“晶体的游乐场”章森北京个展

参展艺术家/Artist：章森/ George Chang
策展人/ Curator：徐累/ Xulei
展览日期 / Date：2010.4.18 – 2010.5.16
开幕时间 / 2010年4月18号下午 3点
Opening: Saturday 3 pm, April 18, 2010
展览地点 / Venue：圣之空间艺术中心二楼展厅 SZ Art Center / Second Floor北京市朝阳区酒仙桥路2-4号798艺术园区No.2-4 Jiuxianqiao Rd., 798 Factory, Chaoyang Dst., Beijing
营业时间：周二 - 周日 10:00 am – 6:00 pm （周一以及公众假期闭馆）
Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 am – 6:00 pm (Monday Close)
联系电话 / Contact：+8610-59789213
主办方：湖南美术出版社圣之空间艺术中心
Sponsor: Hunan Fine Arts Publishing House / SZ Art Center

晶体的游乐场

徐 累

一个人将苹果放在桌上，然后进入苹果的内部，去听里面辽阔的寂静，如此追求渺小的人是因为懦弱吗？也许不是这样。当更多的人迷恋或者占有世界表面的时候，朝着内核出发的人却不以为然——眼前所见所感没有什么值得羡慕，也没有什么让人惊喜的。出于羞涩和天真，他们放弃了原位，像漫游仙境的爱丽丝那样掉进井里，发现里面居然还存在着一个平原。
 

向内探访是一种绝然，那里存在着事物的极限，可能也是世界原理的一部分。当然，并非所有的原理都是实用的，尤其在浩瀚的私人疆域。窥视曲颈瓶底端的中世纪练金术师，对于一枚大羊齿叶的结晶孜孜不倦，完全不在乎“这么做有什么用？”这类世俗疑问，他们的行为本身就是求得纯粹的欢愉。想象靠实验来完成是孤独求梦，发现过去隐而未明的秘密固然是一种动力，但更显然的动机在于，这些人对事物原理有难以置信的眷恋之情。

章森的绘画模式不能对应眼前看到的世界，尺幅小得似乎也没有野心，但他的奇异架构却有非同寻常的独特观点，属于物质内部源源不断涌现出的幻想。就如同科学与魔术混合那般，艺术也能与魔术融合，或者这三者都是为了同样一个目的，即发现“不存在于这个世界上的世界”。

原理具有微观性的特征，因而章森也臆想天开，试图建立可测的物理模型、化学分子结构甚至建筑形态，虽然所示非常可疑，但他仍然一本正经。可是事实上，对事物奥妙原理的认识，即便是科学上的求证也是莫衷一是，譬如关于原子核内现象的模型有很多，液滴模型、光学模型、统一模型、单粒子壳模型等等，但还没有哪一种能完全适用于一切现象和过程，这些模型也极少在人类认识原子核的过程中产生过革命性的影响。既然如此，章森用艺术的形式搬演实证与欺骗的混淆戏码也就情有可原了。这也是一种猜想的方程式，说不定恶作剧式的歪曲也能通往事物的核心。

美是事物核心的一瓣。科学中蕴涵着美，虽然普通人知其然而不探究其所以然，如D•H•劳伦斯的诗歌《三色堇》所写的那样，“我喜欢相对论和量子理论/是因为我不懂/因为它们让我感觉空间的位移/如同天鹅不肯栖息/拒绝挺立，拒绝测量/还因为原子性格冲动/总在改变主意”。 万物内蕴着不可思议的秩序和规律，看上去很美，这也只有用上帝的旨意才能解释。科学和艺术意图归纳其中的奥秘，但不同的是，科学的最高目的是追求实用，在医学或者战争而生的技术层面上，有着最低限度的伦理要求，否则就伤害生命而偏向“邪恶”。对探索自然原理的人来说，反而是类似艺术家的实践撇开了“为何而做”的念头，同样证明人类无法避免的冲动。达利从卷心菜、蜗牛到原子核宇宙的构造中，发现所谓“耳型漩涡的形态学”，于是对任何事物中发现耳朵形状都兴奋不已，就是一个佐证。

“所谓宇宙就是我的休息，就是我的懒惰，它绝对不是我的思维”（巴什拉），这是孩子才有的想法。章森用物态模型建立了自己的游乐场，这也不排除他有一份好奇，以及对私有财产秘密赏玩的心思。当这些想象的物态模型在纸上一一显现的时候，公共的外部世界消失了，之后就只剩下一个人的甜蜜和惊愕了。越是巧妙地微缩世界，就越能准确地拥有世界，章森营造了神秘的结晶体，虽然在物理上无法还原，却是一种天真的诗性。

诗是瞬间性的形而上学。宇宙的展望、灵魂的秘密、存在的乐趣，全部包含在诗中，假如诗只是服从生活的逻辑，那它就是生活以下的东西，它之所以能成为生活以上的东西，只是因为它能够同时享受甚至是形态非常不同的经验。从这样的角度看，章森创造出自己的隐喻，他固执地嫁接匪夷所思的事物，想象力逡巡于质料与形式之间。在和平的统一性与敌对的异质性之间，章森不知疲倦地维持着紧张的知性空间，并在其中展开一段想象的旅程，就像圣埃克佩里笔下的小王子那样，看到的东西其实比宇宙更微小，接近于澄清、轻盈和透彻。

 

Crystal Playground
Xulei
 

A person places an apple on the table and then enters the apple’s interior to listen to the vast silence within; is such a person’s pursuit of something so insignificant due to cowardice? Although more people may be obsessed with or possess a worldly façade, those who see from the inside are not impressed—they find that all that they see and feel is not particularly worthy of admiration or surprise. The shy and the innocent have given up their place like Alice in Wonderland when she falls into the rabbit hole and discovers that there is an unexpected open plain hidden within.
 

The exploration of the interior is a kind of absolute where the limits of matter may also be a part of the world’s fundamental principles. Of course, not all these fundamental principles are practical, especially within the vast personal domain. The alchemists of the Middle Ages peered into the base of their slender-necked flasks as they assiduously strove to crystallize a large fern leaf, ignoring such worldly questions as ‘What is the use of this?’ Their behavior is in and of itself a search for pure joy. Imagine relying on experiments to achieve this lonely pursuit of a dream. Discovering the hidden and unknown secrets of the past was an ostensible driving force, but the more obvious motivation lies in their astonishing devotion to the fundamental principles of matter.
 

George Chang’s paintings do not correspond to the visible world. The size of his paintings are so small they might seem to lack ambition, but his unusual composition truly has a uniquely singular perspective that belongs to the endless fantasy that surges out of matter’s interior world. It is like the integration of science and magic: art can also merge with magic, or perhaps all three elements strive for the same purpose to discover “the world that does not exist in this world.”Fundamental principles are characteristically microcosmic; thus, Chang lets his imagination run wild as he endeavors to establish precise physical models, chemical molecular structures, and even architectural forms. Although what he expresses may be extremely hard to believe, he does it with complete earnestness. Scientific consensus in understanding the mysterious principles of matter, however, is elusive: for example, there are numerous models depicting the phenomenon of atomic nuclei like the droplet model, optical model, unified model, or the single-particle shell model, but none of them are fully applicable to all phenomena and processes. In fact, these models have had very little revolutionary impact on humanity’s process of understanding atomic nuclei. As such, Chang’s use of the art form to adapt evidence and blur the lines is justifiable. He furthermore creates a kind of conjectural formula where the distortions of this mischievous practical joke may perhaps lead to the essential core.
 

Beauty is a part of the core of all things. Science also contains beauty. Even the ordinary person knows this but does not ask why, just as D.H. Lawrence wrote in his volume of poetry, “Pansies:” I like relativity and quantum theories because I don’t understand them and they make me feel as if space shifted about like a swan that can’t settle, refusing to sit still and be measured; and as if the atom were an impulsive thing always changing its mind.
 

There is an incredible law and order within all things, which is beautiful to behold and can only be explained as being part of the will of God. While both science and art attempt to sum up this profound mystery, science differs from art in that its ultimate purpose is practical functionality. Technology developed for medicine or war has a minimum ethical requirement, otherwise it would harm life and tend towards “evil.” To those who explore the fundamental principles of nature, the unavoidable impulse of mankind is similar to the artist’s actualization of bypassing the concept “why do you do this?” Likewise, when Salvador Dalí discovered the so-called “morphology of the ear-shaped vortex” in the structure of everything from a head of cabbage, a snail, to the atomic nucleus and the universe, he was subsequently delighted to find this ear-shaped spiral in all things.
 

Gaston Bachelard said, “the so-called universe is my resting place, my idleness, but it is definitely not my way of thinking;” only a child can think like this. Chang uses physical models to create his own playground, which does not preclude his own curiosity or his appreciation of one’s private secrets. When these images of physical models manifest themselves on the page one by one, the external, public world fades away and leaves behind one person’s happiness and sorrows. The more skillfully he shrinks the world, the more accurately he is able to contain the world. Although physicality cannot be restored, Chang creates a mysterious crystalline place filled with an innocent poetic.
 

Poetry is the metaphysics of transience. The prospects of the universe, the secrets of the soul, the joy of existence—all of this is contained within poetry. If poetry only obeyed life’s logic, then it would be less than life; that it is superior to life is only because it can simultaneously enjoy varied experiences that come in myriad forms. In this respect, Chang has created his own metaphor; his imagination hovers between material and form as he tenaciously grafts together unusual objects. Chang has furthermore tirelessly maintained an intense intellectual space between peaceful unity and hostile heterogeneity wherein he launches into a length of his imaginary journey like Antoine de Saint Exupery’s Little Prince, who sees that things are actually smaller than the universe and closer to clarity, lightness and insightfulness.

George Chang ｜ 章 森
Beijing | New York