文／陶心琪

英文校对／Zee Peng

“危险关系”作为刘健的第一次个展，试图从手段、语言、媒介材料、观念与语境多个层面向观众呈现他近一年以来集中的艺术探索。这种探索基于绘画同时又试图突破绘画形式，从材料和手段层面反映出艺术家本人的艺术态度与观点。而对刘健而言，媒介材料和方法本身并非其创作的核心，它们涵盖的是他在过去七年中经历过的不断反复、不断更新的自我认知历程。在呈现完整作品之外，展览中来自艺术家创作材料的延伸作品以及其本人在这之上留下的痕迹，成为展览的过程和结构补充。它们为观众揭示的是刘健在艺术创作中完善思考的路径以及在漫长的劳作中与物质建立的联系。没有任何语言能如刘健的自述般更好地描述他在长期实践中对其艺术创作和自我衍进的过程：“它实在是一个疯狂的失败史。它的珍贵源于我不断的承认自己的失败和利用它们，但是那个被淘汰的真的是我自己，而不是物。”

As LIU Jian’s first solo exhibition, Dangerous Edge presents the artist’s intensive artistic exploration in the most recent year from multiple angels: method, language, material, concept and context. Such exploration is based on the form of painting while goes beyond it. Through the material and method, we are able to understand Liu’s attitude and concept for his works. However, the material and method themselves are not the cores of his art making; they essentially reflect the repetitive yet evolving process of the artist’s self-recognition in the past seven years. In addition to the presentation of Liu’s complete works, Dangerous Edge also shows other works that were developed from Liu’s art materials as well as marks of his physical labors. The extended works and the evidences of Liu’s labor are supplements to bring the audience closer to the structure of the exhibition and the process of Liu’s art making. And they reveal to the audience Liu’s way of thinking in his art making process and the connections grew between the artist and matter during an elaborated time of labor. No word from other people can better describe Liu’s art practice and inner-transformation than his own statement: “My artistic practice is indeed a history of failures. Its pricelessness comes from my acknowledgement of my failures and my effort of making use of them. The one that had been eliminated was actually myself, but not the materials.”

契合艺术家的艺术实践，展览的第一部分选择了刘健临时、即兴的创作条件——等雨——带领观众进入他的精神世界和创作态度。这种选择并非随机，而是映射出刘健周期性的工作状态：他每年大约有四个月时间在室外进行创作。外物与创作的联系自然而然地将展览引向刘健在媒介材料层面的观点。材料在自然力与人为力共同的侵蚀和打磨中逐渐被淘汰，而这种淘汰却呈现出另一种独特的精神力。对刘健而言，这个过程催生的是一种近似于机械工作产生的、不可替代的劳动力残留物。展览的第二部分由媒介材料转向艺术家通过材料创作产生的与现实世界发生的连接。借由作品剥离出的生活碎片还原了刘健创作的本真情感、情趣和个人语境，印证着其艺术实践与当下的不可分割性。展览第三部分着重刘健创作的核心理念，即一种危险边缘的中间状态。这种状态既反映了刘健在面对不真实的当下和当代艺术环境时试图回避进入艺术史和历史时间坐标与完全回归自我之间的矛盾，同时又揭示着他透过画面处理所传达的对权利结构保持警惕和怀疑的态度。刘健在摒弃绘画和绘画性中所做的抗争和叛离并非对庞大艺术权力结构的逃避，而是建立在现代主义绘画基础之上，以被淘汰的精神力反控、干预画面来篡取权利的过程。这种权利重建的实现归根结底源于艺术家在不断的自我否定中去除了明确的标准，取而代之的是在一种危险关系的游移中建立起即时标准。

By resonating with the artist’s practice, the first part of the exhibition chooses Liu Jian’s temporary and improvisational art making condition — waiting for the rain — to lead the audiences into his spirit world and understand his attitude when creating. Such choice isn’t random; it in fact reflects Liu’s periodical work status: every year he spends approximately four months in the field creating art. The connection between the outside world and his works naturally leads the exhibition into Liu’s point of views on the material level. The materials in Liu’s works gradually became obsolete during the erosion and exploitation of both natural and labor forces, but such degradation presented another unique spiritual power. For Liu, this process results a nearly machine-made, irreplaceable residue of workforce. The second part of the exhibition makes a transition from medium to the connection between the artist’s material-based creation to real world. The life fragments in Liu’s works truly reflect the artist’s emotion, sentiment and personal narrative, which demonstrate the indivisibility of his art practice and contemporaneity. The last part of this exhibition emphasizes the core concept in Liu’s body of work: an intermediate state as if on a dangerous edge. This state indicates the artist’s own paradox faced with the untrue reality and context of contemporary art — to avoid his work being defined by any art history or time, and meanwhile to avoid completely returning to the inner self. Liu’s processing of the image also indicates his doubt on the current power structure of it. Liu’s rebellion of the form of painting is not an escape from the gigantic power structure of art, but breaking a new path, whose method is actually based on the modernist painting —— to seize the power of the image by a spirit regenerated from degradation. The realization of reconstruction of power system in Liu’s work depends on the artist’s denying of explicit standards through constant self-denying and replacing them with an immediate standard from a swing state on the dangerous power edge of the image.

在这种危险关系中，即边缘地带，刘健的作品始终同时容纳着不合理性与合法性。而超越作品本身，艺术家及整个展览更进一步地提出和亟需解决的问题是：在无数次突破极限后，由长时间工作周期形成的自动程序是否又抑制了自我否定和淘汰精神力的野性？换言之，对突破极限的追求本身是否会成为束缚的工具，进而构成何种新的权利体系？

In this dangerous zone, on the edge, Liu’s work contains irrationality and rationality at the same time. When we go beyond the work itself, the artist and the exhibition further raise a question needed to be solved: after countless times of pushing the limits, whether this automatic method of art making that is established through long-term practices again inhibits the inner power of breaking the limits? In another word, would the pursuit of going beyond the limit itself become a shackle and create a new power structure?

开幕式现场

 

关于机构

Between Art Lab 为中国首家艺术实验室，成立于2013年，建立于北京与上海。作为一个替代性的艺术空间，致力于拓展当代艺术的延展性，促进新艺术形式的产生与探索。Between Art Lab将通过展览项目联通多平台之间的互动，推动艺术与跨领域之间的交流。以鲜活的态度，为策展人、艺术家以及艺术机构提供一个中间平台，并将努力提供多重信息交流，积极联通科学技术、建筑、设计、多媒体等跨领域信息的导入。在一个正在到来的新世界认识体系中，伴随艺术家推动新艺术形式的产生。

Founded in 2013, Between Art Lab is the first experimental art lab in China. Based in Beijing and Shanghai, BAL is committed to investigate and generate new art forms through exploring the extensibility of Contemporary Art as an alternative art space. By encouraging interactions and connections among various platforms through BAL’s core exhibition projects, the lab is devoted to promote interdisciplinary communications between art and other fields. With enthusiasm and dedicated attitude, we provide an intermediate platform for curators, artists and art organizations, and strive to facilitate multi-layered information communication and the infusion of science and technology, architecture, design, multimedia, as well as other disciplines to the art world. In the coming world of a new cognitive system, Between Art Lab aims to boost the emergence of new art forms with the artists in our times.

据悉，此次展览将持续到2016年9月20日。