国家美术·展讯丨现实之墟——曾杨个展

亭台、楼阁、白塔、太湖石、旋转木马、火车、模糊的书法、永乐宫壁画中的人物形象、?战士兵形象、舞女……曾杨的绘画中总是有各种各样的形象。这些形象以不同的方式组合、交错与叠加，以蒙太奇的方式呈现于画布之上。蒙太奇是?种视觉编辑的方式。曾杨正是以这样的方式编辑着那些看似毫无关联的形象，甚至，他有意识地制造形象与形象之间的距离。

▲曾杨《北国风光》200x250cm 布面丙烯 2019

▲曾杨《被播放的神像》150x120cm 布面丙烯 2019

?般意义上，形象叙事是通过关联形象表述?个与此有关的主题。不过，曾杨未采用这样的方式来进行叙事。形象与形象之间跨度之大，这常常会带给观者?些理解上的困惑。在这?点上，曾杨的作品又像早期超现实主义处理形象的方式，只不过，曾杨无意去探讨潜意识与梦境。相反，他是通过形象的大跨度来建构?个有关现实认知的框架，扩展对现实理解的边界。

▲曾杨《踱马》200x300cm 布面丙烯 2019

▲曾杨《鹿的象征》160x190cm 布面丙烯 2018

曾杨所建构的有关现实的认知框架是宏大的，这不但包含了横向的文化关系，也加入了历史与政治的维度。曾杨绘画中的现实，不再是通过具体的场景、人物与叙事所揭露的真实存在，更不是对眼睛所见所进行的无差别的再现，而是以宏观的视交角审视了现实是如何形成的。那些看似离我们已经远去和那些看似不在我们生活中的形象，某种意义上更有助于我们理解何为现实，并以剥离表象的?式来洞察现实之本质。

▲曾杨《马夫》40x30cmx3 布面丙烯 2019

▲曾杨《墨者赴会》200x250cm 布面丙烯 2019

“现实之墟”是?个认识现实的视角，具体地说，是?个艺术家认识他身处其中的现实的视角。从绘画的形象来看，曾杨有关其生活环境的着笔很少。“现实”仿佛是缺席的。经由艺术家的编辑，那些看似与现实无关的形象成为画面的在场者，占据着画布和观者的眼睛。艺术家似乎在制造?个悖论，即现实以缺席的方式存在着。

▲曾杨《三清殿南》200x250cm 布面丙烯 2019

▲曾杨《视而不见》200x250cm 布面丙烯 2019

曾杨眼中的现实，既是?个?化概念，也是?个历史与政治的概念。每?个个体都不是孤立存在的，而是自?出生就与这个世界发生着千丝万缕的关系。这些千丝万缕的关系构成了他所生活现实。曾杨出生与成长于中国改革开放的环境中，亲历了中国近三十多年来的日新月异的社会变迁。任何社会变革时期，都存在着新观念与旧观念、历史与未来之间的争锋。中国改革开放不只是社会新与旧纵深维度的讨论，更是对如何面向?个更开放的世界的思考与实践。传统与当代、历史与现实、地方经验与全球化、城市与乡村……。这些问题是曾杨成长、学习和后来生活中都会不断遭遇的现实。在任何?对两级关系之间，都还包含着更复杂的问题。对于曾杨和很多中国人来说，这并不只是?个简单的在 A 与 B 进行选择的题目。于曾杨而言，现实是?个不确定的存在。因此，他虽然?直是围绕着现实展开思考和创作，但很少采用某?特定场景、空间、人群、事件等来表达对现实的思考，而是通过更复杂的形象关系来追问现实是如何构成的。中国改革开放以来的成就已是引人注目的景观，彷佛她正在实现几代中国人关于民族复兴的伟大梦想。作为?个中国艺术家，曾杨却以?种冷眼旁观的姿态审视着这?切——已实现的繁荣和被许诺的复兴，更像是某种历史问题的回响——现实就像?个有待被清理和重建的废墟。

——克劳迪娅·晒佛 博士

▲曾杨《痛饮》50x190cm 布面丙烯 2019

▲曾杨《童话与神话》200x250cm 布面丙烯 2019

Pavilions, white towers, Taihu stones, carousels,trains, fuzzy calligraphy, characters in the murals of Yongle Palace, the imageof soldiers of World War II, dancers... There are always various images in ZengYang’s paintings. These images are combined, interlaced andsuperimposed in different ways and presented on the canvas in a montage manner.Montage is a way of visual editing. In this way, Zeng Yang edited the seeminglyunrelated images, and even he consciously created the distance between theimages and the images.

▲曾杨《王阳明山居》150x120cm 布面丙烯 2019

In a general sense, image narrative is a related themethrough a related image. However, Zeng Yang did not use such a method fornarrative. The span between image and image is often used to give viewers someconfusion. At this point, Zeng Yang's works are like the way of earlysurrealism to deal with images, but Zeng Yang has no intention to exploresubconsciousness and dreams. Instead, he constructs a framework of realisticcognition through the large span of image and expands the boundaries ofunderstanding of reality.

▲曾杨《永结同心》 40x140cm 布面丙烯 2019

The cognitive framework of Zeng Yang’s reality is grand, which not only includes horizontal culturalreference, but also joins the historical and political dimensions. The realityin Zeng Yang's paintings is no longer the real existence exposed by specificscenes, characters and narratives, nor the indiscriminate reproduction of whatthe eyes see, but a macroscopic perspective on how reality is formed of. Thoseimages that seem to be far away from us and those that seem to be out of ourlives are, in a sense, more conducive to understanding what is reality, and toreveal the essence of reality in a way that distracts the appearance.

▲曾杨《说谎者》40x30cmx4 布面丙烯 2019

“The reality of shambles” is a perspective to understandreality. Specifically, it is an artist's perspective on the reality he livewithin. In his paintings, Zeng Yang has very few descriptions about his livingenvironment. "Reality" seems to be absent. Through the artist'sexpression , those images that appear to be unrelated to reality become thepresenters of the picture, occupying the eyes of the canvas and the viewer. Theartist seems to be creating a paradox that reality exists in an absent way.

▲曾杨《预言家的幻觉》 120x150cm 布面丙烯 2019

The reality in Zeng Yang’s eyes is botha cultural concept and a concept of history and politics. Every individual doesnot exist in isolation, but has a very inextricable relationship with the worldsince birth. These inextricable relationships constitute the reality of hislife. Born and raised in China's reform and opening up environment, Zeng Yanghas experienced the ever-changing social changes in China for nearly threedecades. In any period of social change, there is a struggle between new ideasand old ideas, history and the future. China's reform and opening up is notonly a discussion of the new and old dimensions of society, but also areflection on how to face a more open future world. Tradition and contemporary,history and reality, local experience and globalization, cities and villages...These problems are the reality that Zeng Yang will continue to encounter in hisgrowth, study and later life. There are more complex issues between any pair oftwo-level relationships. For Zeng Yang and many Chinese, this is not just asimple question for choosing between A and B. In Zeng Yang, reality is anuncertain existence. Therefore, although he has been thinking and creatingaround reality, he rarely uses a specific scene, space, crowd, event, etc. toexpress his thoughts on reality, but through more complex image relationshipsto ask how reality is composed of. The achievements since China's reform andopening up have been a striking landscape, as if she is realizing the greatdreams of several generations of Chinese people on national rejuvenation. As aChinese artist, Zeng Yang looks at it all with a cold?eyed attitude – the realized prosperity and the promised revival are more like thereverberation of some historical issue.

- Reality islike a shambles to be cleaned and rebuilt.