路口的企盼

——读乌日根的《时代精神的表征》作品展

童 衢

　　乌日根的《时代精神的表征》系列作品展近期在环铁时代美术馆屹然呈现在观众面前。北京的十一月秋高气爽，云卷云舒，天空仿佛比平日显得更为高远、博大而深邃。

    　还没有进入美术馆，《世纪人》就抢入了我们的眼帘：一位信心满满的当代人形象矗立在入口的侧前方。其创作灵感来源于：“人类两个抽象观念的泛滥：第一个，源于人类对自然规律的科学认识，不管你的科学修养如何，科学的因果思维是当代人把握世界的基本范式；第二个，愿与经济学对投入收益的计算。”

　　我们看到“世纪人”的形象以建筑的玻璃幕墙为主轴，除了五官、肤色等细节的表达，作品阻断了观众对“世纪人”的形象的具体体验，使“世纪人”近在身边却又远在天涯。这恰是当代人的普遍性给予我们的感受。

　　德国哲学家雅思贝斯把公元前8世纪到公元前2世纪世界各地涌现的哲人称为轴心时代，他们尽管互相隔绝于万里遥，但思考的基本范畴“......自我和自我的限度”，正如《对话》中的“孔子和赫拉克利特：孔子站在人生的维度上感叹人生的有限性，赫拉克利特从存在的角度提出人类认知的局限性。

　　今天的人类已经步入太空，把持着核力量，似乎可以随心所欲，无所不能。宛如乌日根作品中的人成为上帝（乌日根作品《人成为上帝之后》，“世界”就被剥了皮......）。从乌日根对文艺复兴时期米开朗基罗的《哀悼基督》的重新解读，我们体验到：米开朗基罗的《哀悼基督》中大地母亲玛利亚祥和、安静、和谐的托抱着“神”，而今天大地母亲的表征——玛利亚仿佛“遭遇基督”，她呈现的是错愕，彷佛手上捧着的是一个陀螺般不知如何。这恰恰表征我们人类今天的命运以01为基础的数字世界是未来之“道”？还是令我们失去基本人性的杀手？

　　数字化、全球化是“第一轴心时代”先哲们不曾遭遇的，人类越出“第一轴心时代”哲人的思考范畴。由之，我们是否应该杀了自己的父亲（历史）？历史成为虚无，人类未来的校正路标何在？而今人类确乎跌到一个《路口》，是在路口踟蹰还是执着于既得利益把世界变成资本的单一维度？令羔羊也成为麦当劳的消费者......人类作俑上帝的位置，羔羊的草原梦只好到天空中去寻找，抑或令它血淋淋的站在那里注视自己的皮被剥夺......

　　被既得利益催眠似乎是我们这一代人的精神景象，那个悬挂起的《蛋白质女孩》占据了人类一切美的形式，却毫无分量，她比传统的花瓶更精致，仿佛肉体精华的集聚，她困守在肉体的青春当中却失去了灵魂，然而她有灵魂吗？人们为了抓住存在的感觉是否像《情感生产》的形象那样不断寻找性的刺激？

　　无疑“第二轴心时代”出现哲人们不允许我们这般胡闹，她挺身而出打起《世纪企盼》的大旗，她的行动不但揭示出我们这个时代“肉欲和精神倒置”，而且用生命的洞口向世界展示未来的希望。

　　当我们的眼神和《世纪企盼》暂短交汇，又匆匆移开时，我们是否体悟到了我们今天的时代本质同时又经历了一次精神的洗涤！？记得法国思想家罗兰巴特在评价奥赛画廊“令人震惊的照片”时说，艺术家为了制造“震惊”的主题把赤血、恐怖剪接上来其实质却剥夺了观众的判断，作品在观众那里失去了再创造。回眸乌日根的作品我们看到的是平和如日常生活一般，只是艺术家轻轻点题时我们才幡然醒悟。由此，欣赏《时代精神的表征》作品展绝不是一种肤浅的感觉过程，她展示的是一种思考过程，当我们经由艺术家形象的导引反思我们生活的境遇时，她才会显得更为深邃，高远。

　　暮色来临，我们来到美术馆的室外，这会儿的《世纪人》亮起了灯火，恰如人云：“乌日根的《世纪人》无处不在”。但我却想到：作为我们这个时代的表征，“世纪人”明天将遭际的是旭日东升还是残阳暮景？

Man of the Century, 2009

Steel, glass, track lighting

Man of the Century confidently stands between the “wilderness” and the Museum. Created from glass and steel, his blank visage prevents a meaningful understanding of who he really is, causing a pendulum effect between recognition and alienation. This sentiment symbolizes the feelings of anonymity that modern people convey to each other.

Crossroad, 2008

Resin, sheep rib

A sheep is portrayed wandering into a “crossroad”, representing the schizophrenia of ‘postmodern’ man and revealing the human fate of ‘eternal return’. By using the rhetoric of duality, the artist formally presents the “rib of life”.

The Production of Love, 2009

Resin and steel

Contemporary society’s preoccupation with consumerism has resulted in the commodification of desire. The German psychologist and philosopher Erick Fromm has said: “Modern men lost the confidence to live; only with the possession of sex can they momentarily find the feeling of existence.” According to the Danish philosopher Kierkegaard ” love can save ones momentary existence…”. Do contemporary men have the capability to love?

Sky and Grassland, 2009

resin, McDonald’s food wrappers

Humans are devoted to the pursuit of turning the world into a capitalistic utopia. Here, even a sheep becomes a customer of McDonald’s; its dream can only be realized in the sky.

I Killed My Father, 2009

glass, mattress, newspaper articles, photographs, resin and wood

Humans have transcended the intellectual capacity of their ancestors, should they then kill their father (history)? History thus becomes negated- what then will be our new signpost to direct us towards the future?

After Man Becomes God, 2009

bones, fur and resin

The human description of God has always been a reflection of mankind’s own

behavior. Today, society has abandoned this definition by replacing it with

its own hubris, leaving the fate of any omnipotent beings to be stripped bare

by the world…

Technology refined her body, she occupies all forms of beauty. However, her

beauty is not truly valuable…she lost her soul in search for the fountain of

youth. Has she ever had a soul? Is Protein Girl a reflection of ourselves?

The Encounter with Christ, 2009

acrylic, fiberglass and reinforced plastic and resin

The Encounter with Christ is a re-interpretation of Michelangelo’s “The

Passion of Christ”, where Mary the daughter of earth peacefully holds her

son, Jesus.  However, in the current version, Mary seems to encounter a major

catastrophe. Here, she looks down in astonishment; instead of her beloved son,

she holds a ball in her hands filled with the binary code 0-1. This is a

metaphor of humankind’s contemporary fate. Is digitization the savior of our

future or the killer of our humanity?

Karl Jaspers defined the period between 8 BCE and 2BCE as the “Axial Age”,

during which time many great philosophers emerged. Though these minds were

separated by geography, they were bound by their ideas about the “ego and the

limitation of ego”. In the work Dialogue Confucius elaborates on the

inevitability of death, whereas Heraclitus raises the question of the

limitations of human cognition of the world due to ones own pending mortality.

Hope of the Century, 2009

fiberglass and reinforced plastic, TV monitor and wood

Can we sense the inversion of the body and soul when encountered by Hope of

the Century? Furthermore, does the solution to mankind’s future lie in the

instinctual power of the feminine?

“时代精神的表征”乌日根作品展

【编辑：袁霆轩】