铜元局系列
重庆是中国西部内陆最大的老工业城市之一,也是我自1969年以来生活学习和工作的城市,它是我生活的现实环境。在这里发生着中国最具代表性的所有二线城市正在发生的一切,童年的记忆变得模糊,取而代之的是 洋房花园 大楼摩天,个人记忆的物证已经片甲不留,城市变成一个魔幻的现实场景。
Tongyuanju series
Chongqing is one of the oldest and biggest cities in the western mainland China, also where I’ve been living and working since 1969. It is the realistic environment of my life. Everything happens in all the most representative second-class cities is happening here, too. Childhood memory is becoming blurry and what substitutes it is western style houses, gardens and skyscrapers. The evidence of individual memory has died out. The city has turned into an illusionary scene.
居住系列
王海川:对于城市景观的手工批判
皮力
在今天,没有什么比居住更能牵动中国人的神经了。从计划经济到市场经济的转型,造就了中国人居住方 式的改变。20世纪中期以来,计划经济造就了中国齐常化的居住方式。城市居住的群落由血缘关系为纽带的 传统形态,转化为以工作单位为纽带社会主义时期。这种集体的居住方式牺牲了传统的家庭价值,但是却以 牺牲个性与隐私换来了一种看似浪漫的亲情。通过改革开放所造就的市场化经济,造就了社会财富的非平均 分配。而与此同时,在宏观经济层面房地产成为了过去20年间经济的发动机。在市场经济的格局中,传统的 齐常化的居住方式发生了改变。传统的集体居住方式转换为以经济收入为纽带的居住方式。由于新中国以来 的社会主义政治体系彻底颠覆了由经济关系建立起来的社会等级制度,所以当市场经济形成之后,由于缺乏 政治和文化表达的渠道,不同的社会群体只能用财富来标榜“身份意识”。而在这种身份意识的表达中,居住方 式和房屋则首当齐冲。伴随着这种“居住-身份”意识的强化,我们在遍布全国各地的房地产广告、规划、设计 和样板中可以看到,由于缺乏自身的阶级文化,中国的中产阶级只能借用诸如地中海庭院、美式家具、英式 管家的元素匆忙的表达着自己,于是我们在北京、上海和重庆看见了长岛、威尼斯或者巴塞罗那。
与中产阶级通过建筑趣味标榜自己一样,政治中的权贵则也在通过建筑也在标榜着自身。在集体主义时 代,标榜权力的是日常政治生活中的游行、集体舞蹈和各种各样的纪念建筑,而今,经济的发展代表个体的 经济自由,使得集体游行和舞蹈只能保留在重大的官方庆典中,而纪念碑由于缺乏同一的意识形态支撑,而 无法实现。在此背景下,为了标榜自身的存在,政治的权贵通过各种疯狂的建筑实验来呈现自己虚无的革新 意识。而这些建筑往往缺乏审批和必要的规划论证。我们可以看到无数超级建筑树立起来,它们不断创新着 亚洲的最高建筑记录,它们是在自然风景中的巨大玻璃穹顶,是无数用廉价瓷砖构造的经济开发区,或者像 当年纪念碑一样高大的中央商务区中的高楼。如果说被财富冲动控制的人居住在那些别墅与高档公寓中,那 么当代的权力叙事则隐含在这些疯狂崛起的奇特建筑之中,所有的这些都是资本和财富所堆积出来的“当代景 观”。王海川的这些作品就是产生在这样背景之下。此前,视觉艺术出身的王海川曾经多年从事建筑和景观设 计。而这批作品的出现也是有这样一个历史机缘在其中。在他的作品中,绝无人的出现,对于建筑和园林的 描述,人们很容易将这些作品看作是一些风景绘画的陈词滥调。但是事实并非如此。从2008年开始,艺术家 最先描述的是那些纪念碑性质的建筑。而后将触角涉及到正在蓬勃崛起的各种高档小区之中。如果不考虑画 面上的滴洒,我们几乎可以将这些图像视作是建筑画。但是这些作品的观念恰巧出现在这些非绘画性的因素 之中。这些单色的画面,使得来自真实场景的景物变得虚假;拒绝了人的出现则是让这些本来应该人性化的 东西变得更加没有“人性”,而显得象舞台上的空洞、单薄的摆设。而这些单色的滴洒,则不断的提示着我们, 这些美好的虚伪性,以及艺术家试图破坏或者穿透它们的企图。王海川的作品是将那些美好的私人生活和和 谐社会的表征毁灭给我们看。但是其方式却是平凡而普通的。其作品中试图磨灭现实的质感而替换以时间的 陈迹。
进入2010年以后,王海川开始对于在这片兴旺发达的土地上被荒废和以往的建筑产生了浓厚的兴趣。 他开始关注那些随着高速公路的到达而行将消失的村落,那些曾经在强国梦想中风光过的集体住宅,以及在 数个世纪前用来标榜信仰的石窟。在他的题材中,新与旧、繁荣与没落的对比都是表达观念的一部分。按照 居·德波的观点,景观是资本的堆积,而今天生活是被景观所围绕,我们的生活方式也是按照景观的方式来组 织的。从这个角度来看的话,在这些恬静的画面背后,蕴含的是一种强烈的批判情结。如同,数个世纪以前 的强盛同时造就了农村村落和蔚为大观的石窟,但终究被历史所湮灭一样,今天我们对于财富的崇拜所导致 的造城运动,在缺乏人性关照的资本条件下,其彰显的是一种可怕的疯狂、无知与无畏。而王海川所做的, 并非是表现那些建筑与风景,而是视其为一种景观的堆积,并用非常手工的绘画方式来揭露这些景观的非真 实性。
Wang Haichuan: the Manual Criticism about City Landscape
Today, there is nothing that Chinese people concerns more than inhabitation. The change from planned economy to market economy resulted in the change of Chinese people’s way of inhabitation. Since mid 20th Century, planned economy resulted in a normal way of inhabitation in China. The traditional status of city inhabitation groups, which was based on blood relationship, changed into a social status that is composed of working units. This collective way of inhabitation sacrifices traditional family value, but it acquires a seemingly romantic family love by sacrificing individuality and privacy. Through the market economy brought by reform and opening up, social wealth is unevenly allocated. Meanwhile, on the macroscopic level, real-estate has been the engine of economy for the past twenty years. In the pattern of market economy, the traditional and normal way of inhabitation changed. The traditional way of collective inhabitation changed into an inhabitation way bound by income. The social and political system thoroughly overturned the social classes based on economic relationship since the founding of the new China. After the market economy took shape, different social groups can only use wealth to label “identity consciousness” due to lacking ways for political and cultural expressions. In this expression of identity consciousness, the way of inhabitation and houses stand in the breach. With the strengthening of the “inhabitation-identity” consciousness, we can see from the real-estate ads, plans and designs all over China that because of lacking hierarchy culture, the Chinese middle class can only express themselves through the elements such as Mediterranean-style courtyard, America- style furniture and British-style housekeeper. Therefore, we see Long Island, Venice or Barcelona in Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing.
Similar to the middle class labeling themselves with architecture taste, the influential political people also label themselves with architecture. In the era of collectivism, what symbolized power were parades in daily political life, collective dances and all sorts of memorial buildings. But now, the economic development symbolizes the economic freedom for individuals, therefore, collective parades and dances can only be shown in important official celebration ceremonies. However, because of lacking support from the same ideology, monuments cannot be realized. In this situation, in order to emphasize their existence, the political bigwigs show their nihilistic reform consciousness through all kinds of crazy architectural experiments. However these buildings often lack necessary examination and approval. We can see countless super buildings erect on the ground and they continuously set new records as Asia’s highest buildings. They are the giant glass ceilings in the natural landscape, numerous economic development zones made of cheap porcelain bricks, or the skyscrapers in the business centers that are as big as the monuments. If we say the people who are controlled by wealth impulse live in those villas and high-class apartments, then contemporary power narration hides in these strange buildings. All those things are “contemporary vision” piled by capital and wealth.
Wang Haichuan’s works are created in such a Beijing. Wang Haichuan, whose major was visual art, used to work in the field of architecture and landscape design for many years. In his works, there are no figures. People tend to regard these works as clichés of landscape painting because of his portrayal of buildings and gardens. But the fact is not like that. Since 2008, artists first portrayed those monuments, and then he spread to all kinds of high-class compounds. If we ignore the brush strokes in the picture, we can almost consider these images as architectural paintings. However, the conception of these paintings happens to be in these non-painting elements. These single-colored pictures make things from the real scenes become fake. The absence of people in the pictures makes these humanized things lose their “humanities”; they look like the empty and simple decorations on the stage. Those single-colored brush strokes continuously remind us of the fakeness of the beauty and the artist’s attempt to destroy or penetrate it. Wang Haichuan’s works destroy the superficial characters of those beautiful private lives and harmonious society, but his way of doing this is plain. He attempts to demolish the trace of reality and replace it with relics of time. Since 2010, Wang Haichuan began to show strong interest in the wasted old buildings on this prosperous land. He began to pay attention to those villages that are going to disappear with the rise of highways, collective residences that used to be popular in the past dream and grottos that were used to show belief centuries ago. In his themes, the comparisons of new and old and prosperity and ruination are part of the expression of his conception. Landscape is the piling of capitals. Today’s life is surrounded by landscapes and our way of living is based on landscapes. From this angle, what hides behind those quiet pictures is a strong critical emotion. This is just like the prosperity centuries ago brought villages and grand grottos, but they were eventually swallowed by history. The building movement resulted from the worship of wealth shows terrible craziness, intrepidity and ignorance without humanistic concern. But what Wang Haichuan has been doing is not portraying those buildings and landscapes, but regarding them as a pile of visions and revealing the fakeness of these visions with a manual way of painting.
Pi Li
皮力
在今天,没有什么比居住更能牵动中国人的神经了。从计划经济到市场经济的转型,造就了中国人居住方 式的改变。20世纪中期以来,计划经济造就了中国齐常化的居住方式。城市居住的群落由血缘关系为纽带的 传统形态,转化为以工作单位为纽带社会主义时期。这种集体的居住方式牺牲了传统的家庭价值,但是却以 牺牲个性与隐私换来了一种看似浪漫的亲情。通过改革开放所造就的市场化经济,造就了社会财富的非平均 分配。而与此同时,在宏观经济层面房地产成为了过去20年间经济的发动机。在市场经济的格局中,传统的 齐常化的居住方式发生了改变。传统的集体居住方式转换为以经济收入为纽带的居住方式。由于新中国以来 的社会主义政治体系彻底颠覆了由经济关系建立起来的社会等级制度,所以当市场经济形成之后,由于缺乏 政治和文化表达的渠道,不同的社会群体只能用财富来标榜“身份意识”。而在这种身份意识的表达中,居住方 式和房屋则首当齐冲。伴随着这种“居住-身份”意识的强化,我们在遍布全国各地的房地产广告、规划、设计 和样板中可以看到,由于缺乏自身的阶级文化,中国的中产阶级只能借用诸如地中海庭院、美式家具、英式 管家的元素匆忙的表达着自己,于是我们在北京、上海和重庆看见了长岛、威尼斯或者巴塞罗那。
与中产阶级通过建筑趣味标榜自己一样,政治中的权贵则也在通过建筑也在标榜着自身。在集体主义时 代,标榜权力的是日常政治生活中的游行、集体舞蹈和各种各样的纪念建筑,而今,经济的发展代表个体的 经济自由,使得集体游行和舞蹈只能保留在重大的官方庆典中,而纪念碑由于缺乏同一的意识形态支撑,而 无法实现。在此背景下,为了标榜自身的存在,政治的权贵通过各种疯狂的建筑实验来呈现自己虚无的革新 意识。而这些建筑往往缺乏审批和必要的规划论证。我们可以看到无数超级建筑树立起来,它们不断创新着 亚洲的最高建筑记录,它们是在自然风景中的巨大玻璃穹顶,是无数用廉价瓷砖构造的经济开发区,或者像 当年纪念碑一样高大的中央商务区中的高楼。如果说被财富冲动控制的人居住在那些别墅与高档公寓中,那 么当代的权力叙事则隐含在这些疯狂崛起的奇特建筑之中,所有的这些都是资本和财富所堆积出来的“当代景 观”。王海川的这些作品就是产生在这样背景之下。此前,视觉艺术出身的王海川曾经多年从事建筑和景观设 计。而这批作品的出现也是有这样一个历史机缘在其中。在他的作品中,绝无人的出现,对于建筑和园林的 描述,人们很容易将这些作品看作是一些风景绘画的陈词滥调。但是事实并非如此。从2008年开始,艺术家 最先描述的是那些纪念碑性质的建筑。而后将触角涉及到正在蓬勃崛起的各种高档小区之中。如果不考虑画 面上的滴洒,我们几乎可以将这些图像视作是建筑画。但是这些作品的观念恰巧出现在这些非绘画性的因素 之中。这些单色的画面,使得来自真实场景的景物变得虚假;拒绝了人的出现则是让这些本来应该人性化的 东西变得更加没有“人性”,而显得象舞台上的空洞、单薄的摆设。而这些单色的滴洒,则不断的提示着我们, 这些美好的虚伪性,以及艺术家试图破坏或者穿透它们的企图。王海川的作品是将那些美好的私人生活和和 谐社会的表征毁灭给我们看。但是其方式却是平凡而普通的。其作品中试图磨灭现实的质感而替换以时间的 陈迹。
进入2010年以后,王海川开始对于在这片兴旺发达的土地上被荒废和以往的建筑产生了浓厚的兴趣。 他开始关注那些随着高速公路的到达而行将消失的村落,那些曾经在强国梦想中风光过的集体住宅,以及在 数个世纪前用来标榜信仰的石窟。在他的题材中,新与旧、繁荣与没落的对比都是表达观念的一部分。按照 居·德波的观点,景观是资本的堆积,而今天生活是被景观所围绕,我们的生活方式也是按照景观的方式来组 织的。从这个角度来看的话,在这些恬静的画面背后,蕴含的是一种强烈的批判情结。如同,数个世纪以前 的强盛同时造就了农村村落和蔚为大观的石窟,但终究被历史所湮灭一样,今天我们对于财富的崇拜所导致 的造城运动,在缺乏人性关照的资本条件下,其彰显的是一种可怕的疯狂、无知与无畏。而王海川所做的, 并非是表现那些建筑与风景,而是视其为一种景观的堆积,并用非常手工的绘画方式来揭露这些景观的非真 实性。
Wang Haichuan: the Manual Criticism about City Landscape
Today, there is nothing that Chinese people concerns more than inhabitation. The change from planned economy to market economy resulted in the change of Chinese people’s way of inhabitation. Since mid 20th Century, planned economy resulted in a normal way of inhabitation in China. The traditional status of city inhabitation groups, which was based on blood relationship, changed into a social status that is composed of working units. This collective way of inhabitation sacrifices traditional family value, but it acquires a seemingly romantic family love by sacrificing individuality and privacy. Through the market economy brought by reform and opening up, social wealth is unevenly allocated. Meanwhile, on the macroscopic level, real-estate has been the engine of economy for the past twenty years. In the pattern of market economy, the traditional and normal way of inhabitation changed. The traditional way of collective inhabitation changed into an inhabitation way bound by income. The social and political system thoroughly overturned the social classes based on economic relationship since the founding of the new China. After the market economy took shape, different social groups can only use wealth to label “identity consciousness” due to lacking ways for political and cultural expressions. In this expression of identity consciousness, the way of inhabitation and houses stand in the breach. With the strengthening of the “inhabitation-identity” consciousness, we can see from the real-estate ads, plans and designs all over China that because of lacking hierarchy culture, the Chinese middle class can only express themselves through the elements such as Mediterranean-style courtyard, America- style furniture and British-style housekeeper. Therefore, we see Long Island, Venice or Barcelona in Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing.
Similar to the middle class labeling themselves with architecture taste, the influential political people also label themselves with architecture. In the era of collectivism, what symbolized power were parades in daily political life, collective dances and all sorts of memorial buildings. But now, the economic development symbolizes the economic freedom for individuals, therefore, collective parades and dances can only be shown in important official celebration ceremonies. However, because of lacking support from the same ideology, monuments cannot be realized. In this situation, in order to emphasize their existence, the political bigwigs show their nihilistic reform consciousness through all kinds of crazy architectural experiments. However these buildings often lack necessary examination and approval. We can see countless super buildings erect on the ground and they continuously set new records as Asia’s highest buildings. They are the giant glass ceilings in the natural landscape, numerous economic development zones made of cheap porcelain bricks, or the skyscrapers in the business centers that are as big as the monuments. If we say the people who are controlled by wealth impulse live in those villas and high-class apartments, then contemporary power narration hides in these strange buildings. All those things are “contemporary vision” piled by capital and wealth.
Wang Haichuan’s works are created in such a Beijing. Wang Haichuan, whose major was visual art, used to work in the field of architecture and landscape design for many years. In his works, there are no figures. People tend to regard these works as clichés of landscape painting because of his portrayal of buildings and gardens. But the fact is not like that. Since 2008, artists first portrayed those monuments, and then he spread to all kinds of high-class compounds. If we ignore the brush strokes in the picture, we can almost consider these images as architectural paintings. However, the conception of these paintings happens to be in these non-painting elements. These single-colored pictures make things from the real scenes become fake. The absence of people in the pictures makes these humanized things lose their “humanities”; they look like the empty and simple decorations on the stage. Those single-colored brush strokes continuously remind us of the fakeness of the beauty and the artist’s attempt to destroy or penetrate it. Wang Haichuan’s works destroy the superficial characters of those beautiful private lives and harmonious society, but his way of doing this is plain. He attempts to demolish the trace of reality and replace it with relics of time. Since 2010, Wang Haichuan began to show strong interest in the wasted old buildings on this prosperous land. He began to pay attention to those villages that are going to disappear with the rise of highways, collective residences that used to be popular in the past dream and grottos that were used to show belief centuries ago. In his themes, the comparisons of new and old and prosperity and ruination are part of the expression of his conception. Landscape is the piling of capitals. Today’s life is surrounded by landscapes and our way of living is based on landscapes. From this angle, what hides behind those quiet pictures is a strong critical emotion. This is just like the prosperity centuries ago brought villages and grand grottos, but they were eventually swallowed by history. The building movement resulted from the worship of wealth shows terrible craziness, intrepidity and ignorance without humanistic concern. But what Wang Haichuan has been doing is not portraying those buildings and landscapes, but regarding them as a pile of visions and revealing the fakeness of these visions with a manual way of painting.
Pi Li