| 画外之音
——莫言
“画中有话”策展人李颖让我就这次展览说几句话，因为多年的友谊和对她为中外文化交流做出的贡献的敬意，未加思索就应承下来。写小说可以一日万言的我，面对着这十五位艺术家的作品，虽然思绪纷纭，但却理屈词穷。说什么，怎么说，对于一个绘画与造型艺术的门外汉，确实是一个问题。其实，许多东西，是只可意会，不可言传的。但不言传又无法交流，即便抽象如音乐，也不得不借助语言的阐释，这是艺术创作与接受领域的一个普遍的困境。因此，请允许我从一个外行的角度，说一些粗浅的感受。
我想，当这十五位艺术家，拿起他们的画笔——不仅仅是画笔——把他们的构思付诸画布或其它载体时，这作品在他的心中，已经栩栩如生了。当然不排除在创作过程中突发的灵感和神来之笔，但为什么要创作这件作品的意图，大概不会有什么大的变化吧。
专业的艺术欣赏者，面对着一件作品，也许会首先从技术或者技巧的角度来分析，但我或者像我一样的门外汉，面对着一件艺术作品时，大都会试图去追寻创作者的想法——他想表达什么？他要告诉我们什么？然后我们便感受，便思索，便得出一个明晰或者模糊的结论，我们自以为这便是创作者的主观意图。其实，我们的结论是建立在自身经验的基础上的，我们由这件作品所生发的联想，与我们自己的生活经验息息相关。我们的结论与创作者的意图也许一致，也许南辕北辙。其实，艺术作品的创作者，并不一定能将自己的意图条分缕析地诉诸语言，而欣赏者也不必过多地考虑作者的意图，自己的感受，才是最重要的。
如果观赏者从作品中读出的话，与创作者想表达的话是一致的，这会让创作者感受到幸遇知音的欣喜；但这并不应该是创作者期盼的境界。如果观赏者从作品中读出了创作者并没有想到的话，而且这些话也能说服创作者，那这就是真正的佳境。
我想，一件好的美术作品，如同一部好的文学作品，必有丰富的内涵，为不同的读者和观众，提供广阔的阐释空间。如同读《红楼梦》，“经学家看见《易》，道学家看见淫，才子看见缠绵，革命家看见排满，流言家看见宫闱秘事……”面对着同一件艺术品，不同的观众会得到甚至完全不同的感受。即便是同一个观众，在不同的时期来看同一件作品，也会有感受上的差别。
如何创作出这样的具有丰富阐释性、可以超越时代的作品，是各种艺术行当的艺术家面临着的共同问题。我觉得，入选这次展览的十五位创作者，都是有这种自觉追求的艺术家。他们都试图将自身经验与社会生活结合起来；都试图使自己的作品具有更丰富的象征意义，具有更多的画中之话与画外之音；他们都试图表达对这个时代的看法和感受：困惑、忧虑、迷茫、痛苦、孤独、冷漠、同情、怜悯、当然更重要的还有爱……他们将种种感觉，用梦幻的方式或者变形的方式，用夸张的手法或者怪诞的手法，用拼贴的手段或者杂交的手段，总之是用技术的艺术或艺术的技术表现出来，成就了一件件可以让人伫足之前、浮想联翩而又感慨万端的作品。
丰富的个性展示构成了一个时代的艺术的多样性，而这些丰富的个性展示中，又包涵着一个时代的共同语码，这大约也是艺术品走向大众的哲学基础。我没有资格也没有能力对这次入展的作品逐一地评头论足，但我可以说，这十五位艺术家是个性鲜明的，他们的作品为我们提供了不同的思维向度和空间，他们在发现社会生活中的荒诞和病态时，同时发现了人的价值；他们对这个社会进行冷嘲和热讽时，同时表达了他们对人的尊重和对自由的热爱。在他们这里，对自我的批评就是对社会的批评，而对社会的批判里，也包含着对自身的毫不留情的剖析。他们的工作的意义，会在历史的长河中，慢慢彰显出来。
Art adding Voice
When Ms. Amy Ying Li, the curator of « Telltale Paintings », asked me to write a few sentences for this show, I, without thinking twice, accepted, for the sake of our long friendship and for the sake of her contribution to cultural exchange between China and the rest of the world. As one who can easily write pages a day when composing a novel – now facing the works of these fifteen artists – I am not at a loss for thoughts but rather at a loss for words. For one not well versed in the figurative or plastic arts, finding what to say and how to say it is quite difficult. What the senses convey to us cannot always be expressed with words. Yet without words there is no exchange of ideas, so even things as abstract as music we attempt to explain and illuminate with language – though difficult limitations exist between the realms of artistic creation and the realms of perception. So kindly bear with me as I roughly impart a few impressions of mine, from the layman’s point of view.
I think that when these fifteen artists took up their brushes - well, not only brushes - to instill their ideas on paper, canvas and other mediums, the work was already living in their soul. Not to minimize the inspiration that may blossom during the process of creation, but the intention of the work was already there and was not greatly affected by such.
Those who admire these works with a professional eye may first analyze them through the lens of technique or skill, but I like any other layman will try to understand their meaning. What is the artist trying to say? What is he trying to tell me? So at first we sense, and then we reflect, and then come to our own conclusion, clear or muddled, as to the subjective intention of the artist. But in fact, such conclusion is based upon personal experience, on the close relationships between the thoughts that the works inspire in us and our own life experience. We may conclude exactly as the artist intended, or we may conclude to the contrary. Indeed, the creators of the works themselves may not be able to verbalize the meaning of their work - yet the spectators need not concern themselves too much with this, their own feelings being the most important.
Should the spectator deduce from the work the mind of the artist, then the artist will feel joy - as if having met a close friend - but this is not the extent of the artist’s expectation. If to the contrary the spectator “reads” something that the artist had not intended, and if the artist can be persuaded that it makes sense and is meaningful, then real beauty has been born from the work.
A good work of art, like a good work of literature, will embody rich content - intended for a broad spectrum of “readers” - yet leave space for interpretation. In interpreting “the dream in the red pavilion”, scholars of the classical philosophy may perceive a link to the Yi Jing “Book of Changes”, Taoists may associate lewdness, learned men may observe tactful emotions, while revolutionaries may see the rejection of the Manchu dynasty and the gossipers the palace secrets. Confronted with a work of art, different persons are bound to have wholly different perceptions - even the same person will likely gain differing perceptions of the same work of art seen at a different time or from a different angle.
Creating a work of art open to broad interpretation that will transcend the generations is the common challenge of every artist in every discipline. My feeling is that the fifteen artists on display here are all very conscious of this challenge. They are intent on reconciling their own experience with the experience of society, on insuring richness in the symbolism of their work, and implanting their own voice in the sounds the “telltale paintings” make. They each express their views and feelings about our present times - doubt, worry, confusion, pain, loneliness, indifference, sympathy, compassion, and of course, most importantly, love. They each have created, through illusion or metamorphosis, through exaggeration or mystery, through collage or hybridism, and ultimately through the technique of their art and the art of their technique, works upon which one can contemplate, muse and meditate endlessly.
This exhibition of “rich characters”, rooted in the philosophical basis of the popularization of art, is representative of the artistic diversity of the present times. I am not qualified nor do I have the capacity to render personal opinion regarding the works on display in this exhibition. But I can say that these fifteen artists possess a freshness of character and that their works provide us with the opportunity for new angles in point of view and new directions in thought. And while they attempt reveal to us the absurdity and pathology of modern society, they also reveal the value and significance of being human, elevating humanity and praising freedom. Their criticism of society is self criticism - an introspection of themselves that does not make concessions. The significance of their work will slowly emerge and transcend the generations.
Mo Yan
November 28, 2008
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