国家美术·封面丨吕山川——作为景观的“社会风景”

作为景观的“社会风景”

吕山川笔下的世界

文 / 何桂彦 

2007年，吕山川举办了名为“事件”的个展，展览作品无一例外的涉及到了当年倍受世界媒体关注的一些热点新闻。2008年，艺术家将关注的焦点从国际转入到国内，创作了《事件2008》，描绘了这一年发生在国内的重大事情，如汶川大地震、北京举办的奥运会等。从艺术家创作观念的内在发展轨迹来看，如果说《事件》系列主要涉及对新闻图片的“挪用”与形式上的“转译”，那么以2009年创作的《广场》系列为标志，吕山川的作品开始呈现出了一种新的特征——作为景观的社会风景。

▲吕山川于北京工作室绘画《虚拟的真实No.1》的过程

▲吕山川《虚拟的真实 No.1》150x110cm 布面油画 2019

▲吕山川《虚拟的真实 No.2》180x140cm 布面油画 2019 

“景观”（Spectacle）一词最早来源于法国社会学家居伊·德波的“景观社会”。德波的思想曾受到马克思关于“商品拜物教”的启发，在他看来，“景观”拜物教是后工业时代的主要特征，其特点是商品拜物教中人与物的关系颠倒地表现为物与物的关系，发展到“景观”阶段后，真实的事物似乎也不存在，它们完全可以由虚拟的影像取代，成为一种虚幻的图景。此时，景观即现实。所谓“景观化的风景”，在手法上艺术家大多侧重于后现代艺术范畴的“挪用”与“戏拟”，崇尚叙事的片断与偶然、无序与断裂，审美上追求现实与超现实在结合过程中呈现出的“别扭”与荒诞。虽然吕山川的作品涉及到了“挪用”，艺术家也注重片段化与多重性的叙事，但作品的人文诉求却不以调侃、“荒诞”为旨归，相反是内敛而严肃的。

▲吕山川《虚拟的真实 No.3》150x110cm 布面油画 2019 

▲吕山川《虚拟的真实 No.4》100x80cm 布面油画 2019

事实上，当吕山川将自己的注意力放在各种新闻图片时，其创作就涉及到图像与现实的依存关系，而“景观化的风景”也将从一个侧面反映“图像时代”中国当代绘画在创作方法论上的转变。20世纪90年代后期，中国社会已进入一个由公共传媒网络所构成的“图像时代”。坦率地讲，当代绘画中的“图像转向”其实也就是“照片的转译”，亦即是说，“景观化风景”中的场景绝大部分都来自于各种类型的照片与视觉图像。在这样的创作过程中，艺术家并不是对表象世界进行直接的再现，而是来源于对图像时代的各种视觉信息进行“挪用”与“改造”。如此一来就会引发一个新的问题，即现实主义在“图像时代”所产生的变异。虽然新闻图片都来自于现实，但毕竟是“二手”的现实。那么，“现实”的真相又是什么呢？在具体的创作中，吕山川并没有直接去复制这些新闻图像，更不是简单地对其进行“再现”，相反对它们予以重新的“编码”，而这个“编码”的过程，不仅仅体现为主观表现性的形式语言，更重要的是在视觉的陌生化处理中使此前的场景变为一种新的社会景观，最具代表性的作品是《广场》系列。然而，一个新的问题又将出现，即景观化的风景与真正的现实又将呈现出怎样一种关系呢？当然，这个创作过程也可以被看作是图像语义的意义衍生：真实的现实——新闻图片——艺术家对新闻图像在形式与内容上重新“编码”——景观化的风景（最后所呈现的效果）。不难发现，“景观”与真正的现实似乎隔着两层。

▲吕山川《虚拟的真实 No.5》150x110cm 布面油画 2019

▲吕山川《虚拟的真实 No.7》100x80cm 布面油画 2019

从新闻图片开始，也就意味着，我们很难触及到吕山川作品中关于现实的“真相”。既然无法探究“真相”，创作的意义也就只能体现在艺术家如何对图像进行选择上。换言之，艺术家选择什么样的新闻图片从一开始就是作品意义的源头。一般而言，作为新闻的图像原本具有即时性、片段性、多义性、现场性等特点，最基本的功能是其记录性。但是，对于读者而言，阅读报纸、了解新闻，除了会接受大量的图片信息外，也可以将看报作为一种文化消费行为。2007年以来，看报成为了吕山川日常生活中一个重要的组成部分。然而，在创作之初，艺术家必然会对大量的图像信息进行“筛选”。“筛选”不仅会带入艺术家自己对新闻事件的感受与理解，也包含了画什么样的图片才具有意义的自我拷问。关于“意义”的追问在吕山川的作品中至少包含着两个维度：一是如何让作品的内容在外部的社会人文语境中产生意义，另一个是探究当代绘画一些新的可能性。

▲吕山川《虚拟的真实 No.9》120x100cm 布面油画 2019

▲吕山川《虚拟的真实 No.10》120x100cm 布面油画 2019

▲吕山川《虚拟的真实 No.11》120x100cm 布面油画 2019

▲吕山川《虚拟的真实 No.8》150x110cm 布面油画 2019

不过，一旦艺术家对原图像进行形式与风格的处理，同时也是在改变原图像的意义。这个过程既是对形式与图像的“再编码”，也反映出艺术家希望探索当代绘画所具有的新的可能。为了让作品的创作观念与主题尽可能的一致，吕山川给自己规定，当天的“新闻”需要当天完成。这种创作观念不仅能与新闻原本的时效性相契合，而且能成为艺术家寻求介入现实的一种方式。在后来的创作中，吕山川进一步加强了观念化的力度，用艺术家的话讲就是“试图在形式上更接近新闻本身”。由于新闻自身的即时性特点，一个新闻随着下一个新闻的来临而消失，随着时间的流逝，一个新闻就会成为旧闻，被时间覆盖、被记忆覆盖。考虑到作为时间、作为信息、作为传播、作为记忆中的新闻，吕山川进入观念绘画的实验之境，他用了一年的时间在同一幅作品中进行创作。他给自己设定，一个月在上面画一次，而每一次对原画覆盖的行为多少就类似于新闻被时间所覆盖，被记忆所覆盖的过程。在创作中，虽然每一次形成的画面仍然与此前的图像多少有一些联系，但艺术家已经完全无法预计画面最后的效果。按照既定的创作经验，画面的效果始终是艺术家可控制的。但是，对于吕山川来说，反复的叠加，力图寻找的是绘画的一种新的可能性，而且在他看来，此时绘画的意义已发生了转移，它成为了一种纯粹个人化的行为体验——过程即体验，过程即意义。如此一来，最后的效果反而有了开放性。

19世纪中后期，当摄影术在社会上被广泛的使用时，西方艺术界就有人预言“绘画的死亡”、“绘画的终结”。对于中国的艺术家来说，90年代中后期“图像时代”的形成也曾使绘画面临“失语”的危机。从这个角度讲，吕山川在观念绘画领域所进行的探索是具有积极意义的。实际上，从2007年的《事件》、到《世界广场》，到近期的《黄岩岛》系列，吕山川的作品主导性的方向仍然是一种景观化的风景。在风格上，吕山川始终追求那种气势恢弘、大气磅礴的表现，而全景式的构图，不仅隐藏了个人化的视觉，从而也使仪式化的观看成为了可能，与此同时，超大的画幅既增强了画面的感染力，实质也将新闻图片中的“事件”转变成为了一种景观，即一种具有社会学意义的风景。

▲吕山川《卡尔·文森》140x180cm 布面油画 2017

▲吕山川《江山如此多娇》140x180cm 布面油画 2017

所谓的“社会风景”，即将自然社会化，将风景社会化，使其符合当代人的审美与人文观照。对于吕山川来说，“事件”或许只是一种表象，一种通道，叙事则隐藏在表象之下，从这个角度讲，“社会风景”与“作为景观的事件”具有同样的本质。当然，将“事件”景观化，也反映出了艺术家对当代媒体多少具有的质疑态度，以及对个体存在与艺术生产等问题的思考。

▲吕山川《茂县》110x150cm 布面油画 2017

▲吕山川《外滩》200x160cm 布面油画 2017

Social Landscape as Spectacles

The World under Lv Shanchuan's Brush

In 2007, Lv Shanchuan's solo exhibition, "Event", featured works that took references from international news that has drawn the media and public's attention throughout the year. In 2008, the artist shifted his emphasis from international news to local news and created his later series "Event 2008", which features the devastating earthquake in Wenchuan, Sichuan and the 29th Olympic Games in Beijing. From the development of Lv's creative concept, if we say that in his "Event" series he "appropriates" the news images and "translates" them in his own artistic style, then the artist's "Square" series in 2009 starts to show a new characteristic – showing social landscapes as spectacles. 

▲吕山川《连云港》200x160cm 布面油画 2016

The word "spectacle" originated from a French sociologist named Guy Debord. He put forth a concept called "The Society of the Spectacle", inspired by Marx's "fetishism of the commodity". Debord believes the fetishism of spectacle is the major characteristic of post-industrialisation, and the relationships between commodities exchanged in the market is highly valued while interpersonal relationships are being considered as less important. When social development is transformed from fetishism of the commodity to the later stage – social spectacle as a landscape, the authentic objects are seemingly non-existent and one could always substitute the real objects for visual images to become a mystic landscape. Spectacle is equivalent to reality at that phase. In terms of stylistic techniques, the so-called "spectacle as landscape" underlines the artist's emphasis on the "appropriation" and "resemblance" in the post-modern art era. Lv advocates narrating fragments and anticipations, disorders and ruptures. In terms of aesthetic pursuit, the artist incorporates realism and surrealism to demonstrate the violent confrontation and absurdity. Although Lv's works involve "appropriation", he also emphasizes fragmented as well as multi-layered narration. His works incur introspections towards humanity but do not intend to emphasize the caricature and irrationality. On the contrary, they are more restrained and solemn. 

▲吕山川《墨西哥阿里亚加》180x140cm 布面油画 2019

In fact, when Lv Shanchuan shifts his focus to images from the news, his works involve the interrelation of imagery and reality. Meanwhile, Lv's adoption of "social spectacle as landscape" also reflects China's contemporary art transition from the "imagery era" to the breakthrough of stylistic approaches. In the late 90s' China, the society became dominated by images released by public media. To put it simply, Mitchell puts forward a theory of "Pictorial Turns" in relation to contemporary art, which is an interaction between pictures and texts, with the concept similar to the appropriation of photos into contemporary paintings. The settings of "Social Landscape as Spectacle" are mostly inspired by diversified photos and visual images in the same genre. In this kind of creative process, the artist does not aim to directly show the present world, but rather he aims to "transform" and "appropriate" the visual images from the "imagery era". This however raises a new point of discussion, that is, the changes in realism within the "imagery era". Although images from the news are all new, they are still merely "second-hand" truth. In such case, what is the authentic truth of "reality"? Lv neither directly copies images from the news, nor simply re-represents them. On the contrary, he rearranges the "codes" embedded in the news images and then encapsulates them into a subjective perception and performative artistic language. Most importantly, he transforms the previous images from the news into an entirely new form of social spectacles through diversified visual stimulations, the most representative series for this concept is the "Square" series. Yet, this poses another question: what is the relationship between conceptual spectacles and the reality? In fact, we can consider the creative process as a development in the meaning of artistic language of the imagery: the reality – images from the news – the artist "encoding" the images into painting as the stylistic approach and its subject matter – spectacle as a landscape (the final outcome). It is not difficult to realize that there are a couple of layers in between "spectacles" and the reality. 

▲吕山川《天桥下》150x110cm 布面油画 2019

Viewers could hardly get to the core of the actual reality from Lv Shanchuan's works since they are derived from the "second-hand" truth – images from the news. Since we could not understand the "truth", the creation is meant to encapsulate the artist's criteria to select the images. In other words, the images the artist have chosen from the news in the beginning are how we could interpret his works' underlying meanings. These images are momentary, fragmentary, multi-layered and provide instant information. The basic function is to capture the social scene like a documentary. Yet, through reading newspaper and understanding the news, apart from getting lots of information from visual images, it can also be regarded as a type of cultural consumption behaviour. Since 2007, reading the newspaper has become an important daily routine in Lv's life. At the beginning of his creation process, he needs to eliminate from a large amount of images for inspiration. The process of selection and elimination of images enables the artist to integrate his sentiments and interpretations, as well as allowing him to critically introspect and question himself how to create a meaningful art piece. Lv's art involves at least two dimensions in his pursuit of "meaning". Firstly, how to convey the paintings' meanings in the socio-political context. Secondly, how to explore the unknown possibility in the contemporary art domain. 

▲吕山川《金色的头骨》100x80cm 布面油画 2017

Same as the "Event" series, "Square" series originated from various news images. But to Lv, the "Square" series is not merely a space in the physical term; it also involves the underlying social and political rights and responsibilities as well as ideologies. In his previous interview with Mr. Fan Di'an, Lv mentioned, "Public squares belong to a specific historical time period containing collective memories of significant events. A square represents the public democratic space of a nation or a region, and has been a symbol and manifesto for democracy since ancient Athens. These squares enable the public to participate in politics. Be it public executions by beheading, or triumphal celebrations or sacred ceremonies, all these events took place in public squares. Within history, the square was also a platform similar to the social media nowadays to disseminate news. The square allows the public to gather, and is a representation of the nation's power and its sublime. The square also enacts as a contemporary altar where people worship, yet at the same time it is the most delicate and heavily guarded area that it seems any unrest could metaphorically jeopardise the dignity of that particular nation." Lv's portrayal of squares are seemingly "neutralized", yet in practice it leads the viewers to reflect upon them because his works are the representations of an ideology as well as demonstrate the artist's deep introspection of certain issues in contemporary China. In Lv's latest works, including "Huangyan Island", "Diaoyu Island" and "Nuclear Power Station", the images are seemingly "depoliticized", yet their inner crux still implies a mass of sociological messages. On one hand, these news images are being embedded with meanings in the sociological and communication contexts beforehand. On the other hand, the images are being integrated into the artist's collection once he has mindfully selected the visual stimulations. 

▲吕山川《迷惑-头骨》60x50cm 布面油画 2018

▲吕山川《头骨 No.1》90x120 布面油画 2016

Once the artist possesses the original images in terms of representation and stylistic approaches, he also transforms the meanings that are embedded in those photos. This process is the "recoding" of idea formulation and visual stimulations, it demonstrates the artist's aspiration to explore the new possibilities in contemporary art domains. Lv compels himself to complete the paintings on the same day that the news was released, to ensure the artistic concept is in accordance with the subject matters. This creation principle echoes the presentness of the news, as well as becomes a channel for the artist to interact with the reality. In his later works, Lv tries to strengthen the conceptual side and, in the artist's own words, tries to present closer to the news in terms of look and form. Since news is characterized by its own immediacy, a news will disappear and be forgotten when a newer one is released. With the passing of time, a news becomes an old news; it is covered by time and by memories. Considering news in the transition of time, transmission of information, and bearer of collective memories, Lv enters into the experimentation stage of conceptual painting. Over a year, he paints on the same work as his experiment. He sets to paint once on the same canvas every month, with the covering of the previous layer of image similar to the process of news being forgotten in the transition of time and buried under memories. Although the new layers still have some linkages with the previous one, he could no longer predict the final outcome. With previous experiences, artists should be able to manipulate the paintings' visual effects. Yet, Lv deliberately uses repetitive layers to seek a new possibility within contemporary paintings. From his point of view, the meaning of paintings nowadays has already shifted. It has become a form of performance and experience that is purely personal.  In other words, the creative process is equivalent to engagement, and it is also embedded with meanings. Therefore, the final outcome instead becomes open to interpretations. 

▲吕山川《繁花 No.2》220x150cm 布面油画 2018

▲吕山川《花2018 No.9》120x90cm 布面油画 2018

In the mid and late 19th century, when photography was popularized and widely used in the society, some western academia prophesied "the death of paintings" and "the end of paintings". The "imagery era" shaped in post-90s also led to paintings' diminishing status. Lv Shanchuan's exploration of conceptual painting is aspiring. In fact, his works are still dominated by "social spectacles as landscapes" from his early works such as "Event" in 2007, "Square", to his more recent work "Huang Yan Island". In terms of stylistic approach, Lv is always in the pursuit of grandeur and magnificence, and using panorama as his major composition not only conceals his subjectiveness, but also make it possible to turn art appreciation into a ritual. At the same time, the colossal painting enhances the visual stimulations of the image, while also turns the "event" in the news imagery into a kind of spectacle, that is, a kind of landscape which is meaningful in sociological term. 

▲吕山川创作场景

The so-called "social spectacle as landscape" denotes the integration of nature and spectacle into sociology in order to meet the aesthetic and cultural expectations of the contemporary audience. According to Lv Shanchuan, his "Event" series is perhaps just a representation or a channel, with his narration lying beneath the representation. In this case, the "social landscapes" and the "social issues as spectacles" share some common ground. Transforming social issues into social spectacles undoubtedly demonstrates the artist's skepticism towards contemporary news media as well as his confrontation of issues such as individual existence and art creation.

丨

吕山川