the following was first published on artforum.com, link to the original here.

Li Ming “X X”

Platform China

No. 319-1 East End Art (A), CaoChangDi Village, Chaoyang District｜朝阳区草场地村319号艺术东区内
November 14–December 27

Li Ming, XX, 2009, still from a color video, 5 minutes 17 seconds.

Eleven videos and sporadic accoutrements litter the floor of this exhibition by the emerging artist Li Ming. A television, cast in the bushes outside the gallery entrance, screens Back Garden, 2008, in which security guards, recurring characters in the artist’s vignettes, romp around the gardens of a residential compound in unintelligible acts of “play.”

The folly continues indoors, where the atmosphere turns to one of extreme irrationality and even perturbation. Li’s works fall into the category of absurd realism; he sets the parameters for the semi-orchestrated madness and compulsive behaviors in his videos, while the improvisation of his actors who interpret his instructions makes the works fascinating to watch. In the video XX, 2009, two men sit on a stone, writhing as they attempt to exchange shirts; the rule is that their skin must always make contact. More awkward body negotiations and Dionysian revelry follow in Afternoon Happiness, 2008, wherein a group of near-naked boys chase one another through a demolished building, smear one another with cream, and then try to lick it off.

The strongest works in the exhibition display Li’s understated production techniques, which do not undermine his ability to captivate viewers. Recurring characters, plants, and unorthodox, sexually charged human contact are just a few elements in his latent symbolic language. An exploration of the boundary between agony and ecstasy is among the most significant leitmotifs here.

––Lee Ambrozy

Elsewhere, 2009, video_12′09”

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On the eve of the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic, things are beginning to look red here in Beijing, deep red, like a profuse wound. On the Beijing streets, some of the visual celebratory feast residents drank in last year during the Olympics is being recreated in billboards, television galas, parades, mass performances and wide-ranging worship for spectacle, but the festivities this year are tinted with more eulogizing, more solemnity, more red. In a commemorative fine art exhibition at the National Art Museum of China (closed on Sept 14) red not only prevailed in the literal sense, its ideological presence was overpowering. In this exhibition that sprawled out over the entirety of the NAMOC’s exhibition halls, co-sponsors Cultural Ministry of China and NAMOC pulled sixty years of revolutionary masterpieces out of storage from all of Beijing’s major collections, including the Military Museum and the former Revolutionary Museum (soon to reopen as the Museum of Chinese History). It was a mind-blowing show, by scale and quality alone. Also, by their omissions, curators highlighted what isn’t included in the sanctioned visual lexicon that is “fine art” in China today. This became especially apparent when viewers started to wonder on what floor the “contemporary” were being hidden.

Divided into three main sections, oil painting, traditional painting, and propaganda posters with comics and animation, “masterpieces” of recent art history, were in every room.

Heading directly to oil paintings, I was intercepted by the captivating magnificence of Chen Yifei’s Seizing the Presidential Palace, (1977), a work that could inspire anyone to make revolution. More familiar as Chen’s work was his Looking at History From My Space (1979), also by Chen Yifei. Perhaps the most iconic painting in contemporary art history was Father (1981) by Luo Zhongli, displayed adjacent to My Space. This work was much more three-dimensional than ever imagined, through a painting technique the “dirt” on the ‘father’s’ eyebrows and on his turban look as if they might literally crumble off the canvas onto the floor.

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王一凡个展“看不完”的确贯彻了“看不完”的根本要义——展出作品包含五件时长24小时的录像作品和抄写在十一幅画布上面的两万多字的小说（小说作者为王一凡），完整地看完这个展览，至少需要不合眼地“看”上120个小时以上，所以对观众而言，“看完”的可能性简直微乎其微。通过超乎寻常的长度，平凡的画面被王一凡改变，常识遭到质疑──“观看”的过程与方式遇到了一个难题──在作品面前，是不是去思考它的意义比用眼睛观看更为重要呢？

那些透过树叶撒在楼梯上的“阳光”，是王一凡于2008年拍摄的作品《安静》。水泥地面上斑驳的树影唤起了艺术家在烈日下等待的日常记忆，只有你心怀沉静、默默观察，才能够在树影中察觉树叶的微微晃动。

王一凡创作观念的成熟从“黑板”系列开始，2005年，他开始在黑色画布上书写他的“故事”。本次展出的题为《马利》的11幅作品是他这一系列的最新代表，画面上的文字讲述了主人公马利从高中到大学毕业的恋爱经历；文字由王一凡撰写，他邀请了11位朋友共同把两万字的小说抄写在画布上，于是形成了面前这番风格迥异的画面形态。 (more…)

Now on display at the National Museum of Art is a rare glimpse of the museum’s folk art collection, the gifts of the devoted folk art researcher Wang Shucun, who carefully preserved and hid these items throughout many turbulent years of history. The exhibition only runs until April 14, but is highly recommended.

Its not rare to see “folk arts” in Beijing, dreams of tourist dollars inspire the same kitschy souvenir-style junk that is available all over the nation. But before the internet, the tourist dollar, television, industrial printing, and before the Cultural Revolution, the Nianhua was a very unique form of folk art developed in China. Nianhua are colorful pictures hung in homes to celebrate the new year, tiehua, the practice of “hanging pictures” was once an integral holiday custom. People still hang posters, but the hand printed and painted art form of nianhua is near obsolete. However, in a pre-industrial society, the incredible production speeds, line assembly, and low production costs of nianhua could have been called a “Chinese characteristic,” indeed the production mode of contemporary art from China has also become a new trend in critical analysis.

China’s common folk have been producing printed nianhua on an ever increasing scale since the Song dynasty, the practice fell out of fashion with industrial printing techniques and was abruptly put to an end during political campaigns of the last century. These block printing methods developed in China evolved into personality cults in Japan, evidenced in print artists like Hiroshige; however in China, entire towns became famous for their different production methods and distinctive styles, sometimes varying by only the colors available. These styles are evidenced in excellent surviving examples of work, and those displayed here encompass the most important nianhua production zones from across China. (more…)

Wang Guangle @ Beijing Commune
until May 14

According to tradition in his hometown, elderly people will paint their coffins with one layer each year. Wang Guangle has adopted this to the canvas, in remarkably more colorful layers than we might see on anything to be buried underground. As always, his work reveals time, patience, and the somewhat unexpected results of turning concept into canvas.

The artist himself is extremely popular among Chinese collectors and has a great reputation among artists, but many “outsider” viewers  (Laowai) fail to see the appeal. Unfortunately, this show does not reflect what I consider some of Wang’s best works, those (I’m judging by what I saw on the gallery website) which are now represented by Beijing Commune.

His early works, realist canvases featuring afternoon light hitting the terrazzo floor, reveal ideas essential to the artist’s development; they were not on show at the opening. Later works where he grinds thick layers of dried paint into what looks like actual terrazzo on the canvas were neither on display, nor were photographs of his legendary performance in his Suojiacun studio (read more below). The terrazzo pattern and coffin paint series are his trademarks. A more detailed description is below, in a short artist introduction written for “Looking for Me” (2008)

WANG Guangle
王光乐 (more…)

Huang Liang until April 19 @ Platform China project space
“Look Deeper” until May 17 @ Platform China

In Platform China’s project space, Huang Liang small solo show offers a morbid encounter with illness. Misdiagnosed with cancer in his early adulthood, cool shades of clinical gray seem to still haunt his memory. Although Huang Liang’s tactile painting style of oil on canvas is nothing new, or unfamiliar from academic artists, Huang shows talent with paints.

Small, unframed and unmounted canvases of hospital scenes are arranged across the wall like snapshots, juxtaposed with enormous canvases depicting X-rays.

Next door, 12 person exhibition “Look Deeper” is a fairly sparse selection of young artists, (more…)

Yang Fan’s <Spring>
until April 6 @ Star Gallery

In a drastic departure from her works on canvas, Yang Fan has produced a carpet of colorful poof-balls that she culled from the storerooms of clothing and toy factories in her native Guangdong. Yang Fan is formerly known for her series of paintings of young women in fashion plate style, the series, ever popular with Asian collectors, did not resonate with Western audiences.

When she began working on the project last year, she mentioned that the idea came to her while visiting clothing factories in China’s south. In what might have evolved from more “crafty” origins, this work culminates in her scouring of southern factories for unwanted bits and bobs, a new representation of the stories behind the cast-offs, and timely with the massive layoffs in the south.

An essay accompanying the catalogue is presented below. I translated it, but also enjoyed it for some valuable insights on her early works. (more…)

Recently, while reviewing Wang Gongxin’s installation piece at the Arrow Factory, I thought I would publish here all the additional thoughts that wouldn’t fit into the print version (but please keep an eye out for April’s ArtForum). The Arrow Factory is a small storefront space located in the “arrow” hutong near the Confucius Temple at Guozijian, it was founded by the artists Raina Ho, Wang Wei, Weng Wei and curator / critic Pauline J. Yao.

According to Pauline in a recent phone interview, they were looking to create a counter-dialogue to “art with a capital ‘A’” and to “engage in a different way with audiences”.

The Arrow Factory’s central location indeed is a deviation from the norm. Beijing’s exhibition spaces and galleries are mostly clustered far from the city center and often in factory ruins, they run from enormous to mind-bogglingly huge in size. The distance we travel to see them can put the average viewer at a disadvantage, and perhaps endows the act of viewing art with an unnecessary pretension or the element of a “castle on the hill”. Likewise, the enormity of these spaces presents the inevitable problem of filling them. Art, in tandem to the growing size of these colossal spaces, has also become monumental in size, scope, and this has become an incorrect signifier of implied importance. Thus, the mission of the Arrow Factory is apropos to our times. (more…)

until April 18 @ Three Shadows Photography Art Center

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February 14 - April 5 @ Urs Meile

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In Shenzhen’s OCT Contemporary Art Terminal , Zhang Peili installed his third solo of 2008, again featuring remains, Mute. In this “scene” (a “new form of art” that Zhang Peili has been developing, he contrasts the real and the perceived, the static and the dynamic, over the abandoned reckage of manufacturing sewing tables and two parallel video projections of people working in the exact same space.

Concurrently, at Beijing’s JoyArt Space, Ni Haifeng (artist site) employs similar on-site tailors who shredded, then reconstruct more than 10 tons of reclaimed fabric in Para Production. The result is a wall sculpture that reaches to the ceiling; remains are scattered across the space. The show is curated by Pauline Yao, see more photos of the show and its installation at her site.

Although these two artists have different aims, the similarity of their means is outstanding. Both employ anonymous, live performers in the installation of, and integrally in the manufacture of their works. Both use the reconstructing, reorganizing and recontextualizing of materials, Ni Haifeng working with the fabric itself, and Zhang Peili with video clips that he garnered from a performance within the space. Both display their final product (fabric-sculpture, video montage) amidst the un-edited ruins of its production process.

For more “common threads” and variations on this theme, please reference Zheng Guogu’s Factory exhibition, January 2008 at Beijing’s Tang Contemporary.

More exhibition scenes below . . .

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站台中国

朝阳区草场地村319－1艺术东区A区内
2008.08.30-2008.10.12中国文化浸染于含蓄微妙的暗示中，有时候这种暗示过于微妙，以至于很容易就被忽略。“微妙”展中，策展人凯伦·史密斯 (Karen Smith)精心选择了九位中国艺术家的作品－－他们来自不同的年代，采用的是不同的媒介，思考过程各具不同的创意性——由此展现了历史性的精致提炼。

王卫根据场地，创作了定点装置，对于展览空间进行了变形。他将房产工事模型中使用的一组小型的家具扩大。等身大小的衣橱和厨房柜子对于这个空间，产生了很奇特的效果，创造了一种双重性的身份。这些令人惊异的白木雕，因其环氧树脂合成的边缘，而更增添了其人工性，从而令它们表面看起来，就好像是从塑料模子中打造出来的一样。艺术伴侣胡晓媛和仇晓飞，在相邻的房间里展出了各自的作品；每位艺术家运用的是现有物品的组合以及常规的媒介方式，激起的是人们的怀旧之情。在《不动产》（2008），仇晓飞将一些从跳蚤市场弄来的物品，安置摆放，形成一间完成的居所，走廊的入口侧，堆积的是废弃的电器，炊具，以及用上漆的木头再造的逼真的扩音器。而胡的《夏至》（2008），则更具有象征主义意味，同时也更讲究组织构造性：一张破败的课桌上面堆满了蝉的蜕皮；成形于粗糙的造型艺术的日常用品摆放在上面小小的木头架上，一卷从打开的抽屉里垂下来的白纸，一直垂到了地板上。课桌和教学用品暗示着教育体系，蝉意味着在这种严酷的、适者生存的教育体制下，一年一年的蜕变。在另一间屋子里，以画萧瑟风景、戴防毒面具的不详人物而著名的年轻画家贾蔼力，呈现了一幅从火车窗口拍摄的窗外录像。通过使用炭精笔，他绘制的逼真的缝隙，轻薄的长袍，空白的画布，覆盖了将近16英尺高的墙。一束超脱尘俗的光在并不存在的拥挤的墙上，投下了影子，灰暗的房间中是两个空间性的物体，一个标志性的魔鬼般的防毒面罩从中央，就那么凝视着观者。

— 文/ Lee Ambrozy, 译/ 王丹华

更多的展览评论在 artforum.com.cn

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“悬在空中、浮于表面、不能靠近”是林达画廊的首次展览 ， 隋建国最新的创造 《无题》流淌在门口的地面上，观众的确不要靠近，因为《无题》还没有干。本展览由朱其策划也包括不少顶级艺术家，像展望、汪建伟、王鲁炎等，也有我很反感的艺术家张鹏和苍鑫。

这次真正把我给骗了，它半途而废的结果实在太像林达画廊赶着展出，装修没完成的样子了。我不得不想，他的作品是否有讽刺的用意，也许只是隋老师做展览做累了而已。祝贺您隋老师！我服了。

伊比利亚当代艺术中心|IBERIA CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART
北京市朝阳区酒仙桥路4号798艺术区E06
2008.07.12–2008.08.15

“观念的笔记”把后现代画家的困扰当作前提：是一种没有总体的意图与法则可以依赖的虚空。画册的前言里面提出，目前的流行画派丰富而不断地被消耗掉，引起 “绘画概念极其单一，反映社会，或者通过反映内心状态来反映社会”。 此展览试图呈现当代艺术的自觉性。伊比利亚的小策展组收集的十六位画家能否使观众体验“主动试验性”的绘画线索呢？也许多少会一点吧。

宽广的现场集合了不同年代的代表人物， 包括著名的以及正在崛起的艺术家。策展组选择的研究话题很及时，也直接回应了那些爱批评画布艺术商业性的疑问。但对于普通观众来说，这组绘画作品展示在伊比利亚宽敞的空间不一定能够凸显出那些很特别的图像：试验是试验，但是只有理解基本的艺术史，才能感受得到此次展览的试验性的本质。说起展览气氛的学术倾向，这样说并没有贬义，伊比利亚确实在实行着其艺术研究和教育的功能。

“观念的笔记”前辈画家的代表中，有王音对绘画史本身的研究、王鲁炎的具有平面感而以图像为主的绘画、季大纯的重新分析科学真理和意图意义的绘画、还有尹齐的复杂奶油画，后者在试图改变视觉和意识上的规则。年轻的画家相对来说多一些，像龚剑的非审美的、飞溅着白色点点的画面、王光乐最新水磨石的尝试、李威的悬念性的电影语言、还有刘韡的电脑设计过的 “生产线” 大画面、王亚强的自学绘画手法，都达到了新鲜和挑战人眼球的效果；参与的人数众多，也使展览当中的想法充满丰富性，给每个人带来一次惊喜。

偶尔在现场也会碰到策展人所批评的“潮流绘画”的虚饰 （像符号的复制或者反映出影像文化），但是 “观念的笔记”的整体方向是往新鲜的艺术试验上走，一方面提供了有学术价值 的观赏，同时在年纪上相差二十多年的中国画家的绘画试验里，也找到了一 条线索。

文 / 安静 /Lee Ambrozy

此展览评论在artforum.com.cn发表

李占洋   ‘租’——收租院｜ 麦勒画廊
2008.04.26 至 2008.08.24

李占洋的个展是今年夏天不要错过的机会。 他重复文革时期重要的一组雕塑作品“‘租’——收租院” 但是地主、农民、等等身份是被当代艺术圈替代。展览又幽默又有想法，你要是对好艺术不感兴趣，您可以去考验您对有名艺术世界的角色的认识。下面的文章是艾老师写的， 也在展览的画册出现的。

你看着办吧

和李占洋还不认识的时候，就记住了他的那些早期的雕塑，尺寸不大，大都是些有人物、有情节和场景的附着重彩的作品。后来的作品中出现了看热闹不怕事儿闹大的宏伟场面，着色和质感也时尚鲜亮起来。

这些作品与现实之间有一种半推半就的关系，有力的手法和明快处理所表现的趣味倾向，浓艳的作风，入微的细节与市井场面，那些故事的表情，事件的假设，传说中的情节，设定了人们所寻找的快乐，遭遇的不测和梦幻的英雄情节……

在大多数情形下，作为旁观者，我们知道眼前所见仅仅是一堆泥胎附上颜色的玩意，尽管我们可以用上帝的眼光来审视，用有训练有素的涵养来挑剔。这些人 物和情景，和谐与不和谐的光影变化，适宜和不适宜观赏的，刺激或装饰的色彩和形体，确是实实在在地影响了我们的脑神经皮层。作者设下的圈套将观者勾引进入 一个尴尬的境域。诱惑者在诱惑他人时是否亦被诱惑。不祥的快感触发了迷恋贪婪的血腥本性。

李占洋致力于很黄很暴力的败坏世风之举，旗帜鲜明地张扬性色和权力的声色犬马，像是一个长久的风俗败坏之地的景观导游者，操着浓重的市场化了的地方口音，有板有眼地重复着煞有介事的术语。无知中总是掺伴着邪恶，愚蠢里总是依偎着奢华。他一本正经地讲着，讲得认真投入。

这是一些重复了千百遍的历史故事和演绎，听上去显得平凡和陈腐。可是作品的现实力量常常令人难以相信，现实的真实性的侵伤发生了蜕变，它们已经不再是可以抹去的幻象，伴随着潜意识，像是一句无法删除的不停地在脑中反复的曲调，尤其是在你比谁都清醒的时刻。

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UNIVERSALSTUDIOS-BEIJING｜BOERSLI GALLERY｜U空间
No.A-8 Caochangdi,(P.O.box No.71 Dashanzi),Chao Yang District｜北京市朝阳区草场地村甲八号 May 31–July 13

In this exhibition, the sometimes-dense compositions and concentrated colors of Liang Yuanwei’s canvases nicely contrast with the cool, spacious gallery that houses them. On display are twelve large paintings and fourteen smaller renditions of the same patterns, all from the series “A Piece of Life” and completed in the last year and a half. Each painting is dominated by a pattern, thoughtfully chosen from among the artist’s garments or selected from the many objects surrounding her-a sofa, curtains, swatches of cloth. Repeated evenly for the full length of the canvas, the flowers, spots, and, in one work, what look like palm trees are made by precise brushstrokes in thickly layered paint; they resemble classical Chinese painting’s delicate and detailed gongbi strokes. The repetitive, meditative process required to unfurl these patterns limited Yuanwei to one to three inches of progress per day, and a single mistake or diffusion of concentration would destroy an entire canvas (and, subsequently, up to a month’s work). Each painting thus serves as testament to both her desire to work more with oils and her incredible focus. Although inspired by motifs on two-dimensional fabrics, their shadows and light also give the impression of motion.

These works can easily be mistaken for a feminist/feminine pursuit, as in her earlier, well-received photography series “Don’t Forget to Say You Love Me . . . (When You Fuck Me),” 2005. Those staged boudoir photos of women were a savvy comment on what it takes to break into the fine-art world. This most recent body of work confirms Yuanwei’s observant nature and logical approach.

Originally published on ArtForum.com

尤伦斯当代艺术中心｜ ULLENS CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ART
北京朝阳区酒仙桥路4号院798艺术区
2008.04.12–2008.07.13

单从这次展览的题目“铄石流金”来看，它并未给观众带来印象深刻的体验，与黄永砅比起来，这组参展的国际艺术家们，分量还是显得轻些，黄的回顾展占卜者之屋，依然占据着场馆主厅的位置。此次展览，会集了一批游走在国际艺术界的、刚刚崭露头角的艺术家，他们的作品，被放置在尤伦斯中心边边角角的位置。

展出的作品被夸张地联系在了一起，强调的是艺术过程，是对所用材料的刻意变化以及对日常经验的审视。 Matt Bryans将剪掉的报纸残片穿在一起，创造了一个饱含社会信息的星云图，艺术家为此着实下了不少工夫。在一间幽闭的房间里，是 Amy Granat所创作的被划破了16毫米胶片的 Five Pointed Star, 2007，胶片在不停地转动着; 穿过放映机的声音被扬声器一次次扩大，一遍遍从封闭的墙上袭来。值得注意的还有村田武 (Takeshi Murata)与 Robert Beatty的录象作品，后者为其制作了背景声音。隔音而完全黑暗的房间，成为了数字迷幻时代的萌生地。其它作品概念性的强调，看上去过于简单化，在技巧上也不够打动人，比如林载春的《因为，所以一百只蜘蛛和一枚贴纸在墙上》，比如 Sterling Ruby巨大的用废弃物做成的纪念碑式的作品，在西方的语境里，也许会激起观者的反应，但是在现场，比起外边错综复杂矛盾重重的城市建筑工地，一切显得就不那么有力量了。也许是在新的语境下受到阻碍，也许是毗邻空间的作品分量很重，所以，“铄石流金”看上去只是比较流行时髦，而本身并不具备太大意义。无论是荧光颜料，还是嬉皮文化，都无法弥补其意义上的缺憾性。虽然展览中，也不乏令人叫好的个人作品，但最终，它并没有将西方世界的先锋艺术实践活动真正引介进来。— 文/ Lee Ambrozy, 译/ 王丹华 originally published on artforum.com.cn

卓越艺术，北京市朝阳区酒仙桥路4号798艺术D区
2008.4.19-2008.5.30

策展人文字介绍 / 刘鼎

隋建国长期以来通过雕塑实践来对雕塑的观念和形态进行思考和拓展，也同时运用录象、装置、行为等其他的媒介对社会生活形态的变迁和塑造社会生活形态 的力量和机制进行反思和讨论。卓越的第二个项目“公共化的个人痕迹”是隋建国通过抽离和呈现雕塑创作中翻制和放大泥稿的过程而对个人意志被转化成公共意志 的社会现实所展开的研究。

在一般的雕塑创作中，雕塑家通常是先制作一个完整的小稿，再请工人放大到雕塑家要求的尺寸，然后翻制成不同材料的作品。在“公共化的个人痕迹”的项 目中，隋建国自己动手制作了三个不同形态的泥塑小稿，并有意地让自己的手印布满这三个泥塑小稿的表面。根据雕塑翻制和放大的一般程序，隋建国请工人先将他 制作的泥塑手稿翻制成硅胶模具，再从硅胶模中翻制出石膏稿；接着在石膏稿上用激光定位仪进行打格定位，把石膏稿上的定位格放大十多倍，并做成定位系统，即 所谓“圈套（套圈）放大”的坐标圈。根据放大所需要的尺寸制作钢架及木架栅，然后将放大十多倍后的木制圈子套在木架栅上，并根据此木制圈，将雕塑泥架加在 其上，完成放大稿的基本造型。工人根据放大的坐标圈进一步塑造成型，精确地表现艺术家原手稿的手迹。最终，艺术家的泥塑手稿被精确放大数十倍，成为一个巨 大的具有纪念碑性质的雕塑。

(more…)

UNIVERSALSTUDIOS-BEIJING
北京市朝阳区机场辅路草场地甲8号院 (大山子71号信箱)
2008.03.08–2008.04.06

或许是因为中国没有足够的装置艺术，仇晓飞此次展览的成功尤为地使人感到满足。再或许年轻艺术家们都偏爱用绘画媒介进行创造，我们于是发现仇晓飞的作品在其中作出了一个漂亮的翻转。
这是仇晓飞在三年中的第三次个展，名为“碎落的，散逝的”。象往常一样，他继续在物品上重绘它们，但是这一次在他的视野里我们竟成了小矮人。 作为之前主题的延伸——往事、童年记忆、梦的遗物连同它们身上厚厚的油彩“外皮”成熟了，被夸张地放大了。在主题的选择上也有些许变化，从再现无生命，冰冷的物体到在想像的场合中注入作者的情怀。
展厅被一块亮白色的“溜冰场”镇住，钉在墙上的冰鞋锋利的刀刃“割”出“冰面”上如血般的痕迹。周围放着小一些的作品：一台绞肉机里挤出冷酷的肉馅堆在桌上….重拾童年旧梦，从逢年过节时备菜细节中获得灵感。另一个作品是一圈烧掉一半的蚊香象征性地勾起当父母外出上班时独自在家的记忆。邻近地墙上挂着两张作者儿时大笑的照片，彼此略有不同，反映出许多独自成长的孩子们的狂想习性。两大组积木上写实地画着几何型的窗户，俄式洋葱形屋顶建筑积木及大钟控制住展厅的入口。
唯一一件似乎在风格上略带差别的是名叫《博物馆之夜》的作品，也许代表了艺术家作为成人具有颠覆性的意图：在另人目眩的纯白色气氛里，墙上挂着从那种博物馆画廊里典型的油画画框翻模出来的石膏画框，画框中的本来的内容被黑色油彩所涂抹，旁边站立一个笨重的无头石膏人形，浑身滴淌石膏。艺术家的“变形版自我”在地板和墙上到处留下飞溅的黑色油彩，这是否代表对传统艺术体系的批判和艺术家身在其中的不情愿？ 仇晓飞此次展览的作品达到一新高度，并暗示出更庞大的天地。

卓越艺术｜JOYART
北京市朝阳区酒仙桥路4号, 8502信箱,
2008.02.02–2008.03.26

王鲁炎近来迷上了枪、坦克和军事用品，并将这些因素诉诸于新作《整体的背面》。看样子他似乎始终也未偏离过“战争的机器”这样一个主题，并且其观念上的构思还远比实物的表现更加纯粹。第一眼看去你可能只觉得滑稽荒诞，但是这个人明白现场的概念强调的是一种个人体验，他成功的通过微妙的空间处理和视觉发挥引申出略带反叛的社会政治含义。
这个“重量级”艺术家，将“重量级”坦克履带痕迹涂抹于天花板上，观众穿梭其间岌岌可危如泰山压顶。在底上膨胀的巨大水泥泡泡上面人走来走去看得似乎是小型的。
王鲁炎对空间打造得很彻底，这个高10米的立方体主展厅里，一线阳光经由天窗缓缓泻落；履带留下的痕迹好像不久前坦克才隆隆驶过；凸起的水泥墩光滑细致不留瑕疵。这种对几何空间的精确把握在规模上震慑人心，而又使用卡通化的风格因素加以掩饰。
与主展厅相对的是隔壁一间不算端庄的小房间，与视平线等高的墙面上有黑色马克笔留下的一个X的最小码。凹凸起伏的形状配合狭窄的空间，这里仿佛更像是一座墓室。联想到外面的空间，这种形容似乎并不过分。可以说这间小房间的出现有点像大地艺术家Michael Heizer的装置作品中对于实体周围空间的运用，介于其草草的做工，我无法进行更加具体的比较。
整体的背面是矛盾的——很难想象坦克会有凸起出现，抑或者是一种被坦克驶过的痕迹重重围绕的超现实感受。作为一种社会政治含义的隐喻，你可以人为赋予它任何意义。

originally published on cn.artforum.com

感谢巩剑 ！

麦勒画廊 
104, Caochangdi Cun, Cui Gezhuang Xiang, Chaoyang District
 2007.10.27–2007.12.22

李大方画布上的照相现实主义世界里到处散落着工业碎片。铺着白瓦，摇摇欲坠的房子（也许是对中国建筑悲哀现状的隐喻），野草，铁门，和以不可能的方式堆起来的盒子充斥着这些荒诞不经，荒凉寂寞的风景。每幅画都包含以上元素中的至少一种，但它们仿佛是艺术家画完后才想起来添上去的，笔触粗糙而生动，跟背后精雕细琢的模糊背景形成了鲜明对比。
李大方的作品充分体现了中国东北艺术家的工业美学，尽管这次展览代表着他跟早期风格的告别。过去，李大方的典型手法是直接把一些跟画面内容毫不相干的文字涂到画面上，以加强一种类似电影静物的视觉效果。虽然现在人们仍然拿李大方的作品和电影作比较，但他最近似乎迷恋上了回忆。本次展览的作品画面更加荒凉晦涩，少了从前简洁的锋利，取而代之的是艺术家从自身经验里抽取的碎片，物品，地点和场景。展览的中心作品是六联幅油画Jia Wen and Jia Lin，2007。一头可怕野兽露出红色的面孔，盘旋在一座不起眼的村落上空。这样的景象描述了李大方所有作品里挥之不去的恐惧情绪。一个奇怪而庞大的工字型结构占据了左半边构图，铁锈似的洞意外地散见于画面各处，挑战着参观者的被动立场。这些最新的作品有一种超自然，让人怦然心动的气质，把观众拉入其中；在某个点上，参观者完全迷失于艺术家画布上的回忆和有关这些回忆的视觉重构， 这时的他们也许会突然想起自己已经遗忘多年的往事。
— 文/ 安静 Lee Ambrozy /译 dkk

originally published on cn.artforum.com

UNIVERSALSTUDIOS-BEIJING
北京市朝阳区机场辅路草场地甲8号院 (大山子71号信箱)
2007.09.05–2007.11.15

策展人皮力最近的壮举很能体现中国取之不尽的体力劳动资源，他把整节火车车厢都搬到了自己近两千平方米的空间。邱黯雄个展“前尘：新大陆架的沉降”入口处是一段恐怖城堡里常见的低矮楼梯，参观者拾级而上，进入一节半明半暗的火车车厢。车厢内部，二十四部黑白录像在车窗处轮流播放，每排座位的录像都不同。社会主义工人为完成巨型基建项目翻山越岭，肤色深沉的模范工人跟你四目相接，中间插入一些邱黯雄的动画。同时还有十二个声音文件循环播放，其中既有民歌，也有实验爵士乐。这架时光机里升腾的热量，声音和视觉信息的速度让人忘我。

火车刺耳音响的尽头是装置的第二部分，这部分给整个作品注入了观念上的重量：悬挂在黑暗中的大小屏幕就像一朵边际不甚分明的云朵，伴随环境电音的搏动闪烁不定。屏幕上出现的三个背包客逃离了城市，到四川山岭中徒步旅行。他们身上的装备和不熟练的动作都表现出赶时髦，追求户外运动的中产阶级趣味。有人批评邱黯雄上一个装置作品缺乏连贯性，但这次火车对前进，旅行，现代社会政治图景变迁的指涉很好地将两部分联系到了一起。展览创造出一个令人难忘的空间，阐述了个人记忆的真实度和官方重建历史之间的矛盾。时至今日，这一主题依然影响着中国艺术界的大部分人。
— 文/ 安静/ Lee Ambrozy/ 译dkk
originally published on cn.artforum.com