{{sindex}}/{{bigImglist.length}}

【展览现场】鞠婷：“鳞” | Ju Ting: "Scales"

{{newsData.publisher_name}} {{newsData.update_time}} 浏览：{{newsData.view_count}}

来源 | {{newsData.source}} 作者 | {{newsData.author}}

力量的层次

Layers of Force

艺术家创作方法的形成，总是伴随着偶然性。鞠婷最初在工作室碰巧发现了一块剩余的木板，随后每天漫无目的地在木板上涂抹层层颜料。颜料积累到一定程度之后，艺术家逐渐对表面以下产生的层次印象模糊。当鞠婷决定使用木刻刀刻开画面、观察其内部结构时，她似乎瞬间找到某种能够持续推进的视觉语言。

The formation of an artist’s creative approach always entails serendipity. Ju Ting’s began when she discovered a leftover wooden board in her studio, and aimlessly applied a layer of paint on it each day. As the paint accumulated, the artist's impressions of the layers beneath the surface began to fade. When she decided to take a carving knife to the surface of this image in order to examine the inner structure, it appears she had suddenly found a visual language she could sustainably push forward.

如果仔细观察，我们能够辨识艺术家嵌入“珍珠”系列作品的若隐若现的层次。展览现场的观众在水平方向移动的过程中，更容易感受到画面竖刻线条的色彩变化。光学节奏激活了原本平坦的二维空间，从而在画面创造运动。肌理为观看带来的互动关系并未停留在表面，而是打开具有延展性的空间。“珍珠”系列隐约可见的横向分割层是由垂直方向往内部刻的并排线条产生的，鞠婷进而希望画面空间能够向外部延伸，便将刻至一半的线条外翻并搭靠于表面。“+-”系列由此在作品中部构成一条明显的分界线，提示正负空间之间的相互转化。

If we look closely, we can distinguish the faintly visible layers the artist embedded into the Pearl series. As the viewers in the exhibition space move sideways, they are more likely to perceive the shifting colors of the vertical lines cut into the picture. Optical rhythm catalyzes a once plain two-dimensional space, creating motion within the picture. The interactive relationship brought about by the texture does not stop at the surface but opens up an expansive space. The faintly visible horizontal divisions in the Pearl series are produced by the rows of parallel lines cut perpendicularly into the painting. Hoping to extend the painted space outward, Ju Ting has peeled back half-cut strips of paint and laid them on the surface. Along these lines, the +- series forms a clear division line which presents the transition between positive and negative space.

鞠婷，《珍珠 070319》， 2019，木板丙烯，224 × 184 × 7.5 cm

Ju Ting, Pearl 070319, 2019, acrylic on board, 224 × 184 × 7.5 cm

从“珍珠”系列、“+-”系列到“无题”系列，艺术家把系统的工作方式逐步开放给观者。受过多年版画专业训练的鞠婷，倾向于将实验的肌理保留在下层，颜料一遍遍覆盖到最上层，表面依旧保持平整。艺术家选择从自己较为熟悉的水性材料特别是丙烯入手，进行媒介研究。稀释的丙烯能够产生油水分离的状态。这意味着，如果相邻的颜料层没有紧密粘合，刻刀划过时它们可能已经自动裂开。发生在“珍珠”系列与“+-”系列的分离现象让鞠婷意识到，每层颜料之间存在被完全打开的可能性。因此，她在“无题”系列沿用水性材料、并令其油水分离的属性充分发挥，将几片“满屏”涂刷、晾干的颜料从所在木板整体剥离，穿插拼搭于另一块边框面积略小的木板上。不论是贯穿于各个系列中创作材料的随机破裂，还是经过人力控制而在作品表面叠加的一条条翻开或整片撕开的层次，都体现了艺术家在不经意间或主动展示给观众的工作进程。

From the Pearl and +- series to the Untitled series, the artist has progressively opened up her work process to the viewer. Having undergone years of professional training in printmaking, Ju Ting tends to preserve the textures of experimentation in the lower layers, with the surface maintaining smoothness as layers of paint are added atop one another. The artist began her medium research with more familiar water-based materials, such as acrylic. With diluted acrylic, it is possible for the water and oil to separate. This means that if the neighboring layers of paint are not applied tightly enough, they will crack open their own accord in the carving process. The splitting that took place in the Pearl and +- series showed Ju Ting the potential for completely opening up each layer of paint. For this reason, she has continued to use water-based paints in the Untitled series and encouraged the division between water and oil to its fullest. In this series, a wooden panel is fully coated in layers of paint, which are peeled away whole, then draped over a slightly smaller panel in succession. The random damaging of the creative material across various series, as well as the controlled stacking of peeled or unfolded layers all embody the artist's unconscious, or even active presentation of her work process to the viewer.

鞠婷，《珍珠 070119》，局部，2019，木板丙烯，152 x 123 x 7 cm
Ju Ting, Pearl 070119, detail, 2019, acrylic on board, 152 x 123 x 7 cm

让我们把注意力从作品的正面转移到侧面，艺术家在此为自己以及观众提供重访创作秩序的线索，如同便于查找关键词的索引。鞠婷通常把木板平放在地上，四周溢出的颜料沿边缘垂直流动、凝固成形。暴露在外的色彩提醒艺术家之前的工作所遮盖的颜料种类，画面的扁平性在侧面被拆分检索。类似地，鞠婷在创作的过程中会选择性地刻开作品局部，抽样检验其内在结构。她通过信息的提取与测试获得控制力和偶然性之间的平衡。换言之，艺术家之手的在场让看似规律的构图偏离机械实施的整齐划一。涂抹颜料的薄厚、是否均匀，刻出线条的宽窄、深浅，撕动某层颜料的力量大小、速度与方向……这些手工控制的因素在层次之间相互作用，操作者时而故意破坏画面、制造肌理，时而欣然接受小差错(glitch)无意塑造的美学。

Let us shift our focus from the front of the artwork to the side, where the artist provides a thread for herself and the audience to trace back the creative order, like an index of key terms. Ju Ting often lays the wood panel flat on the ground. The paint that is poured over it spills out over the edges and solidifies in that form. The colors exposed outside are a reminder of the types of paints covered over by the artist’s work, while the flatness of the picture is pulled apart and indexed along the sides. Along similar lines, Ju Ting will selectively cut open portions of the painting during the creative process as if taking a sample of its inner structure. Through the extraction and testing of information, she achieves a balance between control and serendipity. In other words, the presence of the artist's hand causes the apparently orderly composition to deviate from mechanical uniformity. Adjusting the thickness and evenness of the paint applications, changing the depth and width of the carved lines, tearing away layers at different levels of force and speed... These different elements of manual control influence each other across layers, with the operator sometimes intentionally damaging the picture and producing texture, and sometimes happily accepting the unconscious aesthetic of glitches.

鞠婷，《无题 102318》，2018，木板丙烯，112 × 101 × 10 cm

Ju Ting, Untitled 102318, 2018, acrylic on board, 112 × 101 × 10 cm

如果说刻刀在“珍珠”系列与“+-”系列中代替了画笔的角色，形成笔触；到了“无题”系列，画面所呈现的痕迹在很大程度上是由艺术家自身的行为(act)产生的。恰恰是一系列绘画动作的演变，将“珍珠”、“+-”、“无题”这三种实验的脉络交织在一起。乍一看，从“珍珠”系列与“+-”系列发展到“无题”系列，鞠婷的创作似乎经历了某种跳跃性的阶段。相较而言，来自“珍珠”系列以及“+-”系列的作品大多带有调和的灰色调的视觉效果，而“无题”系列在色彩上则显得纯度更高、节奏明快。事实上，每个系列的准备工作都包含颜料的平涂与覆盖，艺术家选择以不同的方式处理层层叠加的色彩。“珍珠”系列把原本种类丰富的颜色进行时空压缩，切割并抽取瞬间；“+-”系列将悬置(pending)的状态固定在线条被刻开的中途；“无题”系列展现内部色彩结构的手法从线性的切割转向大面积的撕裂分离。当颜料积累到一定厚度时，其可塑性(plasticity)有助于形成“+-”系列衍生的正负空间以及“无题”系列由多层合并产生的正反双面色彩。由此可见，看似创作跨度较大的系列作品之间在观念与材料、技法层面始终保持着内在的延续性。

If in the Pearl and +- series, the knife took over the role of the paintbrush and formed brushstrokes, then in the Untitled series, the traces in the picture are largely produced by the acts of the artist herself. The evolution of a series of painting actions is the thread that weaves the experiments of the Pearl, +- and Untitled series together. At first glance, it would seem that a major leap took place in Ju Ting's creations from the Pearl and +- series to the Untitled series. In comparison, the works from the Pearl and +- series mainly use mixed gray tones, while the colors in the Untitled series seem to have higher purity and a lighter rhythm. In fact, the preparatory process for each series included applying and covering layers of paint, while in each series, the artist chose to manipulate the stacked layers in different ways. The Pearl series engaged in spatiotemporal compression of what began as a rich array of colors, cutting and extracting moments. The +- series fixed a pending status within the path of lines being carved open. The Untitled series presents the transition from carving to broad tearing of inner chromatic structures. Once the paint has reached a certain thickness, its plasticity allows for the formation of the positive and negative space generated in the +- series, and the multilayered colors in the Untitled series. From this we can see that what appear to be creatively disparate series actually maintain internal continuity on the levels of conception, material and technique.

鞠婷，《无题 062019》，2019，木板丙烯，167 × 133 × 12 cm

Ju Ting, Untitled 062019, 2019, acrylic on board, 167 × 133 × 12 cm

鞠婷的实践难以被简单归类为抽象绘画。她在早期的系列“聚集的大多数”中曾经刻过图案，但是从学生时代逐渐进入独立创作阶段后，艺术家决定摒弃相对具体的形象。鞠婷试图将再现性的叙事或象征性的内容排除在自己的工作序列以外。然而，一层层的色彩以及由手工或工具辅助施加在颜料上的力量视觉化了某种无法言说甚至并不直观的现实(reality)。换言之，形式探索在各个创作系列之内以及三个系列之间生成细微差别与变奏，艺术语言的推进走向了系统的、时刻包含不确定性的物质现实(material reality)。丙烯颜料本身流畅轻盈的特性为观者带来体验的即时感(immediacy)与视觉的亲近感(intimacy)；材料的物质性和艺术家的绘画行为(act of painting)达成静止与动态之间的相互作用。特别是以“无题”系列为例，整片颜料的覆盖、撕扯、折叠演示着破碎的暴力与垂坠的重力。颜料叠加的准备工作令人联想到Photoshop创建一组图层的原理。图像处理软件的使用者点击鼠标便可轻松选择图层所要填充的颜色、透明度、置换背景（最底层图像）与常规图层前后顺序等属性，并随时查看多个图层合并后的效果。不同于数字图像扁平化的生产，鞠婷的创作方法让外力作用于每个“图层”，被切割、翻折、撕裂的画面呈现出延展性与雕塑感，似乎形式从图像的内部有机生发。最终，艺术家的创作结构在时间、空间与观念上表现为力量的层次。

It is hard to simply classify Ju Ting's practice as abstract painting. She previously carved graphic patterns in the early series Concentrated Majority, but as she transitioned from student to independent creator, she gave up on concrete forms. Ju Ting attempted to exclude representational narrative or symbolic content from her work process. Yet the layers of color and the various forces applied to them both by hand and by tool have visualized an indescribable, even obscure reality. In other words, formal exploration has formed minute shifts and variations between and within each creative series, while the progression of the artistic language has come to approach a systematic material reality marked by constant uncertainty. The fluidity and lightness of acrylic paints brings the viewer a sense of immediacy and visual intimacy, while the artist and the physical properties of the materials achieve interplay between stillness and motion. This is especially the case for the Untitledseries, with the covering, peeling and stacking of entire layers of color demonstrating destructive violence and sagging weight. The preparatory process for stacking layers of paint is evocative of the principle of image layers in Photoshop. The user of the image manipulation software can choose to fill a layer with color, change its transparency, switch its background (the bottom image layer), or rearrange the order of the layers at the click of a mouse, and compare the effect of multiple layers stacked together with ease. Unlike the flattened production of digital images, Ju Ting's creative approach applies external forces on each “image layer.” The cut, folded, and torn picture is expansive and sculptural, as if form is organically generating from within the image. In the end, the artist’s creative structure manifests in time, space and conception as layers of force.

文：缪子衿 Miao Zijin

翻译：谢飞 Jeff Crosby

该文章将与凯伦·史密斯为鞠婷撰写的文章《鞠婷：洋葱皮》共同收录于鞠婷本次展览画册《鞠婷：洋葱》之中，画册将于近日出版。

This text will be included in the exhibition catalogue Ju Ting: Peeling an Onion together with Ju Ting: Onion Skins written by Karen Smith, on the occasion of the show entitled Ju Ting: Scales at Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing, China.The catalogue will be published in the near future.

点击阅读原文跳转至凯伦·史密斯：《鞠婷：洋葱皮》

Click to read more and jump to Karen Smith: Ju Ting: Onion Skins