洄——吳少英個(gè)展

認(rèn)識(shí)少英多年，當(dāng)真要寫(xiě)點(diǎn)什么，卻難而入手，因不少學(xué)者已為她寫(xiě)過(guò)評(píng)論文章，珠玉在前；作為鄰居和同行，嘗試描寫(xiě)我眼中吳少英其人和她的創(chuàng)作。

吳少英早年在澳門(mén)受藝術(shù)啟蒙后，前往倫敦大英博物館的中國(guó)書(shū)畫(huà)藏品館硏究室鉆研古今重要中國(guó)藏畫(huà)，鍛煉了她的眼力；旅居臺(tái)北十年后駐京創(chuàng)作至今，她兼具澳港臺(tái)歐身份，可謂世界公民，國(guó)際化的經(jīng)歷和視野，使她不拘泥于單一或傳統(tǒng)的藝術(shù)手段；然而，中國(guó)人的水墨精神還是植根在其基因之中，“洄”系列作品便是少英“不擇手段”追求中國(guó)藝術(shù)核心“意韻”的最新成果。

在先秦民謠中“洄”（駐1）曰水之回旋，兼有盡善盡美之意，暗合少英對(duì)藝術(shù)創(chuàng)作的完美追求。

古時(shí)一位國(guó)家檔案室管理員悟“道法自然”（駐2）后，歷代畫(huà)家便以“外師造化，中得心源” （駐3）為藝術(shù)終極追求，少英的創(chuàng)作以人文為本感悟天地?？喙虾蜕杏诿髑逯H高呼“一畫(huà)之法……無(wú)法生有法” （駐4），數(shù)百年后才有吳冠中的“筆墨等于零”聲援；互聯(lián)網(wǎng)時(shí)代的今天，“筆墨當(dāng)隨科技”，少英的數(shù)碼創(chuàng)作雖是新載體，或許百年以后已是彼時(shí)的傳統(tǒng)。

少英藝術(shù)風(fēng)格的來(lái)源，有感于人類文明發(fā)展至使水土破壞和自然資源枯竭；信手拈來(lái)被舍棄的醬油牛奶與其他生活棄置物，即是她的水墨和顏料，既是藝術(shù)家不浪費(fèi)任何資源的天性使然，也是她對(duì)周遭生活環(huán)境日益污染的悄然反抗。

少英的早期作品，以宣紙和畫(huà)布為載體，纖維宣紙層層吸墨的特性，墨色的層次向下生根，灰而淡雅；畫(huà)布表面膠質(zhì)的底材讓墨色向上層疊凝聚，黑而烏亮；表面看同是平面，內(nèi)涵卻是一陰一陽(yáng)的兩個(gè)系統(tǒng)。近年，環(huán)境保護(hù)和柔合陰陽(yáng)是少英自身藝術(shù)探索的重要課題，各種數(shù)碼新技術(shù)的嘗試也是以此為前提的試驗(yàn)；古人留白，少英則以牛奶“沖白”，醬油“守黑”，當(dāng)各創(chuàng)作元素沖進(jìn)玻璃板的瞬間，數(shù)碼相機(jī)和攝像機(jī)成為她的畫(huà)筆和宣紙，快門(mén)絕妙地保留作品生成時(shí)那唯一的完美的“一剎那”，與其說(shuō)是數(shù)碼映像作品，不如說(shuō)是一場(chǎng)水墨演義的生動(dòng)記錄，然陰陽(yáng)則融合于混沌的數(shù)碼世界之中。其最新的映像作品，“聲色俱厲”，氣魄逼人；利用最新科技為載體，呈現(xiàn)她創(chuàng)作中“窮天地之神變，測(cè)宇宙之幽微” （駐5）的特點(diǎn)。

多年來(lái)，鑒于吳少英美妙地柔合當(dāng)代水墨和科技之長(zhǎng)，作品極具觀賞性和易于收藏；大量中外私人收藏之余，不少著名美術(shù)館和機(jī)構(gòu)（駐6）如國(guó)立臺(tái)灣美術(shù)館，香港中國(guó)銀行，上海LV？？艦店等收藏及展出其作品。

最后，要感謝“不同藝見(jiàn)”藝術(shù)中心同仁大力支持，“洄”得以向觀眾呈現(xiàn)，希望大家在欣賞作品之余，關(guān)注身邊的環(huán)境變化和保育。

偉康

2016年秋寫(xiě)于京港之間

駐1：洄——出于《國(guó)風(fēng)·秦風(fēng)·蒹葭》，蒹葭蒼蒼，白露為霜。所謂伊人，在水一方。溯洄從之，道阻且長(zhǎng)。…………

駐2：道法自然——出于出自老子「道德經(jīng)」第二十五章「人法地，地法天，天法道，道法自然?！?/p>

駐3：傳出于唐朝的畫(huà)家張璪，其行跡見(jiàn)于《歷代名畫(huà)記》和《唐朝名畫(huà)錄》。

駐4：出于石濤“畫(huà)譜”，苦瓜和尚畫(huà)語(yǔ)錄定本，一畫(huà)章第一。

駐5：出于唐朝張彥遠(yuǎn)《歷代名畫(huà)記》，“……窮神變，測(cè)幽微……”。

駐6：吳少英作品主要機(jī)構(gòu)收藏：

巴黎半島酒店

國(guó)立臺(tái)灣美術(shù)館

臺(tái)灣新北市立聯(lián)合醫(yī)院三重院區(qū)

臺(tái)灣桃園國(guó)際機(jī)場(chǎng)國(guó)泰航空貴賓室

香港國(guó)際機(jī)場(chǎng)國(guó)泰航空貴賓室

香港中國(guó)銀行

澳門(mén)藝術(shù)博物館

北京今日美術(shù)館

北京香格里拉嘉里酒店

上海中歐國(guó)際工商學(xué)院

上海凱賓斯基酒店

上海浦東四季酒店

上海LV旗艦店

深圳關(guān)山月美術(shù)館

蘇洲洲際酒店

湖北美術(shù)館

Romantic Rhythm： A Cindy Ng Solo Exhibition

I have known Cindy Ng for many years， but when it came time to write something for her， I wasn’t sure where to begin. Several scholars have already written essays on her work， so everything wonderful that can be said has already been said. As a neighbor and colleague， I will attempt to share how I see Cindy and her work.

Raised in Macau， Cindy became interested in art at an early age. She also had the opportunity to refine her eye studying important Chinese paintings in the British Museum’s Chinese Painting Study Room. After living in Taipei for about a decade， she moved to Beijing. She has ties to Macau， Hong Kong， Taiwan， and Europe， which， in my view， makes her a citizen of the world. Her international experience and perspective means that she is not restricted to a single artistic method or to a traditional range of techniques. However， the spirit of ink is rooted in every Chinese person， and the Romantic Rhythm series is the culmination of Cindy’s unrelenting efforts to pursue the moods and rhythms at the core of Chinese art.

In pre-Qin folk songs， the Chinese character hui (1) meant “the whirling of water，” but it also implied the peak of perfection， which echoes Cindy’s pursuit of excellence in her work.

After a national archivist in ancient times realized that “the law of the Dao is its being what it is” (2)， the ultimate pursuit of the painters of the past was “taking the exterior from nature and the interior from the heart.” (3) Thus， Cindy’s work attempts to understand heaven and earth through humanity. As the Ming dynasty faded into the Qing， Shi Tao advocated “the one stroke method，” which was “a method born of no method，” (4) but it took several hundred years before Wu Guanzhong said that “brush and ink equal zero.” In the internet era， “brush and ink follow technology，” and in that context， Cindy’s digital work represents a new medium， but it may also be what is considered “traditional” one hundred years from now.

Cindy’s artistic style stems from her reflections on the development of human civilization， the destruction of water and soil， and the exhaustion of natural resources. The soy sauce， milk， and abandoned objects around her serve as her inks and pigments. She uses these materials because instinctively dislikes wasting any resource and because they serve as a form of tacit resistance to the gradual pollution of the environment around her.

Cindy’s early works were painted on Chinese paper and canvas； the layers of fiber in the paper absorb ink， so the ink takes root in these layers， becoming greyer and more refined. The tacky ground on the surface of the canvas allows the ink to condense into a glossy black； it looks like a plane， but it actually connotes the two systems of yin and yang. In recent years， environmental protection and the soft interplay of yin and yang have been important issues in Cindy’s artistic explorations， and her experiments with digital technologies have also been centered on these themes. Where the ancients left voids in their paintings， she creates a “rush of white” with milk and a “reserve of black” with soy sauce. In the moment that these creative elements burst in front of the glass pane， a digital camera becomes her brush and paper. The shutter ingeniously preserves the perfect moment of the work’s birth， such that it might be better to call her work a vividly-recorded epic in ink， not simply a digital video. She blends yin and yang into a chaotic digital world. Her most recent works are harsh and severe， daring and forceful. Using the latest technology as a vehicle， her work “reveals infinite changes in heaven and earth and fathoms the subtlety in the universe.” (5)

Over the years， Cindy has cleverly combined contemporary ink and technology， making her work both covetable and collectible； Chinese and foreign private collections， as well as several renowned art museums and institutions have collected and exhibited her work， including the Taiwan Museum of Art， the Bank of China Hong Kong， and the Louis Vuitton flagship store in Shanghai.

Finally， I would like to thank our colleagues at Another Art Center for their strong support. I hope that visitors will enjoy Romantic Rhythm， and I’m sure that the works will inspire increased concern for environmental change and conservation.

Gary Mok

Autumn 2016， somewhere between Beijing and Hong Kong

1. A reference for the character hui can be found in Book of Odes： Lessons from the States： Jianjia： “The reeds and rushes are deeply green， / And the white dew is turned into hoarfrost. / The man of whom I think， / Is somewhere about the water. / I go up the stream in quest of him， / But the way is difficult and long.”

2. “The law of the Dao is its being what it is” comes from a line in Chapter 25 of Laozi’s Daodejing： “Man takes his law from the Earth； the Earth takes its law from Heaven； Heaven takes its law from the Dao. The law of the Dao is its being what it is.”

3. This comes from Zhang Zao， a Tang dynasty painter， the traces of which can be seen at Notes on Famous Paintings of the Past and Famous Paintings of the Tang Dynasty.

4. Adapted from Shi Tao’s book on painting. He elaborates the “one stroke” method in the first chapter.

5. Adapted from “to reveal infinite changes and to fathom the subtle” in Zhang Yanyuan’s Notes on Famous Paintings of the Past.