当我第一次面对刘永刚的大型文字系列雕塑作品的时候，我的第一个感受是“站立的文字，行走的人”，还有一个感受是“象形的文字，象征的意”。刘永刚用“爱拥”这个题目为他的文字雕塑系列命名说明他给作品注入的是一种“爱的寓意”。感受着这种虽不强烈但却温暖、难以言传只可意会的象征性的爱意，我在刘永刚“字雕艺术”的丛林中神游，并试图从艺术史的逻辑中探寻其爱的源泉。
汉字是中国的文化之根，许多当代艺术家都从古老的中国文字起步，走上了现代艺术的探索之路，我甚至认为在中国当代艺坛中存在着一种可以称之为“书法主义”的巨大潮流。受西方解构主义艺术思潮的影响，许多中国艺术家将汉字或书法的某一方面的特性进行放大，强化突出其某个特定的元素，通过对汉字的挪用、解构和重组，创作出大量既带有鲜明的民族文化特色又具有强烈的时代气息的艺术作品。同样以汉字为起点，但探索的途径和方向却是多种多样的。有人解构汉字的形体，有人变乱文字的意义，有人重建文字的结构，有人甚至将文字的书写从平面形式引入到行为艺术和观念艺术的范畴。其代表性的成果有谷文达把书写变成修炼的道场，意在呈现潜藏在汉字中的“道法自然”的老庄境界；有徐冰对汉字结构的改造，强调文字形与意的双重背离；有曾来德把中国书法变成表演艺术，强调书写行为与动作过程中的情感体验；还有张强把书写作为观念性的行为艺术，强调表达与理解之间的背逆性。
刘永刚把文字变成了雕塑，把平面的文字变成了三维的构成，这是一种独一无二的创造。说刘永刚的作品是雕塑也可以，说是装置也同样成立。承继着仓颉造字那种本初的质朴和秦皇汉武时代那种浩荡的雄风，这些大篆体的字雕作品散发着浑厚而又强烈的阳刚之气。
虽然被称作文字，但刘永刚的字雕作品并不是对已有汉字的模拟，更不是对可读文字的复制。正如评论家贾方舟先生所指出的，这是一些似是而非的文字，它们既读不出字音，也辨不出字义，而只是一种与中国文字相类似的形体结构，或者说只是一种具有汉字结构特征的视觉形象。由于组成雕塑整体的结构或者说那些汉字笔画式的线条的彼此交织，作品给我们带来了一种强烈的人体形象的联想。由此，冰冷的石头获得了鲜活的生命，静止的形体产生了行走的动感，雕刻的文字传达了强烈的激情。更奇妙的是，这些“站立的文字”竟传达出一种鲜明的情侣般相携相拥、相亲相爱的视觉意象。
“爱的寓意”是刘永刚的“字雕艺术”的主题，但这是一种宽泛而不确定的象征性的爱意，它不只是代表人间的爱。由于雕塑造型的非人格化亦即其构成的抽象性，作品的象征对象可以漫延扩展到所有的生命，它们甚至还包括非物质性对象之间的密切联系，譬如这些作品本身所体现的中西两种文化元素之间的交融与结合。我似乎还感觉到，正如道家的“太极图”，亦如蒙德里安的由十字交叉所形成的方格子抽象构图，这些作品中那些纠缠咬合在一起的形体也象征着宇宙万物阴阳互补、矛盾相生的永恒真实。
他的这类作品带给人们的也的确是一种极简主义的构成性与冷峻感，而他那些显露出刻凿痕迹的雕塑作品其表面肌理也具有井然有序的秩序感。经过刘永刚的改造，汉字由象形与表意变成了抽象与象征，中国古老的文字与西方现代的抽象艺术实现了水乳交融般的契合。在刘永刚心里，既有对传统中国文化的深切眷恋，又有对西方抽象艺术的热烈向往。在他的艺术世界中，古今东西各种文化因素已经融为一体，变成了一片孕育创造生机的富饶沃土。
我始终认为艺术家的创作是与艺术家的人生阅历密不可分的，造型艺术则是艺术家形象化的自传，毫无疑问，刘永刚今天的艺术之路与在德国的留学经历密切相关。德国人的性格中有极端情感化的一面，因而德国艺术总是热衷于对人的生与死的探究，对生命的终极意义的关怀，甚至是悲剧情感的表达。德国人的性格中还有极端理性化的一面，这在他们的哲学和科学技术成果中得到了充分体现。德国人是双重性格，其文化艺术是矛盾的混合体，既有极端的理性，也有极端的情感。旅居德国十多年的刘永刚无疑受到了德国文化艺术巨大而深刻的影响。
王端廷中国艺术研究院的研究员，专门研究西方艺术，著名批评家
Fusion and Splitof Form and Meaning: Interpretation of Liu Yonggang’s ‘CharacterSculptures’
Wang Ruiting,fellow of China Arts Academy specializing in western arts, famouscritic
When I first sawLiu Yonggang’s large character sculptures, my first impressionswere ‘standing characters, walking persons’ and ‘hieroglyphiccharacters, symbolic meanings’. The title ‘Embrace of Live’indicates his infusion of ‘the message of love’ into his works.Feeling the symbolic love that was warm though not passionate, andthat could hardly be conveyed in words, I wandered through theforest of his ‘character sculptures’ and sought the origin of thelove in the logic of art history.
Chinesecharacters are the root of Chinese culture. They are the startingpoint of many contemporary artists’ journey of modern art. I evenbelieve in the existence of a strong tendency of what I call‘calligraphism’ in the contemporary circle of Chinese artists.Influenced by western deconstructionist art, many Chinese artistsmagnify certain features of Chinese characters or calligraphy andhighlight particular elements. By loaning, deconstructing andreorganizing Chinese characters, they have created a great numberof up-to-date works with distinct traits of national culture. Butthe same starting point may lead to different approaches andorientations. Some deconstruct the shapes of characters, somereshuffle their meanings, some reconstruct them, and some even takewriting from two dimensions to performance art and conceptual art.Representative works are: Gu Wenda’s turning writing intomeditation, aimed at revealing the Taoist aspect of characters; XuBing’s restructuring of characters, with emphasis on the doublecontradiction between their forms and meanings; Zeng Laide’sturning calligraphy into performing art, with stress on emotionalexperience in the behavior and action of writing; and Zhang Qiang’sturning writing into conceptual performance art, with stress on thecontradiction between expressing and understanding.
Liu Yonggangturned characters into sculptures from two-dimensional charactersinto three-dimensional characters. That was a unique creation. Youmay regard his works either as sculptures or as devices. Theyinherit the pristine simplicity of the first Chinese characters andheroism of the Qin and Han Dynasties. The dazhuan-style charactersculptures emanate a profound and powerful masculinity.
Despite thename, Liu’s ‘character sculptures’ are not imitations of particularChinese characters, and even less the duplication of any. Asobserved by critic Jia Fangzhou, these are semblances ofcharacters; being illegible and unable to be pronounced, they arebut structures resembling Chinese characters, or visual images withfeatures of Chinese characters. Due to the general structure, orrather the crossing of those stroke-like lines, the sculptures arestrongly reminiscent of human bodies. Because of that, the coldstones seem to acquire vitality, the still shapes appear to bewalking, and the sculpted characters start to express fierypassions. Still more wonderfully, those ‘standing characters’convey distinct images of lovers embracing each other.
‘The message oflove’ is the theme of Liu’s ‘character sculptures’, but that is anextensive, uncertain love. It does not simply signify human love.Because of the depersonalization of the sculptures, or theabstractness of their compositions, the symbolic meaning may extendto all living beings, even including close links betweennon-material entities (the fusion of Chinese and western culturesas embodied by the sculptures, for instance). Moreover, I seem tofeel that the twisting, joining shapes, like the Taoist diagram ofthe universe or Mondrian’s abstract checkered compositions ofcrosses, are also symbolic of the eternal truth of the yin-yangopposition and complementation between all that is in theuniverse.
Liu borrowed theimages and structures of Chinese characters as well as the plasticlanguage of modern western abstract art. When he cut each stroke ofhis ‘pseudo-characters’ into cuboids of the same size and polishthem smooth like mirrors, he was playing the role of an engineer.His works of this type convey the composition and coldness ofminimalism, while the surface textures of his sculptures, withtraces of carving and chiseling, produce an effect of orderliness.He turned hieroglyphic, ideographic Chinese characters intoabstract symbols so that ancient Chinese characters are perfectlyfused with modern western abstract art. Liu cherishes both the lovefor traditional Chinese culture and the passion for westernabstract art. In his world of art, cultural elements—ancient orcontemporary, eastern or western—are blended into fertile soil forcreation.
I always believethat an artist’s creation is inextricably associated with hisexperience of life, and that plastic art is his or her graphicautobiography. There is no doubt that Liu’s artistic career has alot to do with his stay in Germany. The German character has twoaspects: one is extremely emotional, and that is why German art isso much about life and death, the ultimate meaning of life, and theexpression of tragic feelings; the other is extremely rational,which is fully embodied in their philosophy, science andtechnology. Because of that, their culture and art are mixtures ofcontradictions. They must have had profound influence on Liu, whospent more than ten years in that country.
Wang Ruiting,fellow of Fine Arts Institute of China Arts Academy