卢迎华：你的创作似乎可以分两条线索来讨论，其中一条是以绘画为媒介的创作，从早期用色块分割现有图像以便在画布上进行机械复制，到《彩轮》系列，到近期的也是以现成图像为基础的并以固定的式样呈现的《追光》系列，请你以这三个阶段为例子谈谈你对绘画的观点？对重复的看法？对大批量生产艺术品的看法？
颜磊：关于绘画，这种媒介就是为了被收藏，所以我会直接把它理解成商品。有名的绘画之所以有名就是因为符合了市场和资本运作规律。
我的工作室可以按我的想法制作出一些绘画作品，我会尽量根据现有的条件去试着多做一些不同的作品。我做过的具像绘画作品有：《上升空间》（Climbing Space）／《特醇》（Super Lights）／《追光》（Sparkling），都是我自己想到的一些景观或者人物的图像，《上升空间》是和我自己身份相关的东西，《特醇》的图像来自于对我有影响的艺术家或作品，《追光》是和我的回忆有关。
抽象作品是依靠在工作室的特殊条件产生的，我希望我的抽象绘画作品能体现出自动性的一方面，比如说《彩轮》，它就像是工作室里的寄生物，有着无限繁殖的可能性。
大批量的制作，是我理想的工作方式，这种方式不仅让我经常保持兴奋状态，还带来了人们对艺术、艺术家、作品、价格等问题的讨论，这是我感兴趣的。
卢迎华：在这三个阶段的创作中，艺术家开创了一种样式和生产模式，之后便将生产的过程转移给绘画的工人，你甚至不遗余力地设计一套生产流程，尽力地消解绘画的特殊性和个性，让不会做画的人也能替你做画。这种创作方式是针对艺术史而生发的吗？它的针对性是什么？
颜磊：为了不去碰画布，我真的花了很多的功夫工作，为替我画画的助手服务，因为绘画证明不了我对艺术的纯洁与独特追求。同时，对待绘画，我更像一个为市场提供产品的人，我希望把事情做得更准确，我认为做事的准确性要比确认是不是艺术家更重要，这也是我对艺术的态度。
卢迎华：请具体谈谈《追光（Sparkling）》的概念，你是怎么开始创作《追光》这个系列的？
颜磊：《追光》是我去年开始想到的一个绘画的主题，主要是因为回忆所呈现出的一些画面，我喜欢对光的夸张处理，使得那些图像看上去既象是被歌颂，又象是被讽刺。
……
卢迎华：和“脑浊”的合作是你最近的创作中的一个重要的发展。你是怎么开始和“脑浊”合作的？和“脑浊”合作的动机是什么？为什么在这个合作的过程中你是“艺术家”而不是一个普通的“经纪人”？“脑浊”乐队的特殊性在哪，还是是什么乐队也不是很重要？它具备了什么成为作品的条件？
颜磊：和“脑浊”的合作的确是一个叫人兴奋的想法，我利用展览机会所给我提供的条件，以艺术的名义把我的朋友们请到国外，也就是把我生活的一部分搬到了那里。在那里，由于“脑浊”的演出使人兴奋，并成为当地城市生活经验的一部分，发生的一切，包括人们对评判艺术概念的讨论，被我看成是艺术。我本来就不在乎艺术家和普通人的区别，有很多自称艺术家的人，做的东西还不如垃圾。
卢迎华：你怎么用和“脑浊”合作的创作来演绎艺术家“指鹿为马”的能力和权力？
颜磊：我和“脑浊”的关系是我生活的一部分，我向别人提供的是我的生活经验。艺术家的能力和权力还要取决于策划人的理解和兴趣。
卢迎华：艺术家的意志一直是艺术家自己在不断地重新认识和界定的对象。你觉得艺术家的意志到底有多强大？
颜磊：你可以用各种智慧来解释艺术，但当代艺术无法体现艺术家真正的意志力。
卢迎华：你是怎么看待Andy Warhol和他的艺术王国？你觉得今天延续他的思考和创作方式还有意义吗？或者是在中国这个特殊的土壤上，Andy Warhol的艺术实践可以给我们提供什么样的借鉴和启发？
颜磊：每个艺术家都会羡慕Andy Warhol，他的作品提醒我应该如何表达自己的欲望。
卢迎华：你还虚拟了一个年轻艺术家并为她进行各种包装宣传，这是你的作品吗？它的概念是什么？作为艺术家的你和虚拟的她有什么差别？
颜磊：我有一个朋友，她喜欢用一个虚拟的身份来考虑艺术问题。
（此文曾刊登于《当代艺术与投资》2008年第06期）
LYH: It seems that your work can be divided into two themes, one of them employs painting as a creative medium; from early on, you used color blocks to dissect existing images and copied them mechanically onto the canvas, until the Color Wheel series and then the recent Sparkling series, which is also based on ready-made images and fixed patterns. Please tell us about your views on painting with respect to these three stages as examples, and your opinion about repetition and mass production of art.
YL: About painting, this kind of medium is made for collecting, therefore I regard it directly as a product. Famous paintings are famous because they comply with the rules of the market and capital operations.
My studio can produce paintings according to my ideas; I will try my best to do as many different works as possible under the existing conditions. Paintings I have done in this way are for instance Climbing Space, Super Lights or Sparkling, they were all landscape or figure images conceived by me. Climbing Space is something connected to my identity; the image for Super Lights came from artists or works that influenced me; Sparkling is related to my memory.
The abstract paintings were produced through the special conditions in my studio, I hope that my abstract works can show a form of automaticity. For example Color Wheel is like a studio parasite, it has indefinite possibilities to reproduce itself.
Mass production is my ideal working method, it doesn’t only often put me into a state of excitement, but also triggers discussions about art, artists, works and value, which is what I am interested in.
LYH: Through that three-staged work process, you as the artist create a certain mode of style and production and transfers this procedure afterwards to the workers, you even made the effort to design a production flow to eliminate, as far as possible, a paintings special characteristics and individuality, so that somebody who cannot paint can also do the painting for you. Was this mode of creation aimed at art history? Or what was it aimed at?
YL: In order not to touch the canvas, I really spent a lot of work and effort to be at service for my painting assistants, because painting could not prove my pure and unique pursuit of art. At the same time, with regard to painting, I was more like somebody providing goods to the market, I hoped to do things more accurately, I think that the accuracy behind a work is more important than to determine if it was done by the artist – this is also my attitude towards art.
LYH: Can you please be a bit specific about the concept behind Sparkling, how did you start to create this series?
YL: Sparkling was a painting theme that I started to think about last year, mostly because of some images that had arisen from memory, I like how the light is exaggerated, so that the image appears to be both a glorification and a travesty.
LYH: The other important thread created by you, covers multi-media, and even multiple disciplines. Your work outside of painting seems to happen in all kinds of public spaces. For example, your work during the 2004 Shenzhen Biennale, where you struggled with local real estate developers to maintain the state of a large area of land to be undeveloped for two years (The Fifth Element), to the recent Down Town Production project, where you invited the band Brain Failure to perform at various important art events. Please tell us about the importance of this thread within your artistic practice. How did you move towards creations in that direction?
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YL: To cooperate with Brain Failure was really an exciting idea, I took advantage of the conditions provided by an exhibition opportunity and the name of art, to invite my friends to go abroad. Which is to say I moved a fragment of my life there. The excitement created by Brain Failures performance, also turned into a part of the citys urban experience. Everything that happened there, including the discussions that arose to judge its status as art, all that is art for me. Anyway I dont care about the difference between an artist and an ordinary person – a lot of things made by people who call themselves artists are not even as good as garbage.
LYH: How do you interpret the artists ability and power to “call a stag a horse” [deliberately misrepresent] in regard to your cooperation with Brain Failure?
YL: My connection with Brain Failure is a part of my life. What I provide to other people is my life experience. An artists power and ability also depend on a curators understanding and interest.
LYH: An artists will has always been subject to the artists own constant new understandings and definitions. How strong do you think is an artists will?
YL: You can use all kinds of wisdoms to explain art, but contemporary art cannot reflect an artists real willpower.
LYH: What is your opinion on Andy Warhol and his art empire? Do you think it still makes sense to continue his ideas and creations today? Or rather, in China, on this particular soil, what kind of reference and inspiration can Andy Warhols art practice give us?
YL: Every artist envies Andy Warhol, for his works remind me of how to express my desires.
LYH: You have also virtualized a young artist and did all kinds of marketing and publicity for her, is this also a work of yours? What is the concept behind that? What is the difference between you, as an artist, and the virtual her?
YL: I have a friend, she likes to think about art through a virtual identity.
By Carol Yinghua Lu
Translation by Weina Zhao
(Article published originally in Contemporary Art and Investment 06, 2008)