张小芮:自然中度过的那个良夜——关于卢柏年
Zhang Xiaorui: A Good Night in the Nature – About Lu Bainian
撰文：张小芮，毕业于天津美术学院艺术史专业，现居北京，涉及艺术评论，艺术家个案研究，独立艺术项目。2017年完成田野调查论文《90年代以来的中国当代艺术与底层意识》。在《凤凰艺术》、《典藏》等媒体发表文章。
About the writer: Zhang Xiaorui, graduated from Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, studying Art History, who is now living in Beijing, works on art reviews, case studies of artists and independent art projects. In 2017, she finished her field research paper “China Contemporary Art and Lower-class Consciousness Since 1990s”. She has also published several articles in social media platforms such as art.ifeng.com and ARTouch.com.
“黄昏的光，洒在高脚的桌面与椅子上。隔着落地玻璃窗，屋内头顶的灯光，发出柔和的暖光。” 摘自某处
“The sunlight of the dusk is shining on the high table and chairs. Through the French window, the light on the ceiling inside the house also illuminates with a soft and warm tone.” Quoted from somewhere.
卢柏年偏爱于在作品中选取自然素材，光/黑暗、水、空气、雾等元素，经过抽象化后的自然元素自身隐喻，黑暗指向神秘的力量或存在的虚无，雾可能是一种迷思，光具有温暖的力量。自然本身的丰富总是慷慨为人们所取用。对自然不由自主的这种注视来自心灵的亲近感，与人类的成长密不可分。人类历史的童年诞生于自然之中，对生活在当下二十一世纪的大部分人来说，亲近自然变得迷茫，以及尴尬症般的麻木感觉和无法回归的匮乏想象力。
Lu Bainian prefers to pick up inspirations from the nature, such as light, darkness, water, air and mist, etc., in his works. The abstractions of nature elements are somehow metaphors. Darkness indicates a mysterious power or the nihility of existence; mist might be a kind of myth; and light has the power of warmth. The nature itself is always generously offering its affluence for people to use. The spontaneous gaze at nature comes from a sense of intimacy from the heart, which is closely related to the growth of human beings. Human history is born in the nature. However, for most people who are living in the current century, it becomes confusing to get close to the nature, along with the numbness and the lack of imagination.
对卢柏年而言，童年时期的农村生活成为他自己的阿里巴巴洞窟。那时候，大自然是他的游乐园，即使初中后一直居住在城市，孩童时期播种的感觉依然潜藏在他的生命里。从农村到城市的迁徙，面对一个更加物质、快节奏的社会，暮然回首，对故乡生活有一种渴望回归的期待。一个人如果能在少年时期多接近自然，会促成他心灵的丰富。“万物有灵”，包涵对生命的理解和尊重。土壤可以透气，钢筋混凝土却不能。所谓的现代生活，人们被安排在工作和消费之间往返。相较之自给自足的农耕生活，人的心灵更平静、饱满而干净。
For Lu, the village life during his childhood is an Ali Baba's Cave. Back then, the nature was his carnie. Even though he has been living in the city after middle school, the feeling from his childhood has always been hiding in his life. With the migration from village to city, facing a more material and fast-speed society, looking back on the life in hometown, there is a desire of returning. If a person can get closer to the nature in his/her youth, he/she will get more spiritual wealth. Animism includes the understandings and respects for life. Soil is breathable, but concrete isn’t. In this modern world, people are arranged between work and consumption. In comparison, our mind is more peaceful, enriched and clean in the self-sufficient farming life.
卢柏年那瘦高的个头，以及复古的圆边眼镜，显现出一种文质。他坦言容易为一些事情感动落泪，小的的时候因为哭鼻子被爸爸斥之“娘”。恰恰是这种敏感与感性的特质让他自然而然地倾向于诗歌、艺术。
Lu has a tall and thin figure, and with a pair of old-fashioned glasses, you will find him gentle and courteous. He frankly admitts that he is easy to be moved by tiny things. When he was young, he was scolded by his father and being called “sissy” just because he always cried. But due to the sensitivity and sensibility, he gradually grows his interests in arts and poems.
“少年维特”时期的浪漫主义总是容易转向文学化时期，卢柏年读初中开始热衷于写短诗，读泰戈尔、顾城的诗，风格受其影响。他自认为写作的过程是排解内心的孤独，不带技巧（这很重要），就那样写了。
The romanticism of the “Young Werther” time was always likely to turn to literature. Under the influence of Tagore and Gu Cheng, Lu started writing poems since middle school. In his mind, writing was a way to get rid of loneliness, with no necessities of techniques (which is important to him). And he just let his words flows.
2011-04-03
寒風吹來時，身體顫抖了，愛人啊！不要誤解，心是堅定的。
2011-04-03
When the cold wind came, the body was trembling. My lover, don’t misunderstand, the heart is firm.
乍一看是冲动的爱，诗中的恋爱对象不只是在说具体的对象，正如曹植的《洛神赋》、屈原《楚辞》中抒情的女神是他政治理想的比喻。作品中会露出比较诗意化的一种姿态，并非锋芒毕露地对抗，而是在缓和中释放出能量。
At first glance, this line seems to be talking about impetuous love. However, the object in this poem is not a specific person. Like in Cao Zhi’s The Goddess of the Luo and Qu Yuan’s The Songs of the South, the goddesses are metaphors to their political ideals. In Lu’s poems, there isn’t any sharp confrontations, but only energy released in a gentle way.
如：
Eg.,
2011-03-23
褐喙的白鴿，撲騰一聲便飛離我了。(利比亞內戰有感，由衷祈福。）
2011-03-23
The white dove with brown beak, suddenly flew away from me. (inspired by the civil war in Libya, sincerely pray for the people there.)
2011-07-11
房屋周圍都是綠色的草木，爲何我的眼裏猶存憂鬱。
2011-07-11
Around the house, a green lush grows. Why there’s still melancholy in my eyes?
2011-05-13
初夏的凉風，要麽永駐，要麽把我的心也隨那凉意攜了去吧。
2011-05-13
The breeze of the early summer, please stay, or take my heart with you along with your chillness.
2011-03-24
蝶蛹不知己爲蝴蝶，而心生羨慕。
2011-03-24
The pupa doesn’t know that she will become a butterfly, for which I envy.
自然，文学和抒情的心灵交融，如果说这里还是一个自由的国度，一个田园牧歌式的诗意栖居，但现实却是一个渐行渐远的自然，一个亟待去剖析的、经受的最真切现实。这种自然的与现实的割裂，将会激发最有趣的能量。
Nature, literature and an expressive soul intertwine together. Poetry is a free state, an arcadian dwelling, but the real life is a drifting-away nature, which needs to be anylized and experienced. The separation of nature and reality will bring the most interesting energy.
关于池的凝视关系
Gazeing at “A Pool & A Scheme”
大学期间卢柏年有机会考察新疆、甘肃一带，边疆之旅一下把他抛入一片陌生而熟悉的乐园。当他在新疆的戈壁滩上，感受到风、沙、石，唤醒他从前的体验。他幼年时过着田园式的生活，而懂事以后基本上是生活在城市里面。所以早就已经忘记了“那种感觉”，当重新回到了纯粹的自然环境中，新疆的戈壁滩的空旷、深邃让他震撼，心中的某种记忆或念想被触动。这种熟悉的感觉在距离故乡千里之外的地方被唤醒，与自然的对话连接起一次他与自我、内心的对谈。
During his undergraduate studies, Lu had a chance to visit Xinjiang and Gansu. The journey to the west suddenly threw him into a paradise which was both strange and familiar. When he was standing on the gobi in Xinjiang, he felt that the wind, the sand and the stone was arousing his childhood experience. When he was little, he was living a village life, but he moved to the city when he started to understand things. So he has already forgotten “that feeling”. When returning to the pure nature, the vastness and profoundness of the gobi desert of Xinjiang made him astonished, with some memories or thoughts in his heart being deeply touched. This familiar feeling was aroused in a place which was thousands of miles away from his hometown. The communication with nature brought about a conversation between him and his ego.
《池》是这次“对话”契机带来的回响。制作过程使用丝网版画印刷蓝色，裁剪成大小一致蓝色圆形，在一个机动的池形状装置里铺满后，机器波动从而产生水波荡漾的感觉。蓝色是深沉的蓝，像伊夫克莱因的蓝。在这么小的一个池子里荡漾波浪，这种非自然的现象如同异化的社会，那些无数的圆形蓝色像是一个个人，都在随波逐流。观看者立于《池》畔，当凝神池中翻涌的浪花时，这种蓝色似乎具有抚慰效果，将杂质与疑虑消除，这凝视的过程将目光吞噬，包围。或者也可能相反，将情绪放大、激烈。正如，当我们凝视深渊的时候，深渊也在凝望你（弗里德里希.威廉.尼采《善恶的彼岸》）。通过机械、印刷而再造的池，脱离了自然景观中的审美意向，独立于此的装置，像是一个捕捉意念的机器，或者只是艺术的某种道具。真正重要的是观看这一动作本身，以及凝视所带来的对话反应。
“A Pool & A Scheme” is an echo of this conversation. When making this installation, screen print is used to print cards blue, and then the cards are cut into small round pieces, by which a pool-shaped installation is fully covered. A machine fluctuates from the inside of the installation and creats a wave-like motion. The blue is quite dark, like the Yves Klein blue. The wave in such a small “pool” is just like this catabolized society where unnatural things happens. And the little blue pieces are like the human beings, drifting with the tide. When the observer stand by the “pool”, gazing at the surging waves, this blue seems to have a comforting effect, eliminating the impurities and doubts. Or it might be the opposite, it amplifies and enhances the emotion, which is the same as “when you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks into you” (Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, “Beyond Good and Evil”). The pond recreated by machine and printing is not an aesthetic imagery of the natural landscape anymore, it’s an independent device, more like a machine which captures ideas, or just a kind of prop of art. What’s really important is the gazing itself and the conversation’s reaction that the gazing brings.
当时是在准备毕业创作，依据版画系的要求选择用丝网版制作水滴，正反面印刷几千张全开的纸，将水滴简化、抽象为大小一致的蓝色圆形，制作了约10万颗水滴汇聚在《池》中。将海浪的声音抽象处理作为“池”水波动的背景音——平淡、机械感同时尽量地接近冷静。在处理水滴的过程中，其实是消解了版画这一专业的各种技法要求。版画本身侧重构图及画面装饰性，使用蚀刻、飞尘等技法突出表现效果，最终的目的是为了视觉上的生产、图像化。而制作水滴的过程更像是一种劳作，为期半年的创作过程中不断重复着的动作。
At that time, Lu was preparing for his graduation project. According to the requirements of the Print-making Department, he chose screen print to make the “water droplets”. After printing thousands of papers on both sides, the “water droplets” were simplified and abstracted into blue round pieces. There were about 100,000 “water droplets” in the “pool”. The sound of the ocean wave was abstracted into the background sound of the machine inside the "pool", which was plain and mechanical, at the same time, as sober as possible. In the process of making the “water droplets”, the technical requirements of print-making has been eliminated. Print-making itself usually focuses on the composition and the decorativeness, using techniques such as etching and aquatint to highlight the appearance, the ultimate goal of which is to produce a visual picture. While making those “water droplets” was more like labouring, repeating one single action for half-a- year’s creating process.
内化 —— 从风景到人的景观
Internalization – From Landscape to Human
达.芬奇在绘制《维特鲁威人》时所做的笔记中认为，血液流动的方式与自然的运转有关；血液的流动与自然界中的河流流动的方式和方向相同；山脉的走势与人体的肌肉相似。人感受到自然的风景，心灵为之触动。
In the notes that Leonardo da Vinci takes when drawing the Vitruvian Man, he believes that the way that blood flows is related to the movement of the nature; the way that blood flows is the same as the way and the direction of rivers in the nature; the range of the mountains is the same as that of the human muscles. People can always be touched by the sceneries of the nature.
从浪漫诗意的风景表面，到翻动的池水，充斥着抗逆的暗流之力，在机械作用下翻涌的池水像一种无形的力量，或者一双看不见的手。从自然转化到非自然的风景。真实的自然已经从人的生活中退远渐渐消逝。
From the romantic and poetic surface of the landscape to the waving “pool”, there is a resistance like an undercurrent. The “water” surging under mechanical function is like an invisible force, or a pair of invisible hands. Natural sceneries transformed to unnatural scenes. The true nature is fading away from people’s life.
2017-2018年卢柏年参与了支援偏远山区教育的项目，在云南省南涧县支教一年。在支教的过程中，一方面他被云南生命力旺盛的风光所惊喜，另一方面他也为人生活的困顿所惊讶。他难以相信生活致以如此拮据、艰辛。云南作为植物王国，亚热带季风区丰沛的雨水、阳光，是大自然最佳的样本。生活于此的人们，处在较为落后的经济发展状况中，但却保有着乐观、质朴、强悍的生命力。那片土地上的人们就像那些旺盛生命力的植被，让他的创作与思考和这段经历发生关联。
From 2017 to 2018, Lu participated in an education project in remote mountainou areas in Yunnan, China, and became a volunteer teacher. During that time, he was amazed by the dynamic scenery on the one hand, and was astonished by the hardship of local people’s life. It was difficult for him to believe that life can be that struggling. As a kingdom of plants located in subtropical monsoon climate zone, Yunnan has abundant rain and sunshine, which made it a perfect sample of the nature. Although the locals are under a relatively fall-behind economic condition, they still have an optimistic, simple and powerful spirit. The people there are just like the luxuriant plants, which linked Lu’s creation and thinking with this experience.
卢柏年曾拍下过这样一张照片，一个略大点的孩子（也许14岁左右）骑着摩托车带着五个小孩去上学，这完全是条件所限，当地的父母忙于劳作，他们不会有空闲送孩子去学校，更不可能带他们去练习大提琴或者拉丁舞。而这些孩子可能得翻山越岭或者徒步数公里去学校，沿途甚至会有野生动物出没。这样看来，一个大孩子骑摩托车带三个孩子去上学也算是最好的处理方式。物质上的贫困并不代表生活的贫乏，山中徒步、河里摸鱼，当地人过着惬意的生活方式，怡然自得，精神富足，如果说是桃花源一般也不为过。但世界的许许多多大门已经存在，偏远落后地区的他们存在着，像是贫困的一个样本。在技术自动化的今天，他们被变成主流社会中结构性的剩余。
Lu once took a photo of a slightly older child (maybe 14 years old) riding a motorcycle, carrying five little kids to school. This was completely due to the bad conditions. The parents were busy working, who won’t have time to take their kids to school, let alone sending them to learn the cello or Latin dance. And these children may have to climb over the mountains or walk several miles to school, and there may even be wild animals along the way. As a result, one older child riding a motorcycle and carrying three children to school might be the best way to deal with it. However, the poverty in materials doesn’t mean they are living a poor life. Hiking in the mountains and fishing in the river, the locals are actually living an agreeable life. They are contented, and spiritually rich. It is not an exaggeration to say that they are living in an Arcadia. But so many doors of the world already existed, and they exist in the remote and backward areas, like a sample of poverty. In a techinicalized era, they have become the structural surpluses of the society’s mainstream.
作为旅客涉足某处，只是作为旁观者的经过，消费着当地可以消费的一切。一年的时间足够领略风土人情，体会到本土的生命、生活。在卢柏年记忆中的乡村生活，还是甜美的、温柔的追忆和抒情。面对这样贫困、落后的生活状况，我们是否应该用消费主义的目光去判断他们生活？既然他们生活于此，单纯而快乐，那么作为异乡人的我们，目睹种种境况后的酸楚与讶异又源自哪里呢？
To visit a place as a tourist, one can just be a bystander, consuming everything that can be consumed in that place. While one year is enough to appreciate the local customs, to feel the vitality and experience the local life. In Lu’s memory, country life is still sweet and gentle. When facing such poor and backward living conditions, should we judge their lives under the perspective of consumerism? Since they are the people who live there, simple and happy. For us, as strangers, where do the sorrows and surprises come from after witnessing those situations?
支教结束后，卢柏年继续他的研究生学习历程，期间，他去到了文艺复兴的策源地佛罗伦萨交换学习半年。有些人对某些地方似乎生来就有一种熟悉的感觉，古迹与原作、博物馆或山丘，对卢柏年而言，第一次的欧洲之旅就像是回归。欧洲文明或者说西方文明根植于两希文明，即希伯来和古希腊。古希腊柱式作为建筑的主要组成形式，亦成了建筑、文明、权力的代表。从最早的斯通亨治（stonehenge）悬直巨石到埃及中王国时期的方尖碑，从古希腊的神庙立柱到古罗马的《图拉真纪念柱》，连美国式摩天大楼也像是放大的多利克柱式。《用乐高作柱石》中看起来色彩丰富的立柱反映了这个消费至上，物质不断积累的当下，文明的支柱似乎充斥危机。柱式本身具有的雄性特征使得建筑本身指向身体符号，包括信仰、权力、价值观在内的男权制度下的建筑空间形态。
After working as a volunteer teacher, Lu continued his post-graduate studies, during which he went to Florence, the birthplace of the Renaissance, to study as an exchange student for half a year. Some people seem to be born with a familiar with certain places. Looking at those monuments, original art works, museums and hills, Lu’s first trip to Europe seemed to be a return. European civilization, or Western civilization is rooted in Hebrew and ancient Greek civilization. As a main component of ancient Greek architecture, columns has also become a representative of architecture, civilization and power, from the earliest Stonehenge to the obelisk in the middle Kingdom of Egypt, from the ancient Greek temple columns to ancient Rome’s Trajan's Columns, even the American skyscrapers seem to be the enlarged Doric order. "Using Lego as a Pillar" reflects today’s consumerism. In a world where materials accumulated, the pillar of civilization seems to be full of crises. The manly characteristic of the column style makes the building itself pointing to the physical symbols, including belief, power and values under Patriarchy.
在创作《我说要有光》时，他去到那些拆迁的废弃地带，用喷漆在墙面及空间内喷上黄色条状，像是一阵金色的雨。在古希腊神话中也有宙斯幻化成金雨和达娜厄约会的描述。在一片荒凉充斥着垃圾和怪异味道的地方，这些“光”像是宣称，曾经存在的光亮，正凝固在观看的这个瞬间。光是公平的，病毒也是，生命面前无论贫穷还是富有，都限制不了这些自然之力的作用。《夜幕垂垂时星光寥寥》继续呈现了对光的表现，人们仰望星空，这种原始的风景给人以归属感，它是超越时空的纯粹。
When creating "I said let there be light", he went to the abandoned demolition areas, and used spray paint to draw yellow strips on the walls, like a golden rain. In ancient Greek myths, there is also a description of Zeus turning into a golden rain and dating with Danae. In a desolate place full of garbage and weird smells, these "lights" seem to be claiming that the light once existed in this area is now freezing at the moment when the observer see it. The light is fair, so is the virus. Whether poor or rich, the forces of nature can not be limited. "When the Night Falls, Only a Few Stars Appear" continues to present the expressions of lights. When we look up to the starry sky, the primitive scenery gives us a sense of belonging, and it is a kind of purity which transcends time and space.
最新的作品《旗帜鲜明》，艺术家将各个国家的旗帜切割一部分缝制成一面全新的旗帜，各种色彩形状变成一个装饰性的图像，解构了背后所代表的权力与争端。过去有一种宣称，世界总是在向前运转，我们已然生活在后疫情时代，当整个世界因为疫情而不得不“歇息”，这个契机促使重新面对当代生活及生态。旗帜的设计总是选取自然中最具代表性的事物：星、月、枫叶或者袋鼠。大地，见证着历史、时间，而人，曾企盼诗意地栖居于这片大地上。人们在一块块划分开来的土地上插上旗帜，代表自己的权力所及。这面新的旗帜不是为了宣称某个特权、力量，艺术家再造的“旗帜”实则否定了旗帜的定义，跨越种种界限与惯式，仅是作为色彩的、生命的融合。从边疆至滇西，从欧洲的游历到心中的神游，卢柏年的旅行还将继续，而实际上你看那旗帜飘扬，要知道，无论他去往何处，都保有心中的一片风景。
In his latest work, “A Clear-cut Flag”, Lu cuts and sews parts of the flags of various countries into a brand new flag. Various colors and shapes become a decorative image, deconstructing the power and disputes behind the original flags. In the past, there was a claim that the world was always moving forward. But right now we are already living in a post-pandemic era, when the entire world has to "rest" because of the pandemic. This opportunity prompts us to re-evaluate the contemporary life and ecology. When designing flags, the representatives of nature are always chosen, such as the star, the moon, the maple leaf, and the kangaroo. The earth witnesses the history and time, while people always have longed to poetically dwell on this land. People place flags on the divided land to represent their powers. While this recreated flag is not intended to claim some kind of privilege or power, but to dissolve the definition of a flag. Crossing all the boundaries and stereotypes, it is only the integration of color and life. From Xinjiang to the west of Yunnan, from the real trip to Europe to the spiritual wanderings in his heart, Lu's journey will continue. In fact, when you see that flag, you will understand that wherever he goes, he always retains a scenery in his heart.
