The Creativity of ” The Lingering Art ”
宋振熙

在很多理论层面上，艺术与游戏会绑定在一起，游戏理论不仅掺和在艺术里，它始终存在于社会发展的各个领域与层面，而游戏的意义不是游戏规则，也不是游戏的过程，它始发于游戏的规则，也注定绽放于未知之中。展览通常给我们展示的是艺术家思维创造力的结果，而另一类展览则把目光放在展示艺术家创造力迸发过程之中。游戏不等于娱乐，至少它可以有能力驾驭娱乐。在我们面对游戏的同时，我们也将通过游戏面对很多问题，并且在游戏中找到暂时的答案。我们说过游戏的意义或许早已在游戏规则中终结了，但这样一次意义的终结却阻止不了未知创造力的产生。

本次展览用一个简单的游戏规则设定，策展人、艺术家、观者被分别置于游戏之中，讨论一个老话题——图像、文字、想象力。图像与文字是人类承载权利的两种方式，它们并存在文明之中，却相互依附、相互博弈。艺术凌驾于两者之间，因为艺术更多地承载于想象力之中，想象力正是由图像与文字共构而来，它们同时成长于一个主体之中，伴随一生。想象力也与此同时有着自己的权利。然而当下无论是图像还是文字，都要面临一个问题，那就是被媒介时代同一的可能，这导致想象力权利的剥夺，而创造力成长的匮乏。于是我们忘记了游戏应该有的本真一面，回到游戏中来，在景观社会为我们搭建的海市蜃楼般的游乐场之外，留有自我思考的乐园。这次展览仅仅是一个问题的表达，但是这个表达里将由观者自己牵扯出更多的问题，它们就生于这些艺术家作品和作品方案之中。

展览设定了如下的“游戏”规则：

1.参展艺术家提供最近创作的作品一件（不限形式），无需介绍，无需题目。

2.策展人将每个艺术家提供的作品图片发送给参与艺术家，各自选择比较喜欢或者感兴趣的一件作品（自己的作品除外），提出关键词（词组、成语、短语），然后策展人汇集所有关键词。

3.策展人将关键词发放给艺术家们，由他们任意领取关键词（不得领取自己提出的关键词）进行作品创作。创作形式不限。

4.策展人收集参展艺术家的创作作品资料，再次汇集发放给艺术家，艺术家从中选取自己最为喜欢的作品（除去自己的作品），提出自己针对这件作品所理解的关键词，然后汇集给策展人进行整理。

5.策展人向参展艺术家发放关键词，由艺术家认领关键词（除去自己提出的词）进行新一轮艺术创作。

6.由此规则再进行一次交换，即第三次认领关键词然后创作。截止为共三次更迭交互理解作品与关键词进行创作。

非常感谢各位艺术家的积极参与，面对他们在这次展览中创造出来的优秀作品，我们获得的思考令人兴奋。首先，我们发现无论如何交换图像和文字，艺术家的个体关切、个体风格基本稳定不受干扰。当他们处于观者状态的时候，图像与自己的关系是“吸纳”，而不是“适应”。文字最后成为标示“占领”这个图像的权利宣示。面对艺术家陈陈陈的手稿式画作图（P24 初次提交作品），长期关注绘画性的艺术家范安翔的理解角度视其为“具象的形体，抽象的秩序，抽象的隐喻”。而将叙事性作为绘画本初的艺术家龚旭面对这件作品之时，其马上的理解是造就图片物象之外或许存在过的“穿山甲”，极富想象力和叙事色彩。在这里我们不得不提到艺术家龚剑。在这次展览中，龚剑面对任何作品的观看所提交的关键词都是“无聊”。在他看来，无聊是一切创造力的源头，这个观点也来自于克尔凯郭尔。面对所有的艺术作品，龚剑看到的是作品背后的起始动机，也是他对待艺术，富有哲学、政治情怀的关键词。正如他的其他艺术作品一样，对人的政治性、权利关系的社会关切始终不断地向观者传递着。本次展览之中，艺术家通常选取2~3个关键词进行组合创作，这一点反映出他们对待词语关系的创造比起词语本身来说更加敏感。换句话说，当代艺术家们将词语背后的“物象”搭建起来，这种搭建或许在所谓“关系美学”的概念之内，也或许在此之外，但终究满足的是重新，“造物”欲望的释放。“关系”在这里通过艺术家个体经验、感知、观念的浸染从而达到了新的“知”的再生，是以一个叙事的形态摆放在观者面前。当然，这种新“知”在遇见下一个观者客体面前它是流动的，不安的，让人期待的。如图（P38 第二轮作品），艺术家李舜将关键词“科幻，工业致幻剂”与“宅男的空间”，联系在一起，其创作的作品是，在液晶显示器上反复100次拍摄导入导出一张A4大小的黑色。最后的作品充满科幻色彩以及迷幻视觉。在他的理解下，“宅男的空间”或许正是重复、无效、禁止所关联的空间，它存在所依托的正是这个充满科幻技术，工业文明所切割掉人与人关系的罪魁祸首。

我们常常认为，对艺术作品的解释是对艺术作品最大的禁锢。艺术作品的感官可能性在文字的作用下，变得狭窄与扁平，这使得我们有时不得不回避两者的直接冲突。然而本次展览的“游戏”实验给予我们的认识却进了一步。艺术作品仿佛就是一个在空中游走不定的气球，而被解释的文字便是那一根将其拴在地上的绳子。绳子的意义在于不让气球失去方向或是消失在空中，而它无法限制气球随风摆动。每一位观看者对艺术作品的理解无论是否落实在文字上，但其感知的同时已经在内心中进行了文字的抒写。文字和图像有着不同的构建方式，他们直接面对的是同一源头，那边是想象力与创造力。两者相互牵扯却彼此不能抽离。一件艺术作品当他被文字转录到观者的认知系统中的同时，由文字带来的可能性又会为原本的艺术作品衍生更多的或许原来并不存在的可能性。本次展览之中，艺术家郝世明所创作的作品如图（P58初次提交作品），在其他艺术家那里被理解为“草”“龙”“被抛弃的一段纠缠”“凝聚”“草蛇”“猎奇”“禅意／筋骨，无形胜有形”等。这些仿佛不在同一语境下的关键词确实来自同一图像的源头，而接着由关键词所带来的创造力方向仍然强大而充满更多的可能性。在文字和图像的博弈之中，始终不变的就是关于创造力守恒的定律。回过头看，面对艺术作品，想要解释它并不难，难的是如何通过作为抒写的“解释”能保留那些蕴含其中不能被消解掉的可能性。

展览中，艺术家郭熙所提交的一件作品值得讨论。他在第一轮选取的关键词为“禅意”与“地心说”的组合，而创作的手稿如图（P52 第一轮作品）。画面中由无数的汉文文字“尘埃”组成的银河系图示，文字在这里变成了图像并且组成了图像群。观者必须双重地让图像和文字的感知搅合在一起去感受其中的意象。而当其他艺术家去感知意象的时候分别产生了以下的理解：“赤裸的太阳”“空”“佛陀星际”“空无” “何处尘埃”等。这条线路的传递似乎没有偏离主题的意象，在图像与文字的协作下，想象力反倒被限制在一个瓶颈之中。当然艺术家个体的作用永远是不可估量的。艺术家游波面对这个作品的关键词是“营救车”，而龚旭给出的理解却是“徐冰”，对于他们来说，图像之中的文字和造型不是理解的关键，关键在于样式或者是形式背后的生活经验。

“自由置造”的在线互动展览已经进行了两轮，历时2个月，参展作品30件，提交关键词143个，它如同一个桌游，艺术家们相互交换作品，相互交流作品，创作作品。它给我们留下来的思考还有很多，艺术需不需要阐释？艺术家被誉为视觉的创造者，他们与文字之间的情感到底是怎么样的？想象力是无边际的，艺术家的异同与同一会造就想象力精彩的传递？我们会看到创造者与观看者共同制造的“巴别塔”吗？这些问题的答案从来不会被肯定下来，而我们需要带着的是这些问题意识去把当代艺术的创造力挖掘出来。传递和转译的过程从来就是在艺术的世界游走中获得能量的过程，面对急速行走的世界，艺术能够给我们带来的或许就是这种不言尽的传达，时常让我们抽离被动而疲惫的世界，面对一个携带信仰而单纯的另一世界。艺术的能量随时将作品、人、作品串联起来，无论是在艺术范围内还是整个社会形态之中，只要感知、理解存在，创造力便存在。艺术或许在当下成为坚守被我们遗失的具有“创世”神话能力的

 

On many theoretical levels, art and game are bonded together and the game theories are not only blended in art but also exist in different fields and levels of social development. However, the significance of game is neither the rules nor the process but originates from the rules and is bounded to bloom in the unknown. What the exhibitions show us are usually the results of creative thinking of artists, while another type of exhibitions lays emphasis on presenting the process of creativity outburst of artists. Game is not entertainment because it can rein entertainment at least. When we face game, we face many problems through game at the same time and find temporary answers in game. As we have said, the significance of game maybe has ended in the rules, but the end of significance doesn’ t hinder the generation of unknown creativity.

In this exhibition, the setting of simple game rules is employed and the curator, the artists and the audiences are separately placed in the game to discuss an old topic: image, word and imagination. Image and word are two methods to convey the rights of human beings, which co-exist in civilization but depend on and compete with each other. Art falls in between them because it is more conveyed by imagination, while imagination is exactly constituted with image and word which grow in one subject and accompany each other for a lifetime. Meantime, imagination has its own rights. Nevertheless, both the image and word have to face a question, namely the possibility of being homogenized by the media age, and this leads to the deprivation of imagination right and the scanty growth of creativity. Hence, we forget the genuine side of game and there is a paradise of self-thought apart from the mirage-like amusement park constructed in the spectacle society when we go back to the game. This exhibition is just the expression of one question, but the audiences will raise more questions through this expression which are born in the works and schemes of these artists.

The following “game” rules are set for this exhibition:

1. The participating artists shall provide a piece of recent work (without any limits on the styles). Both the introduction and the title are unnecessary.
2. The curator shall send the photos of works to the participating artists and the artists can choose a work they are fond of or interested with (excluding their own works) and extract the key words (phrase, idiom and expression). Afterwards, the curator shall gather all key words.
3. The curator shall issue the key words to the artists. The artists can choose the key words freely (excluding the key words put forward by themselves) and create works according to the key words. There is no limit for the style of works.
4. The curator shall collect the data regarding the creation of works by the participating artists and send the data to the artists again. The artists can choose their favorite works (excluding their own works) and propose the new key words in line with their understandings about the works. Afterwards, the new key works should be sent back to the curator.
5. The curator shall issue the new key words to the participating artists and the artists can choose the key words (excluding the key words put forward by themselves) for the artistic creation of a new round.
6. The rest shall be done in the same manner until the participating artists choose key words and create works for the third time. There is a total of three interactive understandings of art works and artistic creations in accordance with the key words.

Hereby we shall express sincere gratitude to the participating artists and the thoughts generated when we face these excellent works are exciting. Firstly, we find that the individual concerns and styles of the participating artists are basically stable and free from distractions no matter how the images and words are interchanged. When they are in the position of the audiences, their relations with the images are “absorption” rather than “adaption” and the words become the declaration of rights indicating the “occupation” of the images. Faced with the manuscript-style art work by the artist Chen Chenchen in page 24 ( works of initial submission ), the artist Fan Anxiang, who has paid close attention to painting for long, interprets it as “concrete structure, abstract order and metaphor” from his perspective. However, the immediate interpretation of the artist Gong Xu, who takes narration as the origin of painting, is that there may be “a pangolin” beyond the images and the images are rich in imaginations and narrative colors when he faces the same work. Here we must introduce the artist Gong Jian. In this exhibition, the key words proposed by Gong Jian for all works are “boredom”. In his view, the boredom is the headstream of creativity. This view comes from Kierkegaard. Faced with all works, what Gong Jian see is the original motive behind the works as well as the key word full of philosophical and political sentiment for how he treats art. Like his other art works, he never ceases to convey the social concerns about the political nature of human and the right relation to the audiences. In this exhibition, the artists usually choose 2-3 key works for combined artistic creation and this suggests that they are more sensitive to the creation of the relations among key words than the key words themselves. To put it another way, contemporary artists build the “images” behind words and the building may be within or beyond the concept of “relational aesthetics”, but it ultimately satisfies the release of the desire for “creation”. Here, the “relation” is gradually influenced by the individual experiences, perceptions and concepts of artists and reaches the rebirth of new “knowledge” which is put in front of the audiences in the narrative form. Of course, this new “knowledge” is flowing, restless and anticipated by people until it meets the next subject of audience. As shown in page 38 ( works of 2nd round ), the artist Li Shun associates the key words “science fiction, industrial hallucinogen” and “the space of otaku” and his work is a piece of black A4 paper photographed, imported and exported in a liquid crystal display (LCD) repeatedly for 100 times. The final work is imbued with the flavors of science fiction and reflects a psychedelic vision. In his understanding, “the space of otaku” may be the one where all relations are repeated, ineffective and forbidden and what its existence depends on is exactly the industrial civilization full of science fiction technologies, i.e. the chief criminal that cuts off the relations among people.

We usually consider that the interpretation is the largest imprisonment for art works. The sensorial possibility of art works is narrowed and flattened under the effects of words and this urges us to avoid direct conflict between them. However, the experiment of “game” in this exhibition gives us a closer understanding. What art works to the floating balloons in the sky is the interpreting words to the ropes that tie the balloons to the ground. The significance of ropes is to prevent the balloons from losing direction or disappearing in the sky, but the ropes cannot impose restrictions on the balloons to swing with the wind. Each audience has his own expression of words in mind, whether his understanding about the art work is implemented in words or not. Image and word have different building methods. They directly face the same headstream, namely imagination and creation. They are mutually involved and cannot be isolated from each other. When an art work is transcribed into the perception system of the audiences through words, the words may bring about some possibilities and the art work may derive more possibilities which don’ t exist in the art work originally. In this exhibition, the work created by the artist Hao Shiming in page 58 ( works of initial submission ) is interpreted as “illegibility”, “dragon”, “an entanglement abandoned”, “cohesion”, “snake-like hastiness”, “novelty seeking”, “Buddhist mood/strength, the intangible is better than the tangible” by other artists. These key words seem to not come from one context but indeed have the same image as headstream and the creativity brought about by the key words is still strong and full of possibilities. In the game between image and word, the conservation law of creativity has remained unchanged. In retrospect, it is not difficult to interpret the art works, but how to express “interpretation” and remain the possibilities which are contained in the art works and cannot be eradicated is difficult.

In this exhibition, the work submitted by the artist Guo Xi is worthy of further discussions. The key words selected by him in the first round is the combination of “Buddhist mood” and “the geocentric theory” and his manuscript is as shown in page 52 ( works of 1st round ). The manuscript is a sketch of the galaxy composed of enormous Chinese characters “尘埃” ( dust ) and Chinese characters become images and make up an image group here. The audiences must blend the dual perceptions about image and word to perceive the image contained in the manuscript. However, other artists have the following interpretations when they perceive the image contained in the manuscript: “the naked sky”, “vacancy”, “the interstellar of Buddha”, “emptiness”, “where does the dust come from” and so on. The transmission of this line seems to not deviate from the image of theme, but the imagination seems to be restrained at a bottleneck under the combined effects of image and word. Of course, the individual effects of artists are always beyond measure. When faced with the work, the artist You Bo gives a key word of “the wrecking car”, but the key word proposed by the artist Gong Xu is “Xu Bing”. For them, neither word nor modeling is the key of interpretation, and the key lies in style or the life experience behind style.

So far, two rounds of online interactive exhibition of “Free Creation of Installation” have been carried out and lasted for 2 months and a total of 30 art works and 143 key words are submitted. The exhibition is like a board role-playing game and the artists interchange works, communicate with each other and create works again. This exhibition leaves a great deal of thinking behind. Is the interpretation of art necessary? What is the relation between the words and the artists who are honored as the creator of vision? The imagination is boundless. Will the homogenization and dissimilation of artists cause the wonderful transmission of imagination? Will we see “the Tower of Babel” created by the creator and the audiences together? The answers to these questions will never be affirmed, and we shall carry the consciousness of these questions into the exploration of contemporary art creativity. The process of transmission and translation is the one to wander in the art world and obtain energy. In the world of rapid pace, what the art can bring to us may be the unspoken transmission and we are often isolated from the passive and exhausted world and face a pure world that keeps faith. The energy of art can associate the works, the artists and the works at any time, and the creativity exits where the perception and interpretation exist, whether in the scope of art or in the entire social formation. At present, art may be the final field to guard the mythological capacity of “creation” we have lost.

Song Zhenxi