文/胡斌

关于形式的探讨似乎属于现代艺术的范畴。在我们的印象当中，西方现代艺术的演变历程几乎就是一部形式风格的更替史；而在艺术批评理论那里，形式主义也的确被视为现代主义艺术观的基础之一。比如形式主义批评理论的创始人之一罗杰·弗莱就认为，以塞尚为代表的后印象派开创了现代艺术的赋形语言：“以一定程度的变形或者甚至抽象取代照相式的写实主义，以纯粹色彩与线条的造型，取代了光影与明暗法。”（沈语冰）在中国，“文革”后关于形式美、抽象美论题的提出，极大地冲击了在文化及艺术领域占据金科玉律地位的“内容决定形式”论，重新唤起了对艺术自身语言及自律精神的追求，这是对建国以来政治绑架艺术的强有力的反拨，正应和了“文革”结束之时人们力图挣脱政治意识形态的束缚，渴望艺术形式审美的心声。同时，因为国门打开，受西方现代艺术的影响，上世纪80、90年代中国艺术界产生了不少有关形式探索的抽象变形的作品。

然而，我们知道，形式主义的方法可能应对不了波普以及以后的艺术。按照阿瑟·丹托对艺术史的建构，艺术早已走入趋于观念化、哲学化的后历史阶段。探讨艺术的角度转为观念、话语、语词等，切入的主题则有身份、身体、时间、场所、语言、科学、精神性等（简·罗伯森，克雷格·迈克丹尼尔）。形式的探索与讨论似乎成了非常落伍的行为。

但是，我们却不难发现，不少当代艺术家正是在形的变化上做文章。这种“形变”不是风格形式的变化，也不是形体的抽象化，而是经由特殊的手段改变对象的形态。这次展览的参展艺术家只是此一探索类型的很小一部分，但他们的作品已经足以说明问题。

为了更清晰地呈现这几位参展艺术家在“形变”方面的工作，我对他们做了也许是不失“粗暴”的分类。一类是关于形体的扭曲变形的。陈克复制了不少西方古典雕像并通过电脑技术进行压缩变形，再以传统写实雕塑的方法塑造成形，获得的却是一种新媒体时代的运动感和眩晕感。李洪波通过对一沓沓薄纸的连接与延展，造成奇妙而怪诞的形体变化。李亮新拍摄了各类人物在无限后仰而未失衡的瞬间状态，肌肉绷紧的神情使得貌似正面的标准照有种难以言明的异常感。

另一类是关于形体的合成共生的。梁言康的一些雕塑和绘画通过对人和动植物的连接，表现出不同有机体血脉相连、共生共长的怪异景象。秦玮鸿通过人兽结合的造型和绚丽的色彩将某种梦幻中的景象呈现出来，以传达对现世亦真亦幻的体悟。

还有一类是关于形体的转化和重组的。吴超的动画中总是有着各类形体循环转换的设置，透视出某种世事轮回的精神观念。秦晋将女性盆骨模型做成可以涂写的材质在墙面摩擦，于是，一个具象的带有身体体验的构件在充当使用工具的过程中不断耗损、化为杂乱无序的平面图像。占研以有着具体刻度的“标尺”来组装不同物件，尺度似乎成为这些物件的表皮肌理。康甲将身边之物组合成暗藏其生活与内心记忆的形象，并通过统一的颜色带来某种陌生化的效果。

当然，上述作品不管是扭曲变形，还是合成重组，总体是在保持既有形态认知度的前提下的各类变化，而不同于那种彻底地、颠覆性地化为它物的变形。他们的表述越是具体而微，观者获得的观感便愈加的荒诞不经。他们处理的手段多少有些离奇，然而所思考的问题却又具有特定的指向性。

我并不认为所有这些艺术家都是从形式变形出发来进行创作的，这只是我展开对当代艺术的某些特征研究的一个切入点。他们的作品不像我们所惯常认为的当代艺术那样弃绝形象、色彩、结构等造型形式的追求，而只强调思想和观念，其中不少赖以立足的还是形式上的经营。但是通过各类不同的变形探索，我们也可获知，他们从事“形变”的目标不在于现代艺术范畴里的二维或三维空间中的形式探索，而在于传达出某种当下生存的精神感悟。这种形体处理之所以能够引起观者在心理体验及观念上的共鸣，也许在于它们本身就承载了作者对当代世界的观感和思考。将诸多“形变”汇集一处，就是力图让我们进入“形变”与“观念之变”的实验场域，更真切地看到它们之间的关系。

Transformation

—APerspective of Contemporary Art

Thediscussion of forms falls in the category of contemporary art. In ourimpression, the evolvement of western modern art is a history of one form orstyle taking place of another; in art criticism theory, Formalism is indeedviewed as one of the foundations of Modernist art. For example, Roger Fry, oneof the founders of Formalist criticism theory, believed that Post-impressionistswith Paul Cezanne as the representative figure emphasized geometric forms. “They distorted forms or even replaced thephotographic realism with abstractness, and light and shadow with pure colorsand lines.” said Shen Yubing. In China, asthe beauty of forms and abstractness was put forward after the CulturalRevolution, the golden rule of “the contentdetermines the form” was greatly impacted. Thepursuit of art’s own language and disciplinewas revitalized to reverse the trend of the politically controlled art sincethe founding of the New China. It echoed people’surge to break free from the constraints of the political ideology and theirlonging for formal aesthetics of art. Meanwhile, thanks to China’s opening up to the outside world, Chinese artcommunity, under the influence of western modern art, nurtured attempts tocreate abstract works with changed forms in the 1980s and 1990s.

However,as we know, the Formalist approach is unable to address the Pop art or artafter that. According to Arthur Coleman Danto’sconstruction of art history, art has already entered the post-historical periodto become conceptualized and philosophicalized. Thus, the perspectives forexploring art involve concepts, discourses and words, while the subjectsinclude identities, bodies, time, places, languages, science and spirituality.(Jean Robertson and Graig McDaniel) The search for and discussion on forms seemto be old-fashioned.

Butit is not difficult to find out that not a few artists still change the form.The “transformation” doesn’t meanchange in styles or the abstraction of bodies, but the transformation of theobject with special techniques. Although the participating artists of thisexhibition are only part of those trying out the genre, their works suffice topresent it.

Toclearly distinguish their effort of “transformation”, I have made a rough classification. The first typeis the distortion of bodies. After condensing and distorting western classicalsculptures with digital manipulation, Chen Ke shapes them as traditionalrealistic sculptures to create a dynamic and dizzy feeling in the era of newmedia. By connecting and extending piles of papers, Li Hongbo reshapes thebodies in an eccentric way. Li Liangxin captures the moment when differentpeople lean backward to the extreme without losing balance. Their intensefacial expressions inject indescribable abnormal feelings to the photosseemingly taken from the front.

Thesecond kind is the synthesis of bodies. By integrating man with the animal andthe plant in his paintings and sculptures, Liang Yankang represents the weirdscene of different organisms connected in a symbiosis, while Qin Weihongcreates a fantastic world with the combination of man and animal and brightcolors to communicate his understanding of the living fantasy in current world.

Thelast category is the conversion and reconstruction of bodies. In Wu Chao’s cartoon, the unceasing transformation of differentbodies reveals the concept of samsara. Qin Jin transforms the woman pelvismodel into a writing instrument rubbed on the wall. Thus, as a tool, theconcrete body part wears down and turns into a disorderly planar image. ZhanYan assembles objects with the scale ruler to create a scale on their surface.By using objects ready at hand, Kang Jia constructs the image concealed in hislife and memory and creates certain defamiliarized feeling with uniform colors.

Ofcourse, whether they are distorted or reconstructed, the objects are generallyrecognizable, which is different from the thorough and subversivetransformation of them into something else. The more detailed they are, themore ridiculous the viewer will feel. Despite their quirky approaches, theissues they address are taken from the reality.

Idon’t think all these artistscreate from the perspective of transformation. It is only my perspective foranalyzing certain features of contemporary art. Unlike works of contemporaryart in our conventional view, their works haven’tignored images, colors and structures to highlight ideas and concepts butmostly relied on forms. But we can also know that with their disparate attemptsof transformation, their goal is not to explore the form in two- orthree-dimensional space in the sphere of contemporary art, but to convey theirunderstanding of current survival. The reason why the formal treatment canstrike a chord in viewers psychologically and conceptually may be that it isimbued with the artists’ observation and understandingof the contemporary world. The various “transformations” are brought together to admit us to theexperimental field of “transformation” and “conceptualchange” so as to examine theirrelationships up close.
  【更多内容点击：53美术馆http://www.53museum.org/】