纳喀索斯之颜
孙晓枫
突如其来的疫情对薛若哲的艺术实践进行提示和规范，时间被意外地切割，而意外中的意外一次次横在计划之前，这便构成了薛若哲个展的事实。“他应该”——假设的结果是他应该在几个月前出现在美国的某个由经纬限定的地点上，开始他对于注目之境的想象性试探，因为这是一个与美国有关的展览，他必须在经验的植入与空间的游走中获得创作的所有灵感——最终，行为被疫情所终止，计划从一种预测性的描述变成了另外一种远距离的行为方式，创作也随着重置到一个新的解释系统之中。
许煜（YuK HUI）在《论意外的艺术》一文中提到：
“艺术创作是一个预期意外的过程，意味着意外是必要的，并且通过对不可预料的期待，这也是信易性的，因为它偏离规律性以及计划性，它打开了个体化的新路线。”
对于个人来说，疫情中的“倒错”成为“奇观”，一种处于巨大的无形压力下的创作状态因此生成。首先，在行为受到了最大程度的限制之后，身体缺席于现场（整个疫情就是对身体的训诫与限行，因为身体就是病毒的容器和传播器），只能通过技术的、数码的、平面的、二手的现成图像重新生成图像并协商好主题的突围出口。被薛若哲选择的图像同时也限定了在再生产中“物资紧缺”的事实，从图像到图像，原来的社会学意义必然会被削弱，代替的是图像的个人转译以及关于图像再造中不可规避的误读和附会。这是一个新的创作机制的建立，遵循误读生成的歧义并为之服务。薛若哲在创作手记中写到“这次的个展本来计划是5月份在洛杉矶举行，展览的背景是中美之间的摩擦，对抗以及贸易战，中美之间民间有很多误会与不理解，我想就以这种“不理解”为起点，利用刻板印象，去创作一组作品。我并没有去过加州，所以对加州并不存在任何主观的感性的印象，所有对加州的印象与感受，都是由网上各种媒介所塑造的，这是一个完美的制作这一组作品的基础。在网上调查中国对加州的印象，除了加州牛肉面之外，提的最多的就是加州的阳光沙滩，棕榈树，以及枪支泛滥，这就有了我最大的那张作品 《湾区导览》以及由它生发出来的两件作品，分别暗喻了生活中的那种被监视感和被操纵感。”自述中，薛若哲提示了媒介对于创作的关键性作用，同时他思索处于特殊时刻的关于加州的修辞以及对应个人观念的图像方式，修辞的重置目的无非是还原身体从未进入的现场，而对媒介的借助确认了他者的明确身份。在此，加州现实都是无关紧要，加州是明信片、广告或是旅行手册，高度符号化和消费化的加州图像去魅后仅仅成为在意外事件中遗失的一个落脚点。图像刻意设定了一个现实中的地点的同时制造了认知的矛盾与困惑——这是加州吗？——这是薛若哲的加州——被疫情与国际话语篡改的加州。
薛若哲敏于捕捉现实景况的文化特质并进行图像转译，在《最终解决方案》、《遥远的风景》、《不进不退》等作品中，关于加州的影像都是通过第三方的工具，如镜子、沙盘、屏幕或是舞台剧的布景等折射到视线之内，所有可以显影的工具成为联结与观察加州的有效手段，被选择的局部，被裁切的碎片，巨大的留白部分已然和艺术家无关。这种近似于马格里特方式的手法证明了薛若哲对于素材与经验的诚实与冷静，过多的阐释反倒曲解了他关于荒诞的认知和对主体间性的深刻探讨。
疏离感构成了薛若哲作品中观念的情感底色，他擅长于对主体进行拆分，复数的主体在某个隐秘的动作中完成了自我他者化的转换，而写实的手法目的是为了证伪——揭示现实与视觉的双重荒谬——你看到的不都是真的。他抛弃了“脸”的识别，抛弃了衣物中的肉身或者克制地仅仅保存身体某个局部的显影，主体（具体的人）慢慢消匿的过程是一个为现实主义去魅的过程同时也揭示了视觉（图像）的悖论——我们可以感知身体的存在而不知道他是谁。这种手法近似于一个破案的过程，现场的遗留物确确实实证明了某个具体的身体的存在，但他/她是被刻意抽离和隐匿的，一起隐匿的还有身份、个人史以及动机。而更为致命的是他同时也抽离了场景的现实性描述，在一个暧昧的空间中实现了补充叙事的最大可能。这是薛若哲设定的观看游戏，他要制造的难题是任何可能都是对的与任何可能都是错的撕裂与背反。
在薛若哲营造的不确定语境中，我突然想到了纳喀索斯的意外和荒谬。纳喀索斯出世以后，他的父母去祈求神示，想要知道孩子将来的命运如何。神示说：“不可使他认识自己。”致命的湖水终于让纳喀索斯获得了一个被他者化的情感投射对象，主体在镜像中被剥离分层，吊诡的是，纳喀索斯所爱的形象在神话叙事中似乎是先验的——纳喀索斯按照内在的要求长成了自己所倾心的模样，爱的外部投射是偏执的、模型化的，否则他的即时判断无法让他投注全部的爱意和倾慕，命运的决定性时刻也将不复存在。纳喀索斯对于镜像明显存在误读，自我认识一旦建立在误读之上，那么，所有的行为与价值取舍必然产生错位。神话作为原型投射到现实中便成为世界现实景况的生动反映，而现实性的剧烈感觉和迷狂情结也可以得到解释。作为病理学表征的纳喀索斯之颜既是深刻的反讽与悲剧性的，但也包含着对于现实的启示与警告。
薛若哲对于身体和身份的隐匿，非对象化的形象处理以及去主体化的、对于同一形象的复制粘贴回避了先验论的陷阱——重新论证了美学中虚妄的部分以及拓展自我认识中的可能性空间。有时，留白与暧昧中的不置可否是一种慈悲和德行。
孙晓枫写作于2020/08/22——2020/09/17
.
.
.
The Plurality of Individuality: on Ruozhe Xue ｜薛 若哲’s Distorted Reality
Ahn Jae Woo
2019
Originality. The world one sees is not the world but an original view of it. Biologically speaking, the set of physical specifics comprising one’s vision is as unique as the singular sequence of the individual’s visual experiences over a lifetime. Psychologically and philosophically speaking, every person has their own unique mindset which uniquely processes and interprets visual information. Thus, while everyone shares a single world, no one shares an identical view of it. We all see our own worlds in our own different ways, we all live in our own different worlds.
Generality. The world one sees is not the world but a generalized original view of it. Original, as it is the view of an individual, and generalized, as it is that of a culturally generalized individual. Hence reality should never be perceived by individual sight if a mind’s ambition is to converge towards it.
Contradiction. How can one be original and general simultaneously? Is logic’s oldest tautology no longer a tautology? Not quite, as anyone can recall the numerous occasions where they experience the disagreement between themselves and themselves. The you who wants to play football while the other you who plays tennis, because your parents aspire after their child winning Wimbledon one day. The you who wanted to have coffee the other day while the other you ordered tea, because you have fallen in love with a tea-phile who was sitting on the other side of the table. The you who has become an audio equipment engineer instead of a musician, as the world’s general opinion has taught you that living as a master’s degree holder in electric engineering is rewarded with a higher financial stability than an artist of sound, someone who provides the machinery with its artistic significance. Perhaps even the greatest artists of all time went/go through this seemingly contradictory experience, perhaps even Vincent van Gogh struggled with a more socialized/generalized edition of himself who perpetually argued that he should pursue more of a less post-impressionist craft.
In the discourse of human identity, we can safely say one is never one, that there has always been at least two of one in the same picture. According to Distorted Reality, we can also safely say Xue recognizes this fundamental and structural duality of oneself as well as anyone. While the subject matter of his most recent works discusses the dynamics which dictate the distortion of our time’s reality, it would be a shame to overlook a crucial property of the subject matter which suggests a more transcendent dialogue on the very nature of distortion: the sociological plurality of psychological individuality. It is evident in his works featuring two or more of the ‘same’ person or object; as for the singletons, the represented facet is defined by its relationship with a contrasting facet, hence projects the contrasting facet in the observers’ mind, reminding us of the plurality in a reflexive fashion. Xue is now a painter-turned-optician: one lens provides us with a better view on his view, the other is a mirror.
Until the 16th of November, rosenfeld porcini gallery
.
.
.
.
.
有了印刷术就不会有《伊利亚特》
张知微
2017
绘画语言在经历了摄影术，电视语言，互联网，及移动互联网的冲击后，一次又一次证明在今天的社会中它的可行性和地位。也许是基于人类本性中用视觉表达和形式的由衷喜爱，艺术家们仍然对这种古老的语言进行着探索。它的进化速度之快让我惊讶，当艺术家对其注入情感时，绘画再次证明了他对社会与现实的担当。也可以这么假设，如果没有印刷术，《伊里亚特》虽然存在，我们却无法得知。
薛若哲算不上对陌生的语言有所恐惧的艺术家，他的相机收藏十分丰富，习作与实验性的作品中许多是铜板，摄影，录像，并带有强烈的行为性。而这次展览中，他又回到了绘画这门“母语”。我不知道语言是不是直接影响内容，但是可以确定的是，语言会直接影响表达与形式，从而间接影响内容。绘画与摄影术这些被归类为空间艺术的语言（相对音乐，电影等时间艺术），有强烈的去语境化本能，脱离了具体语境后，作品的表达是暧昧的，含糊的，同时也充满了想象空间。许多艺术家为了回避这一特性用呐喊的方式在画面里发表声明，而薛若哲在对绘画语言的探索中，拥抱了这种模棱两可，他将这种语言特性挪为己用，创造出来了一个隐约透出一丝荒诞的世界，在这个如舞台般空虚的世界里有着不符合现实世界物理学原理的空间，他似造物者般一边探索，一边创造。这些不合理是隐晦的，细腻的，又可以被确实感受到的，似一层隐喻套着另一层隐喻，这种独特的表达方式像极了普鲁斯特的行文。
这是薛若哲在北京现在画廊举办的第二次个展，从第一次个展的展前准备开始我便有幸参与其中，这次个展《存在的隐喻》沿袭了一部分上次的东西：仍然是以人物的心理状态和关系作为出发点，仍然阴翳，微妙，更贴近东方的审美意识。画面里对物质感，真实感（虚假感），错综复杂的空间关系的处理上更冷静果断，深挖了一步。如果说上一次个展是对现实切片的演绎，《存在的隐喻》则更像是艺术家在为另一个世界奠基，并创造了其中的角色，这个世界并不是现实的镜像，它是更深维度的，通过画面与现实进行着交换的仪式。
“Rene Magritte gave loaded, often hidden meanings to ordinary objectsin his imagery. He considered anything illustrative as an illusion and forcedhis viewers to question what was real and what was not.”（“马格利特往往在画中隐藏物体的意义，他认为物相即是虚假，并以此强迫观者去质疑孰真孰假。”引自《图像的背叛》）在发现薛若哲的作品中那些假作真时真亦假的隐喻之后，它似乎给我开了一扇门，这扇门并不通向答案，他通向若干的问题与可能性。
No Typography, No Iliad
Zhang Zhiwei
“Is the Iliad possible at all when the printing press and even printing machines exist? Is it not inevitable that with the emergence of the press, the singing and the telling and the muse cease; that is, the conditions for epic poetry disappear?” – Karl Marx
Despite the impact of photography, television, the Internet, and mobile computing, painting still proves its viability and importance in today’s society. Perhaps it is because of artists’ heartfelt love of visual expression through painting that they continue to explore this ancient language. I am amazed by the speed of painting’s evolution, and once artists infuse it with emotions, painting demonstrates its continued commitment to society and reality.
We can assume that without the invention of printing, The Iliad would still have been created, but we would not have noticed.
Xue Ruozhe is an artist who is fearless in unfamiliar visual languages. He has a large collection of cameras, and his many sketches and experimental works include etchings, photography, and videos that demonstrate his strong behavioural sensitivity. In this exhibition, he returns to his mother language, painting. The language of painting directly affects the mode of expression and the final form, but it also indirectly influences the content. Painting and photography have been classified as spatial art, and both have a strong decontextualized instinct. When presented out of context, spatial art is vague and ambiguous, leaving plenty of room for the imagination.
Many artists try to avoid decontextualization in their paintings but manifest their intention in a hysterical manner. However, Xue Ruozhe embraces ambiguity in his exploration of the language of painting. He utilizes this linguistic characteristic tactfully to create a world that implies absurdity. Xue’s paintings clear a space into a stage-like void that does not conform to the physicality of the real world, and like an inventor, Xue explores and creates. The unreasonable elements Xue adopts are obscure, subtle, but also perceptible, as if a layer of metaphor is closely linked to another layer of metaphor, resembling a unique expression in the style of Marcel Proust.
The Metaphor for Existence is Xue Ruzhe’s second solo exhibition at the Beijing Art Now Gallery. I had the honour of participating in the preparation of the first solo exhibition. The concept of the latest solo exhibition follows the psychological state and relationship of the figures. This theme first appeared in the previous solo exhibition, becoming the initial idea of the current one. It is luxuriant and subtle, and it approaches Eastern aesthetics. Xue’s authentic handling of the material and its complex relationship with the spaces on the canvas is calm and decisive. Compared to the first solo exhibition, which deduced slices of reality, The Metaphor for Existence is more like the artist laying the foundations for another world and creating its inhabitants. The new world does not merely mirror reality, but deepens its dimensions. It performs a ceremony of interchanging images with reality.
“Rene Magritte gave loaded, often hidden meanings to ordinary objects in his imagery. He considered anything illustrative as an illusion and forced his viewers to question what was real and what was not.” – Quoted in The Treachery of Images. Discovering the metaphors of truth and falsity in Xue’s artwork seems to have opened a door for me. But this door does not lead to answers; it leads to a number of questions and possibilities.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
低调的绘画
黄燎原
2015
薛若哲的作品我是用看,也是用“读”的。
如果去看,我看到一丝博伊曼斯的影子,一丝寒冷、陡峭、悬疑和不可知。另外,是人就看得出来,他画得真好。
另外,如果不说,是人都很难看出来他画中的玄机,比如《被取消的风景》,貌似画的是两个女孩儿站在一片生冷的英国风景中。其实,还有,女孩左侧的轮廓线外,若隐若现地画了两条水印般的阴影,于是,其实,这两个女孩也是站在一面巨大的布景墙前。又比如《左边》,貌似清纯、抒情和浪漫,但其实,蓝色裙子下,竟然有七只脚!匪夷所思是薛若哲作品深藏不露的机关,你可以在他的所有作品中看到和读到那些想像都难以企及的东西,如果你用心。
在这个展览中,他的大部分作品画的都是复数的形象,或者说是形象的复数,这个复数既可以理解为两个或多个相似的事物(人),也可以理解为某个事物(人)的两个或多个侧面,甚至是一分为二一分为无限。所以,薛若哲不仅仅在精心精致地描绘画面,也在精心精致地阐发思想。
总的来说,薛若哲在做一个可以被称之为是“观念绘画”的东西,观念也强,绘画也强,两强相遇却并不紧张, 而且相安无事,观念在血液里流淌,绘画于表面呈现。“去文学性”本来是观念艺术的特征之一,而薛若哲反其 道,他的文学性接近德国和俄国文学的思辨一脉,凝固而非流淌,内敛而不张扬,像是尚有余温的尸体,死 而不僵。薛若哲的绘画有很明的“手艺”痕迹,但不夸张,不那么炫技,不给人留下如何天才的感想和感受, 却与他的“观念”相得益彰。他画很多背影和侧影,未必有故事,更多地是呓语,是他和它们的对话,是它们之 间的对话。
低调的绘画,是我对薛若哲作品最初步最完整的印象。
Muted Painting
Huang Liaoyuan
Xue Ruozhe’s works are to see as well as to “read” for me.
When I see them, I see signs of cold, sharp, suspicious and unknowable. In addition, it is widely admitted that he paints well.
However, almost no one could discover the “secret” of his paintings if not being pointed out. Take Cancelled Landscape as an example. The painting seems to show two girls standing in cold, distanced British landscape. But this painting is more than that, beyond the two girls’ left outline, Ruozhe painted two watermark-like shadows vaguely. As a matter of fact, these two girls are also standing in front of a huge backdrop. Left-footed can be set as another example. It seems to be innocent, lyric and romantic at the first sight, but there are seven feet under the blue dress if you look again. Unthinkable is the secret of his paintings. If you try hard, you can see and read those unthinkable things beyond even imagination in all his works.
In this exhibition, most of his works are about plural figures or in another word, figures in plural forms. Being plural can be interpreted as two or more similar things or people, or two or more sides of a single thing or person, or even one entity been separated into two parts or infinite parts. Therefore, Ruozhe not only depicts figures but also expresses his ideas when creating whole-heartedly.
In a word, what Ruozhe has been trying to do can be called “Concept Painting”. at shows both concept and painting which are equally strong. But when putting these two strong factors together, what I feel is harmony, not tension. The concept is flowing in the blood of his works, and painting is the nature. “Non-narrative” was one of the key elements of conceptual art. But Ruozhe uses it reversely. His way of expressing narratives is close to German and Russian literary, stable but not flowing, low profile but not high profile, like a dead body that is still warm, just dead but not yet stiff. Ruozhe’s works have obvious signs of “using techniques”, but that is neither exaggerating nor showy, fitting well into his concept. Viewers would not feel how gifted he is when seeing his works. He paints backs and profiles without telling any stories most of the time. What he paints most are delirious and conversations between he himself and the images, or conversations between images themselves.
