艺术家｜鸟头、鸟头世界与世界
鸟头（左：宋涛｜右：季炜煜）
Birdhead (left: Song Tao | right: Ji Weiyu)
鸟头成立于2004年，由宋涛（b.1979）和季炜煜（b.1980）组成，“鸟头”源自一次为文件命名而来的随意键盘敲击。鸟头以摄影为创作基础而不被摄影所框限。他们的镜头捕捉任何能涉及的事物，将关于他们自身的成长思考逐渐内化到他们的图像语境中。他们结合照片矩阵，拼贴，装裱，装置，摄影书写各种对于照片的使用方式，在不同的展览空间和环境中呈现多个自我更新进化的“鸟头世界”。
Birdhead, consisting of Song Tao (b. 1979) and Ji Weiyu (b. 1980), has been working in the medium of analog photography since it was established in 2004. The name "Birdhead" came from a random keystroke for film naming. The artistic practice of Birdhead is based on photographs but also beyond the philosophy of photography. Capturing all the beings around them, the two members of Birdhead digest and apply the thinking mode of conceptual art into the context of their image interpretation. By combining the photographic matrix, collage, installation, particular mounting technique and so on, Birdhead delivers a “Birdhead world” in various exhibition spaces and humanistic environment.
重要展览：生活城市 , 泰特现代美术馆 , 伦敦（2017）；第七届深港城市 \ 建筑双城双年展 , 深圳（2017）；第六届莫斯科双年展 , 莫斯科 , 俄罗斯（2015）；2013年被首届 HUGO BOSS 亚洲艺术大奖提名入围；2012 新摄影，MoMA，纽约，美国（2012）；重新发电 - 第九届上海双年展，上海当代艺术博物馆，上海（2012）；光国，第 54 届威尼斯双年展 主题展，威尼斯，意大利（2011）；2011 艺术家档案 东京国家艺术中心当代艺术年展，国家艺术中心，东京，日本（2011）；鸟头：新村，EX3 CENTRO PER L'ARTE CONTEMPORANEAFIRENZE，佛罗伦萨，意大利（2011）；他人的世界—当代艺术展，上海当代艺术馆，上海（2008）；中国发电站 - 第二站，ASTRUPFEARNLEY 现代美术馆，奥斯陆，挪威（2007）。鸟头的作品被英国泰特、纽约现代艺术博物馆、瑞士尤伦斯基金会、德国 Wemhoner 收藏、美国 The Margulies 收藏、挪威 ASTRUP FEARNLEY 现代美术馆等收藏。
Birdhead has been internationally presented at: Living Cities,Tate Modern, London (2017); The 7th edition Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism | Architecture, Shen Zhen (2017); How to gather? Acting in a city in the heart of the island of Eurasia, The 6th Moscow Biennale, Moscow, Russia (2015); Birdhead were also nominated for the inaugural Hugo Boss Asia Art Award in 2013; New Photography 2012, MoMA, New York, U.S.A. (2012); Reactivation, The 9th Shanghai Biennale, Power Station of Art, Shanghai(2012); Illuminations, The 54th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2011); The World of Other's: A Contemporary Art Exhibition, Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai (2008); China Power Station II, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Norway (2007); Birdhead: New Village, EX3 Centro per l'arte Contemporanea Firenze, Florence, Italy (2011); Artist File 2011 The NACT Annual Show of Contemporary Art, National Art Center, Tokyo, Japan (2011). Birdhead’s works have been internationally collected by: Tate, MoMA New York, Guy & Myriam Ullens Foundation, Wemhoner Collection, The Margulies Collection, Astrup Fearnley Museum and so on.
鸟头：作为装置艺术的摄影
Birdhead: Photography as Installation
文 / text：btr
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视频来源｜ Video source：Youtube
鸟头不相信单张照片的好坏有什么要紧。这个由宋涛和季炜煜自2004年成立的摄影两人组甚至不认为自己是摄影艺术家。“我们是装置艺术家。”他们不止一次这样公开表态，不愿被摄影这种媒介所框限。在香格纳画廊的官方网站上，鸟头的《今天 2014-01》和《今天 2014-02》等作品均被标注为“装置”：在详细说明里，银盐黑白照片与框、柚木、内衬、牛皮雕、鳄鱼皮、漆器等材料并置，似乎在强调它们都是构成这一“装置”并无本质差别、仅有主次之分的物质组成部分；尺寸的标注同样微妙，除了长和宽外，还标出框架厚度8厘米，以凸显装置的立体性。当然，从没有人规定装置作品必须多么“立体”，鸟头的照片不会比罗妮·霍恩（Roni Horn）的《金地》（Gold Field，1992）上那片金箔更薄，而将照片实体视为装置的合法性也可由古巴裔美国艺术家菲利克斯·冈萨雷斯-托雷斯（Félix González-Torres）的纸堆／照片堆装置进一步证明。显然，一堆和一张只有量的差异，而无本质分野。
Birdhead does not think the quality of individual photographs matters. Song Tao and Ji Weiyu, who set up the collective Birdhead, even deny their photographer identity. “We are installation artists,” they declared publicly several times, as their artistic practice is beyond the philosophy of photography. On the official website of ShanghART Gallery, the works of Birdhead like Today 2014-01 and Today 2014-02 are labelled “installation”. Their introductions place silver print alongside frame, teak, inside liner, crocodile leather, lacquer etc., which emphasise they are all components of an installation, but with clear priorities. Apart from the width and length, the labels also include the thickness (8 cm), focusing on the three-dimensional characteristic of the works. Of course, no one has set dimensional standards for installation. The photographs of Birdhead are thicker than the gold gold leaf of Roni Horn’s Gold Field, 1992. Also, the piles of paper and photographs of Cuban-American artist Félix González-Torres grants the validity of regarding Birdhead’s works as installations. The only difference among them is the quantity, not the nature.
欢迎再次来到鸟头的世界 - 上海，2016 | Welcome to Birdhead World Again - Shanghai 2016, Fab-Union Space on the West Bund, Shanghai
第54届威尼斯双年展(主题展) - 光国，威尼斯，意大利 ｜The 54th Venice Biennale - ILLUMInations, Venice, Italy｜2011
然而，我们将鸟头视为装置艺术家有着比强调照片本身的物质属性更为内在的理由。他们的照片矩阵、对于国画湿裱技术的运用、处理作品与展览空间的方式等皆无不具有装置艺术的特性。尤其是近年以来，鸟头将早期创作中独立于摄影之外的观念艺术式思考逐渐内化于他们的照片矩阵及展览中，我们甚至可以将鸟头的每个展览视为一个总体性的大装置，一个不断自我更新进化的“鸟头世界”。
We view Birdhead as installation artists not just because they highlight the physical properties of photographs. Their photo matrix, the usage of Chinese painting’s wet-mounting technique, as well as the way to deal with exhibition spaces, all have the characteristics of installation art. In the past few years, Birdhead has assimilated the early ideology of conceptual art, which was independent of photography, into their photo matrixes and exhibitions. Each of their shows can even be seen as a whole installation, in another word, a self-evolving world of Birdhead.
照片矩阵的“形意上下文”
The formal and conceptual context of photo matrix
Hugo Boss 亚洲艺术大奖 首届中国新锐入围艺术家作品展览，外滩美术馆，上海 | Hugo Boss Asia Art Award, Exhibition of Finalist Artists, Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, 2013
虽然“装置艺术”（installation）一词直到1960年代初才随着极少主义的兴起开始被使用，但具有装置艺术特性的作品可以回溯（追认）到二十世纪初的杜尚、1920年代柯特·希维特斯（Kurt Schwitters）的拼贴作品乃至1949年阿根廷裔意大利艺术家卢齐欧·丰塔纳（Lucio Fontana）的《空间环境》（Ambiente spaziale）。这些作品都“要求观众透过孤立的物件，看见作品被制作、呈现及接受的语境。因为装置艺术是置于分离的文化语境中的，经常与它们所在的环境直接相关或受其启发，它们将艺术引向一种与直接材料、与历史及社会语境的对话中。”[1] 装置艺术依靠关系——无论是具体的（与材料的、与展览环境的关系）还是抽象的（作品的美学、社会、政治、历史语境）——来有效实现艺术家的自我表达。
The term "installation" emerged in the early 60s with the rise of minimalism. However, the features of installation can be found in the ready-mades of Duchamp at the beginning of 20th century, the collage of Kurt Schwitters in the 20s as well as Lucio Fontana’s work Ambiente Spaziale, 1949. All the works "ask the audience to comprehend the context of art-making and how the work is presented through a single object. This is because installation is in an isolated culture context, often connects to or is inspired by the environment. It leads art into a dialogue among direct material, history and social context."[1] Installation depends on connections, which could be concrete (relationship with the material and the space of the shows) or abstract (the aesthetics, social, political and historical context of the works), in order to achieve the self-expression of the artists effectively.
欢迎再次来到鸟头的世界 - 上海，2016 | Welcome to Birdhead World Again - Shanghai 2016, Fab-Union Space on the West Bund, Shanghai
鸟头作品中呈现的装置艺术的“关系”特性是多层面的。首先，是作品内部照片与照片间的内在关系。在近些年愈来愈成为鸟头作品标准格式的“照片矩阵”里，每张照片都成为了其他照片的上下文，单张照片的意义由此被削弱（尽管你仍可以欣赏单张照片的具体细节）。一张曝光过度的照片只要位置合理，只要融入作品的整体（或“更大的照片”）之中，一样可以达成有效的表达、甚至还有放大的效果。
There are multiple levels of connections within the installation works of Birdhead. The first one is the internal connection between the snapshots. In the photo matrix, which has been the major art form of Birdhead in recent years, each individual photograph becomes the context of the others, so the impact of a single photograph is weakened (the audience can still appreciate the details of each photograph). An over-exposure image can give effective expression, or even reinforce it, as long as it is positioned properly and integrated with the whole work (or a "bigger photograph").
生活城市，泰特现代美术馆，伦敦，英国 | Living Cities, Tate Modern, London, U.K., 2017
可以将鸟头2011年的“唐诗宋词”系列视为这种工作方法的隐喻。他们在城市各处拍摄不同字体的汉字，以拼贴的方式复原辛弃疾《丑奴儿·书博山道中壁》里的诗句。照片矩阵里的每张单独照片，本质上便如同诗句里一个个单独的汉字，每个字诚然有其本意，但惟有依赖某种“句法”（或“语法”）才能呈现出真正的诗意。而相较于意涵过分明确的字词（语言），照片的视觉语言更具有多义性，更适合自由编排，出入于不同的时间和空间，打破照片有形和无形之“框”，来抒情及写意。由大量不同的胶片相机在各种环境下拍摄的精度各异、虚化效果各不相同的照片，也在这种方法中起到了调节节奏、彼此互补的关系。
The Tang Poem Song Jambic Verse series, 2011, is a metaphor of this working method. They captured Chinese characters displayed in different fonts throughout the city, and then rearranged them based on a poem, Xin Qiji’s Chou Nu Er (Youth Does Not Know How Sorrow Tastes). Each image represents a single character, which has its own meaning, but the "grammar" (or "principle") is central to show the real poetry. Compared to the words with a particular meaning, the visual language of photographs is more variable and suitable for the free arrangement. It can move through time and spaces, and break the rules of photography to express feelings and thoughts. The photographs taken by different analog cameras under various conditions differ in their resolution and blur, which makes them complementary and helps to adjust the overall rhythm.
鸟头-巴塞尔艺术展“无限意象”项目, 展位号 U46，巴塞尔，瑞士｜Birdhead-Art Unlimited Art Basel 2016, Booth Nr. U46, Basel, Switzerland, 2016
更进一步看，鸟头构建“照片矩阵”的语法也在不断演变。最初照片尺寸不一、如Wolfgang Tillmans式的错落排列法（如2007年的《鸟头的城市，鸟头的车》）渐渐演化为由同尺寸照片构成的规整矩阵（如2016年的《情放志荡》）；而同样是规整的矩阵，2015年在香格纳H空间里的展览更倾向于由照片的内容及主题（山水／城市／面孔）来建构关系，而在2016年底Fab-Union的展览中则更大胆地使用照片视觉上的点、线、面关系进行拼图游戏般的勾连——在东南亚拍摄的裸女之身形曲线与西伯利亚雪山无缝对接，烟囱里飘出的滚滚白烟，蒙太奇为隔壁天空中的疏云——情绪仿佛在这些冰火两重天及辗转的烟云中流动。而正是在这样的情绪暗流中，人体与风景再无分别，外部世界与内心风景达成了和谐的同一。
Furthermore, there are changes evident in Birdhead’s principle of the photo matrix. The early photographs of different sizes, close to the tangled configuration of Wolfgang Tillmans (Birdhead’s City, Birdhead’s Car, 2007), have evolved into the neat arrays consisting of images of the same size (Passions Bloom Ambitions, 2016). Using the same organised matrix composition, Birdhead’s show at ShanghART H space in 2015 tended to link the photographs based on their content and subject matters (landscapes, cities or faces). In the 2016 show at Fab-Union, Birdhead fits the points, lines and plane of the photos together like a puzzle. For example, the curve of South Asian female nude and the Siberian snow mountains coincide; the white smoke from the chimney becomes a montage of the clouds in the sky. As the emotions seem to be flowing through different scenes, there is no difference between human being and landscape. The outer and inner world become one.
欢迎再次来到鸟头的世界 - 上海，2016 | Welcome to Birdhead World Again - Shanghai 2016, Fab-Union Space on the West Bund, Shanghai
Fab-Union展览二楼的“矩阵三联画”（两侧是6x5横构图30张，中间是6x4竖构图24张）最好地展现了鸟头成熟混用“形构”及“意构”两种语法的能力。两侧的形构与中间的意构间更形成了第二层关系，双重的“形意上下文”。
The three-panel photo matrix on the second floor of Fab-Union (left & right 6x5 horizontal composition in 30 pieces, middle 6x4 vertical composition in 24 pieces) best shows the mature ability of Birdhead to combine "Formal construction" with "conceptual construction". The formal constructure on either side and the conceptual constructure in the middle form the second layer of the connections – a double context of form and content.
鸟头、鸟头世界与世界
Birdhead, Birdhead world and the world
欢迎再次来到鸟头的世界，2015，香格纳H空间，上海 | Welcome to Birdhead World Again, 2015, ShanghART H-Space, Shanghai
鸟头作品的装置性也体现在与展览空间的关系中。2015年在香格纳H空间的展览被设计一个三进的院落：第一进是白盒子里的照片矩阵；第二进是暗室中以24k金箔、国画湿裱技术及传统漆器工艺装裱的作者肖像照及两张考究的“更大的照片”；第三进则是完全的留白——一个空的空间，只挂着一块“鸟头世界”的牌匾。借由这些明与暗、满与空，鸟头不但寻找着作品与展览空间之间适恰的关系，更将空间转化为作品的一部分。
The installation quality of Birdhead’s work is also reflected in the relationship between the work and exhibition space. The 2015 show at ShanghART H-Space created a yard-like space with "three jins" ("jin" in Chinese means "enter, progress and forward"). The first "jin" exhibited photo matrixes in white boxes, while in the second "jin" there were portraits of the two members of Birdhead decorated with 24k gold foils and two delicate works titled For a Bigger Photo, which use the wet mounting technique of traditional Chinese painting and are framed by traditional lacquer. However, the third "jin" has nothing but a plaque “Birdhead's World”. Through the contrast between darkness and brightness, emptiness and fullness, the artists not only explore the proper connections between their works and spaces, but also turn the space into part of the work.
欢迎再次来到鸟头的世界，2015，香格纳H空间，上海 | Welcome to Birdhead World Again, 2015, ShanghART H-Space, Shanghai
而在2016年底西岸Fab-Union的展览中，鸟头一方面将这种递进关系依据三层楼的实际空间立体化，另一方面更制作了两件“真·装置作品”，仿佛要借此驯服这个本身太过具有设计感的建筑及展览空间。二楼透明夹层里的《鸟头作品》是一个约为一立方米的封闭木箱，四侧镶嵌着废弃相机，试片用的照片废条以订书钉近乎随意地拼贴于表面，并用白色防水漆勾勒出鸟头的形状。仿佛某种奇妙的转喻，《鸟头作品》是对鸟头作品的概括（一种“元作品”），揭示了鸟头作品的本质——不但拍照是他们的生活，他们也把拍照视为理解日常生活、理解世界及抒发情感的主要方式。这与他们拍的究竟是新村、上海、泰国还是西伯利亚无关；或者毋宁说，世界在鸟头的相机面前反而成了一面内观的镜子，鸟头看似将相机对准了世界，本质上却是在拍自己、拍“鸟头世界”。
In the show at Fab-Union West Bund at the end of 2016, apart from making the progressive relationship stereoscopic according to the three-storey building, Birdhead also created two pieces of "real installation" to tame the way too well-designed space. In the transparent interlayer on the second floor locates Birdhead’s Work, a cubic meter wooden box inlaid with broken cameras all around. Waste photographs are attached randomly with staples on the box surface, where the artists also used white waterproof paint to draw the shape of a bird head. Like a kind of ingenious metonymy, this work summarises the art practice of Birdhead (a "meta-work") and reveals their nature: photography is the two artists’ life, and is considered as their approach to understand daily life and the world and to express their emotions. It does not matter if they took pictures in New Village, Shanghai, Thailand or Siberia. In other words, the world plays the role of a mirror: when the artists are taking photos of the world, they are actually shooting themselves and the Birdhead's world.
Birdhead 鸟头 | 大神 Lord | 装置, 综合材料｜Installation, mixed media | 80x78x42cm | 2016
而这种“个人崇拜”更体现在天台楼梯边的装置《大神》中：彩色长气球组成的胡子在充气装置的控制下不断依次扬起垂下，隐约透出性的意味；而药水炮制的烟雾如同脑中溢出的热烫灵感，弥漫在空气里。“总的来说，我们更关心自己。我们更关心理解与认知外部世界的过程对于自身带来的成长和改变。”[2] 鸟头在展览画册的一篇采访中如是说。
The installation Lord near the stairs to the rooftop clearly conveys this kind of personality cult. The beard made of colourful balloons oscillates under the control of the inflation system, which carries a sexual undercurrent to some extents. Also, the smoke from chemicals is the metaphor of passionate inspirations of the artists. “In general, we are more concerned with ourselves. We focus on the transformation in ourselves during the process of observing and understanding the external world,”[2] said Birdhead in an interview of their exhibition catalogue.
Birdhead 鸟头 | 情放志荡-21 (c) Passions Bloom Ambitions from Vagina-21 (c) | 摄影 | 银盐黑白照片, 椴木板材，LED灯，中国传统湿裱，传统纹样绢包裹 | Photograph | Gelatin silver print, Tilia plywood, LED lights, Wet mounting technique of traditional Chinese painting on classic patterned silk | 114x114cm | 2016
值得注意的是：鸟头近年以来所有的个展都使用相同的名字——“欢迎再次来到鸟头的世界”。这一方面印证了将鸟头的展览视为一个总体性装置作品的合理性——就好像有一件叫做“鸟头世界”的未完成作品始终在演变、在进化、在与我们身处其中的世界发生隐秘的关联——另一方面，这一展览标题也揭示了鸟头作品又一层面的“关系”特性：与观众的关系。
It is worth noting that all the recent solo shows of Birdhead reuse the same title "Welcome to Birdhead World". On the one hand, it implies that the exhibition is a piece of installation – the work Birdhead World is always in process and linked to the reality covertly. On the other hand, the title reveals the relationship between the artists and the audience.
2012 新摄影，现代艺术博物馆 (MoMA)，纽约，美国｜New Photography 2012, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, U.S.A.
Birdhead 鸟头 | 辛弃疾《丑奴儿》 Chou Nu Er (Youth Does Not Know How Sorrow Tastes) by Xin Qiji (Song Dynasty) | 装置 | Installation | 200x195cm | Each 188x30cm (x 4 pieces) | Each 200x30cm (x 2 pieces) | 2011
“欢迎再次来到鸟头的世界”不啻对于外部世界（及身处外部世界的观众们）的邀请：邀请观众（再次）进入“鸟头世界”，邀请观众来感受鸟头个人化的主观世界，感受他们的情绪、审美、趣味。这时候，照片（及其中的世界）反而成了架接鸟头与观众的媒介（装置）。如果观众恰好是“熟客”、或翁贝托·埃科所说的“模范读者”，那么他就能跟随鸟头超越时间和现实的束缚，在当下里寻获古典，可以一起吟诵唐诗宋词，做“徐如林，疾如风”的漫游者，可以去往大陆的尽头，感受千秋光或少女之妙，情放志荡地骄傲而肆意地生活。毕竟生活最伟大。
"Welcome to Birdhead World" is more than an invitation for the external world (and the audience) to enter the world of Birdhead (again) and to experience their subjectivity, emotions, interests and aesthetics. In this case, the photographs (and the world within) become the bridge between the artists and the audience. If the audience happens to be familiar with Birdhead’s works, or as discerning as Umberto Eco’s "model readers", they can follow the artists to surpass the bondage of time and reality, to look for classics in the modern life, to appreciate poems and verses, to become a free rover, to reach the end of mainland, to experience the light of eternity or the wonder of young females and to live with passions and ambitions. After all, the greatest thing is life itself.
注释 Note：
[1] 见《Themes in Contemporary Art》（P186，Gill Perry及Paul Wood编，Yale University Press）
Gill Perry & Paul Wood, Themes in Contemporary Art, Yale University Press, P186.
[2] 见展览册P13鸟头访谈《这世界变成什么样，其实我们是漠不关心的》（访谈人：周渐佳）
Zhou Jianjia, We do not care about how this world changes, Interview with Birdhead in the exhibition catalogue，P13.
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欢迎再来鸟头世界，2018 北京
Welcome to Birdhead World Again, Beijing 2018
开幕：2018年9月9日 16:00
展期：2018年9月9日－10月16日 (周二至周日, 11:00-18:00)
地址：香格纳北京 朝阳区机场辅路草场地261号
联系：infobj@shanghartgallery.com | +86 10 6432 3202