另一个自我
朱朱
在最近被翻译成中文的《画家生涯》（The Painter's Practice）里，高居瀚（James Cahill）试图消解中国古代文人画家的“业余性”神话，通过揭示早就存在的艺术商品化生产这个事实，来证实画家们“在超然的精神和审美追求之外，仍有着尘世的需要和欲望”，从而使这些历史上的形象变得更富于人性，更真实可爱。高居瀚的论述无疑为我们提供了一种认知过去的视角，同时，也促使我们进一步地思考艺术家与其作品之间可能的差异感，即艺术家在现实生活中呈现的自我与他在艺术创作中达成的自我并非是同一的，人未必如其画。一般来说，后者是一个更好的自我，一个超越了性格缺陷与现实羁绊的自我，艺术的功用在此首先显示为自我治疗与升华。
如果从这一角度来观看阿海的其人其画，就会察觉到，发生在他那里最有意味的事情，是两者之间强烈的形象反差：现实之中的阿海，兼有豪侠、赌徒及魏晋狂放之士的气质，如果生在古代，他应该是频见于文人笔记的传奇类型，这类人物不作正史的追求，但求快意人生，其秉性就像一张天赐的“通行证”，保障着他们于尘世之中敏捷的穿行能力，并且在所过之处不停播撒着欢乐和自在的情绪；而他在绘画中构建的那个自我，显得感伤、颓靡、茫然若失，尽管在不少的画卷中他都引入了怪诞、俗艳的当代日常生活意象以及带有狂欢色彩的超现实情境，却难以消解一种仿佛出自骨子里的忧郁感；他用以自喻的那个漂浮于水面的裸体男人形象，折射着一个为秋光和落英而低回的南唐词人，一个为“梦里不知身是客”而悔疚的还乡者，而他所采用的双面晕染的特殊技法，也使得画面的色调来得沉郁与漫漶，映衬出空幻的追忆氛围。
很显然，相对于他在现实中所给予我们的印象，他的作品更多袒露出了敏感、柔软而缠绕的神经纤维，让我们感知到一个放浪、痛快的生命形骸背后那份独自面对自我内心时的酸楚与创痛，进而让我们窥见了他的另一个自我，并且惊讶于他的两个自我之间存在着如此强烈的反差与冲突。应该怎样来理解这样一个事实？也许可以说，他以这样的表达反观了现实中的自我，借助水墨这古老的媒介，消弭着个人置身于这个现实时空里必须面对的分裂性与混乱感，而就他所依仗和追溯的主要语言及精神资源而言，那正是一种以追忆的语调和颓废的感官表达而著称的江南文人审美传统，由此我们不得不感佩于这一地域审美传统的强力，因为它是如此地吸引和驯化着“飞扬的形态”，将之转入到空幻深邃的体悟之中，似乎无论具有怎样生动“魔性”的人，一旦他想通过艺术发出声音，就必然地变得幽静、谦卑与克己；作为这种体悟的回报，就是一个人逐渐地卸除狂躁的现实情绪和积压的心理重负，并且不断地重塑自我。从这一意义上来说，绘画对阿海已非生活的余兴，而是最归根结蒂处。
The Other Selfhood
ZhuZhu
At the newly translated Chinese version of The Painter's Practice, James Cahill tried to clear up the “amateurism” myth of ancient Chinese intellectual painters through revealing the long existed commercialization of art, proved these painters “beyond the detached spirit and aesthetic seeking, still demanding the mortal life with desires”, thus made these historical images became more humane, reliable and adorable. James Cahill’s elaboration undoubtedly provided us a visual angle to have the cognition of the past, meanwhile urged us further thinking about the different sense of Artists and their works, which is the selfhood artist in real life and the other selfhood artist presented in the art, they are not the same, artist is not necessarily like his paintings, in general the latter selfhood is the better, which surpassed personality flaws and reality bounds, the function of art at here firstly appeared as self healing and distillation.
If from this point of view to observe Ahai’s painting and his personality, you will be conscious of things happened interesting with him, which is the strong visual contrast between him and his work: Ahai in the real life, combining the characters of swordsman, gambler, and like the unruly scholar of Chinese Northern and Southern
Dynasties(AD.420-589), if he was born in the ancient time, he should be the legendary type that frequently be described in the notes of scholars and alchemists, this type of people do not seek for the official biographical history, they seek for joyful life. The character of them is like a natural gifted ‘passport’ which guaranteed them have the swift travelling ability in this earthy life, and ceaselessly plant happiness and ease mood wherever they have been to; and, the other selfhood he structured in his paintings, showing sentimental and decadence, and an absent mood , though in many of his paintings he introduced absurd, flaring routine images of contemporary life and the surrealism circumstances with carnival hue, but there is a kind of melancholy feeling as if out of his bones that can not be dispelled ; the images of the naked floating man which is his personal analogy, reflected a lyric poet of Southern Tang dynasty who paced down and up for the Autumn shadows and the drifting leaves, a repentant home returner which “inside his dream he forgot being held as a captive”, and the typical technique of double sided printing he had used in his paintings, made the tones of the paintings more gloomy and illegible, set off the illusionary recalling atmosphere . Obviously, relative to the impressions he had given us in the reality, his works revealed a lot more on susceptibility, flexibility and entanglement of the nerve fiber, let us sensing an unrestrained, delightful life body which face the inward lonely with distress and anguish, then we caught a glimpse of his another selfhood, and being astonished of the strong contrast and conflict between his two selfhoods. How should we comprehend this fact? Maybe we may note this, with the art expressions he reflected the reality selfhood, and with the help of the ancient media : ink, eliminated the divisive character and confusion that when individual engaged and faced in the real space-time, and for the major language and spiritual resource which he does count on and retrospect of, that is an aesthetic tradition which is famous of the recalling tones and intonations and the decadent sense from the system of the southern Yangtze river scholar, thus we had to admire and be touched by the strong influence of the aesthetic tradition from this location, for it strongly attracts and tames the “flying status”, transforms it to the visionary and abstruse enlightenment, seems no matter how lively a shaman character one might have, once he desires to emit a call through art, inevitably he would become peaceful, humble and self restrained; as repay of the enlightenment, one would gradually disengage the manic reality mood and excess psychological burdens, and steadily remold oneself , from this point of meaning , painting for Ahai is not the lingering interest but the final solution for the root of life. |
阿海
