黄蓝 | 生活中真正波涛汹涌的事是不被看见的 ARTIST INTERVIEW | HUANG LAN

黄蓝的装置作品《人鱼计划》系列、《购物车与圣水》正在芳草地画廊展出。这些人鱼身首分离，在天上飞而非海中游。来观展的小朋友指着金色人鱼惊呼，“妈妈，美人鱼断了。”

The series of installation works by Huang Lan titled Mermaid Project and Shopping Cart&Holy Water are currently on display at Parkview Green Art. The mermaids’ heads and tails are separated: they don’t swim in the sea, but they seem to fly in the sky. Children visiting the exhibition point the golden mermaids with surprise: “Mom, the mermaid is broken!”. 

△ 人鱼计划、购物车与圣水装置现场，芳草地画廊

Installation view of Mermaid Project, Shopping Cart&Holy Water, Parkview Green Art

这是艺术家制作的人鱼“标本”。她观察到人类有种奇特的癖好：把自己喜爱却已消逝之物做成标本，把它们努力留在身边并炫耀。黄蓝喜欢美丽的事物，也喜欢标本。把人鱼标本安装在镜子上，欣赏标本的同时也观察到我们自身。

These works represent mermaid specimens created by the artist. Huang Lan realized that human beings have developed a strange habit: they tend to create and display specimen of those things that they like but that are about to fade away. Huang Lan likes beautiful things, but also specimen. The mermaid specimens are installed into the mirrors: the viewers can look at themselves while contemplating the mermaids. 

“我做‘标本‘是因为我真的很喜欢，

我有造物的欲望。”——黄蓝

“I make specimens as I really like them,

and I have a strong desire to express my creative force.”

 -Huang Lan

《购物车与圣水》是艺术家数年前的行为艺术“圣水”的迭代。金色购物车上用坚固的铝丝和铁丝捆绑一束束名为“圣水”的气球，气球有的下垂至地面如同熟透的果实，有的直戳展览空间天花板，模样十分为难。

Shopping Cart&Holy Water is a continuation of the artist’s performance from the past year titled Holy Water. Inflatable balloons called Holy Water are fixed to the golden shopping cart through aluminium and steel wires. Some of the balloons sag to the ground, some others reach the ceiling of the exhibition space: the overall visual impact is deliberately awkward.   

△ 左: 艺术家黄蓝布展 L: Huang Lan installing the works

右: 黄蓝装置作品现场，芳草地画廊

R: Installation view of Huang Lan's works, Parkview Green Art

黄蓝说她的作品“像日记一样，没有线索串联，睁眼就做作品，做到闭眼。”这其实是她对自己工作方法的描述，依靠日复一日的劳作积累经验、反思、再创作。而就作品本身，并非如她自己所言“没有线索”。在展览空间，地面一条金色虚线将她的作品串联起来。可以看到，黄蓝的作品由统一且可识别的外部形象出发，内在逻辑线随创作时间增长而渐进丰富。

Huang Lan says that her works are like a diary with no continuity and connections. She makes works when she wakes up until she goes to bed. This is how she talks about her working process which is based on a daily effort to accumulate experience, to rethink and to ultimately create. Her works are not without connections as she says. In the exhibition hall, a yellow line on the floor connects her works on display. We can see that all her works share a unitary and recognizable external appearance as the starting point: the more she creates, the more the inner logic of her works gets strengthened. 

和黄蓝对话，会意识到她是一个健谈且真诚的艺术家。她十分明确自己的创作初衷与目标，当有人问起，也几乎听不到模棱两可的答案。

Talking to her, we can discover a talkative and sincere artist. She has a very clear vision about the original intention and the final aim of her works; when she is interviewed, she doesn't give any ambiguous answer.

P = PVG ART  芳草地画廊

H = HUANG LAN 黄蓝 

P：《购物车和圣水》是为这次展览更新过的作品，原先捆绑气球的细线由铝丝和铁丝替代。这些名为“圣水”的气球装置最初在博览会上亮相过吧？

Shopping Cart&Holy Water is a new work specifically conceived for this exhibition. The thin threads attached to the balloons are in aluminium and steel. The installation made of balloons called Holy Water was initially presented at an art fair, is that correct?

H：对，2015年的艺术北京上，我穿着修女的衣服推着购物车卖《圣水》，一个《圣水》卖30块钱，希望和博览会产生一点小冲突，类似在博览会上卖菜的感觉，也希望逛艺博会观众可以带点什么走，把“纪念品”广泛传播出去。本来计划卖5000个，可博览会开始的时候气球才到了200个，只好这样。

Yes, it was presented at Art Beijing in 2015. In that occasion, I was dressed up like a nun pushing a shopping cart and selling Holy Water for 30 yuan each. I wanted to have a confrontational and provocative approach towards the fair: I was out of context as if I was selling vegetables at an art fair. I was also hoping that viewers could take something away with them as souvenirs. The original plan was to sell 5000 balloons but in the end, when the fair started, just 200 balloons were delivered so that was the best that we could do. 

△ 2015年黄蓝在博览会 Huang Lan at the Art Fair, 2015

后来真有朋友在饭店吃饭，看到小朋友手里拿着我的“圣水”。我的气球飞到天上，飞到大兴、昌平，然后消失。还真是我想实现的那样。

Afterwards, my friends saw a kid holding my Holy Water in a restaurant. My balloons flied up to the sky to reach Daxing, Changping, and then to ultimately disappear. This is what I wanted to achieve. 

《圣水》是符号，也是信仰。气球拿到手的时候是平面的，内部填充的东西才最重要。但填充的氢气、空气本身又很飘渺。“云泥”布展的时候你说用铁丝把气球固定在购物车上更好，我是认同的。气球变成了气球标本，变成了模拟气球的气球，它从来都不能飞，挺悲剧的。

Holy Water is a symbol and a belief. When you first take a balloon, it is flat. The thing inside is more important, while the hydrogen and the air the balloon is filled with are extremely ethereal. When we were setting up the exhibition Parallel Convergences, you suggested to use steel wires to fix the balloons to the shopping cart and I agreed. Balloons themselves became specimens and reproductions of real balloons without their original function: these balloons indeed could not fly and that was really tragic.   

P：为什么你的作品大量采用金色？

Why do you often use golden color in your works?

H：金色是灵魂的色彩，具有精神属性。金色非常漂亮，也因此成为人类的执念。

Gold is the colour of the soul and therefore it has a spiritual connotation. Gold is also a beautiful colour and therefore it became an obsession for humans. 

P：你创作的关键是什么？

What is the crucial point of your creation? 

H：我现在想明白了，艺术家年轻时可以靠荷尔蒙，我也承认有到80岁还拥有强烈荷尔蒙的艺术家，但我不是那样的人。对我来说，重要的是保护好我的天赋并持续输出。

I think that now I understand that only young artists could rely on hormones: I also know that there are artists that rely on their hormones until their 80s, but I am not like that. For me what is important is to protect my talent and to continue to be productive. 

25 × 35 cm 2017

创作是一个渐进的过程，我对重复特别着迷，做（人鱼计划）鱼尾巴的鳞片特别像农民插秧，我喜欢炫耀我耕作后的一大片“田地”。

Artistic creation is a progressive process: I am very fascinated by the concept of repetition. When I was working on the Mermaid Project, the creation of the scales on the tale of the mermaid looked similar to rice transplanting: I like the idea of presenting my work as farming on a large field.  

人到底还是渺小的。我认为伟大的事情，是把有限的生命投入在重复的动作上。所以我一直以来都喜欢沉重的作品。那种四两拨千斤的作品，我觉得也ok，只不过我不是那类艺术家。

Humans are very insignificant creatures. I think that the core of great things lies in the capacity of placing life within a process of repetition, taking into account its temporal limits. This is why I always like uneasy works. I think that small and simple works with a strong and powerful visual effect are interesting too, however I am not that kind of artist.  

P：为了重复而重复吗？

Would you pursue repetition for its own sake?

H：不是为了重复而重复，因为我相信那件事，我才会去耗费时间。无论花多少钱做一个作品，如果看不到时间在其中，我就不觉得珍贵。壁画、哥特教堂，都太伟大了。

Not really. I spend time for the things I believe. It doesn’t matter how much money one can invest in an artwork, if it doesn’t encompass the notion of time then I don’t really value it. Frescos, gothic churches are all great works of art. 

P：当艺术家对你而言意味着什么？

What does being an artist mean for you?

H：艺术家不是给答案的人啊！艺术家要思考，要把自己剖开给别人看。所以我们应该看到五花八门的艺术家。

Artists are not meant to provide people with solutions. They need to think and to unveil to other people what they have observed and analysed. It is important to see the works of a wide range of artists. 

P：好像很难不被归类为“女艺术家”。“女艺术家”对你来说又意味着什么？

It is difficult not to be labelled as a “female artist”. What does “female artist” mean to you? 

H：以情绪为创作主题的女艺术家确实偏多，女性艺术家成功案例太少，注定了女艺术家的创作会有雷同现象。我很喜欢Louise Bourgeois，也喜欢Kiki Smith，但女艺术家的创作肯定要改变的，不可能继续那样下去。

There are many female artists who consider emotions and feelings as main topics of their artistic creation. Female artists are bound to develop similarities in their artistic creation and successful female artists are rare. I love artists such as Louise Bourgeois and Kiki Smith. However, female artists’ creative directions need to change, they cannot continue like this.  

我不为女性主义而创作，只是作品完成之后，或许能够看到一些女性主义的痕迹。作为女性艺术家，一定会有人问你女性主义是什么，我也被迫着看完《第二性》，看完觉得没什么用。

Feminism does not influence my creative process. Maybe, once the work is completed, elements of feminism can be detected in the artwork. As a female artist, I cannot help to be asked what I think about feminism. I felt obliged to read The Second Sex, but I found it rather useless. 

△ 剧情片系列 Feature Film Series

 综合材料 Mixed media

35 × 50 cm each 2017

P：你的灵感源泉和创作动机？

What is your source of inspiration and the pivotal force for your artistic creation?

H：灵感源泉是漫画、电影、游戏。我平时感兴趣的不是艺术，但好的艺术作品的确给我能量。我现在画的坦培拉系列，是我对日常生活的感想：餐桌引起我的兴趣，两个吃饭的人，边吃边交流。人在进食的场景下可能非常真实，因为“吃”这个行为和“拉”一样是很本源的。

The inspiration comes from cartoons, films, videogames. I am not necessarily just interested in art, however good artworks give me energy. The series of tempera works I am currently working on reflects my perception about daily life: a table, two people eating and chatting together are all elements that might awaken my interest. People captured while they are in the dining room are very authentic: the act of eating, like other physical needs, is very basic and essential. 

同时我对日常生活也有一种排斥，我不觉得结婚、生子、做饭是理所当然，我画女孩在厨房洗碗，是我想象这一刻的她可能默默在和日常生活决裂或妥协。我记得有一幅画叫《决定性的一刻》，是描绘一个女孩先把腿翘起来，然后又把腿放下了。其实生活中真正波涛汹涌的事情是不被看见的。

At the same time, I have a repulsion for daily life. I don’t consider marriage, pregnancy, cooking as necessary and natural elements in life. When I paint a girl washing dishes in the kitchen, I imagine her struggling with the routine of her daily life or compromising with it. I remember a painting titled The Decisive Moment depicting the image of a young lady lifting and bringing down her leg. The real roaring waves of life usually cannot be seen.  

我从2015年持续创作至今的漫画《红的故事》，是我对之前的系列装置人鱼计划的延伸，在人鱼形象基础上加入了清晰的叙事线。我不忌讳谈论黑暗的事物，我希望大家可以直面它们，它们只是没有被认可的美好。

Since 2015 I have been working on the cartoon The Story of Red, which it is a continuation of the previous series of Mermaid Project: taking the mermaid form as a basis, more narrative elements are added. It is not a taboo for me to talk about dark things: I hope everyone can face them as they also hide a special beauty that is just not recognized. 

黄蓝 Huang Lan