白水：在复杂现实中，持续生成自我的语言

作为当代艺术家如何看待近现代艺术对创作的影响，怎么看待民国女艺术家这个群体？

现代艺术对我的影响，本质上是一种“如何成为行动者”的启蒙，而不仅仅是“如何成为艺术家”。其实民国杰出的女性也不只是艺术家，比如像林徽因，她是设计师，又是历史学家，也是古建筑学家；比如秋瑾，她在日本留洋回来后如何将个体意志转化为行动，这种不犹豫、不退让的姿态，本身就是一种极具穿透力的精神资源；而潘玉良的艺术路径，对我来说是一种关于“如何面对自我”的启发，她在一个并不完全接纳女性的艺术环境中，坚持去描绘身体、表达情感。这种“主动呈现自我”的勇气，其实是在重新界定观看关系——她们既是创作者，也是自己经验的建构者。

我觉得当时那些那种女性的力量是一种生活的实践和先动性，她们虽然身在对女性比较不包容的社会里，但是敢于冲破重重的阻力去实现自己的精神和理想。我想这种精神其实也是很当代的。如果把这些女性艺术家的实践放回更大的历史背景中来看，西方文化的进入确实可以被理解为一种近乎“从无到有”的建构过程——但这个“无”，并不是指中国原本没有观看艺术的理论，而是指在“现代艺术”这一套知识体系与观看机制上，当时的中国几乎需要重新学习一整套语言。对于当时传统的中国的文人和艺术家，这种叙事以及作画的方式，是一种重构、重生的开始。所以这也就造就了她们每一个人的作品都有非常大的独特性，每一个人的描述方式、作画的手段也是不一样的。

这些经验在我这里慢慢转化为一种方法论层面的影响。也就是说，我并不是去继承她们的表达内容，而是继承一种“将想法迅速转化为实践”的能力，以及对自身潜能的信任。这一点直接影响了我现在提出的“AI觉构法”——它并不是一个完全理性推导出来的系统，而更像是一种基于直觉、判断与即时生成的创作机制。某种程度上，它延续的正是那种“想到就要做到”的精神，而不是在技术逻辑中反复自我限制。

How should a contemporary artist understand the influence of modern and early modern art on their own creative practice? And how should we look at the group of women artists from the Republican era?

The influence of modern art on me is, at its core, an initiation into how to become an agent of action, rather than simply how to become an artist. In fact, the remarkable women of the Republican era were never confined to the identity of “artist” alone. Take Lin Huiyin, for instance—she was a designer, a historian, and an architectural scholar. Or Qiu Jin, whose experience studying in Japan sharpened her ability to transform personal will into concrete action; her decisiveness and refusal to retreat constitute a powerful form of spiritual force. Pan Yuliang’s artistic trajectory, for me, offers a lesson in how to confront the self: in an art world that did not fully accept women, she persisted in depicting the body and expressing emotion. This courage to “present oneself proactively” redefines the structure of looking—these women were not only creators, but also constructors of their own lived experience.

I feel that the power embodied by these women was fundamentally a lived practice—a form of initiative. Although they lived in a society that was far from welcoming to women, they dared to break through the many obstacles that stood between them and the realization of their ideals. This spirit, I believe, is deeply contemporary. If we situate the practices of these women artists within a broader historical context, the influx of Western culture can indeed be understood as a process of building “something out of nothing”—though this “nothing” does not mean that China lacked its own theories of artistic perception, but rather that, with regard to the knowledge system and visual mechanisms of modern art, China at the time had to learn an entirely new language. For traditional Chinese literati and artists, this shift in narrative and artistic methodology was the beginning of a reconstruction—a rebirth. This is precisely why each of these women produced highly distinctive bodies of work, each developing her own mode of description and creative technique.

These histories have gradually transformed into a methodological influence in my own practice. In other words, I am not inheriting their thematic content, but rather their capacity to translate ideas swiftly into action, and their trust in their own potential. This directly shapes what I now call the “AI Intuitive Reconstructive Method”. It is not a system deduced through strict rational logic, but more of a creation mechanism rooted in intuition, judgment, and real-time generation. In a sense, it carries forward that same spirit of “do it the moment you conceive it,” resisting the self-imposed constraints that often arise within purely technical thinking.

近现代艺术中，涌现出一批成就卓越的民国女画家。作为当代女性艺术家怎么看待这些民国女艺术家对当时文化、社会带来的意义或冲击？

我其实更倾向于从一个相对“去标签化”的角度来看这个问题。无论是女性艺术家还是男性艺术家，本质上都是在以各自独特的经验、感知与方法进行创作，艺术本身并不以性别来划分高低或类型。从这个意义上说，“女性艺术家”不一定需要被单独拎出来成为一个固定标签——过度强调，反而可能在无形中再次限定了创作的边界。但如果一定要谈一种“特殊性”，我更愿意把它理解为一种在历史与现实经验中逐渐形成的感知方式，而不是本质上的差异。对我来说这种特质更接近于一种气质：柔韧、坚持，以及一种绵长的力量。

回到今天的语境，我觉得女性艺术家面临的挑战，也正好与这些特质形成某种张力。一方面，我们拥有了更多表达与被看见的机会；但另一方面，这种“被看见”也可能迅速被标签化、被市场或媒介逻辑所简化。女性身份有时会被过度解读，甚至被期待去承担某种“代表性”。因此，对我来说，一个重要的“调整”在于：如何在不被标签限定的前提下，仍然保留这种来自经验深处的敏感性与力量。也就是说，不是去否认“女性”的存在，而是避免它成为唯一的解释框架。

最终我会觉得，“女性艺术家”的意义，并不在于提供一个统一的身份，而是在于不断提醒我们——艺术是否可以容纳更多不同的经验结构？是否可以在差异中保持开放？而所谓柔韧、坚持与绵长，也许正是一种在复杂现实中，持续生成自我语言的方式。

In the landscape of modern and early modern Chinese art, a remarkable group of women painters emerged during the Republican era. As a contemporary female artist, how do you view the significance or impact that these Republican-era women artists brought to the culture and society of their time?

I tend to approach this question from a relatively de-labelled perspective. Whether an artist is a woman or a man, they are essentially creating through their own particular experiences, perceptions, and methods. Art, in itself, is not divided or hierarchized by gender. In this sense, “female artist” does not necessarily need to function as a fixed category—and when overemphasized, the label can inadvertently impose new boundaries on creative practice. If we must speak of a kind of “specificity,” I would rather understand it as a sensibility shaped through historical and lived experience, rather than an inherent difference. To me, this quality feels more like a temperament: one of resilience, persistence, and a quiet yet enduring strength.

Returning to today’s context, I feel that the challenges faced by women artists are often in tension with these very qualities. On the one hand, we now have more opportunities for expression and visibility. On the other hand, this visibility can quickly become a form of labeling, simplified by market or media logic. The identity of “woman” may be over-interpreted, or even burdened with a certain expectation of representativeness.

For me, then, an important “adjustment” lies in finding a way to preserve the sensitivity and strength that come from lived experience, without being confined by the label itself. In other words, it is not about denying the existence of “woman,” but about preventing it from becoming the sole interpretive framework.

Ultimately, I feel that the significance of “women artists” does not lie in offering a unified identity, but in continually reminding us to ask: Can art accommodate a wider range of experiential structures? Can it remain open within difference? And perhaps what we describe as resilience, persistence, and endurance is precisely a way of continually generating one’s own language amid a complex reality.