展览时间：2006年4月15日至2006年4月30日
展览地点：北京市海淀区文惠园北路9号 今日美术馆A厅
尹朝阳
1970年9月 生于河南省南阳市
1996年 毕业于中央美术学院版画系
1996年至今 职业艺术家，现居北京
个展
2005年 《公共空间》 美国 纽约 Max Protetch画廊
《青春·乌托邦》 泰国 曼谷 唐人画廊
2004年 《乌托邦》 北京 中央美术学院美术馆
《乌托邦vs青春物语》 上海 多伦现代美术馆
2002年 《神话》 上海 亦安画廊
2001年 《神话》 北京艺术博物馆
联展
2005年 《70后艺术》 上海刘海粟现代美术馆
北京今日美术馆
《中国艺术三年展》 南京博物院
《麻将》希克收藏展 瑞士
2003年 《图像的图像》 深圳美术馆
2002年 《青春残酷绘画》 上海东大名艺术创库
北京炎黄艺术馆
2001年 《第一届成都双年展》 成都现代艺术馆
1999年 《新锐的目光》 北京国际艺苑美术馆
Sep. 1970 Born in Nanyang, Henan Province, China
1996 Graduated from Printing Department, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing
Since 1996 Independent Artist, Living in Beijing
Solo Exhibitions:
2005 《Youth·Utopia》 Tang Gallery Bangkok,Thailand
2004 《Utopia》 Museum of Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing
《Utopia Vs Young story》 DuoLun Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai
2002 《ythology》 Aura Gallery, Shanghai
2001 《ythology》 Beijing Art Museum, Beijing
Group Exhibitions:
2005 《70’s Art》 Liu Haisu Art Museum, Today Art Museum
《the Second Triennial of Chinese Art》 Nanjing Museum
2003 《Mage about Images》 Shenzhen Art Museum, Shenzhen
2002 《he Youth Cruelty Painting》 Ddm Art Warehouse, Shanghai
Yanhuang Art Museum, Beijing
2001 《First Chengdu Biennale》 Chengdu Modern Art Museum, Chengdu
1999 《harp New Sights》 Beijing International Art Museum, Beijing
文/朱朱
神话，或图解的危险
Ⅰ
以系列画的方式来表现一个题材，显然有别于单幅画的方式。就观看的角度而言，当我们在展览上发现一幅令自己着迷的作品，会为之流连忘返，将自我融入到画面的深处，将画面放大成世界。但是，当我们面对着系列组画，进而是以此构成的整个展览，我们的状态就被动得多，自我们进入到展览的空间，就已经被一座小世界包围，在某种程度上，我们成为了俘虏，和被囚者；换句话说，组画的物质感要强大得多，它实际掌控了空间，以它的数量和体积布置了一个新环境，而画家似乎扮演了一个临时的“造物主”角色。
但是，在荣耀的背后，画家却是另一个角色，苦役犯。系列画是一项历时性的工程，过程相对漫长，其中的劳累和枯燥是不言而喻的，苦恼、怀疑和烦躁总是伴随着他具体的工作。当这项工程进行到一定的阶段，他很可能会迷失，产生放弃的打算。在这样的时候，他会回到当初的那个起点去，重新思考和掂量自己的动机，想一想整件事情是否值得他投入这么多的精力与时日，并且，究竟是否有意义可言。
尹朝阳关于《神话》的那篇笔记，正可以视为这样一种检视。以相当坦率的口吻，画家首先回忆了一个夏日的下午，他在回家的途中发现了一块大石头，“它静静地呆在路边，无声、苍白、坚硬。我突然有种莫名的感动，大概有两分钟时间我就和这块石头对峙着，然后我揣着颗沉甸甸的心就回去了。”晚上，石头被搬回家，接下去的一段日子里，他希望给这块石头起上一个名字，在查阅字典寻觅灵感的过程里，他找到了“神话”这个条目，想像力开始打开，当他将石头与西西弗神话、米开朗基罗雕塑中手托石头的大卫、夸父逐日、愚公移山等等联系在一起时，为石头进行命名，已经变成了为一个绘画题材所做的思考，这里，笔记里有一句话尤其是需要注意的，他说：
“虽然牵强，甚至有图解的危险，但是我还是被笼罩在这些英雄人物身上的辉煌、悲剧的力量所震撼”。
这就是说，这组画最初的构想里，即包含了自我怀疑的成分。他以“图解的危险”道出了这一事实，我以为，在尹朝阳确立起他整个绘画形象的过程之中，这种危险都一直是潜在的，它如同一个随时都在窥伺他的陷阱，在某个拐角或者看似平坦之极的地方，想将他捕获、吞没，而他始终设法绕过去，他的警觉和内省、他的才能与勇气在此充分地展示出来，但是，这并不意味着陷阱的消失，和危机的解除，事实上，每个画家的风格具有双刃剑的意味，在征服观众的特殊锋芒之中，势必意味了某种偏执。他的绘画表现出一种个人英雄主义的气质，在我们的这个年代显得罕见，当代绘画的领域内确实充溢了炫奇和矫饰，低俗的游戏性与不断的精神妥协，当这位年轻的艺术家以充满蔑视和对抗的批判姿态出现的时候，他就显得如此与众不同，并且倍受瞩目。可以说，无论外部世界经历着怎样的变迁，在人们的内心深处，总是存留着一份对于英雄的崇拜，对于道德回归的向往，尹朝阳正好契合了这种内在需要，他的绘画具有道德的美感和力度，同时激发着生命释放出巨大的能量，从空洞的深渊里进行向外的一跃。
然而，确实存在着一种可能的危险：艺术中的道德美最容易得到观众的欢呼，同时也最容易走向衰败。因为，道德往往正是宗教、神话或哲学的图解，这类形象最大的弊病，是会泄露出理念的源头，使作品充满了说教的色彩，显得僵硬、浅薄，并且与意识形态的措辞相类似，而且，包含于艺术家头脑之中的信仰和理想往往是含混的，它们并非以真理性内容的价值，而是依凭形象的表现力来感召观众，就我们这个年代所能触摸到的精神高度而言，这类形象只能将自己悬置于空洞的深渊之中，它在尽力显示翱翔和攀升姿态的同时，随时都需要寻找让自己站得住脚的理由。
当然，这种类型的创作产生过更高一级的范例，譬如戈雅的绘画或卡夫卡的小说，尽管作品极具图解性和象征性，但它们同时可视为想象力的自主行为，艺术家以形象的原创性，震撼和折服了观众。
Ⅱ
《神话》的题材本身有可质疑之处，首先是它的异域性，固有一种文化形态上的隔阂感。
我们知道，上个世纪八十年代，存在主义曾经在中国引起极大的反响，加缪的作品获得广泛的阅读，他关于西西弗斯神话的剖析文章，和小说《局外人》、《鼠疫》一起为中国读者熟悉，在加缪的笔下，被罚在地狱中推石头的西西弗斯，象征了荒缪的人类处境里的现代英雄，他的身上“体现了辉煌的、悲剧力量”，正可以说是尹朝阳所需的理想主角。
实际上，画家在思考这个题材时，已经将夸父追日、愚公移山这类中国神话作了考虑，然而，最终它们被放回了隐性的背景之中。这种舍近求远的选择看起来有些奇怪，不过，如果“石头”或尹朝阳的个人气质放进来考虑，就变得容易解释。夸父无疑具有强烈的英雄主义气概，然而，如果对这个故事进行视觉转换，突显的将是人与太阳的意象关系，虽然愚公移山的过程正是人与石头的展示，但在愚公这个人物的身上毕竟带有愚顽的特性，只有到了毛择东的时代，他才被赋予了不屈不饶的象征性，成为阶级论中的英雄化身。
在中国的神话中，与“西西弗斯”相仿的是“精卫”填海的神话，她所表现出的正是一种英雄般的奋斗，是有限的生命向无限提出的挑战，石沉大海与巨石推至山顶重又落下，都象征了一种在无望之中的抗争。
然而，一颗可置于鸟喙之间的小石子，对于从气质上偏好于重大、严峻之物的尹朝阳而言，显得太轻巧、滑腻了。石头，那沉重、冰冷、坚硬、布满棱角的物体，更吻合他的审美态度，与之相对，北方式的、凝固的荒野背景比南方式的、流动性的大海，更具有刚毅的雄性气魄。
西西弗斯的“到来”，意味着他不得不采用感情误置（Pathetic Fallacy）的方式，将石头进行拟人化的处理，用以指称人的欲望和精神负担——那块路边的石头已经不复它本来的面目，它被提升到一个象征的位置上，与神话和英雄的精神题旨迅速结合在一起，成为人性之中欲望、焦虑、压力等情感的客观对应物，从本质上来说，物自身的特性被淹没了，在表现物的自然特性和表现理念这两者之间，他选择了后者，这意味着，在感动他的最初事实与他要表现的事实之间就有了一种脱节，但他敏感地意识到了这种脱节，这种“图解的危险”，我们可以看到，当这组画最终呈现在我们面前的时候，物的自然特性得到了很大程度的挽留和表现，其中有一些画作直接描绘了岩石本身，它本身的褶皱和棱角、苍凉和沉重，同时，并没有人出现在这样的画面上。另外，也有一种深邃而平静的画面，调子是柔和的蓝灰色，人默默地俯身于岩石之间，似乎就是要体验物的本性，它的厚度、形状、体积，人通过与这种自然物的对话，从而将自身融化在宇宙的苍茫和安宁之中。
劳动的场景从不同的角度展现在那些画作里，进一步地表现那种本真情怀，劳动正是一个释放人的原始活力而且直达物质深层的过程，这个过程充满了无穷的乐趣，它“使人处于宇宙的中心，而不是社会的中心，”（加斯东·巴什拉，Gaston Bachelard）；我们可以看到，西西弗斯神话中那个关于人推着石头上山的、单调不变的情节性动作被改写了，画家以“慢镜头”，以一再定格和放大的方式，展示和穷尽着采石的全过程，画中人将石头从山体中攫起，将它举过头顶，怀抱它，背负它，卸除它，摇动它，靠在它的旁边，或者像秃鹫般敛翅在它的上边……在这方面，令人想起一部西班牙影片《牛》（导演朱里奥·密谭，Julio Medem），影片中以繁复多变的视角展示了劈柴的过程，在其一再的放大呈现下，观众带着惊讶和新奇的感觉，领略到其中蕴含的力与美，体悟了释放人体内在能量的满足和幸福。然而，影片中对劈柴的表现仍然是牧歌式的，是唯美化的粗犷，相比之下，《神话》的调子绝不是幻美的成分，也不是原始活力的单纯赞歌——在它的核心调性上，劳动被引入了现代社会紧张、异化和疯狂的状态，现代人内心深处的焦虑与冲突感被人与石头的关系尽可能地摹拟与演示出来，劳动，因而成为了苦刑。
为这个系列画所突显的人与石头的关系，更是一场无休止的搏斗，一场战争。最典型的情态出现在其中的一幅画里，鲜血正从搬石头的人的双腿之间流下，而他的背后，成堆的岩石上有熔化成岩浆般的液体往下流淌，人与石头仿佛都处在沸点之中，两者之间的战争完全可以用“白热化”来形容。
这种搏斗的激烈与残酷也充分表露画中人的表情和肌体之中，不妨说，在对这些面孔和身躯的塑造中，尹朝阳回顾了一个从戈雅到弗朗西斯·培根的谱系，其中应该包括了众多的表现主义者们，例如凡高、蒙克、奥斯卡·科柯施卡（Oskar Kokoschka），所有这些画家都绘制了“焦虑的人”，他们的笔触显得激烈而敏感，颜料有一种可怕的实体感，他们所绘制的人物面孔和身躯，都具有精神梦魇的重负之下引发出的扭曲和抽搐感，器官因此而变形，甚至模糊不清；在《神话》之中，精神梦魇具化成了石头，具化成了人与石头之间的搏斗，人体的扭曲和变形的理由因此来得更为具体，当人奋力地举起一块石头时，他全身的肌肉和表情都自然地处在极度紧张的状态之中。
尤其值得一提的还有《神话》画面中经常会出现的那种划线，它们呈圈状环绕人体。培根曾经以这种划线表现人体被压抑的活力，而在画面效果上显示出的是一种“鬼怪式的花哨”（罗伯特·休斯）。而这种划线在尹朝阳这里得以被巧妙地运用，它们像血痕，勒痕，从用力过猛的身躯上绽裂、飞溅到空中，成为了被挣断的锁链，彰显伤痕与暴力的记号，另一方面，可以将它们比喻成内在能量的射线，仿佛内在的痛苦和欲望终于在苦刑之中被引渡，转化为虚空中的狂喜体验。红线也给画面带来了悸动感，粉碎了古典的平衡和呆板，空间更为立体可感，同时弥散着不安定的、不可定义和不可名状的因素，仿佛画家有意用它们来充填理念与“图解”的可能裂缝，以非理性的活力消解了单一化的理念。
Ⅲ
《神话》中有一幅关于面孔的特写，那是一张如同戈雅灾难画里的那种青面獠牙的魔怪面孔，这种异形的出现仿佛在证实，即使是英雄也已经因为无法忍受漫长、孤独而残酷的苦刑，而丧失了善的追求，邪恶成为了他的精神主宰，他已经彻底地异化了。从主题上而言，尹朝阳笔下的这张面孔已经取缔了加缪笔下的“现代英雄”，加缪在那篇著名文章的结尾处说：“攀登山顶的奋斗本身足以充实一颗人心。应该想象西西弗斯是幸福的。”换句话说，假设处于劳役过程中的西西弗斯是绝望、歇斯底里的，不断地发出恶毒的诅咒，那么他的意义等于不存在。只有在苦刑之中体验到圆满意义的人，才能提供一种个人英雄的样本，不妨说，“充实”和“幸福”正是加缪为西西弗斯这个原型添加的道德基座。
但是，在尹朝阳的这幅肖像画中，这个基座被打碎了。
我们可以看到，在尹朝阳对于英雄和神话题材的关注与痴迷之中，正隐含了一种愿望：艺术家在当今的年代里、仍然能够继续扮演起英雄式的人物。而西西弗斯这个神话人物本身就是双重的象征，象征人类荒谬处境的同时，也象征着重复不断的个人努力与孤独的创作命运。
超人的意志力，正是英雄和依照英雄形象塑造自我的艺术家的一个标志。在尹朝阳的几个系列画之中，如果说《失乐园》是关于破灭的爱情神话的挽歌，《广场》与《乌托邦》是关于破灭的意识形态神话的挽歌，那么，《神话》更具精神的自传性，它可以视为一种艺术家自画像的变体，是关于个人意志的颂歌。
然而，这一颂歌依然隐含着这样一个悬而未决的矛盾：艺术家的英雄梦是应该卸下的负担，还是应该以个人的强烈意志去创造的神话？
喀迈拉也出自希腊神话，它是一个怪异的精灵，有狮子的头颈，山羊的身躯，巨蟒的尾巴，隐喻为幻想、空想、妄想；在波德莱尔的散文诗集《巴黎的忧郁》里有一篇小文，题为“人人背着喀迈拉”，诗人在开头描述的背景，与《神话》中的背景显得很相似：“在辽阔的灰色天空之下，在尘土飞扬、没有道路、没有草地、没有一颗蓟草、没有一棵荨麻的大平原里，我碰到好些弯下身子行走的人。……他们每个人的背上背着一个巨大的喀迈拉，沉重得像一袋面粉，一袋煤炭，或是一个罗马步兵的装备。”有趣的是他没有用岩石来做比喻，或许他认为，岩石已经成为了西西弗斯的专利。接下去，他描述了怪兽如何紧紧地钳制和压迫着背负它们的行人，那些人则毫无怒意，面孔疲惫而严肃，并不知道自己要走向哪里，“他们露出注定要永远抱着希望的人们的逆来顺受的表情缓慢前进”。而结尾是这样的：
“有好一会功夫，我坚持着要弄懂其中的奥秘；可是不久，不可抗拒的‘漠不关心’向我袭来，比起那些被沉重的喀迈拉压着的人们，我却是被‘漠不关心’更沉重地压垮了。”
这个结尾是颓废的，作者将批评的刀尖转过来对准了自己。这位开启了现代主义想象的诗人，同样深怀英雄主义的梦想，然而，他最终陷入了“漠不关心”之中，他将举止显得懒散而冷漠的纨绔态度视为“堕落时代的英雄主义的最后闪光”。（瓦尔特·本雅明）
尹朝阳的《神话》系列里有一幅，巨大的石头几乎占满了整个画面，相比之下，画中的人经过了激烈的挣扎，松弛了下来，形将瘫软一般，渺小，无能，心有不甘而黯然神伤，俨然已经放弃了与石头的搏斗，在这个英雄主义调式的系列里，尤其是与其中表现了英雄那巨人般的体魄和能量的画面相对，这幅画中的人甚至显出了一种酸楚的滑稽感——这里，我们确知反讽已经介入了他的绘画，并且，可以理解为一种自我反讽，它并非是纨绔式的慵懒，然而，确实不再绷紧他全身的肌肉，不再保持激昂而单一的斗姿，好像一切都已经难以为继，在画中的英雄卸下了石头的同时，艺术家自己也仿佛卸下了英雄梦，任凭那巨大的石头像烈火般燃烧和蔓延，包围我们，紧紧地挤压、烤炙我们，并且溢出整个画面，它以全部的沉重、坚硬和尖锐使我们窒息，反衬出我们脆薄如剪纸般的生命。但是，这样的画面真的意味了终结吗？意味着个人力量的消失和对精神追求的彻底放弃吗？不，这生命无言而动人，仍然站立着，呼吸着，正因为它有勇气将自己置于悲剧的深处，做一种自我的检视，它反而更具道德的透明感，也更有力地消解了图解的危险。
2006年3月
Myth，or An Illustrative Danger
By Zhu Zhu
（I）
To use a series of works to express one subject matter is explicitly different from a single work. As for seeing, when we see one of the charming works, we would like to linger a while to look at it with ourselves mingled into the deep of the picture surface, which seems being enlarged as a world. But when we face a series of works, then the whole exhibition made up of these works, we will feel more passive, for when we enter the exhibition space, we are surrounded by a mini-world. To some extent, we become captive and imprisoned; to put it another way, the physical sense of the series works is more powerful, and it indeed dominates the space to create a new space by its quantity and volume, the artist then seems play a role of a temporary ‘creator’.
Behind the glory, however, the artist is another actor, a prisoner. Series paintings are a time-consuming project, during which the artist no doubt works hard monotonously. His working is always followed by distress, suspect and anxiety. When the project comes to some stage, he may feel lost, or even think of giving it up. Thus, he might return to the original starting point, rethink his motive on if he is worth spending such more energy and time on it, and even there is any meaning in it.
The note on ‘Myth’ made by Yin Zhaoyang would be regarded as a proof for this activity. He recalls one afternoon in summer in a rather frank tone, that on the way to home he found a big stone, ‘It sat there quietly on the roadside, voiceless, pale, and hard. All of sudden I was moved inexplicably, for about two minutes I stood there watching this stone, then I went back with a heavy heart.’ At night the stone was moved to his home, during the following days, he hoped to name this stone. So he looked up for dictionary for an inspiration, and he found an entry ‘myth’. Then suddenly the imagination was there. When he related the stone to Sisyphus, David by Michelangelo, a legendary hero Kuafu running after the Sun, the Foolish Old Man Yu Gong removing the hill, and named it, it became a thought as his subject matter of painting. One sentence in his note is worth noting, he says:
‘Although farfetched, or even in the danger of explanation through illustration, I am still moved and shocked by the splendid, tragic power surrounding these heroes.’
That is to say, the original idea for this series has included some self-doubt. He reveals this fact of ‘dangerous illustration’. I think that during the process of his confirming the painting images, this danger was still latent, like a trap ready for him at anytime, catching him at some corner or a seemingly flat place. But he tried his best to go around it, his awareness and introspection, talent and bravery are revealed completely. But it didn’t mean the disappearance of trap and the removal of danger, in fact, every artist’s style, like a dual-bladed sword, would mean certain deviating while conquering the audience. His paintings show a kind of individual heroism, which is so rare in our times. The contemporary painting circle is full of queerness and namby-pambyism, vulgar game and spiritual compromise. So when this young artist emerged with critical attitude of distain and antagonism, he looked quite distinctive of others and well acclaimed. In fact, however the outside world undergoes changes, in the inside of human, there always remains an admiration of heroes, an aspiration for moral return. What Yin does just suits for such internal needs, his paintings are imbued with moral aestheticism and power, and stimulate life to release overwhelming energy, jumping outwards from the abysm of nothingness.
Notwithstanding there indeed exists a possibility of such danger: the moral beauty in art is easily welcome by the audience and also easy to turn into downfall, for morality is just an illustration of religion, mythology or philosophy, the biggest shortcoming of these images is to reveal the sources of ideas, make the works full of sermons, looking rigid and shallow and analogous to the ideological rhetoric. Thus, what is contained in the mind of the artist as belief or ideal is always ambiguous, they appeal to the audience not by true value, but by the expressive images. As for the spirituality that we can feel in this times, these images can only put themselves in the abysm of nothingness, while it tries to demonstrate a kind of posture of flying and climbing, it is ready to look for the grounding for his position.
We of course know that these kinds of creations have produced some more higher examples (such as Goya’s paintings or Kafka’s novels), which show that although the works are illustrative and symbolic, they could be regarded as imaginative automatism, and the artist shakes and subdues the audience by the original images.
II
The subject matter of ‘Myth’ itself ought to be argued first of all about its exoticism, there is a kind of intrinsic estrangement culturally.
As we know, in the 1980s, Existentialism evoked a great repercussion in China, and Camus’ works were well widely read. His critical essays on Sisyphus myth and the novels ‘Outsiders’ and ‘The Plague’ were popular among Chinese readers. Under Camus’ pen, Sisyphus was punished to push the stone in the hell symbolizing the modern hero in the absurd human conditions. What he stood for as ‘glorious, tragic power’ is just what Yin likes to need.
Actually, when Yin thought of this subject, he had already considered the Chinese mythology such as Kuafu running after the Sun and the Foolish Old Man removing the hill. But they were placed into a latent context. It seems strange to select the remote myth rather than the local one, and yet it will be more easily explained if the ‘stone’ or Yin’s own temperament. Kuafu doubtless has a strong heroism, and the image relation between man and the Sun would be outstanding if this story is transformed visually, though the hill-removing by the Foolish Old Man is just a demonstration of man and stone, a kind of stubbornness is embodied in him. It is only until the days of Mao that he is endowed with a symbol of persistence and perseverance as the incarnation of heroes advocated in the Theory of the Class.
In Chinese mythology, what is similar to Sisyphus is the story of ‘The Holy Bird Jingwei filling the sea’. She shows a hero-like struggle a challenge by a finite life to the infinite. That the screes falling into the sea and the huge stones being pushed up to the hill top and then falling down symbolize a hopeless struggle.
It can be imagined, however, that a scree picked up by the beak of a bird look too light, too satiny for Yin’s temperament: he tends to favor grandeur and austerity. Only do the heavy, cool, hard and pointed stones conform to his aesthetic attitude. As contrast, the northern, solidified wildness against the southern, fluid sea registers more resolute masculinity.
The ‘arrival’ of Sisyphus means that he has to employ ‘pathetic fallacy’ to personify the stone as signifying man’s desire and mental burden – the stone lying at the roadside has been changed and elevated to a symbolic level, which incorporates the myth with heroic spirit and becomes the objective equivalent to that of desire, anxiety, and pressure. In essence, the physical features are drowned and from between to express the natural physical features or the ideas, he chooses the latter. This means that there is disjoint between what originally moved him and what he would like to express, but he is acutely aware of it – the ‘danger of illustration’. We can see that these series of paintings are finally presented to us, the physical features of the objects still remains and are expressed to some extent. Among them some directly depict the stones in their own part about their pleats and points, desolateness and heaviness; at the meantime, nobody appears in the pictures. In addition, some describe a kind of deep and calm picture: the soft, blue tone, men bending over the stones, who seem to feel the physical nature for its mass, shape and volume. Man, through the dialogue with such natural objects, dissolves himself into the desolateness and quietness of the universe.
The scenes of labor are represented in the pictures from different angles, further expressing a natural feeling. Labor is a process of releasing man’s primitive vital force penetrating the physical essence. It is filled with unlimited pleasures, and ‘man is made the center of the universe, not of the society’ (Gaston Bachelard); we can see that in the myth of Sisyphus the epidemic scenic action of pushing stones up the hills monotonously is transfigured, the artist uses ‘slow motion’ to demonstrate the infinite process of quarrying by means of fixed patterns and enlargement. The man in the pictures picks stone up from the hills, raises it over his heads, embraces it, carries it on the back, removes it, shakes it, lies beside it, or lingers on it like a vulture…It reminds us of a Spanish movies ‘Bull’ directed by Julio Medem. The movie shows the process of hacking wood from multiple angles. Under the enlargement the audience are surprised and shocked to feel its internal power and beauty, to experience a satisfaction and happiness released from human body. However, the presentation of hacking wood is still pastoral, an aesthetic roughness. In contrast, the tone in ‘Myth’ is not illusively aesthetic at all, nor a mere praise of primitive vital force – in its core, labor is transfigure into a state of intensity, alienation and craziness in modern society; the inner anxiety and conflicts of the modern man is mimically represented, so labor becomes a punishment
The relationship between man and stones in this series is more like an unending battle and a war. The typical situation appears one of the paintings: the blood is bleeding between the legs of the man who is moving the stone, against him the molten magmatic fluid flows from inside the piled-up rocks, man and stones seem be over the boiling point, their battle can be described as ‘perfervid’ .
The fury and cruelty of this battle is quite revealed in the figure’s complexion and body, or we say that to create these faces and bodies, Yin retrospected the genealogy from Goya to Francis Bacon, including many expressionists, such as Van Gogh, Munck, Oskar Kokoschka. All these artists painted ‘anxious people’, their brush touches looked intense and sensitive, their paints gave a horrible sense of solidity. The faces and bodies they painted are distorted and twitched under the burden of mental nightmare, so the organs are deformed, or even blurred; in ‘Myth’, the mental nightmare is incarnated as a stone, a battle between man and stones. Therefore, the deformed and distorted bodies look more vivid, when man strives to raise up a stone, all his muscles and expression are in an intense condition.
It is particularly worth mentioning that the scratch lines in the picture surfaces of ‘Myth’ look circles surrounding human bodies. Bacon once used such scratches to express the suppressed vitality in human body, and to show a kind of ‘ghostlike gaudiness’ (Robert Hughes) in the picture effectiveness. Such lines are skillfully used by Yin, they look like blood traces and tightening prints, which splash into the sky from overexerting body, as a broken chain and a mark of wounded traces and violence. On the other hand, they can be compared to the rays of internal energy, as if the internal agonies and desires are finally extradited to be transformed as ecstasy in the nothingness. Red rays bring a sense of vibration in the picture surface to break the classical balance and stiffness, thus the space becomes more cubic, in the meantime they emit certain unstable, undefinable and nameless elements, as if the artist uses them intentionally to fill the gap between ideas and ‘illustration’, to deconstruct the single idea by using irrational vitality.
III
There is a close-up face in one of ‘Myth’ series, as like that ghost-like face in Goya’s disastrous painting. Such abnormal shape appears as if it is proving that it is unbearable even for a hero to have so long, lonely, and cruel a penalty, while he loses his pursuit to goodness, the evil becomes his mental dictator, so he is completely alienated. As for the subject theme, this face created by Yin has put down the ‘modern hero’ described by Camus, who writes at the conclusion of his famous essay: ‘to climb the mountain is a satisfaction for one’s mind, so it ought to be supposed that Sisyphus is happy.’ In another word, if Sisyphus is hopeless and hysteric, shouting malicious curses during his rolling, his significance would not exist. Only could he who has experienced such consummate significance offer a sample of individual hero. Or to say, ‘consummation’ and ‘happiness’ are just the moral bases Camus built for the prototype of Sisyphus.
But the base is broken in this portrait by Yin.
We can see that there lies latently a wish in Yin’s concern and obsession with heroes and mythological subject matters: the artists can still play a heroic role in today’s world. And Sisyphus as a mythical figure is a double symbol, symbolizing both human’s absurd situation and individually repetitious efforts and lonely destiny of creation.
Super will is a mark of hero and artist who is built upon the model of hero. In several series by Yin Zhaoyang, if ‘Paradise Lost’ is an elegy of broken love myth, ‘The Square’ and ‘The Utopia’ are an elegy of broken ideological myth, ‘Myth’ then is a more spiritual autobiography, it can be taken as a variant of the artist’s self-portrait, a carol of individual will.
However, in this carol there still lies a strongly insolvable contradiction: is the artist’s heroic dream a burden to be unpacked, or a myth to be created with a strong personal will?
Chimaera is, also from Greek mythology, a queer spirit with lion’s head, goat’s body, and python’s tail, metaphorically referring to illusion, fantasy, mirage; in Baudelaire’s prose-poetry book ‘The Melancholy of Paris’, there is a short essay titled ‘Everyone carries a Chimaera on their backs’, the poet begins with the description of the background, similar to the one in ‘Myth’: ‘against the vast gray sky, in a open plain, dusty, no road, no grassland, no any thistle, no any smartweed, I encountered many cramped bowed people walking….all of them carried a big Chimaera on their backs, so heavy as a sack of flour, a bag of coal, or a set of Roman soldier’s outfit.’ It is interesting that he doesn’t use the rock as a comparison, or he thinks that the rock has been a patent of Sisyphus. Then, he describes how the beast grips and presses tightly the carrier, those people show no any anger, tired but serious, and they don’t know where to go, ‘they slowly proceed, they are seemingly destined to hold a hope under severe conditions.’ The conclusion goes as:
“For a while, I insist on understanding its secrets; but shortly, a sense of unresisting ‘indifference’ attacked me, as compared with those people under the burden of Chimaera, I was collapsed with ‘indifference’.”
The conclusion is decadent, the author turns the critical knife-point to himself. This poet, who launched the modernist imagination, also holds a heroist dream. He, however, falls down into ‘indifference’ eventually. He thinks of listless behavior and indifferent floppy as ‘the last sparkle of heroism in the decadent times’(Walter Benjamin).
In one of ‘Myth’ paintings, the huge stones almost occupy fully the whole surface; in contrast, the figures let down, after intense struggle, as if collapsedly, chikenlike, tiny, impotent, unreconciled and depressed, just like giving up battling with the stones. In this series of heroist mode, particularly as against with the picture surfaces in which the giantlike bodies and energy are expressed, the figures in it even look a sense of funniness – wherein we are certain that irony has been engaged in his paintings, and it can be understood as a self-irony that it is not a floppy laziness, while he indeed does not need to tighten his muscles, not to keep a zealous and single gesture for fighting, as if it seems difficult for everything to continue, and in the paintings when the heroes unpack the stones, the artist seems unpack the dream of heroes, letting alone the huge stones burning and overspreading, surrounding us, pressing us and scorching us, even running over the whole picture. It suffocates us with all these heaviness, hardness, and acuity, as registers our weak life like a paper-cut. But, does this picture mean the ending? Does it mean the loss of individual power and the abandonment of seeking the spirituality? No, the life stands, speechless and breathing, but moving, because it is brave to put itself into the deep of tragedy, to take on a self-inspection, and it is instead transparent morally, as well as deconstructs the illustrative danger forcefully.
March, 2006
尹朝阳的“神话”
冷林
“中国当代艺术”在海外和本土正在被各种热情、欲望塑造着，但始终是不可捉摸、不可定义。她似乎成为某种未来的艺术。市场利益和历史责任在这一时刻密切、杂陈在一起。兴奋、负担、策略、本能在市场利益和历史责任的相互角力和相互利用中不断闪现在正在制造的“中国当代艺术”的氛围里。艺术家尹朝阳就是在这样的氛围出现、同时他的艺术通过某种具体性也加强了这一氛围的紧张感。
象中国大多数艺术家一样，尹朝阳是在接受现实主义教育下成长起来的一位年轻艺术家。写实主义成为他最基本的创作方法。而和中国当代大多数艺术家不同的是：他的写实主义和日常生活的具体性没有太大的关系，他的写实主义不具有当代的时间具体性，这是和90年代“新生代”画家最显著的区别；同时他的写实主义也不具有对现实的幽默批判态度，“玩世”在他这里重新又变成了严肃。在他的作品中，具体被描绘的事物是和某种目的和理想紧密结合在一起。它们不具有时间性，相反却和无时间性的永恒、崇高、伟大、理想和悲剧结合在一起。和古典艺术不同的是：这种结合明显受艺术家当下的个人意志支配。 在《乌托邦》系列作品中，艺术家个人时常出现在我们熟知的“伟大”的、“经典”的画面里，而天安门广场周围的建筑物和雕塑被象征性地写实出来不是出自对这些具体物的什么兴趣，而是刻意强调出一种氛围，一种自我的英雄主义氛围。艺术家反复描绘这些具体物，意不在释放这些具体物的美学意义，而是试图聚拢起一种个人的能量。在这里，我们看不到艺术家对流行的日常事物的反应，我们看到的是艺术家的一种历史责任、一种个人理想。而在最近的艺术家《神话》系列作品中，这种个人理想和历史责任进一步演化为一种对个人理想和历史责任强行占有的欲望。 艺术家直接借用“西西弗斯”神话故事，但艺术家并不在意这一神话故事的哲理，也并不试图去表述这种哲理，艺术家真正的目的是通过这一神话故事来展现出一种个人的无法被抑制的能量。从单纯的人物形象到人与石头结合的形象、再到单纯的石头形象，一种不安定的、闪烁的、甚至暴力的因素始终出现在画面的每一个角落，经典的题材和写实的技法在这种不稳定中获得了某种现场感。永恒、崇高、伟大、理想和悲剧在这种现场感中被重新感知，只是它们不再作为一种价值被艺术家追求，而是作为一种能量被艺术家占有。这种占有是和中国市场经济快速发展所引发的贪婪有关。
在《神话》系列中，“石头”本身充满了奇异的色彩，“石头”似乎成了巨大的“宝石”，西西弗斯的搬石上山精神成了一场对无限利益的追逐。这与其说是一个现代神话，毋宁认为是一种日常现实。艺术家将这样分裂的两极奇妙地、无障碍地结合在一起。这是“中国当代艺术”的特色？还是中国社会的特色？抑或是艺术家个人的特色？现实主义在中国目前召唤的是一个历史责任还是对现实的占有欲将在一段时间内成为我们的问题和特色。尹朝阳无疑是这一问题和特色的一个特殊的持有者。
Yin Zhaoyang’s ‘Myth’
By Leng Lin
‘Chinese contemporary art’ is being formed and constructed by various enthusiasm and desires in China and overseas, but it is after all impalpable and indefinable. It seems becoming a kind of art for the future. Market interest and historical responsibility are closely intermixed together at this moment. The inter-struggle and inter-usage of excitement, burden, strategy and intuition are repeatedly reflected in the aura of ‘Chinese contemporary art’ in process. The artist Yin Zhaoyang just has appeared in this aura and his art concretely strengthened such intensity as well.
Like most Chinese artists, Yin has as a young artist grown up in the education of realism, which becomes his basic method of painting practice. But unlike most of them, his realism has nothing more to do with daily life, and it does not show the immediate contemporariness, which is very distinctive with the ‘Newly Emerging Generation Artists’ in 1990s; and neither does it have a humorously critical attitude towards reality, wherein ‘cynicism’ reappeared as seriousness. In his works, something concrete is connected with certain purpose and ideal. They don’t have any time, and are instead incorporated into eternity, sublimity, grandeur, ideal, and tragedy of Time. Unlike the classicalist art, such incorporation is explicitly dictated by artist’s will at the moment. In the series of ‘Utopia’, the artist himself quite often appears in the great and canonic scenes we are so familiar with, and the buildings and statues around the Tian An Men Square are symbolically represented not for the interest in these things, but for creating an aura, a heroic circumstance. That he repeatedly describes these things does not mean the release of aesthetic meaning in them, but the accumulation of individual energy. Here, we don’t see any response by the artist to the fashionable daily life, but a kind of historical responsibility and certain ideal. In his recent series works ‘Myth’, this personal ideal and historical responsibility have further evolved into a desire of possessing individual ideal and historical responsibility. Yin uses the mythical story of Sisyphos directly, but his intention is not on its philosophical meaning, or on exhibiting such meaning, but his true purpose is to demonstrate a kind of uninhabitable personal energy by this myth. From simple figure images to the figure-stone images to simple stone images, a sort of restless, shimmering, even violent elements keep appearing in every corners in the pictures, so the classic subject matters and realist techniques have reached a certain sense of immediacy in such instability. Eternity, sublimity, grandeur, ideal, and tragedy are perceived not as a pursuit of value by artist, but as an energy possessed by artist. This possession must have something to do with the greed invoked by the rapid development of market economy in China.
In the series ‘Myth’, ‘stones’ are full of legendary tunes, they seem a huge ‘precious stones’, Sisyphos carrying stones becomes a chasing after unlimited interests. It is less a modern myth than a daily life. Yin wonderfully puts these two divided poles together seamlessly. Is it a feature of ‘Chinese contemporary art’? Or of Chinese society? Or of artist himself? What realism at contemporary China calls for is that a historical responsibility or a possession desire of reality will be the problems and features of ours in the longer period. Yin Zhaoyang is no doubt a specialist possessor of such problems and features.
石头后记
一、 从石头说起…
“很久很久以前…”是一句饱含很多沧桑味道的话。准确的说法开始于五年前，这短暂而又漫长的五年！那些沉积于胸的过多的沧桑与感慨时时溢出！即使有未老先衰的恐惧，我也已经开始接受由于时间的逼迫而不得不接受的成熟，那或许是一种被迫的坦然，但它毕竟是一种更为进步的态度，对过去的五年，对一切事。
我真的曾经在回家的路上邂逅过那块石头吗？或许吧！但它真如我想象般描述的那么充满传奇吗？出于本能，事隔五年我开始对自己的描述充满了怀疑，甚至因为自己使用了过于动情的语气而羞愧难为情。因为任何时候，过分的煽情都会导致矫情。那就像一个气味难闻的陷阱，令人无法忍受，心生警惕。
至于那块石头，那不过是一块再普通不过的石头。在那一带这样的石头随处可见，它只不过是农民用来放在马路边上，以防止来往的车辆过近的靠近他们的房屋。因为偶然的一瞥或是过份的注视，它被我在某个夜晚冲动地搬回了家。回忆这个事实使我对过去的记忆产生了强烈的动摇！聊以自慰的是所谓记忆的真实已不再是我的追求。“神话”已经出现，虽然它可能来自一种谎言。
二、 解释《神话》
毫无疑问，所有这些命名为《神话》的画都是我编排出来的，文明的说法是虚构。字典里关于“神话”的解释有两个：一、名词。关于神仙或神话的古代英雄的故事，是古代劳动人民对自然现象和社会生活的一种天真的解释和美丽的向往；二、指荒诞的无稽之谈！
既然原有的意义已经无数次的被歪曲，我的穿凿附会即使稍嫌勉强终不过暗合了荒诞的无稽之谈的本意。
《神话》是个故事，故事的中心围绕着一个人和一堆莫可名状的石头，以及一个无所不在的逼仄的氛围。面对这些元素我动用了强烈的企图，赋予它们光彩，去影射我周围纷繁的世事，进而实现自己妄图再现一个心理现实的野心。
从六年前第一张草图开始，生活里弥漫的对抗、挣扎和野心，在六年后的今天竟无丝毫的减弱。即使进退之间不再狼狈而稍显从容，这些许的喘息从容也从未改变我对这个心理现实的悲剧认知！
但《神话》毕竟是谎言的升华，充满了散发着悲剧气息的浪漫和惊奇！
三、 和“西绪弗斯”无关
语言总是充满了吊诡和歧义。这是我在成熟之年里越来越深的体会。
“西绪弗斯”是谁？我的故事真的和他无关吗？
那更像是假象中的一个仪式，从我有限的理解出发，我只能让自己的行动听命于一种更为强大的冲动——把一切在脑海里疯狂或愚蠢的念头转化为作品本身这一物理现象的事实。某些时候，我成功了。那些形象并没有因为春去秋来的五年搁置而模糊，它们如同被冬眠的猛兽，一旦挣脱温度的枷锁就以一种更为凶猛的力量和速度在我的头脑里呼啸奔突，我只能以更为强大的理智和自以为是去尽力捕获它们，一一收服。动作僵硬、气喘吁吁、已在所不惜！
此时此刻它好像真的和加缪笔下的那个人无关。我会短暂沉浸在捕获的喜悦和沮丧中，乐此不疲，心无旁物。
四、“活着”
西绪弗斯的故事本身充满了说教和强烈的使人警醒的企图。那毕竟是关于一个人的故事。我更愿意把这故事看成一种态度——自我的奴役和放逐。那会比警醒和说教来的更加意味深长。“人生不美好，但很短暂”是我最近常常念叨的一句话，它来自一个美国的导演。这泄漏天机的断语一下子泄了生活的底。于是所有的线索纠结成一根麻木的绳索套在大多数人的身上，不能自拔也不想自拔才真正的透出了些许悲剧的血腥味。
活着为了活着本身——我对此深信不疑。因为我正在用自己白花花、金灿灿耀眼的生命去印证这句话。
五、 粉碎
我曾经在很小的时候听见一个伙伴诉说他对一只扣子的仇恨和愤怒。他说每当看到一只单独的扣子放在手掌上他就无法忍受。内心激荡的愤怒和莫名的仇恨促使他用锤子把那只无辜的扣子砸的粉碎，唯有此才能使他那无比偏执又紧张的心松弛下来。
种种的愤懑和抑郁最后只能有两个出口。生硬的消化和更为生硬的爆发。选择相对理智的沉默也并不能回避内伤的萌生。于是总有人选择更为极端的爆发，而爆发的归宿却是粉碎。这行为带有极其偏执的无意义——它们殊途同归的唯一目的地。
六、 结尾
时光荏苒。
六年前的我曾看到许多人都或大或小的揣着一块石头踔然独行，他们紧张，野心勃勃，脆弱并且易受伤害。六年后的今天情况令人绝望的雷同。
我想起一句老话：“太阳底下无新事！”
二零零六年三月
Postscript to the Notes on the Stones
I. From the Stones on…
‘Long long time ago…’ is one of the bitter sentences. To put it exactly, it referred to five years ago, how short and long that five years! How that depressed feelings be erupted! Even if I fear the premature aging, I have begun to accept the unacceptable maturity against the oppression of time, or it might be a forced easiness, but it is after all a more progressive attitude for the past five years and all what happened before.
Did I really encounter that stone on my way to home? Perhaps! But is it really so legendary as I describe? After five years, due to instinct, I began to suspect my description, even I feel uneasy for what I said emotionally. For anytime, being over sensational will lead to being affectedly unconventional. That is a smelling trap, unbearable and warning.
For that stone, that is a very common-looking one. Such a stone is available everywhere in that place, used by the peasants to put on the roadside to keep the traffic from nearing their houses. Because of an occasional glimpse or over-gaze, it was carried back to my home impulsively one night. When I recall this fact, I feel so uncertain about my memory! What I am just satisfied is that the so-called remembered truth is not what I look for. ‘Myth’ has appeared, despite it might come from a lie.
II. Explaining ‘Myth’
Undoubtedly, all these paintings named as ‘Myth’ are fabulized by me, what is said about civilization is fictitious. There are two explanations about ‘myth’ in dictionary: 1. noun. A story of ancient heroes about immorals or mythology, a kind of innocent explanation and an aspiration on natural phenomena and social life. 2. something absurd. Since the original meaning has been abused repeatedly, my eisegetical explanation, even somewhat reluctant, might be coincident with such fantastic tale.
‘Myth’ is a story, centered by a person and a pile of nondescript stones, as well as a depressing immanent ambience. Faced with such elements, I couldn’t help having a strong intention to glorify them, to imply those tumultuous worldly things around me, then, to realize my ambition of representing a world of mind.
From the first drawing I made six years ago, my life has been full of confrontations, struggles and ambition, and even today after six years without any hint of subdual. Even if I don’t feel uneasy anymore in such dilemma, these leisureliness will never change my tragic awareness of this psychological reality!
‘Myth’, however, is a sublimation of lie, which is permeated with romances and wonders with tragic tones!
III. It has nothing to do with ‘Sisyphus’
Language is always full of eeriness and ambiguity. This is a deepening experience that I got in my grown-up years.
Who is ‘Sisyphus’? does my story really have nothing to do with him?
That seems more like a ritual, and from my limited understanding, I can only make my actions take orders from a more powerful impulse – transform all the crazy or folly ideas into the works as a physical fact. Sometimes, I am successful. Those images do not become blurred after five years’ suspension. They are like the beast hibernating, they would roar more rapidly and loudly in my mind once they got released from the chains of temperature, what I could do is to capture them one by one in a more powerful rationality and self-righteousness. Even stiff and breathless, I will sacrifice myself!
At the moment as if it has really nothing to do with the hero written by Camius. I would be drowned myself in my happiness and depression of capture, tirelessly and intently.
IV. ‘Lived’
The story of Sisyphus is full of sermon and strongly warning ambition. That is after all one person’s story. I would like to regard it as an attitude – self-slavery and self-exile. That would be more significant than warning and sermon. Recently I often talk of that ‘life is not wonderful, but so short’, which is from an American movie director. Such eternal judgment at once reveals a secret of life. And then all the hints are entangled into a senseless rope, which harnesses most people, they don’t want and can’t draw out of such somewhat tragic bloodiness.
To live is for living itself – I hold such belief firmly. Because I am proving this sentence with my glorious life.
V. Breaking
When I was a kid, I once heard that a young pal said his hatred and anger at a clasp. He said whenever he saw a lonely clasp in his palm, he couldn’t endure it. That exciting anger and nondescript hatred made him hammer that innocent clasp into pieces, only did such action make him feel relaxed for his intense and paranoiac mind.
There are only two ways out for such angers and depressions: stiff digestion and more stiff explosion. To choose a relatively reasonable silence could not avoid the emergence of inner hurt. And then someone always chooses a more extreme explosion, but the destiny of explosion is that breaking. This action is imbued with quite paranoiac meaninglessness – the only destination of their destiny.
VI. Conclusion
Time elapses quickly.
Six years ago, I once saw that many people held a stone, big or small, in their clothes, walking lonely, nervous, ambitious, weak and vulnerably hurt. Six years later at present it is same.
I recall an old saying: ‘nothing new under the sun!’
March, 2006
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