Ji Wenyu solo exhibition
Opening: December 11, Thursday, 6pm,

计文于个展
开幕式：12月11日，星期四，晚上6点，

中国艺术商品化

半山阳

…计文于近期的创作“商品化”倾向是明显的，正如其艺术上的专业态度也变得更加虔诚执着那样，这是否矛盾呢？症结当然是“商品化”，他关注市场的走势，关注商品消费的热点，这段时期涉及的大到国际事件、国内政局、改革政策，小到营养补品、力士香皂、人民币、美元，其实针对的只是一个主题，就是在这个迅即变化的世界里，在中国与世界交汇的时代中，一群在消费着也被消费着的百姓心态。这群最寻常不过的百姓心态折射的是计文于对大众化市场和大众化商品活动的关注态度，即便描绘的是国际化的大事情，计文于用的也是村边俚语，由此，在他的图像叙事中，不仅将大事缩小为类似街头巷尾间饶舌的琐事，也会把雅事混同于弄堂灶头间的俗事，还会在拉扯计较盘算争执间把小事夸张为大事，比如他画面上出现的那块硕大的红烧肉，比如以APEC中美首脑会晤为背景的方桌上的油条和小笼包，比如将油盐酱醋与林立的摩天楼并置，还有那占据了整个画面的，扎满亮晶晶的彩纸、吊着个英文“HAPPY”彩牌、罩着一层透明保鲜膜的硕大果篮……这些看似平庸又透着十足商品气的琐碎生活，在计文于不厌其烦又不厌其满的画面中显得琳琅满目，绚烂缤纷。而且，这段阶段所涉及的诸如旧城改造、假日旅游、种树植绿、园林高楼、汽车别墅、特色小吃，911事件、伊拉克战争，从风景名胜到垃圾筒，从旅游品到土特产，从搔首弄姿的小姐到面目猥琐的包工头，从不洁的隐私到中华美食等等无所不包的生活热点、时事快报、社会新闻，均悉数纳入计文于的画面，并镶上计氏风格的花边，那花边中也无一例外地充斥着看似闲人，又是证人、当事人的人头以及一副计氏对联，比如：“百货均有价·繁荣新世纪”、“金银财宝堆满楼·房子汽车都要有”。

有时，计文于真会让人联想到看守着杂货摊的小业主，在他不断对其货品的“兜售”中，艺术也好像被他下嫁给了那些不被艺术家们瞧得起的寻常百姓，这是计文于最容易遭人误读、误解的地方。但是，在这些被计文于装扮得繁花似锦又俗媚异常的作品表象后，让我感到的是画家那胸中有数的冷静思想。无疑，计文于的关注点与其平民化意识或对平民化社会的意识相关，他未傲然市场（相信傲然市场者或是表面和虚伪，或是拒斥时代而被时代拒斥），可不等于说他苟且于市场，在他与市场看似暧昧的关系中，彰显出的是他以一个艺术家的聪敏、责任和良知所做的面对现实的朴实工作，朴实中蕴涵了他具有深度的思考，世俗化、市井气的表象背后是他冷峻的观察、宽容的反省、幽默的玩笑和喜剧化的反讽。无怪乎余友涵说：看计文于的画一张是个显得琐碎的点，放在一起便是个耐人寻味的面。

计文于给我们构织出来的繁花似锦的花花世界、众生相、群芳谱，丰饶的生活，迷幻的享乐，看似肤浅、平庸、漫画化，实则是一首平民的史诗。计文于曾和我说起他对商品之于艺术的历史思考，他认为鸦片战争所以使中国画走向绝路就是因为中国画难与商品相联，而西方早在弗兰德斯画派便与商品活动相融了。当然，不少同行和评论家并不能理解甚至无法容忍计文于的这种看法，这种把商业社会、世俗生活、市民心态如此不加遮拦地放在艺术的“净土”上的做法，这种用商品、市场搅动又消解文化和艺术高贵性的想法。勿庸讳言，计文于对商业社会的关怀有其狭隘的“地方主义”的一面，所以难以构得上潮流化的国际容貌，但被他剖析极深的地方性无疑是国际化进程中不可回避的一个重要侧面。

在计文于签约的香格纳画廊，不少来自外地的艺术家看到计文于的画册都十分惊讶，他们感叹到通过计文于再次认识了上海，其实也是认识了一个更值得反省的中国，这是一个看似荒谬、滑稽却未被虚构和粉饰的上海或中国。是的，当眩目的泡沫被拂去后，剩下的或许是一个由于特定时期的心态而遭致有意忽略或不愿提及的真实。这又再次表明画家计文于的艺术真实，我总在由衷地称谓计文于是位很上海的艺术家，他用他最能运用的上海经验所生发出的态度可以说是地方性的，却是一种紧密地联系着世界的地方性，这不会因他未着笔上海时尚而变得落伍，他如此入木三分地与上海的世俗、市井纠葛一起，有时甚至令人生厌，可谁又能躲开？这总让我想到鲁迅先生塑造的阿Q。在崇洋与尚古、高贵与平常之间，我们是否忽略了须进一步洞察与剖析的搅扰着一种更深层集体无意识心理的存在呢！

计文于艺术态度的可贵之处，不仅在于相当的诚恳，而且，还在于他能诚恳到显得滑稽，他在别人发笑的时候即便把脸涨红也要屏住那口气，别人即便发笑变成嘲笑，他仍象在装傻。能让他认真对待的只有一点，就是别人严肃的怀疑，为弄清缘何怀疑，他会不厌其烦到让人难以忍受。这使他的艺术也由此不带一丁点矫饰和矫情，因他的过于朴实，而让人产生对他的艺术的怀疑，怀疑他的现代性，怀疑他的国际化，对此，他会有些矛盾的困惑，也时而会显得难以说服自己的耿耿于怀。

计文于因此在尽力地反省着自己，并诚恳直言他艺术的三个资源：一是听了点毛主席的话，感到毛讲的道理深入浅出、通俗易懂，连农民都能看懂，我的画也应该这样；二是学了点西方艺术，尤对丹纳《艺术哲学》中要求艺术反映时代的精神的理论颇有领会与认同，并将之运用到创作中；三是看了点“现代”生活，计文于特别强调艺术家与周围生活、身边生活的密不可分关系，他说的现代生活是指他身边发生着的、向“现代”变化着的生活，他总是默不作声、悉心洞察着他能看到的变化，并尽可能的理解吃透，最终只将其在作品中表达出来，重要的还在于他不仅表达的是他洞察到的那些变化，更表达了他对那些变化的看法，这体现了计文于是个有思想的画家，连同他对其思想的传达手段和方法则成为我们值得进入其作品中感受、回味、理解、判断的切实依据。

计文于画面表露的是最易人所不屑又最易于进入人们潜意识中的那些变化中的细微末节，他所指涉的是貌似充满地方性的花花绿绿的集体无意识，运用的是看似民俗化、市井气的春秋笔法，明眼细察一看便知其中的尖刻，被幽默了的尖刻，虽说棉里藏针，却又不失善意，那一片节庆般的喜气中，一股不动声色地冷峻深化了观者的视觉和知觉，徒然间使得他作品的朴素的平民气、妍俗的商业气、浅薄的市井气变得耐人寻味而又不容置疑。画家的艺术趣味也因此让人不可轻易藐视以落得个自取轻薄。虽然，画家的艺术手法用的不是其实也已司空见惯的惊世骇俗法，而是反其道行之的出其不意，将平常推向荒谬的极致使真理尽现或叫原形毕现，也因此，画家计文于的创作心态能够始终有一种不温不火令人羡慕的从容与踏实，每年总是12张左右的作品，不丰产也不欠收的小康景致，平稳地保持了他对“大多数”群体心态的一种敏感和警觉。

由于人的健忘症，计文于那看似喋喋不休的饶舌，便成了此时期可贵的历史备忘录，他记录了一个国家、一个民族，在一个突如其来的花花世界纷扰的媚惑下变迁的心态，局部的、侧面的那么典型，足以走进心田。

若就商品的属性而言，在这段特定的历史时期，艺术的商品化之于中国，实为一柄双刃剑，它迫使中国艺术冒着灭顶之灾的险境走入当代。当然，在全球高度信息化、经济活动走向市场一体化的今日，自闭的艺术肯定是难有生长出路的。

的确，中国艺术的“现代化”走势，在目前大致面对的是两方面考验：一是“国际化”，二是“商品化”。计文于面对的是后者，这并不意味着艺术在商业上的一定成功，也不仅是以市场化的交易活动为准则，更应该是面对市场的思考和审度。当然艺术终归是艺术，尽管“花开两枝”的二难选择，构成了中国当代艺术在这段特定历史时期的阶段性特征，也形成了貌似互难沟通的两条路径，但一定会殊途同归。那时，不再会以艺术的形式衡定观念，也不再因艺术的观念刻意回避某些艺术的形式，以及某些与艺术的形式暂时分隔的生活，艺术与生活根本上的一致性，是不会因艺术与生活在特定历史时期的差别乃至对立而被抹煞。计文于艺术创作的可贵之处正在于以其深入的洞察力、幽默的机智性和喜剧化的反讽，开始化解、沟通并连接起被隔阂扭曲了的艺术与生活的关系——在这个商业模糊了国界又鲜明了国界的肆虐时期。



2003年11月14日
 写于沪上寓所

Painting commodities

Painting commodities

Ji Wenyu is interested in everything from international politics down to Lux soaps. But his main focus is the psychology of common who are consumers and consumed as well.

Slang and straight language of ordinary people enters Ji Wenyu’s paintings of international conflicts. He mixes graceful behavior with vulgar issues of ordinary families, or exaggerates ordinary things (like a piece of cooked pork) to the same importance as world events, put Chinese dumplings together with world leaders, table salt and pepper on the same level with Shanghai skyscrapers or paints a fruit basket covered by clear wrapper so that it occupies the whole canvas .

These seemingly everyday and commercial trivia look superb and colorful in Ji’s paintings. What’s more, everything what people talk about, from city redevelopment to Iraq war, from flirting hookers to indecent subcontractors, from dirty secrets to Chinese food, is in Ji’s paintings, rendered in Ji’s style, full of heads as idlers, who are witnesses and parties concerned at the same time.
Sometimes Ji really reminds us of a shopkeeper. In his continuous peddling of his goods, art is transplanted to the common people who are normally not respected by artists. But the vulgar surface conceals Ji Wenyu’s calm thought, sharp observation, tolerant reflection, humor and comic irony.
Ji Wenyu has constructed a dazzling human world for us, full of rich life and fantastic pleasure. It appears superficial, common and comic-like. But in fact, it is an epic of commoners.

Ji thinks that the reason why the Opium War drove (traditional) Chinese paintings into the corner, is because Chinese paintings failed to be connected with the community, the society, while in western countries paintings were from very early on related with activities of the normal people. Some peers and critics can not tolerate the way he puts commercial society, earthly life and commoner’s attitude into ‘pure’ art, how stirs and dissolves the nobility of culture and art with commodity and market. They may also reproach, that his art is to Chinese, not international. But the localism that he deeply analyzes is definitely an important and inevitable aspect in the process of the current internationalization (globalization) of the world.
Many artists from other cities are very surprises to see Ji Wenyu’s images. They say that they re-acknowledge Shanghai through Ji’s works, and actually re-acknowledge that China is worth of more reflection.

I always call Ji a very Shanghai artist, because the attitude that he expresses with his Shanghai experience can be regarded as localism, but it is a kind of localism closely connected to the world. It will never outdate because he doesn’t describe the fashion in Shanghai. He mingles with the vulgar and earthly Shanghai so intimately that it is sometimes even disgusting. But who can escape from that? Between the worship of the western world and our own tradition, between grace and commonness, don’t we ignore the existence of deeper collective unconsciousness that needs further insight and analysis?

Due to the amnesia of the human being, Ji’s seemingly chatter become a historical memorandum precious in this time. He has recorded the changing psychology of a nation and a race under the temptations of this dazzling world, partial, typical and profound.

Concerning the characteristics of commodity, during this specific historical stage, the commercialization of art is a double-blade sword for China, which pushes Chinese art into the new age under disastrous risks. Today, in a time of global information and economic globalization, self-enclosing art (national art) is hard to grow. The ‘modernization’ of the art in China is confronted with two kinds of ordeals, one is ‘internationalization’, the other is ‘commercialization’. Ji faces the latter one.
The fundamental consistency between art and life will not be erased by the difference or even conflict between art and life in specific historical stage. The value of Ji’s creation is his deep insight, humorous wit and comedic irony, which starts to cover, communicate and connect the relationship between art and life, which has been distorted by alienation, in this special period that commerce blurs and emphasizes boundary.

Ban Shenyang, Shanghai, Nov, 2000 

Looking out the window after dinner

More than 100 years ago, western cannons blew open China’s closed doors and we began to study things western. Since the beginning of reforms and opening up to the outside world we have seen an influx of western culture and lifestyles. When confronted with various new things we often go through a process from feeling lost to careful selection and gradual adoption. We yearn to be strong and prosperous and we feel the need to become part of world community yet at the same time we worry that in the process we’ll lose ourselves and so we feel again the need to promote our national culture. At weddings, we deck ourselves out in western suites and bridal veils and than sit around the most traditional of round tables and eat and make merry ‘till our sides split. Every New Year we hope for good fortune, riches and happiness. We greet and revere the God of Wealth. It seems we are the nationality most intent on getting rich in the world. We have developed rapidly and we now have money. Our concept of self-identity has been strengthened. We yearn for and pursue a new kind of happiness and with it come the beautiful but impure flowers and the insects that fly toward their scent. Time has changed, life has changed and things are getting better and better. The city is more and more beautiful, transport more and more convenient and green areas and trees have been planted. These are all things that our leaders have directed and so they often take the time from their busy schedules to go to work sites and guide the work and show the importance they place in it all. It’s a fine picture. We are thinking about protecting the environment, housing, cars and travel. We have nightlife too. We are in the process of linking up with the western world. What the west has, we must have. What the west lacks we must also have. Our lives are sweeter than honey.

Ji Wenyu 2000.8

I want my works to be unique. Coming straight from the heart, they have abandoned all affectation and so are necessarily natural. They come from my individual and unique experience of life and so they must be unique. I want my works to be interesting and possess a feeling of the times. Everyone is limited by the times in which one lives and it is impossible consider things disengaged from the environment in which you exist, just like Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Wharhol, and Beuys we too are unable to resolve some of the problems we face. “Pen and ink follow the times!” Therefore only people who break free from conventions are able to have interesting experiences and seize the times and culture of the times to produce new art. It is my desire that my works possess a certain integrality. I want to be able to coordinate the creation from concept to production so that any contradictions and sentiments as well as conceptual changes in the work can achieve a kind of integrality. To achieve this requires an understanding of art and true emotion. I want my works to be everyday and easy to understand. I don’t like to feign profundity. I like the way in which Mao Zedong spoke. Every sentence he used was easily understandable and yet he was a great leader. The first goal for my works is that they be easy to understand. But naturally, I can’t force people to like them.

Ji Wenyu 2000.8