[季节画廊北京ART SEASONS Beijing] 生死攸关 - 唐勇个展

唐勇Tang Yong
生死攸关 Between Life & Death
九月二十八日至十月十九日
28th September-19th October 2008

北京季节和唐勇诚邀您参加9月28日下午3点-6点《生死攸关》开幕酒会。

ART SEASONS & Tang Yong cordially invite you to the Opening Reception of Between Life & Death, on Sunday, the 28th of September 2008, from 3-6pm.

RSVP, please email to cas@artseasonsgallery.com

展览介绍 Exhibition Introduction

在 四川美院雕塑创作中，唐勇是最早塑造卡通形象又是最先采用喷漆着色的艺术家。因为市场和媒体的原因，后来跟上来一大拨人，以至形成卡通符号泛滥的格局。这 并不是唐勇的错。但置身于这样的环境，唐勇开始认真思考：在时尚、亮丽的生活之中，人作为生命体存在的意义究竟何在？他不愿在表层化的描绘中成为流行图像 的俘虏，这对于一个有精神追求的艺术家来说，乃是生死攸关的大事儿。

其 创作灵感从避孕套开始。这玩意儿之于中国是一种特殊物件。十三亿人口在有限的自然资源和发展空间中，恐怕首要任务就是节制生育。避孕套使男女交合失却自然 性而变得人工化，在这样一个现代人的套子里，发泄与失落、生存与死亡、自我与对象等等变得如此具有象征性：我们在消耗身体与生命的时候竟找不到任何意义， 也就是说，生活消费和消费生活，对于人的存在已变得十分荒诞，不仅因向死而失语，而且因在生而无聊。在消费时代，人的自我抉择在现实生活中变得愈加困难， 难怪唐勇手下的人物总是惊疑地张大嘴、睁大眼，甚至那些堆积的骷髅也在发出惊叹和惊呼。艺术家并不解决哲学问题，他只能在艺术感悟中呈现生存困境，只能在 自己的艺术语言即塑造方法中去体验精神冲突。唐勇雕塑的力量就存在于情色与哲思、张扬与冥想、平滑与强烈、光鲜与繁复以及玩娱与别扭的矛盾之中。他创造了 自己的情色美学，但决不让玩偶化、卡通化的对象顺势成形或顺理成章，而总是让他们处在异样、异质的对立关系之中。唐勇作品给人的启发，就是置身于当下文化 语境特别是在运用当下文化资源的时候，我们不能忘记艺术对人的关注、对生存意义的关注。当然，这种关注有别于现代主义过于英雄化的存在意识。因为我们只有 在困惑中表达困惑，在问题之中揭示问题，才能从惯性意识形态和集体文化权利中摆脱出来，使艺术真正成为个体存在和自我存在的证明。

正因为如此，当唐勇要我为他的展览命名时，我用了近乎动作片名的四个字：“生死攸关”，我想其中有一点卡通味的夸饰，也有一点英雄化的冲突。正像他的年龄介于两代之间，唐勇雕塑的确跟所谓“新卡通一代”很不相同。看到他手下那些充满活力的小人时常破体而出时，我总是在想，四川美院的年青人何时能够走出黄桷坪“大芬村”的诱惑，创造出更具当代审美意识和精神追求的作品。

王林

Amongst the sculptors at the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, Tang Yong was the first to appropriate cartoon images and spray-paint techniques into his work. Later, due to reasons involving the art market and media, a bunch of other people followed suit, resulting in a shambolic deluge of cartoon symbols. However, this was not Tang Yong’s fault. Yet, being in such an environment, Tang Yong began seriously contemplating – what on earth does the life of men as a physical entity entail in a trendy and garish lifestyle? The artist does not want to become a captive of popular images in depicting the superficial, which is a matter of life and death for an artist with a spiritual aspiration.

His creative inspiration for his new work stems from the ubiquitous condom, which is a special object in China. In a natural-resource-scarce space populated by 1.3 billion people, top and foremost would be birth control. Even though the use of condom deprives the physical union of male and female of its naturalness and renders it artificial, in a modern setup, abreaction and loss, survival and death, self and objects have all become symbolic: we can no longer find any meaning while we consume our bodies and life. In other words, consumption in life and the consumer lifestyle have become weird to human existence; not only have they become speechless in the face of death, they have become dull in the face of life. In a consumer age, it is becoming increasingly difficult for people to make personal choices in life. No wonder the figures at the hands of Tang Yong always appear to be startled, with their eyes and mouths widely open. Even the piled skeletons issue exclamation and awe. The artist does not tackle any philosophical questions; he can only present the dilemma of survival through his artistic perception, can only through his own art language, i.e. his way of sculpting, experience the spiritual clash.

The power of Tang Yong’s sculptures resides in the contrast between eroticism and philosophical thinking, exaggeration and meditation, smoothness and poignancy, novelty and complication, as well as amusement and bewilderment. He has created his own erotic aesthetic yet does not let the icon-and-cartoon-like objects to take the upper hand or become matter of fact. Instead, he has always placed them in an opposing relationship that is heterogeneous and varied. The enlightenment that Tang’s works give us is that living under the current cultural environment, we should not forget the attention art gives to people and to the meaning of life, when we utilize the cultural resources that is currently available.

Certainly, this attention is different from the overly heroic existential awareness in modernism. We can only express confusion in confusion, reveal questions inside questions, and break free from habitual consciousness and collective cultural privileges. Only then can art become proof of private identity and personal existence.

Just because of that reason, when Tang Yong asked me to give his exhibition a title, I used a four-lettered Chinese name, in the fashion of kung fu film titles, sheng si you guan or Between Life and Death. Imbedded in this title is a little cartoon-like exaggeration and a little heroic clash. Tang Yong’s sculpture is indeed very different from that of the so-called New Cartoon Generation, just as his age is between that of these two generations. Seeing these vigorous little figures emerging from their shackles, I often wonder when the young artists at Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts can free themselves from the lure of Huang Jue Ping’s “Da Fen Village”, and create works that are characteristic of contemporary aesthetics and spiritual pursuit.

Wang Lin

A full-colour catalogue for this exhibition is available. Please enquire with the gallery staff.

这个展览我们印制了精美的画册，若有需要请致电画廊查询。

ART SEASONS Beijing 季节画廊北京

706 North 3rd Street 798 Art District No. 2 Jiu Xian Qiao Road 706 North 3rd Street Chaoyang District Beijing 100015

中国北京市朝阳区酒仙桥路2号 798艺术区 706北三街