文/ 蒋岳红

总是因为太过执迷于一种为艺术家的实践寻找语境和上下文关系的惯性和逻辑，才会在遭遇滕菲沉浸其间的诸多艺术实践时，怀揣了怦然心动之余却也有着张口结舌的失语之感：从木刻水印作品的朴素率真到装置作品的睿智敏感再到首饰作品的融通洒脱，滕菲都“玩”得兴致盎然，刻意又得意地模糊了任何想要将她和她钟情的艺术实践限制在既定坐标里来讨论的企图。

于是，我们也只有在坦然承认这其间透露出来的不确定性正是当代艺术实践自身不可回避的内部问题时，我们才会对滕菲个人找不到任何参照范本的艺术实践格外珍视。因为尚未进入历史书写、尝试定义自身还一直未果的当代首饰 的杂糅混血，暗合着当代艺术面目隐晦的特质。更因为滕菲的艺术实践提供的不仅仅只是经验，还是当代艺术的一种选择。

始于1960s的当代艺术从抽象表现进入到极简、概念、行为和女性主义等等多种艺术实践形式并存的时期，当代首饰在材料、技艺、形式、功能和表达上不间断的种种置疑和衍展，以及在身体政治和物质文化领域内引发的反思、清理和讨论，与其说是受到了当代艺术的影响，不如说它本身就是当代艺术的一个组成部分，同样在为各种艺术实践提供着舞台。滕菲在这个舞台上有备而来的现身和一以贯之的全情投入，演绎着她个人倾心表达的艺术课题，也提示出当代艺术境遇中关乎材料、形式和表达的种种可能。在关乎滕菲艺术作品种种意味深长的解读诱惑面前，我选择驻留在它们是如何生成的层面上。

滕菲对于材质本身有着由来已久的关注和敏感，从花瓣、蚕丝、马鬃开始。十余年之后在《对话与独白》（2004）里满是手痕的银有着肆意、粗砺而克制的生命力，成全着自身的独白，也主导着与珍珠和宝石之间对话的进行。在《雨季》（2005）里光纤一般的银丝托出的是剔透的彩色琉璃。这其中她对于材料质感和组合的把控透射出来的是一种经过涤荡之后的信手天成，是不漏痕迹的暗藏心机。如果说这两组作品对于同一材料视觉呈现上的区隔有基于性别差异的考量，那么《40岁日记》（2003）以及新近装置作品《追到天堂》（2011）里对于头发的收集、组合和仪式化得处理，则明显地带出艺术行为的意味和物质文化视野中对于纪念物的关注。显然，一再追究对材料质感视觉呈现的各种可能同样也是当代艺术试图在物质语言层面上拓展的出口之一。

滕菲的《朵•颐》（2007）系列中，有令我个人感觉极为惊艳的《胎记》、《那个夏天》、《谜》和《心悸》……首先是作品形态本身的触目感，其次是作品展示的叙事性，再则就是艺术家在这其中采用的工作方式所给出的定义个性化首饰的某种可能：作品形态来自于完全个人独有的身体取样。滕菲以自身为对象，揭示出如何将个人身体记忆的隐秘象征以视觉化的物质存在转译成个人如同指纹般的公开符号。在凸显自我存在的同时也传递出自我与外界的关联，在肯定自我的同时也在谋求外界对于个体的认定。这一系列作品中触及到关乎身体政治的指涉也恰恰是当代艺术染指颇深的一个视阈。

然而，滕菲的天性和她对于艺术的悟性都令她不太可能策略性地固守在某一材质的视觉化呈现或某一形态的重复获取上。一旦有了顺理成章的可能，她都会开始自觉地警醒。她自己常常会说到，她的创作是从观念的表达出发的，只要是契合她的观念和表达的，任何材料任何方式都有可能。正如她在《生命》（2008）和新作《寸•光阴》（2011）中，遵循自设的规则来切割已有的一个形态，或是生成和组合出一个新的形态。这些写意的几何形态一如既往地保有着材质、加工、表达上的浑然、干净和利落。在情感与理智彼此关联的灰色地带作着细致和微妙的拿捏，观念的表达变得更为鲜明和集中的同时，任何可能分散注意力的造型元素似乎都被不动声色地放弃了。滕菲在造型中轻松、活泼和随性的一些元素有意识地被分拣了出去，却加持了内敛、沉静和含蓄的部分。在自设的规则里则以“为难”自己来成全了能够让作品有效衍生的互动行为。滕菲作品创作的全过程提示出了艺术实践的核心不是一个既定的结果，而是开放的方式。

在这些作品里，我们作为观众抑或是作为参与者都会对分离与共享、同质与差异、瞬间与消逝、具体与抽象、偶发与限制有某种悖论式的体悟。作品的最终呈现需要艺术家本人之外的另一个或另一些人的主动参与来实现。这是滕菲新近的一系列艺术实践中所凸现出来的一个方式。互动和对话一方面是滕菲探讨首饰伦理变迁的方式：首饰不再只是个人的独享，它还是人与人之间关联的体现，另一方面也是有别于现代艺术宣言式表达的当代艺术所特别倚重的行动上的呼应。

终究，我们会了然到首饰对于滕菲的艺术实践从来都没有作为一个限定和主题，而是作为了她艺术实践的一个策略和方式。由此，我们也会更倾向于将滕菲介入当代首饰实践的经验看作是她对自身所处的当代艺术境况反复思量之后的一个选择——当代如何首饰？这里的首饰和艺术实践有关，这里的当代与生存经验相关。

2011-10

JEWELLERY AS A CONTEMPORARARY ART PRACTICE

Jiang Yuehong

Our obsession with finding a context for and relationship between the flow and logic in an artist’s practices leaves us at a loss for words yet eager when we encounter Teng Fei’s variety of art practices: from the simplicity and sincerity of woodprint pieces to wise and sensitive installations, and finally to freely flowing and unencumbered jewelry pieces, Teng Fei exuberantly ‘plays’, meticulously and proudly confusing any attempt to discuss and categorize her and her beloved art practices.

Thus, only when we finally can admit that the uncertainty that comes out of this is actually an integral part of contemporary art practices, will we see that there is absolutely no pattern with which to compare Teng Fei’s art. Because it has yet to be characterized, we try to define without effect the characteristics of contemporary jewelry, as they mix and become entangled with contemporary art’s hybridity and obscurity. Even more so because Teng Fei’s art practices provide not only an experience, but a kind of choice for contemporary art.

Starting in the 1960’s, contemporary art moved from Abstract Expressionism into minimalism, conceptualism, performance and feminism realms: a co-existence of multiple forms and different directions of art practice. Contemporary jewelry, in every kinds of question and extension continously show in its materials, techniques, forms, function and ideas, and in the reflection, clarification and discussion it aroused in body politics and the realm of the culture of objects, was not so much influenced by contemporary art as truly one part of contemporary art, providing a stage for different kinds of art practices. Teng Fei has begun to shine on this stage and consistently invests her full range of concerns, baring her fierce love of her art, and unveiling the unlimited possibilities of materials, form and expression within the current state of contemporary art. Facing the profound interpretation and meaning of Teng Fei’s works, I would like to show how it is what it is.

Teng Fei’s attention and sensitivity towards re-valuation of material qualities, using flower petals, silk and horse hair, has ancient origins. Looking back at her works of the last decade, Dialog& Monolog (2004) is full hand-wrought silver with a willful, coarse, and self-restrained vitality, completing its own monologue, and managing a dialogue with its pearls and stones. In Rainy Season (2005), the light-like silver-thread support transparent colored glazes. The control she wields over her textures and combinations is an inherent and mature skill, the consciousness of her actions unrevealed. If we regard the discrepancies in the visual appearance of a single material in these two series as due to a consideration based on gender difference in the pieces, then Diaries of 40 (2003) and the recent installation Nirvana(2011), clearly show, in their collection of hair and its placement and ceremony, the process and implications of production, and in our material culture’s field of vision, attention to commemoration. It appears that repeated seeking of the various possibilities for materials’ textured visual appearance and meanings are in the same way an outlet for contemporary art’s attempt at expansion in the language of objects.

Teng Fei’s Birthmark, That Summer, A Riddle and Palpitation from the Palate•Pleased series (2007) are stunning in the eye-catching form, the narrative nature, the method used to give a definitive uniqueness to the jewelry’s possibility: the form come from the absolute individualism of pieces of one’s body. Teng Fei uses her own body as her subject, showing how the hidden marks on a body’s memory can transform through visualization into a public sign such as an individual’s fingerprint. As the existence of the self is magnified, it transmits the affiliation between the self and the outside world; as the self is confirmed, it strains for the belief of the world in individualism. This series penetrates the body’s politics and is a window into new directions in contemporary art.

However, Teng Fei’s nature and relationship to art make her unable to consciously cling to a defined appearance of a certain material or the reappearance of a certain kind of shape. As soon as she has a glimpse of the outcome of a new piece, she will begin to self-consciously be alert. She often says that her creations start from the expression of concepts, and as long as it agrees with her concept, any kind of material or method has possibility. In her Life (2008), and new pieces Ctrl+S(2011), she follows her rules of self-design to cut apart an existing form, or produces and combines to create a new form. This relaxed attitude helps to maintain the quality of the material, the craftsmanship, the expression, the cleanliness and orderliness. In the mixed area between emotion and reason, meticulous and subtle choices are made, and as the expression of concepts becomes more distinct and focused, all elements that might distract attention are calmly discarded. When Teng Fei is molding a piece, the relaxed, excitable and malleable elements are consciously plucked out, while the restrained, peaceful and unspoken components are retained. Within her rules of self-design, she makes it “an obstacle” for herself in order to accomplish pieces that can effectively cause interaction with the viewers. The complete process of Teng Fei’s works show that the core of art practice is not the outcome proposed, but the method provided for unpredictable effect.

In these works, we as the audience, or even we as participants, can experience the paradox between the private and public, homogenous and different, momentary and lasting, concrete and abstract, spontaneous and limited. The final expression of the work needs other people to initiate participation in order to be realized. This is a method that has emerged in Teng Fei’s newest series. One side of interaction and conversation is how Teng Fei investigates the changes in the ethics of jewelry: jewelry is no longer an individual adornment, it is the embodiment of a connection between people; the other side is the response in action that contemporary art especially counts on and thus differentiate itself from the modern art who values manifesto a lot.

In the end, it is evident to us that jewelry has never been a restricted objective within Teng Fei’s art practices, but rather a tactical means in her art practices. So, we can see Teng Fei’s experiences with contemporary jewelry as a choice made after contemplation on her own place in contemporary art—what is contemporary art as adornment? Here, jewelry and art practices are intertwined; here, contemporary art and life experiences are interrelated.

2011-10