交织丛林

作者:彭锋(第54届威尼斯国际艺术双年展中国馆策展人/北京大学艺术学院院长/教授/博士生导师/国际美学协会总代表)

在看到朱维彬的作品之前，我一直在想象他的作品是什么样子的。据说他是一个水墨艺术家，所以我开始想象各种墨水的可能性，从传统墨水到实验墨水，再到最近流行的新墨水。也有人把他归为抽象，于是我开始想象各种抽象的可能性，从理性的抽象到不安分的抽象，再到不那么极端的抒情抽象(也可以称之为温暖的抽象)。

然而，当我看到朱维彬的作品时，它们仍然超出了我的想象。朱维彬的作品超出了我的想象，我甚至很难称之为绘画。其实，朱维彬根本不用毛笔，无论是硬毛笔还是软毛笔。如果我们还称其为绘画，那么他的绘画在材料、技法、工艺、效果等各方面都拓展了绘画的领域。

朱维彬的绘画可以恢复到原来的质朴。用线条作画一直是中国画家的强项。20世纪以来，一些抽象艺术家进一步解放了线条，形成纯粹以线条为目的的绘画。2015年11月11日，塞·托姆布雷(1928-2011)的“黑板系列”作品之一《无题(纽约)》在纽约苏富比当代艺术拍卖夜拍中以超过7000万美元的价格成交，创下历史最高价格纪录。这幅画在网上引起了各种抱怨，因为这幅极其昂贵的作品只是用白色蜡笔在灰色和黑色的背景上画了六个圆圈。与托姆布雷的随意涂鸦不同，丹尼尔·布伦(Daniel Buren, 1938-)作品中的线条更粗、更直，通常排列整齐，反映出强烈的理性控制。

我们可以暂时把托姆布雷和布伦看作两个极端，即极端无序和极端有序。在艺术的世界里，线条的运用基本上是由这两个极端以及介于两者之间的一些区域来表现的。传统中国画的线条大多处于这两个极端之间。

然而，朱维彬的绘画不同于这三种类型。从个别线条来看，朱维彬作品中的线条与布伦作品中的线条相似，都是直线。与布伦作品中整齐统一的线条不同，朱维彬作品中的线条是粗细混合的，并且以非常复杂的方式交织在一起。不同粗细的直线缠绕在一起，形成了一种类似于托姆布雷作品的效果。

因此，朱维彬巧妙地解决了抽象艺术中无序与有序的相容问题，即热抽象与冷抽象的相容问题。朱维彬作品中的线条是有序的，同时又是穿插、交织之后的无序。然而，这种无序的画面效果并不破坏有序的线条。

如果我们仔细地阅读这幅画，就有可能把这些交错缠绕的线条分开，恢复成一条又一条有序的直线。正因为如此，朱维彬的画是一层一层叠起来的，就像一堆床叠起来的房子。有些线条能穿透不同层次，体现出艺术家设计的沉稳与巧妙;同时，整体画面呈现出强烈的张力和动画氛围。因此，画面给观众一种混杂着理性和不安的奇怪感觉。理性和躁动并没有调和成温暖，但每一个都保持着自己的独立性，因此需要观众在不同的感觉之间切换。

许多艺术品都在寻求不同感觉之间的转换。比如中国水墨画对相似和不同的追求，从某种角度来说，就是让观众在笔墨的感觉和形象的感觉之间切换。

有些油画也能产生这种效果，需要观看者在远距离观看和近距离观察之间切换，从远处看作品的形象，近距离看作品的笔触。人们喜欢在不同的感觉之间切换的原因可能与保持感觉的动态或活跃有关。艺术作品的主要目的是唤醒我们日益麻木的情感。这种动态结构也存在于朱维彬的作品中，通过冷热的切换，使观者的感官保持活跃。然而，朱维彬作品中有序与无序的交织可以从另一个角度来解释。

环境科学家发现，人类在选择环境时，会遵循“展望-庇护”的原则，即人们更喜欢能看到别人而别人看不见自己的环境。有序有利于找矿;混乱是最好的避难所。据说，这一原则是基于人类原始的生存经验。在生吃动物肉、喝动物血的阶段，人类以狩猎为生。人类既是捕食者，又是其他动物的猎物。作为捕食者，人类希望看到自己的猎物，这是探矿;作为猎物，人类希望隐身，这就是避难。这可能是朱维彬的作品如此迷人的原因之一，这是由于人类的这种原始本能。

朱维彬的作品就像交织在一起的丛林。从某种角度来说，我们可以把它看作是当今社会的一个象征。人类可以用非常理性的方式实现非理性的目标。许多思想家都洞悉了现代性带来的适得其反的后果。朱维彬为我们描绘了现代丛林社会的形象。

2016年8月3日

北京大学维秀园

Interwoven Jungle

By: Peng Feng (Curator of the Chinese Pavilion of the 54th Venice International Art Biennale /Dean of the School of Arts of Peking University/ Professor/ Doctoral Supervisor/ General Representative of the International Association of Aesthetics (IAA)

I was trying to imagine what his works would look like before seeing Zhu Weibin's works. It is said that he is an ink artist, so I began to imagine the possibilities of various inks, from traditional ink to experimental ink, to the new ink that has recently become popular. Some people also classified him as abstract, so I began to imagine various possibilities of abstraction, from rational abstraction to restless abstraction, to less extreme lyrical abstraction (which can also be called warm abstraction). However, when I saw Zhu Weibin's works, they were still beyond my imagination. Zhu Weibin has painted his works that exceeded my imagination, and it’s hard for me to even call them paintings. In fact, Zhu Weibin does not use a brush at all, whether it is a hard brush or a soft brush. If we still call it painting, his paintings have expanded the field of painting in terms of materials, techniques, processes, results, and all other aspects.

Zhu Weibin's paintings can be recovered to its original simplicity. It is always the strength of Chinese Painters of drawing with lines. Since the 20th century, some abstract artists have further liberated lines, forming paintings purely for the purpose of lines. On November 11^th, 2015, "Untitled (New York City)", one of the "Blackboard Series" by Cy Twombly (1928-2011) was sold for more than US$70 million at Sotheby's Contemporary Art Auction Night Sale in New York, setting a record price. It has led to various complaints online, because this extremely expensive work was just six lines of circles drawn with white crayon on a gray and black background. Unlike Twombly's random graffiti, the lines in Daniel Buren's (1938-) works are much thicker, straighter, and usually arranged neatly upright, reflecting strong rational control.

We can temporarily regard Twombly and Buren as two extremes, which are extreme disorder and extreme order. In the world of art, the use of lines is basically represented by these two extremes and some areas in between. Most of the lines in traditional Chinese paintings are in the middle between these two extremes. However, Zhu Weibin's paintings are different from these three types. Judging from individual lines, the lines in Zhu Weibin's works are similar with those in Buren's works, both of which are straight. Unlike the neat and uniform lines in Buren's works, the lines in Zhu Weibin's works are mixed with thick and thin and are intertwined in very complex ways. Straight lines of different thicknesses intertwine, forming an effect similar with Twombly's work. Therefore, Zhu Weibin has solved the compatibility problem of disorder and order in abstract art in an ingenious way, that is, the compatibility problem of hot abstraction and cold abstraction. The lines in Zhu Weibin's works are in order, in the meanwhile, they are disordered after interspersed and intertwined. However, the picture effect of this disordered does not destroy the orderly lines. If we read the picture carefully, it is possible to separate the interspersed and intertwined lines and restore them to one and another orderly straight lines. Because of this, the paintings of Zhu Weibin's are stacked up layer by layer, like a house piled up by stacked beds. Some lines can penetrate different levels, reflecting the calm and ingenious design of the artist; At the same time, the overall picture shows a strong tension and animated atmosphere. As a result, the picture delivers a strange feeling mixed with rational and restless to the audiences. Rational and restless are not reconciled to become warm, but each maintains its own independent character, thus requiring the viewer to switch between different sensations.

Many artworks are seeking to switch between different sensations. For example, the pursuit of similarity and dissimilarity in Chinese ink painting is, from a certain perspective, to allow the audience to switch between the feeling of brush and ink and the feeling of image. Some oil paintings can also create this effect, requiring the viewer to switch between distant viewing and close observing, to see the image of the work from a distance and the brush strokes of the work close up. The reason why people like to switch between different sensations may have something to do with keeping the sensations dynamic or active. The main purpose of artworks is to awaken our feelings that are increasingly numb daily. This dynamic structure also exists in Zhu Weibin's works, which keep the viewer's senses active through the switching between hot and cold. However, the interweaving of order and disorder in Zhu Weibin's works may be explained from another perspective. Environmental scientists have discovered that when humans choose their environment, they will follow the principle of “Prospect – Refuge”, that is, they prefer environments where they can see others but themselves invisible to others. Order is good for prospecting; disorder is good for refuging. It is said that this principle is based on the primitive survival experience of human being. In the stage of eating animal flesh raw and drinking its blood, humans made a living by hunting. Humans are both predator, and prey hunted by other animals. As predator, humans hope to see their prey, which is prospecting; As prey, humans hope to be invisible, which is refuging. This may be one of the reasons why Zhu Weibin's works are so fascinating, which is due to this primitive instinct of human beings.

Zhu Weibin's works look like intertwined jungles. In a certain perspective, we can regard it as a symbol of the society today. Human beings can achieve irrational goals in very rationally ways.   Many thinkers have insighted the counterproductive consequences of modernity. Zhu Weibin has painted us the images of modern jungle societies.

August 3^rd, 2016,

at Weixiu Garden, Peking University