墨方Mocube | 蔡龙飞：表面 Cai Longfei: Surface

墨方荣幸地宣布，我们将于2022年11月12日举办艺术家蔡龙飞的最新展览“表面”。展览将持续到2022年12月25日。

组装木框，绷上画布，仔细检查木质内框的每一个细纹，在确定没有问题后，用砂纸轻柔地反复打磨并刷上乳胶，做好保护。翻到画框正面，开始根据所描绘的形象按照比例精确地打上格子……在蔡龙飞绘画开始前，这一切复杂、繁琐、不具意义的行动都是为了呈现出一个他所预设的“表面”。

这样的“表面”从图像的主体出发。因此，蔡龙飞大量的工作都在绘画进行以前：修改、变形、放大、缩小等，在一系列的动作过后，来自现实的图像开始转换其自身所存在的语位，形成一个自闭的图像世界。在这个离间现实世界的图像王国中，具体所描绘的形象在实际存在中的固有意义完全被消解，潜藏在背后的内容开始发散出强烈的普遍性，成为意义的“表面”。

此刻，我们所熟知的形象载体以一种空心化样貌显现出来，观者需要借助自身的视觉经验，展开对图像表面信息的重新获取。例如《动作》和《模型》这两个系列，蔡龙飞所描绘的信息点都不在于形象本体，而是形象本体在作为图像时所产生细微变化的表面。“断章取义”的方式试图压制形象符号成为艺术知识的对象或感知材料的信息源，并有效抑制符号化的内容简单地出现在观者既定的记忆和想象里。当我们借着略显晦暗的色调细细看去，那从表现语言苟延下来的体态和日常所见的模型，将“再现”的概念推到了一种紧张的戏剧性关系中，往后退是现实的符号世界，向前行是丰沛的图像语言，蔡龙飞所描绘的形象片段在此时恰如“踽踽独行”一词所形容的样子，被完全悬置在一个视觉的情境当中。

故此，蔡龙飞的绘画工作更像是一个长期的项目，通过绘画对事物的篡改、重置，形成意识的洞穿（Acies  Mentis），成为直接观看主体的构建行动。这种行动并非只是将实际现象隐藏在表面之下的妄想行为，而是强调出这种绘画实践本身，如同蔡龙飞所述：“今天绘画更大的意义是对于绘画者本身，它塑造或者说改变着绘画者自身的认知方式，通过肉眼与手的动作，低效地描摹着图像世界，在这个意义上，绘画过程还是一种还原方式，是从身体出发的原始体验。”而“表面”则往往是我们忽略或看不到的部分，但它本身就是意义的沃土。   

文/杨西

Mocube is honoured to present Cai Longfei’s latest exhibition Surface. The exhibition will run until the 25th of December 2022.

Assemble the stretcher bars, stretch the canvas, and carefully check every fine line of the inner frame to be sure. Sand with sandpaper gently and repeatedly and brush with PVA glue to protect it. Flip to the front of the canvas, the artist begins to make grids proportionally according to the depicted image. Before Cai Longfei starts painting, all these complicated, tedious and meaningless actions are to prepare a surface that he presets.

The subject of the image starts from such a surface. Therefore, Cai Longfei does a lot of work before painting: modification, deformation, enlargement, reduction, etc. After a series of actions, the image from reality begins to transform its language, forming a self-enclosed image world. In this image kingdom that alienates the real world, the inherent meaning of the concretely depicted images in the actual existence is completely dissolved, and the hidden content begins to radiate a strong universality and becomes the persona of meaning.

At this moment, the well-known imagery carrier appears in a hollow form, and the viewers need to re-acquire the surface information of the image using their own visual experience. For example, in the two series Motion and Model, instead of representing the object, Cai intends to depict the subtle change when the object becomes the surface of the image. The method of taking out of context attempts to suppress semiotics as the source of perception or the object of artistic knowledge, and effectively inhibit the symbolic content from appearing in the established memory or imagination of the viewers. Looking at the dark opaque colour closely, the models we see in daily life and the postures derived from expressive language push the concept of representation into a tense and dramatic relationship. Stepping back is the reality of the symbolic world. Moving forward is a rich image language. The image fragments depicted by Cai Longfei seem to be walking alone, completely suspended in a visual situation.

Therefore, Cai Longfei's painting work is more like a long-term project. Through painting, tampering and repositioning things, formatting consciousness penetration (Acies Mentis), becomes a constructive act revealing the subject. This action is not a delusional behaviour that hides the actual phenomenon under the surface but emphasizes the practicality of painting. As Cai Longfei claims," The greater meaning of painting today is to shape or change the way of cognition of the painter. Through the action of naked eye and hand representing the world in image inefficiently, in which painting is a way of restoration and a spontaneous experience." The surface is often the part that we neglect whereas it is fertile ground for meaning.

Text by Yang Xi

蔡龙飞，1987年出生于甘肃，2015年硕士毕业于西安美术学院，现于西安美术学院从事绘画艺术的博士研究。他的作品在特定空间内选择和并置，将片段式的绘画形成近似于文本的编排，进而衍生出一种复杂的磁场效应。与此同时，所营造的图像矩阵便开始作为象征性的煽动者对观众的记忆、幻想和沉思进行煽动。近年主要个展有：“模型”，南山社，西安（2020）；“测试盒”，OCAT当代艺术中心西安馆，西安（2016）等。

杨西，博士、策展人、写作者、艺术史研究者。现生活工作于西安。

墨方Mocube

墨方Mocube，2015年创立于北京798艺术区，是一家充满实验、开拓和多元立场的独立艺术空间。成立至今，墨方成功举办了众多风格各异且具开创性的展览，合作超过一百多位活跃于当下最前沿的艺术家与策展人，涵盖各种媒介和思潮。墨方立足本土立场，从自身现实出发，通过持续且深入的观察与行动，以探索当前艺术的趋势与可能为己任，积极沟通过去与未来，鼓励和推动一切富有创见与活力的非凡实践，并与公众分享最具时代前瞻性的艺术创作。

地址：北京市朝阳区酒仙桥路2号798艺术区706北2街

开放时间：周二至周日10:00-18:00（周一闭馆）

邮箱：mocube2016@163.com