颜磊：空间，通道，生活 / 艺术流
Yan Lei: Space, Passages, Art / Life Stream
Yan Lei: Space, Passages, Art / Life Stream
从北京到香港，如同进入一个巨大的蒸笼。人们憋足一口气，从一个空调房迅速潜入另一个空调房，尽量减少在湿热的空气中逗留的时间。是的，要适应香港，首先得适应这个城市无所不在的强劲空调冷气，三个月之后，你终于理解新加坡国父李光耀所说的：没有空调，也就没有新加坡经济的腾飞。
颜磊很快适应了空调，在令人昏昏欲睡的亚热带午后，他隔着玻璃窗看着室外摇曳的棕榈树，其美丽不亚于杭州西湖，但他深深知道，只要一迈出空调房间，湿热的空气立刻把你的美梦打破，你立刻意识到这种观赏和进入、人工和自然，进而，欲望和现实的分裂，整个东南亚的空调正在造就这样一种极其人工、极其易碎的幸福生活。
这是一种和以往截然不同的生活感受，颜磊在很快就进入了他创作的新阶段，虽然他一直怀疑东南亚的这种气候是否降低了人的创造活力，但从《这里通往卡塞尔》到《国际通道》，香港的大都市环境显然给了颜磊一个更为开阔的创作和思考空间，而颜磊恰恰是个对周遭生活感受力极强和极易就地取材的艺术家，他作品变化的内在动力，并非来自对某种“风格”的深入和自我完善，而是来自对自己生存空间变化的持续追问，我们对他作品的期待恰恰来自于一个未知数：他的作品和未来是开放的。
2 “错误”
在中国，害怕犯错的艺术家太少了。1997年，颜磊和洪浩合作的《邀请信》使得他为自己的“错误”付出了一定代价。这件富有“侵略性”的作品是以一种圈外人所难以想象的温文尔雅的方式进行的——无非是寄出一封带有德国邮戳和拙劣签名（令人想起皇帝的新衣）的远方来信而已，其结果是一下子击中艺术圈的权力系统命脉，并充分实践了索罗斯的“试错”理论：这儿并非是一个开放社会，所以大家才会受到如此深重的伤害。
也许，早在1995年的作品《侵害》是一个征兆，在这个作品中，颜磊成了一个受害者，而这个受害者又理性地记录和展示了施虐/受虐的过程，我们看到了一个艺术家角色分裂的寓言。随后，《去德国的展览有你吗？》埋下了《邀请信》的种子（也埋下了颜磊数年后重返“平面艺术”的种子），只不过在这个作品中，主题是以略带伤感和怀旧的政治宣传画手法表现出来；而在“邀请信”发出后，颜磊才真正尝到了“受害者”的滋味——颜磊被“妖魔化”为一个异类。可以说，《邀请信》这个作品的价值恰恰存在于艺术界对其的各式反应中。
如果我们再结合颜磊同年做的《我能看看你的作品吗？》、《欢迎颜磊到上海》，我们不妨可以将它们视之为艺术家和现代主义品味的一次彻底决裂。颜磊质疑的正是现代主义所强调的那个作品独立自足的系统，而事实上，这种独立自足在上个世纪九十年代的中国早已成为幻影，艺术家在西方强势艺术体系面前总体上已丧失人格的独立性（注意颜磊这一阶段作品的名字是以问句来表达的：
“去德国的展览有你吗？”——对权力系统的向往的口气；“我能看看你的作品吗？”——彬彬有礼的背后，是不容拒绝和不容置疑的权威口吻）。在这种情况下，艺术家巧妙地将艺术系统的疟疾转化为创作素材，这正是艺术家真实的生活体验，显然，它也能反映更为广泛的社会权力系统的位移。
3 新的刺激
香港这个规划得十分精致的人造资本主义空间给他新的刺激，《这里通往卡塞尔》可以说是以往主题的延续，值得注意的是这个作品的展示空间（即将搬迁的香港启德机场）和展示方式（挪用影楼俗气的风光布景手法），身处香港独特的政治环境，使得颜磊大大扩展了作品的外延，《这里通往卡塞尔》几乎寓示了颜磊在一个陌生的环境中随后将要关心的一系列问题：机场、通道、空间、商业、游客心态、二等公民情结、殖民地气息、艺术的尴尬位置等。
《二手店》反映了他对环境的敏感和融入环境的尝试，艺术家在书店和各种展览场合摆放自己的个人用品，并以普通二手市场价格的方式出售，在这儿，颜磊并非将这些用品当艺术品出售，而是把它们当真正的二手货出售，又一次显示了他对现代主义趣味的摒弃。这种类似“走鬼”摆摊的展出方式特别引起了香港普通市民的共鸣，他们好奇地翻看物品，并开始认识这个从内地过来的新移民艺术家的有趣想法，搞笑的是，墙上张贴着“哈利路亚”的红色太阳标志，颜磊在圣歌声中把自己所用过的东西——从衣服到书籍——一古脑扔给了那些挤在这片石屎森林里小心翼翼生活的人，这是在告别过去吗？
这种艺术与大众超近距离的接触彻底打破了艺术创作的神秘性。可以对比一下，两年后，颜磊在各种展览现场开始出售有关展览画册（成都双年展画册、光州双年展画册）封面的绘画作品，和二手店里的书籍一样，绘画立刻被人买走，但这已经不是二手货了，这是有关二手货的艺术作品。
通过“出售”这个看似简单的行为，颜磊了解了艺术权力系统的另一个秘密。
4艺术和权力
……艺术并不是一种权力，而宗教、国家、资本主义、科学、法律、舆论、电视等等，都是权力。艺术可以有内战，可那不过是一些可笑的战役而已。艺术不是权力，因而不能与那些权力作战，但是它也进行着一场没有战役的战争，一场反对那些权力的游击战。艺术无法与那些权力交谈，同它们无话可说，无可沟通，艺术只能同权力谈判。由于那些权力并不仅仅满足于停留在外部世界，还渗入到我们每个人的内心世界，所以我们每个人都在通过艺术不断地同自我进行谈判和游击战。
以上是我改写过的德勒兹语录，原来是有关哲学与权力关系的一段话，我把原话中论及“哲学”两个词的地方全部替换成了“艺术”。
荒诞的是，尽管艺术不是权力，但在艺术系统内部，却盛行有关权力和模拟权力的游戏，而且，这种游戏规则正渗入艺术家（同时也是每个人）的内心世界。
一次展览中，颜磊坐在残疾人的轮椅上，轮椅上的警笛不断发出刺耳的尖叫。
在《红灯区》这个作品中，颜磊把香港油街的一个艺术空间改造成了红灯区，他在临街的一个橱窗安上了香港红灯区专用的彩灯标志（出色的VI标识），另一个橱窗里则是由一个个麻将叠成的一段麻将柱（谁都知道广东人爱打麻将）；第三个橱窗有个液晶显示屏，上面输入了卡拉OK里的对话（全国人民都爱卡拉OK）。
5 谈判的可能性
在谈及《我能看看你的作品吗？》时，颜磊这样解释：“艺术家和策展人之间除了交流，还有对抗，策划人总是要排除一些干扰，他排斥的也许恰恰是艺术家所需要的要素。”
而反过来说，艺术家和策展人（或广义的权力机构）之间除了对抗，还有交流，《我能看看你的作品吗？》中对立统一的形象是由双方共同构筑的，化解对抗，变为艺术家所需要的东西，这就是中国艺术家在今天必须掌握的谈判策略。
颜磊在1999年进行的“绘画”创作可以说是对谈判可能性的探讨，但即使撇开这些“世俗”的考虑，颜磊的单色绘画仍向我们传达出一种感人至深的形象。这些场景都和颜磊日常生活有关，他以自己拍摄的和从朋友处搜集来的照片作为图像基础，通过自己创造的“颜氏技法”雇人替他完成，在展出的时候，没有画框，而是用夹子夹在板上，这种“糙”也成了辨认这些作品的特征。界定这些作品究竟是绘画还是摄影并不重要，重要的是，艺术家找到一种优先于他人的表达方式，并表达得充分和令人信服。这些作品的题目十分简洁，属于毫无深义的说明性文字，但和层层渗透的灰色调一起，让人在影像前有一种顿悟的快感，而颜磊的特有的“灰色幽默”也从这些画作中轻松地释放出来，从《三里屯》到《谈判大楼》，从《策划人》到《汇丰银行》，从《杭州》到《柏林》，这些作品的意义显然远远超出了画作本身，而成为颜磊艺术生涯的真实写照。
在我看来，颜磊的画作不是中断而是强化了他一直以来的艺术观念，他雇人画画，变本加厉地卖“二手货”，如果我们把他的平面艺术实践放在上个世纪末中国当代艺术界全面转型的背景下，我们就可以发现，颜磊所独创的“绘画操作系统”为他和艺术市场谈判赢得了空间，而这正是一个当代艺术家持续发展所必须的空间。
6 通道
从三年内搬五次家到《国际通道》这个作品的形成，从回流北京到圣保罗双年展上关于北京CBD的巨幅绘画（这次是模仿户外广告牌的画法），颜磊生活/艺术流始终在继续。生活在哪里，艺术就在哪里。
《国际通道》这个作品的性质像是有建筑内容的雕塑，也像是雕塑般的建筑，我至今还记得，去年他在广州向汉斯讲述这个方案时（那时候方案还刚刚诞生），脸上充满困惑。这个作品最后用迷彩纹布作为外观，有点像游击战的地道，这只是阐释上的问题，颜磊所需要的只是一种可以方便折叠和不太昂贵的材料而已，真正要关注的由8个大大小小的门以及那些狭小走道所构成的奇怪生活空间缩影，这种密集的生存空间只有在香港才能体会到。艺术家生活在这种空间，同时又通过变形，超越这种空间，归根到底，感受这个空间并把这个空间变成自己的思考出发点才是重要的。
也许，这个通道确实像是通往国际航班的通道，但即使通过国际通道来到汉堡，颜磊画的还是自己身边的事：十二张画，每张画表现的都是他亲手做的一碟小菜，从中国菜到意大利面条，颜磊记忆中的每个空间、每种生活都将转化成一种艺术形态，最终赢得的还是自己的艺术和生活空间。在这个探索过程中，所有的通道最后还是通向艺术家的内心深处。
胡昉
2003年01月06日
来源:艺术当代
胡昉，1970年生。小说作家和艺术工作者，生活在广州和北京。
（http://site.douban.com/140080/）
Travelling from Beijing to Hong Kong is like entering a huge steamer. People hold their breath and rush from one air-conditioned room into another, trying to spend as little time as possible in the hot and humid climate. Indeed, to get used to Hong Kong, one has to get used to the ubiquitous and powerful air-conditioner first. After three month, you finally understand what Singapores founding father Lee Kuan Yew meant by “without air-conditioning, there would be no growth of Singapores economy”.
Yan Lei got accustomed to air-conditioning very soon. On a drowsy subtropical afternoon, he is looking at swaying palm trees through a glass window, whose beauty could outstrip Hangzhous West Lake, yet deep inside, he is well aware that once you step out of the air-conditioned room, the hot and humid air will immediately smash your sweet dreams. You will instantly realize the gap between contemplation and experience, artificial and natural, as well as desire and reality; all over Southeast Asia air-conditioning is in the process of creating a particular kind of extremely artificial and extremely fragile happy life.
This is a very different and unusual kind of life experience, Yan Lei soon entered a self-created new stage, though he has always suspected that the Southeast Asian climate might lower ones creativity and vigour, however, considering his work, starting from mula dito papuntiang Kassel (This way to Kassel) to International Passageway , Hong Kong’s metropolitan environment has definitely provided him with a broader creative and reflective space. Yan Lei happens to be an artist who is very receptive to his surroundings and makes the best out of his life experience. The intrinsic power of his changing works does not come from improving and perfecting a certain “style,” but from a continued questioning of the changes in his own space of existence. Our expectations towards his work are precisely derived from an unknown: his work and future are open.
2.“Mistake”
In China there are not enough artists who are afraid to make mistakes. Yan Lei and Hong Haos work Invitation Letter from 1997 caused him to pay a certain price for his “mistake.” This work that was full of “aggressiveness” was carried out in a—for an outsider—unimaginably gentle way – it was nothing more than the sending of a letter with a German postmark and a poor signature (reminiscent of “The Emperors New Clothes”), which resulted in a direct hit on the core of the art circles power system. At the same time, it put George Soros “Trial and Error” theory fully into practice: this is not an open society, otherwise nobody would have suffered such deep damage.
Maybe his early work Invasion from 1995 was already an omen, in this work Yan Lei assumed the role of a victim, this victim however, rationally documented and displayed the process of abusing/being abused, in which we saw an allegory of the disintegration of the artists character. Soon afterwards, Are You Included at the Show in Germany? planted the seed for Invitation Letter (and also for his return to the graphic arts, which is to come many years later). Only in this work the theme is manifested through a slightly melancholic and nostalgic political propaganda poster style and only after sending Invitation Letter, Yan Lei really got a taste of what it means to be a victim – “demonizing” Yan Lei became a game of its own. One might say that the value of Invitation Letter just lies within the different reactions of the art world.
If we also take Yan Leis May I See Your Work? and Yan Lei – Welcome to Shanghai from the same year into account, we might regard these as a complete break between the artist and the modernist aesthetic. Yan Lei is precisely challenging that self-contained system emphasized by modernism, as in reality, this kind of self-containment had already become an illusion in the ‘90s in China. Artists had generally lost their independent personalities under the predominance of the western art system (note that Yan Lei uses interrogative phrases as titles for his work from this period: “Are You Included at the Show in Germany?” – with a longing undertone towards the power system; “May I See Your Work” – under a polite pretext, it is not easy to decline or doubt the authoritarian voice). Under these circumstances, the artist ingeniously transforms the art systems plague into creative material; this is just an artists real life experience, which apparently can also reflect a broader displacement of the social power system.
3. New Stimulations
Hong Kong, this exquisitely planned, artificial capitalist space gave him new stimulations, mula dito papuntiang Kassel (This way to Kassel) can be seen as a continuation of his previous themes. Of particular note was this works exhibition space (Kai Tak Airport, shortly before its relocation) and presentation mode (imitating the practice of a photo studios tacky landscape settings). Living in Hong Kong’s unique political environment highly increased the range of his work, mula dito papuntiang Kassel is almost an allegory of a series of questions Yan Lei had to concern himself with in an unfamiliar environment: airports, passageways, space, commerce, the tourist mentality, a second class citizen complex, colonial atmosphere, arts awkward position, etc..
Second Hand Shop reflects his sensitivity to the environment and the attempt to integrate it into his work. The artist placed his personal belongings in bookstores and various exhibitions and sold them at regular second hand prices. Here, Yan Lei did not sell these items as art objects, but as real second hand goods, demonstrating once again his rejection of the modernist notion. This kind of display, similar to unlicensed peddling, especially attracted the interest of Hong Kong’s ordinary citizens. They curiously went through the objects and started to get familiar with the ideas of this new Mainland immigrant artist. Ironically, there was a “Hallelujah” banner with a red sun on the wall, to the sounds of this holy song Yan Lei threw all his used items—from clothing to books—at once at the people prudently living in the crowded concrete jungle. Was this a farewell to the past?
This kind of extreme closeness between art and the people completely broke the mystery of art production. This can be compared to Yan Lei starting to sell the cover paintings of exhibition catalogues at different exhibitions two years later (from the catalogues of Chengdu and Guangzhou Biennales). Like the books in the second hand shops, the paintings were immediately sold, however they were no longer second hand goods, but art works about second hand goods.
Through the seemingly simple act of “selling,” Yan Lei discovered another secret of arts power system.
4. Art and Power
(…) Art is not a power. Religions, states, capitalism, science, the law, public opinion, television, etc. they all are powers. Art may have its internal conflicts, but those are no more than a couple of ridiculous battles. Not being a power, art cannot fight against the powers that be, yet it fights a war without battles, a guerrilla campaign against them. Art cannot converse with them, it has got nothing to tell them, nothing to communicate, art can only negotiate. Since the powers are not satisfied being external things, they also permeate each one of us; therefore art throws us all into constant negotiations with, and a guerrilla campaign against, ourselves.
The text above is a quote by Gilles Deleuze that I have adapted; the original was a passage about the relation between philosophy and power. I have replaced every appearance of the word “philosophy” with “art.”
The absurd thing is, even though art is not a power, there are games in arts internal system about power and which imitate power, moreover the rules of these games are currently permeating artists (as well as everyone).
During one exhibition Yan Lei was sitting on a wheelchair, attached to it was a siren, which constantly sent out piercing shrieks.
For Red-Light District Yan Lei transformed an art space in Hong Kong’s Oil Street into a red-light district. He placed a special neon sign used in Hong Kong’s red-light areas (a prominent VI logo) in a street-facing window; in another, he built a column using Mahjong stones (everybody knows that the Cantonese love Mahjong); and in the third window, he placed an LCD screen showing a karaoke dialogue (all Chinese love Karaoke).
5. The Possibility of Negotiations
Talking about May I See Your Work?, Yan Lei once mentioned that “in addition to communication, there is also antagonism between the artist and the curator, the curator always tries to get rid of any interference, but what he rejects might just be a key element needed by the artist.”
Yet, on the other hand, apart from antagonism, there is also communication between the artist and the curator (or a general authoritative institution). The idea of a unity of opposites in May I See Your Work is constructed by both parties together, resolving the antagonism and turning it into what the artist needs; hence, this is just the negotiation strategy a Chinese artist has to master today.
Yan Leis “paintings” since 1999 can be seen as investigations into the possibility of negotiation, but even if we set aside these “mundane” observations, his monochrome paintings still convey a profoundly moving image. All those scenes are related to Yans everyday life, photographs of his own and collected from his friends, form the basis of the paintings, using his self-invented “Yan-technique” he hired people to finish the works for him. At the exhibitions no frames are used. But instead, the paintings are clipped to boards; this kind of “roughness” turned into the distinctive feature of these works. Defining whether they are photographs or paintings is not important, what matters is that the artist found a form of expression which set him apart from others and which also accomplished that extensively and convincingly. The subjects of these works are exceptionally simple, they are descriptive texts without any deeper meanings, but together with the penetrating layers of grey, the images give the viewer a certain pleasure of enlightenment. Also, Yan Leis special kind of “grey humour” can easily be released from these visual works, from Sanlitun to Negotiation Building, from Curator to HSBC, from Hangzhou to Berlin, their significance clearly goes far beyond the works themselves and turns into a true portrayal of Yan Leis artistic career.
In my opinion, Yans paintings are not an interruption of his artistic concepts that he has had since the beginning. In fact, they have strengthened them. He hired people to paint, made an effort to sell “second-hand goods.” If we put his ventures into the graphic arts in the context of the general transition of Chinas contemporary art sphere at the end of the 20th century, we will realize that his creation, the “painting operating system” has won some space for his negotiations with the art market, and this space is just what a contemporary artist needs for his continued development.
6. Passageways
From three moves within five years, to the creation of International Passageway, from returning to Beijing to his gigantic painting about Beijings Central Business District for the São Paulo Art Biennial (imitating the style of billboards), Yan Leis stream of life/art is perpetual. Art is where life is.
International Passageway resembles a sculpture with architectural components, but also a sculptural building, I still remember, when he was talking to Hans Ulrich Obrist about this idea (which was just conceived back then) last year, his face was full of confusion. The camouflage patterned fabric used as the exterior for this work made it resemble a guerrilla warfare tunnel, yet this is only a matter of appearance, Yan Lei only needed a reasonably-priced material which could be easily folded. What to look out for is the microcosm of this strange living space constructed by eight different-sized doors and narrow corridors. This kind of dense living space can only be experienced in Hong Kong. While living in this kind of space, the artist also goes beyond it by transforming it. Finally, experiencing this space and turning it into the point of departure for his observations, this is only what matters.
Maybe this passageway is really like a boarding bridge to an international flight, but even if this international passage led to Hamburg, Yan Lei would still paint the things around him: 12 paintings, each one of them depicting a dish prepared by himself, from Chinese dishes to Italian pasta, every space in Yans memory, every form of living will be turned into an art form, eventually, what he gains is still space for his art and life. In the course of this exploration, every passage finally leads to the artists inmost world.
Hu Fang
(Published in ArtChina, 06.01.2003)
Translated by Weina Zhao
Hu Fang, Born 1970 in China. Fiction wrtier and art workers, based in Guangzhou and Beijing.
（http://site.douban.com/140080/）