劉曉娜 曾馨樂
巫大軍是重慶大學(xué)藝術(shù)學(xué)院教師,也是一位堅(jiān)持用畫筆思考、記錄城鄉(xiāng)變遷的藝術(shù)家。
近日,我們來到他位于四川美術(shù)學(xué)院虎溪公社的工作室,走進(jìn)他的畫作,試圖了解它們背后的故事,一窺隱藏在畫家心里深厚、沉重的鄉(xiāng)土情懷。
Wu Dajun is a teacher at School of Arts of Chongqing University and an artist who insists on thinking and recording about urban and rural changes with his paintbrush.
Recently, we came to his studio in the Huxi Commune of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute to get closer to his paintings, trying to understand the stories behind them and to glimpse the deep, heavy feelings of the countryside hidden in the painter’s heart.
記憶與現(xiàn)實(shí)Memory and Reality
提起鄉(xiāng)土題材,很多人都會(huì)聯(lián)想到淳樸的鄉(xiāng)民、清新的田園風(fēng)光。但在巫大軍的作品中,我們很難看到通常的那種詩情畫意。相反,當(dāng)他用畫筆切開美好的表象,畫面中那些尋常的景物總會(huì)讓我們感到些許焦慮和不安。
在他的筆下,“鄉(xiāng)土”往往很小,小到?jīng)]有田野、農(nóng)舍,甚至連人都沒有,畫面中常常只有凌亂的農(nóng)具,或是曠野蒿草。比如他的紅線系列油畫。這個(gè)系列最讓人為之一顫的,是血紅色邊框和用麻線串聯(lián)起的撕成兩片的畫布。而畫面上,是老舊的土碗、原始的掃帚、破敗的桌椅、塵封的農(nóng)具。這些最不起眼的農(nóng)家器物,尷尬又真實(shí)地將農(nóng)村的另一面呈現(xiàn)在我們眼前。
在其中的一幅作品中,傳統(tǒng)農(nóng)耕工具與現(xiàn)代生活器具交錯(cuò)疊放,共同構(gòu)成了當(dāng)下鄉(xiāng)土生活的現(xiàn)場,如同一個(gè)個(gè)時(shí)代符號(hào)編碼,隱藏著鄉(xiāng)土文明的變遷脈絡(luò)。
這個(gè)系列的每一幅作品,都來源于巫大軍在老家的田野考察。他出生在農(nóng)村,畫得最多的也是自己的家鄉(xiāng)。早年間,他像個(gè)偵探似的帶著兩個(gè)研究生深入農(nóng)家,拿著相機(jī)、問卷在農(nóng)戶家滿屋子搜尋,床底、茅舍、豬圈、閣樓,每一個(gè)犄角旮旯都不放過,每一次攀談都是為了呈現(xiàn)細(xì)節(jié)更加真實(shí)的農(nóng)村。
“農(nóng)村空了、舊了、老了,關(guān)系疏離了,離開家鄉(xiāng)幾十年,我只能作些畫,雖然微不足道,但它真實(shí)且活著。”巫大軍認(rèn)為,任何事物都有兩面性,他的畫作并不是對(duì)工業(yè)文明和傳統(tǒng)農(nóng)耕文明做簡單的批判或肯定。
When it comes to the theme of the countryside, many people associate it with simple villagers and fresh idyllic scenery. But in Wu Dajun’s works, we can hardly see the usual kind of poetic splendor, instead, when he cuts through the beautiful surface with his brush, the ordinary scenes in the picture always make us feel a little anxious and uneasy.
Under his brush, the "countryside" is often small, so small that there are no fields, farmhouses, or even people, and often only messy farming tools or artemisia in the wilderness are in the picture. For example, his Red Line series of oil paintings. The most shuddering part of the series is the blood-red border and the canvas torn into two pieces and strung with twine. And on the picture are old earthen bowls, primitive brooms, broken tables and chairs, and dusty farm tools. These most inconspicuous farming artifacts awkwardly and truly present the other side of the countryside to our eyes.
In one of the works, traditional farming tools and modern living utensils are interlaced and stacked, together forming the scene of current rural life, like the symbolic code of the times, hiding the vicissitudinous structure of rural civilization.
Each piece in this series comes from Wu Dajun’s fieldwork in his hometown. Born in the countryside, he paints his hometown the most. In the early years, he took two graduate students to each farmhouse like a detective, with cameras and questionnaires, searching everywhere in the houses of farmers, under the beds, huts, pig pens, attics, and each interview was to present details of a more realistic rural area.
"The countryside is empty and old, and people are estranged from each other. Having left my hometown for decades, I can only make some paintings, which are insignificant, but it is real and alive." Wu Dajun believes that there are two sides to everything, and his paintings are not a simple critique or affirmation of industrial civilization and traditional farming civilization.
出走與回歸Escape and Return
對(duì)鄉(xiāng)土環(huán)境、器物與景觀的關(guān)注,與巫大軍的成長經(jīng)歷息息相關(guān)。
上世紀(jì)60年代末,巫大軍出生在重慶璧山興隆場,也就是現(xiàn)在的大興鎮(zhèn)。成長過程中,他的生活被切割成了兩個(gè)部分:一部分是坐在課堂里汲取知識(shí);一部分與農(nóng)活綁在一起,課余必須參與家務(wù)農(nóng)忙,諸如養(yǎng)蠶、積肥、犁地、耙田、插秧、收割、養(yǎng)豬、養(yǎng)雞鴨……
城里來的老師,讓巫大軍看見了城市和農(nóng)村的截然不同,城市充滿機(jī)遇與可能,鄉(xiāng)村則滿載沉重繁復(fù)的農(nóng)活。因土地深切的“刺痛感”而渴望改變,從小就立志當(dāng)老師的少年巫大軍通過高考改變了命運(yùn)。帶著那份“刺痛感”,巫大軍一頭扎進(jìn)了四川美術(shù)學(xué)院。
然而,這個(gè)一度渴望離開鄉(xiāng)土的人,卻在千禧年伊始“回歸”了鄉(xiāng)土。隨著城市化進(jìn)程加快,巫大軍開始重新審視家鄉(xiāng)的山水鄉(xiāng)民及傳統(tǒng)農(nóng)耕文化,他意識(shí)到逐漸失落的鄉(xiāng)土文明、回不去的故鄉(xiāng)需要關(guān)照與記錄。于是,從2004年起,他將畫筆對(duì)準(zhǔn)了鄉(xiāng)土,然后是鄉(xiāng)民與器物……
得益于父親曾在璧山區(qū)多個(gè)鄉(xiāng)鎮(zhèn)糧站工作的緣故,巫大軍常常利用暑假參加糧站夏糧征收工作。近年來,他走遍了多個(gè)廢棄或轉(zhuǎn)型的糧站,收集了大量老舊的庫管器物和文本資料,獲得了有別于常人書寫、描繪農(nóng)耕文化的維度。
回過頭看,當(dāng)年讓他感到“刺痛”的鄉(xiāng)土最終成了他藝術(shù)創(chuàng)作的源泉。變化中的鄉(xiāng)村讓他對(duì)時(shí)代有了更多敏銳的感知,這也是一個(gè)藝術(shù)家豐富而真切的給養(yǎng)。
The concern for the vernacular environment, artifacts and landscape is closely related to Wu Dajun’s upbringing.
In the late 1960s, Wu Dajun was born in Xinglongchang, Bishan, Chongqing, which is now Daxing Town. As he grew up, his life was cut into two parts: one part was sitting in the classroom to learn; the other part was tied to farm work and had to participate in household farm work after school, such as raising silkworms, accumulating manure, plowing, harrowing, planting rice, harvesting, raising pigs, chickens and ducks ......
The teachers from the city showed Wu Dajun how different the city and the countryside are: the city is full of opportunities and possibilities, while the countryside is full of heavy and tedious farm work. The deep "tingle" feeling given by the land made him eager for change, and Wu Dajun, who had aspired to be a teacher since childhood, changed his fate through the college entrance examination. With that "tingle", Wu Dajun plunged into the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts.
However, this man, who once longed to leave the countryside, "returned" to it at the beginning of the millennium. With the accelerated urbanization, Wu Dajun began to re-examine the landscape, villagers and traditional farming culture of his hometown, realizing that the gradually lost vernacular civilization and the inaccessible hometown needed to be taken care of and recorded. So, from 2004 onwards, he turned his brush to the countryside, then villagers and artifacts ......
Thanks to his father’s work in many township grain stations in Bishan District, Wu Dajun often took part in summer grain collection in grain stations during summer vacation. In recent years, he has traveled to several abandoned or transformed grain stations to collect a large number of outmoded treasury artifacts and textual materials, gaining a different dimension of writing and depicting farming culture from the norm.
Looking back, the countryside that made him "stung" then eventually became the source of his artistic creation. The changing countryside gives him a sharper perception of the times, which is a rich and genuine supply for an artist.
土地和使命Land and Mission
“從土里長出來的人,才知道農(nóng)村要什么,不然就很容易闖進(jìn)介入式消費(fèi)?!弊鳛橐粋€(gè)對(duì)農(nóng)村有親身經(jīng)歷又有真情實(shí)感的人,他深知自己看到了什么、該畫什么。
近年來,國家大力實(shí)施鄉(xiāng)村振興戰(zhàn)略,鄉(xiāng)村的面貌逐漸改善。越來越多的項(xiàng)目、資金、人才匯集,使鄉(xiāng)村煥發(fā)出新時(shí)代的生機(jī)。
巫大軍也在思考這個(gè)問題:藝術(shù)家在鄉(xiāng)村振興中應(yīng)當(dāng)承擔(dān)怎樣的使命。
2017年的一個(gè)下午,巫大軍一個(gè)人踟躕于空曠的中國農(nóng)業(yè)博物館,與展臺(tái)農(nóng)具相對(duì)無言,視線漸漸模糊,農(nóng)具作為繪畫的主題開始緩下來。他開始嘗試從一個(gè)更廣闊的層面去觀察城市與鄉(xiāng)土,思考其中的某些關(guān)系——是什么掩蓋了環(huán)境、人與物及其本真關(guān)系?
“藝術(shù)家的能力很有限,或許只能提出問題,在精神、美育層面有所引領(lǐng)。”巫大軍說。
事實(shí)上,他每次動(dòng)筆都有一種不安,衣食無憂的自己正在退化、疏離并消費(fèi)著曾經(jīng)的淳樸與厚道,戰(zhàn)戰(zhàn)兢兢地在警醒中慢慢畫了好多年……
近些年,他逐漸認(rèn)識(shí)到,通過一件件作品喚起人們的敬畏之心和對(duì)故土的熱愛,從表征獨(dú)創(chuàng)到共同議題參與,這或許就是當(dāng)代藝術(shù)家所承擔(dān)的使命。
“Those who grow out of the earth know what the countryside wants, otherwise it is easy to break into interventional consumption.” As a person who has personal experience and true feelings about the countryside, he knows what he sees and what he should paint.
In recent years, the country has vigorously implemented the rural revitalization strategy, which has gradually improved the appearance of the countryside. More and more projects, funds and talents are coming together to revitalize the countryside in the new era.
Wu Dajun is also thinking about this question: What kind of mission should artists undertake in rural revitalization
One afternoon in 2017, Wu Dajun stumbled alone in the empty Chinese Agricultural Museum, speechless against the farming tools on the booth, his vision gradually blurred. His project of using agricultural tools as the subject of his paintings began to slow down. He began to try to look at the city and the countryside on a broader level, to think about some of the relationships - what obscures the relationship between the environment, people and things and their true nature
“Artists are very limited in their ability to perhaps only ask questions and lead on a spiritual, aesthetic level.” Wu Dajun said.
In fact, he had an uneasiness every time he began to paint: his well-clothed self was degrading, alienating and consuming the simplicity and generosity he once had, and he has painted slowly with trepidation for years in alarm ......
In recent years, he has gradually realized that he can evoke a sense of reverence and love for his homeland through every piece of his work from representational ingenuity to participation in common issues as a public art touchstone, and this is perhaps the mission that contemporary artists should undertake.