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The
Business Times
Saturday,
October 21, 2000
Social
Message
Underlying
tones Suggestion
of blind obedience in Zhu Wei's Sunflower series and his exploration of
the fish in still life (inset)
PARVATHI
NAYAR
looks at Zhu Wei's works with their strong socio-political commentary
Like
all good diarists, Zhu Wei records what he sees and has seen, though his
language is pictures not words. These are not inward looking 'dear
diary' entries centred around the recorder, more the recorder's response
to events around him. Artist as diarist is the broad theme underlying
Zhu Wei Diary, an on-going exhibition of the Beijing-born artist's works
that offers both old and new -- a selection of some 18 new paintings;
limited edition lithographs of two images derived from the 1998 Festival
and the 1994 Comrade series; sculptural works.
Zhu
Wei, born in 1966, belongs to the Post-89 generation of Cynical Realist
artists. But while his work has strong socio-political commentary and
pretest messages, his satire is gentler, more subtle. A feeling no doubt
reinforced by his choice of medium, ink on paper, and skin in the
ancient gongbi technique. Zhu Wei describes the subtlety of this
technique as one where "the emphasis is on repetition of
application. When painting an eyebrow for instance, an oil painter will
apply just one stroke of black paint; but a gongbi painter will apply
six or seven layers of ink to achieve the ideal black tone which is
closer to nature."
Layering
paint to create a background grid pattern is a Zhu Wei trademark to be
found in the bulk of the artist's paintings; it is one of the ways he
manipulates the translucent qualities of Chinese ink. He uses a variety
of methods from textured boards with carvings on them, fabric, water of
varying temperatures, water with chemicals dissolved in them to stretch
the potential of the paper and create these Surface makings. And against
this background he paints his subjects, figures rendered in a voluminous
style and contained within freely drawn outlines.
If
the figures are exaggerated, the scope is sometimes deliberately
narrowed for effect as in the Sunflower series. We see the origins of
the Sunflower idea in works where the artist paints in a window and the
view beyond of people in a procession. In other paintings he then
eliminate the windows altogether to focus on the people; they all stare
in one direction with rapt expressions, like sunflowers turning to the
sun. The artist is circumspect about his works and their meaning but the
subversive subtext is quite legible; it is suggestive of a blind
obedience.
There
is also an exploration away from figures, playing with the theme of
water, which the artist has apparently dabbled with since the mid-90s.
The wave pattern of the Great Water series feels too schematic; however
the explorations of fish in water as still-life are playful and
expressive. In the rendering of the fish, Zhu Wei draws inspiration from
artist Bada Shanren (1626-1705) of the Ming Dynasty, famous for his
innovations and rebellion against the more traditional styles of
painting in his time and idolised by many radical Chinese artists even
today.
The
current show also features a few sculptural works like the China Diary
Stars, winch are a relatively new exploration in the artist's oeuvre.
His China China series, which began in 1998, are cast in fibreglass but
hand-painted in a way reminiscent of the Han terracotta warriors.
Dressed in "Mao suits" and with featureless faces, the figures
seem to offer up a message of obedience to a superior authority through
their body language. They stand tilted forward, obsequiousness written
into every line of the body -- the effect of conformity rather than
individualism.
From
both sculptural and two-dimensional work, it's obvious that Zhu Wei is
an artist who draws freely from Chinese art of the past, as material he
can reinterpret. This includes the seals ubiquitous to the medium, and a
red seal inscribed with the words "plumblossoms.com" appears
at the corner of one of the Sunflower paintings.
The
artist explains it as a logical extension of the traditional idea of
seals inspired by activities related to leisure, and the Net is
certainly one of the major trends today. Is it playful or is there too
commercial an edge to the seal? Or is it an acknowledgement of the
artist's feeling for the gallery he is exhibiting with?
For
Zhu Wei was discovered by Plum Blossom Gallery's Stephen McGuinness at
the Guangzhou China art Expo in 1993. It was the beginning of a long,
productive and still enduring artist-gallery relationship that has
succeeded in launching the artist onto a regional and eventually more
international stage.
新加坡《商业时报》2000年10月21日周六刊
社会信息
作者 帕瓦希.纳亚
潜台词
朱伟《向日葵》系列的盲从暗示和他对描绘静物鱼的探索（见插图）
帕瓦希.纳亚审视朱伟作品中强烈的社会性
就像所有好的日记记录者一样，朱伟记录了他看到的东西，只不过他的语言不是文字，是绘画。这可不像某些只关心自己的记录者写的“亲爱的日记”那样的琐事，它更像是作者对周围所发生的事件的反应。目前正在展出的“朱伟日记”，是这位来自北京的艺术家带来的新旧作品的大杂烩——18幅新画作；两套灵感来源于1998年的作品《节日》系列和1994年的作品《同志》系列的限量石版画；以及雕塑作品。而艺术家作为日记记录者，是此次展览隐含的宽泛的主题。
朱伟出生于1966年，是“后89”辈中的玩世现实主义艺术家。虽然他的作品带有强烈的社会性，然而其中的讽刺却更为温和而微妙。他对创作媒介的选择无疑更加强了这一感受——他所选择的是中国水墨和传统的工笔技法。在强调这种技法的微妙性时，朱伟说“重点是不断地重复敷彩。比如说画一道眉毛，画油画的只要一笔就行；画工笔的就得画上那么六、七层颜色，才能达到接近自然的那种效果。”
在作品背景中画上栅格图案几乎已经成为了朱伟的商标，我们在他的很多作品中都可以看到这个标记；这是他为让墨色看起来更有透明感而采用的处理方式。他做过大量尝试，使用刻过的木板、纤维物、不同温度的水、含有不同化学物质的水来发挥纸张的潜力，使纸张表面达到这样的效果。然后再在纸上画上景物、人物，最后，我们才能看到现在这种自在的轮廓和饱满的画风。
如果画的人物夸张，画面也会刻意地简化一些，就像《向日葵》系列作的效果一样。我们最早看到的《向日葵》是艺术家画的窗户和窗外游行的人群。而同一系列其它几幅作品则摈弃了窗户，焦点完全集中在人身上；他们都目不转睛地盯着一个方向，就像向日葵向着太阳。艺术家对他的作品和作品中的含义很慎重，但其中颠覆性的潜台词无疑是明白易懂的：这是对盲从的暗示。
本次展示的作品中也有对人物画以外的对象的尝试，主题是水，显然是艺术家自90年代中以来就偏爱的主题。《大水》系列的波浪条纹感觉有些刻板，不管在其中作为静物的鱼儿是多么活泼有表现力。朱伟画的鱼，灵感来自于明代艺术家八大山人（1626-1705），八大以创新和对当时绘画传统的叛逆而闻名于世，至今仍受许多中国激进艺术家的热爱。
展览还包括了一些雕塑作品，比如《中国日记“星”》，是艺术家一次全新的尝试。而《中国中国》这个系列的作品开始于1998年，做法类似于制作汉代的陶土战士，先用玻璃钢做好模，再手工上色。人物都穿着中山装，面部毫无特征，似乎在用身体语言来表达对一个至高无上的权威的顺从。他们稍向前倾地站着，身体的每一个线条都透着谄媚——集体一致性重于个人独立性的结果。
无论是从雕塑还是从二维作品来看，显然朱伟是一个既脱胎于中国传统艺术，又不囿于中国传统艺术的艺术家，正如他所重新诠释的媒材一样。值得一提的还有印章的使用，在一张《向日葵》作品的一角，我们发现了一枚红色的印章写着“plumblossoms.com”。
艺术家解释说，传统的印章内容也都是在闲暇活动中想出来的，而网络无疑是现在最重要的闲暇活动之一。这个印章只是出于好玩呢，还是出于一种过于商业化的目的？或者是出于艺术家对展览他的作品的画廊的感情？
之所以这么推测是因为朱伟是万玉堂画廊的Stephen
McGuinness在1993年广州的一次中国艺术展中发掘的。从那时就开始了一段长长的、成果颇丰的艺术家-画廊的合作关系，不仅使艺术家获得了地区性的成功，最终还使艺术家登上了更为国际化的舞台。
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