冯博一：乱花渐欲迷人眼——关于邓箭今的油画艺术

艺术表现的丰富性和可能性本源于生活与人性的复杂和混浊，而这种复杂的混浊往往与特定历史阶段的文化语境有着直接乃至必然的关联。那么，对历史与现实文化的敏感则导致艺术家在艺术观念和方法论，以及题材、媒介、语言等方式上的改变。邓箭今作为上世纪六十年代出生的中国艺术家来说，好像没有什么比正逢历史动荡和社会转型所造成的扭曲更能触动内心了；在扭曲的外化表现之中，又好像没有比“欲望”的不间断流动，更能一言以敝之地概括出我们这个时代的社会特征。因此，我们看邓箭今油画艺术创作的履历，可以较为明确地发现他的艺术创作的针对性，始终围绕着“欲望”的关键词，以及有关欲望的人际语境。只不过这个欲望的呈现，更多地是以男女之间相勾连，或者说通过这种人性中最直接的欲望，来抵达其中的矛盾、尴尬与荒诞。拿情色的意象润饰性描绘的修辞手段，好比遮盖亚当夏娃下体的无花果叶子，这一纹饰正是身体和情欲典型的泛文化表述方式。从中既可以看出邓箭今笔下的他／她们对日常生活细枝末节怀有的本能，以及他运用斑斓色彩夸张生动地渲染其间的躁动、颓废，又有些荒诞与悦色的偏执——将梦魇般的身体扭曲在诡异的情色之中。作品里有着“乱花渐欲迷人眼”的眩目，以及在现实喧嚣的混世里浓缩了他／她们无所谓的妄想呓语和独领的风骚。

谈到欲望，似乎主角永远是女人。这在西方叙事传统中几乎是天经地义的，就像在中国叙事传统中女人必定是祸水一样，女人总是被描述为欲望的追逐者，甚至是“邪恶的诱惑物”。这样认定，女权主义者或女性主义者们是会愤然地提出质疑。她们不能接受女性在艺术表现的叙事中被物质化，或被描绘成消费动物、祸水的根源。从这点来看，邓箭今也未能免俗，他不仅要把欲望的主角锁定为女人，而且，还要让他画面的女性承担起中国社会转型期城市化进程中欲望的主题和标示符号。尽管，在邓箭今的作品图式中不乏男性形象，但那也只是为凸显罪恶欲望的配角而已。邓箭今的作品色调艳丽、形态怪诞，甚至还有些血腥气；充盈的画面似乎在强调视觉图像中的形式主义趣味，即把女性变成纯粹的形式感，并将这种形式感发辉到露骨，甚至令人惊怵的程度。但我以为他并不在意于社会传统的道德评判，而是忽视或弱化其卫道士的男权主义。他是以带有夸张的虚拟化的典型形象处理，凸显出她们生动和荒诞的生存处境，折射出中国目前社会现实的消费文化中，潜隐于其中的一种罪恶状态。在她们艳俗而光滑的五官与变形肢体的对比中，似乎错愕而困惑地在寻觅着什么。既流淌出根植于人内心的欲望与宣泄这一矛盾的心理情结，又演绎了她们在生存过程中不断被异化的人生梦想。这些作品可以看出邓箭今的用意是把画面中的一个关键性的行为形象同时赋予了内容和形式方面的最大效果。这种效果具有复杂的象征意义，即把我们现今社会日益膨胀的物质消费的情景，通过这些男情女爱的怪异形象符号化和现实化了，甚至残酷地、毫不留情地画出了这些生命卑贱的结局。于是视觉的图像从非现实的层面进入到一个现实的层面，以此来表达他对当下现实社会的深刻关注。在社会激烈变动的转型时期，生存的压力和前途的渺茫，使得人们的物质生活和精神生活都陷入了巨大无边的困顿之中，他们的精神世界笼罩着苦闷、彷徨、无聊、寂寞的情绪。特别是生活在社会底层的他们的处境就更加糟糕，现实也显得更加严峻。在这里，人性的复杂以及生活的促狭纠缠在一起，显示出命运的无常和难以捉摸。

我一直诧异于邓箭今油画艺术中对女性裸体和男女情事的露骨性表现。实际上，在当下的艺术叙事中，已较少采取特别露骨的方式，或并不直接地将女性描述为“邪恶的诱惑物”。那么，邓箭今的这种表现与时代文化特征之间存有怎样的关系？这也是我在考察他艺术创作时的疑虑。因为这种女性形象的处理，代表了男性社会对女性的想象和要求，仍然没有摆脱固有的依附性角色。随着时代的发展，看上去女性获得了自主的、独立的、自由的性别身份，但是她们的完整人格仍然是模糊不清的。我们业已进入到网络时代，网络科技为自由、开放、随意等特性提供了足够的技术支撑，也提供了一个新的选择性表达空间，人们可以更加无所顾忌地选择表达的方式，并需要在这种选择中进行一次新的社会形象的认知与重组。这是以往从没有过或尝试过的传播和展示的视觉方式，也是一种新的更为自主的表达机制。其意义不仅在于用一种新的视觉观念表现所处的生存环境，而且还在于触碰了我们惯常的接受图像的观看模式和经验，更为我们自身的存在记录了自主意识的历史。其中的一个细节是我们越来越多地与从未见过面的陌生人在虚拟世界中频繁地交往，不断敞开自己的个人生活，披露自己私生活的细节，以便维持与不可见的陌生人的情感联系，一种要同陌生人达成亲密关系的幻觉。亲密关系是隐私的另一面，或者说，它至少只有当实质性的隐私存在时才成为可能或可欲的。为了向陌生人投射一种能够留住记忆的形象，必须显示自我的无可隐匿。我们不仅做着和其他人一样的事情，还试图通过尽可能全面地暴露给他人来证明自己是值得信任的。但那种情感的亲密性只有在隐私的情境下才可以实现，倘若人们的焦虑和困惑不透露给陌生人，好像我们不可能建立起实现亲密关系所必需的信任，以及获取隐私所带来的牢靠的注意力。所以，暴露的随意性实际上表明了人们对认同普遍存在着焦虑，以及越来越想取悦他人的欲求。如果公共的亲密关系是一种错觉，希望通过满足人们永无止尽的裸露要求来使自我不同于他人，也注定了这是虚幻的一种表现形式。因为我们既是观众，又是演员，心甘情愿地暴露形体以换取虚无缥缈的情感联系和安全感，已成为带有普遍性的心理情结。这或许恰恰是我们时代征候之一种吧。那么，作为我的个人阐释，是否也可以从中找寻到邓箭今在图像来源和赤裸裸地暴露身体之间的某种逻辑上的关系呢。

作为同代人，60年代出生的人已经承受了这一份不独个人的困惑，我们在自觉地终结某种东西，通过所谓的艺术创作，我们在追问。也许潜在于我们内心的心理隐秘只是开始，总有一个向着的世外，也许未必是桃源，却有一个极为开放的空间。在现实的内外仍有理想可存放的地方，那就是承担社会责任的义务和作为一名艺术家的敏感锐与独特的表现。或许我们也可从邓箭今的油画艺术中，观察到知其不可为或者知其可为而不为的那一种只有60年代人才有的准则与追求。















Flying Flowers Thrusting into the Eyes
--- on Deng Jianjin’s Oil Painting

By Feng Boyi


The richness and possibility root in the complexity and turbidity of life and human nature, but this complex turbidity always has direct even necessary association with the cultural context of certain historical phase. In that case, the sensitivity on history and culture of reality leads to the artist’s changes on art concept and methodology, as well as subject, media, and language. For Deng Jianjin, a Chinese artist born in the 1960s, nothing seems more touching than the distortion caused by historical unrest and social transition. In the distorted appearance, it seems that no more than the continuous flow of “desire” can summarize the social characteristic of our era. Therefore, when we see Deng Jianjin’s resume of his oil painting creation, it’s clear that his art creation always aims at the key word “desire”, as well as the context of interpersonal relation about desire. However, the presentation of the desire mostly relates to the intersexual relationship. In other words, through this direct desire of human being, he addresses the internal conflict, embarrassment and absurdity. The rhetoric retouching the pornographic images is like the fig leaf that used by Adam and Eve to cover their lower bodies. This ornamentation is right the typical pan-cultural expression of body and Eros. Through it, we can see the instinct “he”/ “she” in Deng Jianjin’s works has for the trivial details in daily life, and his use of gorgeous colors exaggeratedly and vividly rendering the restlessness, decadence, and paranoid somewhat absurd—distorting the nightmare-like bodies in the bizarre eroticism. There’s the dazzle of “flying flowers thrusting into eyes”, and it condenses their indifferent paranoiac raving and coquettishness in the chaotic world of the noisy reality.

On desire, it seems that woman is always the protagonist. This is the unalterable principle in the tradition of western narrative. It’s just like that woman is always the trouble for the tradition of Chinese narrative, woman is always described as the pursuer of desire, even “evil temptation”. Feminists always angrily question this judgment. They cannot accept the materialization of women in the narrative of art expression, as well as the description of women as consumer animal and the origin of troubles. From this point of view, Deng Jianjin cannot be the exception. He not only wants to lock women as the protagonists of desire, but also let the women in his screens to carry the symbols and themes of desire in the urbanization process in the transition of Chinese society. Although there’s no lack of male images in Deng Jianjin’s works, they are no more than the supporting roles highlighting the evil desire. Deng Jianjin’s works have gorgeous colors, weird shapes, and even some bloody air. The sufficient image seems to emphasize the interests of formalism in visual images, which is to convert female to be pure form and exhaust the form to a degree of thriller. But I think his intention is not of the moral judgment of the social tradition, but is to ignore or weaken the androcentrism of the rights police. By the treatment of the exhausted and virtualized typical images, he highlights their vivid and absurd living state, reflecting an evil state hidden in the consumer culture in the current Chinese society. The contrast of their meretricious and smooth facial features and deformed limbs seems they are shocked, perplexed and looking for something. The flow of the desire rooted in heart and the psychological complex of vent interpret their life dreams which are constantly alienated in the survival process. Through these works, we can see that Deng Jianjin’s intention is to give the greatest effect on content and form to the key image of action in the screen. This effect has the complicated symbolic significance. The situation of our current society, the growing material consumption, is symbolized and realized by these weird pornography, and even the lowly outcome of these lives are brutally and mercilessly painted. Then the visual image is entered into a realistic level from the non-realistic level to express his profound concerns for the current social reality. In the transition period with the intense social changes, the pressure of survival and the uncertainty of future make the people fall in the boundless hardship on material life and spiritual life. Their spiritual world is fogged by the emotions of depression, anxiety, boredom and loneliness. Especially for those living in the bottom of society, their situation is worse and the reality for them is more severe. Here, the complex of human nature is entangled with the tease from life, showing the impermanent and unpredictable fate.

I am always surprised by the explicit performance of the naked women and eroticism in Deng Jianjin’s oil painting. In fact, in the current art narrative, it’s rare to see the particularly explicit ways or the direct description of female as “evil temptation”. Well, what’s the relation between Deng Jianjin’s expression and the cultural characters of this era? This is also my doubt when I study his creation, because this treatment of female image is on behalf of the imagination and requirement of a male society to women, yet it does not get rid of the inherent role of adherence. With the development of the times, women appear to gain the autonomous, independent and free gender identity, yet their integral personality is vague. We have entered into an era of internet, the internet technology provides adequate technical supports for the characters of freedom, openness and randomness, as well as provides a selective space of expression where one can freely choose the expression way and do a new recognition and reorganization of the social images in these choices. This is the new visual way of spread and display never been tried, it is also a new expression system more autonomous. Its significance is not only using a new visual concept to express the situation of survival, but also touching the usual watch model and experience through which we receive images, as well as recording the history of self-awareness for our existences. One detail is that we frequently communicate with the strangers in the virtual world, open our personal lives, disclose the details of our private lives to maintain the emotional ties with the invisible strangers, build up the illusion of intimacy with strangers. Intimacy is the other side of privacy, in other words, it’s possible only if the substantial privacy exists. To project a memorable image to strangers, the unhidden self has to be shown. We do the same things as others, moreover we try to prove our credibility by comprehensive exposal. But this intimacy only can be realized in private situation. If people don’t disclose their anxiety and confusion to the strangers, the trust necessary for intimacy cannot be built up, as well as the solid attention according to the gain of privacy. Therefore, the randomness of exposure in fact demonstrates people’s widespread anxiety of identity and the increasing desire to please others. If the public intimacy is an illusion hoping to be different with others by the endless demands of nude, it’s doomed to be a performance of illusion, because we are both audiences and performers. Willingly exposing body in exchange for vague emotional ties and security sense has become a universal psychological complex. It might be one of the symptoms of our age. In that case, in my personal interpretation, can we find the logic relationship between the origin of the images and the naked bodies?

As the same generation, the people born in the 1960s have borne an impersonal confusion. Through the so-called art creation, we consciously end something and we are questioning. Perhaps the secret hidden in our heart is just a beginning. There’s some place outside the world, which may not be an ideal state, but is a largely open space. There’s still some place inside or outside of the reality to place ideal. That is the responsibility taking social obligation, as well as the unique performance and sensitivity of an artist. In Deng Jianjin’s oil paintings, perhaps we also can observe the criteria and pursuit only for the 60’s, namely, knowing something we cannot do, or knowing something we can do but don’t do.