白盒子现场｜渐变地徐红明“无定形”

徐红明个展现场 2022.7.23-2022.9.3

XU Hongming at the scene of solo exhibition

徐红明-无定形的抽象观念

Xu Hongming - The Concept of “Formless”

文/吕维民

By LU Weimin

当面对徐红明的作品时，几乎可以丝毫不假思索的将其定义为抽象绘画。接着可能会描述画面中的物象是云，是气亦或是某种流动的不可名状之物。我们会穷尽语言的极限去试图概括出画面的样貌和形状，实际情况却是很难跨越知觉和语言之间的鸿沟。

When looking at Xu Hongming’s works, we can immediately - as if without thinking - define them as abstract paintings. Then, upon further interpretation, we may try to describe whether those in the paintings are clouds, air flow, or some indescribable, yet abstractly definable sense of flow. We can try our best to describe the appearance and shapes within the paintings, but the reality is that it is difficult to bridge the gap between perception and language.

非云非雾非炁2021313 绢本水性材料 180x180cm 2021

Not Cloud, Not Fog, Not QI 2021313 Silk, Water based materials 180x180cm 2021

非云非雾非炁系列绢本水性材料 180x180cm 2021

Not Cloud, Not Fog, Not QI Silk, Water based materials 180x180cm 2021

1996年的夏季，在法国巴黎的蓬皮杜中心，伊夫-阿兰·博瓦（Yve-Alain Bois）和罗莎琳·克劳斯（Rosalind Krauss）共同策划了一场名为“无定形：使用说明”（L’informe: moded’emploi）的展览。参展的大部分艺术家都是当时已经得到认可的“现代主义”艺术家。两位策展人无疑是受到了法国思想家乔治·巴塔耶(Georges Bataille)在20世纪30年代左右提出的“无定形”(Formless)哲学概念的影响。展览意在发起对主流艺术史和分类学的批判和挑战。

Yve-Alain Bois and Rosalind Krauss jointly curated an exhibition named “L’informe: moded’emploi” in the summer of 1996 at the Pompidou Center in Paris, France. Most of the artists participating in the exhibition were well-recognized modernist artists at that time. The two curators were undoubtedly influenced by the philosophical concept of “Formless”, which introduced by the French thinker Georges Bataille around 1930s. The exhibition was intended to criticize and challenge the mainstream art history and taxonomy.

乔治·巴塔耶在其著作《过渡的幻见》（Visions of Excess）中这样写道“... ...无定形不仅是个形容词，具有指定的意义，更是降低世间万物的术语，通常要求每样事物都有自己的形式。... ...所有的哲学都别无他求：只要为所有存在的事物套上罩袍，数学家的罩袍。反之，断言宇宙什么都不像，只不过是无定形，就等于在说宇宙就是某种像是蜘蛛或是唾沫的东西。”也许乔治·巴塔耶提出的“无定形”的概念可以帮助我们从其中一个角度切入去理解游离在作品画面和日常语言之间的灰色地带。

As Georges Bataille wrote in his book Visions of Excess: “… …Formless is not only an adjective having a given meaning but a term that serves to bring things down in the world, generally requiring each thing to have its own form. … …All philosophies have nothing else to ask for: just to put a robe on everything that exists, a mathematician's robe. To assert that the universe is nothing but formless is to say that the universe is something like a spider or saliva.” Perhaps the concept of Formless introduced by Georges Bataille can help us to understand the grey area between art works and everyday language from one perspective.

非云非雾非炁东方红201213 布上矿物粉 210x220cm 2012

The Orient Red 201213 Mineral Powder on Canvas 210x220cm 2012

非云非雾非炁2021616 绢本水性材料 180x180cm 2021

Not Cloud, Not Fog, Not QI 2021616 Silk, Water based materials 180x180cm 2021

对所见之物分门别类并施加语言来总结和归纳使之变得确定，这样做可能是抱有生存的目的，确定可以更容易预测未来。现象转换成语言的过程一定会使得事物的本来面貌发生简化。观看徐红明的作品需要这种洞见，不是完全抛弃语言去观看，语言可以快速拉进与作品之间的距离，“无定形”的概念提示我们思维的终点不是语言，而是要始终保持在语言形成之前开放、活跃的状态。

Classify what you see and use language to summarize and make it clear. This may be sourced from a survival instinct, and certainty can make it easier to predict the future. The process of turning facts into language will certainly simplify things, and it requires such insight to appreciate Xu Hongming's works. It is not that we need to completely abandon language, since it can still quickly bring the audience closer to the works. However, the concept of Formless reminds us that our thinking does not only necessarily ends up in language, but to always keep it open and active before language is formed.

此次展览由早期的“不确定形状”系列和最近创作的“非云非雾非QI”系列中的部分作品组成。“不确定形状”系列是艺术家消除图形的开始，细看前后重叠的方形或是方框的边缘可以发现这是通过特殊的矿物粉末颜料制造出的模糊感。此时图形前后的空间关系已经逐渐被消解。到了“非云非雾非QI”系列，画面中的图形已经完全的消失。但图形的消失并不代表为空，画面中只留下了称之为非云非雾非QI的一团“存在”，可以理解为艺术家世界观的一种具象化表现。这是原有结构的自我解构之后进行动态延续、发展、重组的规律。

This exhibition consists of works of the early series of “Uncertain Shape” and some from the recently created “Not Cloud, Not Fog, Not QI” series. The “Uncertain Shape” series is the beginning of artists' attempt to remove the forms. Looking closely at overlapping squares, it can be found that the edges are blurred with pigments made of a special mineral powder. As a result, the spatial relationship between the patterns has been gradually dissolved. In the series of “Not Cloud, Not Fog, Not QI”, the patterns in the paintings have completely disappeared. However, the disappearance of the lines or shapes does not mean that it is empty, leaving only a mass of “existence” that are not cloud, not fog, not QI, which can be understood as a figurative expression of the artist's world outlook. This is the law of dynamic continuation, development and reorganization of the original structure after self-deconstruction.

可延伸菱形组合综合材料 200x160cm 1998

Extendable Diamond Combination Mixed-Media 200x160cm 1998

可延伸菱形组合综合材料 200x160cm 1998

Extendable Diamond Combination Mixed-Media 200x160cm 1998

虽然文章以巴塔耶的“无定形”概念作为切入点来理解作品，但显然如果只单独考虑一百年前的文本未免有些照本宣科，还需结合当下的语境。经历了这百年间从结构主义到解构主义思潮在艺术，建筑，服装等领域的蔓延和渗透，人们开始逐渐适应了这种“正反正”式的确立、解构、再确立的模式。与“无定形”这个概念刚提出时所倡导的反叛、打破、极限、越界这些极端化目的相比，虽然我们仍身处这个循环之中，转换过程却变得柔和许多。

Although the article is trying to understand the work with Georges Bataille’s concept of Formless, it is obvious that it sounds somewhat scripted deriving from its use of texts from a hundred years ago, and as a result, we need to combine it with current context. After a hundred years’ development from structuralism to deconstruction in the fields of art, architecture, clothing, etc. People began to gradually adapt to this mode of establishment, deconstruction and re-establishment. Compared with the extreme purposes of rebellion, breaking, limit and overstepping a boundary when the concept of Formless was first introduced. The transformation process has become much smoother despite that we are still in this cycle.

从“不确定形状”系列到“非云非雾非QI”系列可以看出，徐红明进行的这种自我解构的过程也是温和的，更像是一种顺势而为，在找寻事物自然演化的“道”。徐红明的艺术是融合的，并不单单指画面上的融合，更是精神性的中与西合而为一。徐红明的艺术也是自主性的，拥有其自身的逻辑，以探索艺术本体为导向，不被现有的固定形式和媒介所限制，兼收并蓄。徐红明的作品展现了另一种艺术的发生方式：在一种自然的，自在的，无需过多复杂因素介入的状态下，使观念呈现在画布之上。

From “Uncertain Shape” series to the “Not Cloud, Not Fog, Not QI” series, it can be seen that Xu Hongming's self-deconstruction process is also mild, more like taking advantage of the trend and looking for the way of nature. Xu Hongming's art is integrated, not only the integration shown on the paintings, but also the spiritual integration of China and the West. Xu Hongming's art is also independent and inclusive with his own logic, guided by the exploration of artistic noumenon and not limited by the existing fixed forms and media. Xu Hongming's works have shown another way of artistic creation: the expression of ideas on canvas in a natural and comfortable way without the intervention of complicated factors.

非云非雾非炁2017721 绢本水性材料 179x96cm 2017

Not Cloud, Not Fog, Not QI 2017721 Silk, Water based materials 179x96cm 2017

变幻的场域

Illusive Fields

非云非雾非炁2021117 绢本水性材料 123.5x88cm 2021

Not Cloud, Not Fog, Not QI 2021117 Silk, Water based materials 123.5x88cm 2021

关于“非云非雾非QI”系列，斯坦福大学终身教授使用“变幻的场域”这一概念进行阐释：“变幻的场域”强调了艺术家独特的空间意识，作品呈现的视觉平面向三维空间延展，且并不拘泥于文艺复兴的单点透视法则。在对具体意象的明确否定中，艺术家挑战观者习惯的转译具体图像的视觉经验，并引导观者进入令人不安的纯抽象的模糊境地，从而可以接近作品所蕴含的哲学性的王国。

As for the series "No Cloud, No fog, No QI", one of the Professor Tenured at Stanford University uses the concept of "Illusive Fields" to explain it: "Illusive Fields" emphasizes the artist's unique spatial consciousness, and the visual plane presented by the works extends to the three-dimensional space, and does not adhere to the single point perspective law of Renaissance. In the explicit negation of the concrete image, the artist challenges the visual experience of translating the concrete image that the viewer is accustomed to, and leads the viewer into the unnerving ambiguity of pure abstraction, so as to approach the philosophical kingdom contained in the work.

关于艺术家

徐红明

1971年出生于中国湖南，1991年于中央美术学院雕塑创作室学习。后沿河西走廊研究中国传统古代壁画与雕塑。90年代末期开始进行抽象绘画创作，在21世纪初期参与了国际和国内一系列抽象艺术学术大展。主要展览包括：2004，“中国极多主义”，美国纽约州立大学布法罗分校美术馆，纽约；2011，伟大的天上抽象——21世纪的中国艺术，罗马当代艺术博物馆，罗马；2013，中日韩同时代艺术联展，德国；2002，徐红明作品展（1997-2001），艺术文件仓库，北京；2003，形而上2003—中国抽象艺术邀请展，上海美术馆，上海；2005，墙：中国当代艺术的历史与边界，中华世纪坛艺术馆，北京；2009，“意派”中国，抽象三十年展，今日美术馆，北京；2014，“戴汉志：5000个名字”，尤伦斯当代艺术中心，北京；2015，“与绘画的动作有关”，OCAT 当代艺术中心，西安等。

XU Hongming

Born in 1971 in Hunan Province, China. He practiced in the Sculpture Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1991. Later, he researched Ancient Murals and Sculptures at the Hexi Corridor. He began to create abstract paintings in the late 1990s. In the early 21st century, he participated in a series of international and domestic academic exhibitions of abstract art. Main exhibitions include 2004， Chinese Maximalism, UB Anderson Gallery, Buffalo, New York；2011，The Great Celestial Abstraction: Chinese Art in 21st Century, MACRO Museums，Rome, Italy；2013，Contemporary Arts from China, Japan & Korea，Germany；2002，Paintings by Xu Hongming (1997-2001), CAAW, Beijing；2003，Metaphysics 2003-Chinese Abstract Arts Exhibition, Shanghai Art Museum，Shanghai；2005，The Wall: Reshaping Contemporary Chinese Art, China Millennium Monument, Beijing；2009， Yi-Pai: 30 years Chinese abstract art Exhibition，Today Art Museum, Beijing；2014，Hans van Dijk: 5000 Names，UCCA，Beijing；2015，About Painting Too, OCAT Xi’an, Xi’an, China etc.