鲍栋｜作为本体的日常——张雪瑞绘画中的日常时间 - 麦勒画廊

张雪瑞个展“作为本体的日常”展览现场，麦勒画廊，瑞士卢森，2019

Exhibition view of Zhang Xuerui's solo show "The Everyday as Ontology", Galerie Urs Meile Lucerne, Switzerland, 2019

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作为本体的日常——张雪瑞绘画中的日常时间

文：鲍栋

要理解张雪瑞的那些通常被叫做“抽象绘画”的作品，看似并不困难，稍有经验的观众能够很快的发现她的方法，即把画面严格地用格子分割为整齐的单元，再用色彩逐格形成渐变，因此，人们第一眼通常会把她归类到后绘画性抽象、硬边抽象、极少主义，乃至光效应艺术这些西方当代艺术显流中去。但实际上，这正是讨论中国当代绘画以及其他艺术类型的难题，我们会不自觉地拿已有的（西方）艺术史框架和风格类型来面对中国当代艺术家的工作，只能停留在鉴赏和归类上，而远不能构成理解。“抽象”正是这些难题的代表之一。

如果说西方艺术中抽象主义是一种有着明确的艺术史语境的理念诉求的话，那么相对而言，中国当代的抽象艺术并没有明确的概念界定，中国的艺术家与评论家只是把“抽象”当作一种约定俗成，富有包容性但却不甚明确的风格描述概念，因为它所描述的艺术实践有着完全不同的出发点、路径与目标。“抽象”不仅在中国没有形成一种特定的艺术史叙事，反而是一种古今皆通的风格，从民间纹饰、文人书法到皇家装饰。“抽象”在中国古代传统中是一种既成事实，一种日常美学，因此一直没有产生话语（discourse）需求，也没有在传统中形成类似的评论概念。

张雪瑞，《100 201803 S》，布面丙烯，60 x 60 cm

Zhang Xuerui, 100 201803 S, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 60 cm

但西方现代主义中的抽象主义则是一种典型的话语，一种用来对抗文艺复兴以来的再现主义，并为艺术家们的非错觉主义、非具象的作品寻找合法性的话语。虽然中国的当代艺术并非其古代艺术传统的直接延伸，而是深刻地受到了西方艺术传统的影响，但从古至今，中国的艺术家从未在一种线性的艺术进化论观念下工作，因此，他们的“抽象”是与各种风格平等并列的风格类型，而不具有独立的、排他的主义立场，换句话说，他们虽然创作抽象风格的作品，但从未是抽象主义者。

对于张雪瑞这一代艺术家来说，西方当代艺术的视觉资源是更被打碎了摆在眼前，抽象只是各种可参照风格中的一种，很多人选择抽象风格并不是因为它只是西方当代艺术的重要脉络，同时也因为抽象映射了中国古代传统美学，它们一直隐含在生活习惯、社会伦理、民间风俗之中。更重要的是，抽象没有明确的题材内容，因而提供了一种区别于社会主义现实主义与政治批判艺术的实践道路，而他/她们的上一代艺术家，不管是学院的老师还是已经成名的当代艺术前辈，大都保守着这两种艺术观念。这些中国的70年代末至80年代初出生的艺术家在作品中诉求的是去除——大多数时候是过度的、强加的——政治意义，并回到作为感性学的美学。在这里，“抽象”只是提供了一个入口，他/她们作品中的抽象形式并未与具体的外部经验分割开来，因此我们不能忽视这些艺术实践背后的经验、观念、思维、方法与手段，而只把最后的物质结果作为评判对象。

因此对于张雪瑞来说，在她的“抽象”背后有着自己特别的内容和意义。她是建筑专业毕业，这多少影响了她的“格子化”的精确风格与严密的绘画方式：一旦开始画就得画完一整行格子。这不仅是一种来自建筑制图的严谨与技术上的要求（必须在颜料保持湿润的时间内完成渐变的调色衔接），也包含一种对日常时间和身体劳作的审美化体验，时间和劳动被一个个的格子可感的标记了出来，成为了自我反观和体会的对象。对她来说，以格子的方式作画，还有着一层方块字书法的经验，她画面的结构和她小时候的书法习字本一样，都以方格子为基本单元。

张雪瑞经常是从画面的三个边角入手，先确定这三块格子的色彩，其后的工作则是把它们以最不易分辨的方式过渡起来。因此，当她开始色彩渐变部分的时候，色调或者说色彩序列关系已不再是首要的工作，尤其是当她把注意力集中在一块方格之内的时候，在这个孤立的局部中，涂抹，以及对这一身体动作的控制成为了一种让人沉浸的经验。另一方面，相邻格子之间被压缩到极致的色差，则让我们把注意力集中在了最细微的色彩感知上，而对整体画面结构的知性判断被暂时悬置了，也就是说，观看也和作画一样进入了一种线性的（时间性）的体验。

张雪瑞，《100 201903-3》，布面丙烯，60 x 60 cm

Zhang Xuerui, 100 201903-3, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 60 cm

在这个意义上，张雪瑞的绘画事关我们都置身在其中的日常感，把一个细节放大，或者把一个片刻延长，只观竹穷理，而不论森林。在我们的日常经验中，周遭的生活不是作为外部客体被我们感知的，一个人自己并不会觉得头发在慢慢生长或者体重在增加，直到他看到自己去年的照片时，换句话说，日常时间是一个延续性的整体，从不主动提供意义的节点。因此，在张雪瑞的作品中，并不存在局部与整体，中心与边缘，甚至画框内与画框外的区别。一个有意义的细节是，她在一个阶段选择的格子单元几乎都是同一大小，而不受制于画框的尺寸，换句话说，她作品的整体并不先于局部，她不预设整体性、完成性这类形而上的概念，而形而上性正是西方现代主义抽象的典型特征之一。

她选择的色彩也都是复合色，更接近自然本来的外表，在她最动人的绘画作品中，渐变的色域呈现出天空的色彩，仿佛是对日光时间的记录，也像是对工作室中一天劳作的礼赞，正如她所有的绘画作品标题都只标记着完成作品的时间。相对于语言，色彩是一种高密度的符号，色彩有着无限的差异性，只要眼睛能够感知出那最微小的区别，色彩的边界几乎可以永远拓展。这一点让张雪瑞的工作带上了视觉实验的意味，但这种实验并没有预设目标，甚至没有预设起点，她对色彩的选择几乎都是随机的、即兴的，但原色和纯色这些已经概念化因而无法附着日常生活经验的色彩从来不是选项。

在分析和讨论张雪瑞绘画作品的时候，不应忽视的是她织物类型的创作，它们足以构成与她的绘画相呼应的一条线索。在这些作品中，她经常是剪下衣物或床单上的花纹——有时候是花朵、心形，有时候是圆点——再把它们排列、拼贴成另一种组合形式，通常是模仿成抽象绘画的样子。这些作品更明确地呈现着她对日常生活经验的细心端详：这件衣服是自己或者亲密朋友穿过的，那条床单来自她成长的单亲家庭，而工人帽则是老公穿旧了的，她把上面的方格子剪下来缝补成了老家旧屋的模样。对旧物的情感包含着她个人以及这一代人物质并不充裕的童年经验，而耗时且繁复的剪贴缝补，则是每一个普通家庭的女性都体验过的日常劳作。这里有一个饶有意味的对比，西方当代艺术中的“现成品”概念是针对“艺术自律”的批判，但张雪瑞的“抽象”绘画与她的织物现成品创作之间并无理念及经验上的矛盾，两者反而互相契合，共同构成了她的艺术实践。

另一个不能回避的是她的女性经验，在中国，女性艺术家的作品在整体上形成了一种不同于男性艺术家的特质，但这种特质不是女性主义话语带来的，而是传统女性社会关系的产物。如在张雪瑞这里看到的，她选择的是家庭主题、织物材料，以及一种平淡的、温和的风格，与很多中国女性艺术家一样，她也并不觉得女性就一定要占据女性主义的社会批判立场。实际上，她以及很多艺术家采取的是一种无立场的立场，无立场并不是虚无主义，而是一种不假定任何一种价值观具有先验性的立场，这正是中国的当代艺术越来越远离各种“主义”的思想背景。

讨论张雪瑞的绘画也不能脱离这一背景，尤其是这一背景中包含的对二元对立的扬弃，在她这里，艺术并不与生活对立，架上并不与非架上对立，抽象并不与再现对立，当代也并不与传统对立，因此，我们不能也无需区分她的艺术与她的生活，当她在画面上劳作了一天，也就是生活了一天，在她这里，生活和艺术都以可感的时间作为本体，都是在过日子。

The Everyday as Ontology—EverydayTime in the Painting of Zhang Xuerui
by Bao Dong

To understand the work of Zhang Xuerui, often described as “abstract painting,” seems like a simple enough task. Any experienced viewer should quickly be ableto discern her method, which is to strictly divide the canvas into an orderly grid, and to fill the units in that grid with gradually shifting colors. For this reason, people are often quick to classify her work as part of one of thevarious mainstream threads of Western contemporary art, such as post-painterly abstraction, hard edge abstraction, minimalism or op art. In fact, however, this is one of the key challenges in discussing Chinese contemporary painting or other forms of art. We often unconsciously apply the existing (Western) art history framework and stylistic typology to the work of Chinese contemporary artists, which limits us to appreciation and classification, while never forming actual understanding. “Abstraction” is representative of this challenge.

If abstraction in Western art has clear conceptual pursuits within the art history context, then in comparison, abstraction in Chinese contemporary art lacks a clear conceptual definition. Instead, Chinese artists and critics treat “abstraction” as a conventional and open concept without a clearly defined style, because the various artistic practices the term describes come from very different beginnings, and follow different paths to different goals. Not only has “abstraction” not formed into a specific art history narrative in China, it is actually a style that stretches back into ancient times, from folk decorations to literati calligraphy and imperial ornamentation. In ancient Chinese tradition, “abstraction” is an established fact, an everyday aesthetic, and for that reason, there never arose a need for discourse, nor did there ever form a corresponding set of critical concepts.

张雪瑞，《432 201903》，布面丙烯，240 x 180 cm

Zhang Xuerui, 432 201903, acrylic on canvas, 240 x 180 cm

Abstractionism is, however, a typical discourse in Western modernism, a discourse used to resist the representationalism that stretches back to the Renaissance, and to seek legitimacy for artists’ non-illusionist, non-figurative artworks. The contemporary art of China is not a direct continuation of its ancient artistic traditions, and has been heavily influenced by Western artistic traditions, however, since ancient times, Chinese artists have never worked under a linear framework of artistic evolution. For this reason, their “abstraction” is a stylistic genre that is equal to other styles, rather than an independent, exclusionary dogma. In other words, though they create artworks in an abstract style, they have never been abstractionists.

For the artists of Zhang Xuerui's generation, the visual resources of Western contemporary art have appeared before them in an even more fragmentary form. Abstraction is merely one of the many styles available to reference. Many of them choose an abstract style not solely as an important thread in Western contemporary art, but also because it reflects ancient Chinese traditional aesthetics, as something that has always been a part of habits, mores and customs. More importantly, as it does not have any clear subject matter, it provides a path for differentiation from the practices of socialist realism and politically critical artistic practices. The generation that preceded them, whether teachers in the academies or successful contemporary artists, mostly held fast to these two artistic concepts. The works of these Chinese artists born between the late 1970s and early 1980s mainly appealed for the removal of (often excessive and compulsory) political meaning, and a return to a esthetics as an emotional pursuit. Here, “abstract” merely provides an entry point. The abstract forms in their works are not necessarily cut off from concrete external experience, and so we must not overlook the experiences, ideas, thoughts, methods and means behind these artistic practices, only treating the final physical outcome as the sole subject of judgment.

For this reason, Zhang Xuerui has her own special content and meaning behind her “abstraction.” She majored in architecture, which has to some extent influenced her precise grid style and exacting painting method: once she has begun, she must continue until she finishes the entire grid. This is not only due to the rigor and technical requirements of architectural drawing (the adjoining colors in the gradient must be completed while the paintis still wet), but also encompass a process of aestheticization of everyday time and the labor of the body; time and labor have been marked down in each single individual square of the grid to become subjects of self-reflection and contemplation. For her, the grid approach to painting also evokes the experience of practicing calligraphy using square guidelines. The structure of her paintings is just like the calligraphy practice books from her childhood, using squares as their fundamental units.

Zhang Xuerui often starts with three corners of the painting, deciding the colors of these three squares. Her next task is to then form avirtually undetectable transition between them. For this reason, by the time she begins the color gradient component, the tones or the order of the colors is no longer the most important task. This is especially the case when she focuses her attention within a single grid. Within this one isolated unit, the act of painting, and the control of the body’s movements, form an immersive experience. In addition, the highly compressed color contrasts of the neighboring squares focus our attention on the finest color perceptions, while our judgment of the whole is temporarily suspended, which is to say that the viewing of the painting has, just like the act of painting itself, entered into a linear (temporal) experience.

In this sense, Zhang Xuerui's painting touches on the sense of the everyday we all inhabit, magnifying a detail, or extending a moment, concentrating on a single shaft of bamboo while ignoring the forest around it. In our everyday experience, we do not experience the life around us as an external object. People don't think that their hair is growing longer, or they are gaining weight until they see a photograph from a year ago. In other words, everyday time is a continuous whole; it never actively provides points of meaning. For this reason, in Zhang Xuerui's works, there is no distinction between part and whole, center and margins, or even inside and outside of the frame. One meaningful detail is that in a given period, the individual squares in her grids will all be virtually the same size, regardless of the dimensions of the canvas. In other words, the wholes of her artworks do not precede the parts. She does not predetermine such metaphysical concepts as wholeness or completeness, and metaphysical properties are themselves typical markers of Western modernist abstraction.

All of her chosen colors are compound colors, colors closer to the actual appearance of nature. In her most moving painted works, the gradient color fields present us with the colors of the sky, as if they are records of daylight over time, as well as a salute to a day's labor in the studio, just as her artworks are named only by the time they were completed. Compared to language, color is a highly dense sign. Colors have infinite variation, limited only by the eye’s ability to perceive them, and their boundaries seem infinitely expandable. This point gives a connotation of visual experimentation to Zhang Xuerui's work, but this experimentation does not have a presupposed goal, or even a presupposed starting point. Her choices of colors are almost entirely random and improvised, but primary or pure colors, being conceptualized and unable to take on everyday life experience, are never chosen.

In analyzing and discussing Zhang Xuerui’s painted works, we should not overlook her textile works, which form a corresponding thread to her paintings. In these works, she often cuts out patterns on clothing or blankets—sometimes flowers, sometimes hearts, sometimes circles—then rearranges and affixes them together in a new layout that often resembles an abstract painting. These artworks more clearly reveal her close examination of everyday life experience: this item of clothing is something once worn by herself or a close friend; that blanket came from the single parent home in which she grew up; this worn-down worker’s hat came from her husband. She took squares of material cut from these items, and stitched them together into a model of an old house from her hometown. Affection for old things comes from her individualexperience, and that of this generation, of material scarcity in childhood, while the slow, repetitive process of cutting and sewing is an everyday labor experienced by every household woman. There is a fascinating contrast here. In Western contemporary art, the concept of the “readymade” is a critique leveled at the “self-regulation” of art, but there is no conceptual or experiential contradiction between Zhang Xuerui's “abstract” paintings and her textile readymade creations. In fact, the two are in agreement as they come together to compose her artistic practice.

Another unavoidable point is her feminine experience. In China, women's art has overall taken shape in a way that differs from men's art, but these properties do not emerge from feminist discourse. They are instead aproduct of traditional female social relationships. As we see with Zhang Xuerui, she has chosen family themes, textile materials, as well as a prosaic, tender style. Like many Chinese woman artists, she does not feel that women must necessarily take on a feminist critical social stance. In fact, she and many others have adopted a stance-free stance. Lack of a stance is not nihilism, but is instead a stance that does not treat any particular values view as given. This is the conceptual background of Chinese contemporary art’s increasing distance from all forms of “isms.”

We must not depart from this background in our discussion of Zhang Xuerui’s painting, especially the abandonment of dichotomies this background encompasses. For her, art is not the opposite of life, on-canvas art is not the opposite of off-canvas art, abstraction is not the opposite of representation, and contemporary is not the opposite of tradition. For this reason, we have no need to distinguish between her art and her life. When she has labored on her painting for a day, she has lived for a day. Life and art are both passing the days, with perceptible time as its ontology.

Galerie Urs Meile 798