白盒子评论 | 《五把钥匙》贺勋写徐小国
徐小国个展：星光
XU Xiaoguo: The Stars
2022.4.30-2022.6.26
策展人：李章旭
Curator: LEE Janguk
白盒子艺术馆
Whitebox Art Center
五把钥匙
Five Keys
贺勋
He Xun
就像此刻，打开一张空白稿纸和面对一个空白画框的恐惧是一样的。直到第一笔落下，希望就生了起来，再也停不下来。与其说是对空白的恐惧，不如说是对这纷繁世界无边无际扑面而来的信息的恐惧；在这个时刻，仿佛只剩下你眼前的这个“空洞”，只有这里尚且无人居住。
Like this moment that opening a blank piece of paper is as scary as facing a blank frame. Until the first stroke falls, hope is born and never can stop. It's not so much fear of blank space as the endless flowing information in a crowded world; At this moment, the only thing left in front of you is this "empty", only here is uninhabited.
某年某月梦见白天鹅 225x600cm 布面油画 2009
Dream About Swan one day 225x600cm Oil on canvas 2009
第一层恐惧是，这是我的“空洞”吗？第二层恐惧是，我要住进去吗？第三层恐惧是，里面是什么？最后一层恐惧是一条衔尾蛇正在吞噬着自己：为什么要住进去？难道你不是被这空洞所占领吗？我们就是这样开始的，“在闪电上义结金兰”（胡续东诗），一边表达，一边消失。
The first fear is, is this my "hole"? The second fear is, am I going to live in it? The third fear is, what's in there? The third fear is like an Ouroboros devouring itself: why live in there? Aren't you occupied by this “hole”? This is how we started, "Becoming sworn brothers on the lightning " (Hu Xudong's poem), as you express, as you disappear.
蓝色天鹅绒 180x230cm 布面油画 2009
Blue Velvet 180x230cm Oil on canvas 2009
通常前两种恐惧已经被战胜，因为这是徐小国以及我们这些画家选择的工作，如今我们叫它为“职业”，这是个无褒贬的词，甚至都来不及分辨、思考和共情就开始了与已知的自己和未知的空白（反之亦然）的搏斗。
Usually, the first two fears have been overcome, because this is the work that Xu Xiaoguo and our painters chose to do, and we now call it "profession". It’s a word without praise or contempt. We begin to wrestle with the known self and the unknown blank (vice versa) without even recognizing, thinking and empathy.
旅行箱 180x220cm 布面油画 2011
Suitcases 180x220cm Oil on canvas 2011
在2006至2011的五年间，徐小国使用了壮硕且本色的叙事野心，在巨幅的画布上组织形象，搭建舞台，飞翔、封闭、隔绝、支撑、燃烧、悬挂、孤立、坍塌这些动作不断在画面中排演，引起我注意的是创作于2009年的《某年某月梦见白天鹅》和同年创作的《蓝色天鹅绒》，区别于飞艇和蝴蝶、烟花与雪山，洁白的天鹅和幽闭的旅行箱预示着徐小国将进入一个被放大的舞台中央，他将从这个箱子里找到被折叠和禁忌的秘密钥匙。这是绘画交给他的第一把钥匙。
During the five years from 2006 to 2011, Xu Xiaoguo used a strong and natural narrative ambition to organize images and build a stage on a huge canvas, constantly rehearsing the actions of flying, closing, isolating, supporting, burning, hanging, isolating and collapsing. The one that attracted my attention is “Dream About Swan one day” which is painted in 2009 and also the "Blue velvet" created in the same year. Different from the airship and butterfly, fireworks and snow mountain, white swan and pent-up suitcase herald Xu Xiaoguo will be magnified into a centre stage, he will find the folded and taboo of secret key from the suitcase. It was the first key that painting gave him.
红树林 300x400cm 布面油画 2011
Red Woods 300x400cm Oil on canvas 2011
旅行箱（《旅行箱》2011）里的圆球掉落出来，成为一个个的圆形，在红树林（《红树林》2011）中聚合成为瞳孔，成为观众与作者对视的通道，准确地说，是画面中的形象借由观看者开始发光。2011至2012年这个阶段是艺术家与被创造物和观察者之间相互打量和试探的重要时刻。
The balls in the suitcase (“Suitcase”, 2011) fall out and form round shapes, which converge into pupils in the mangrove (“Red Woods”, 2011) and become the channels between the audience and the artist to communicate with each other. To be precise, the images in the picture begin to shine through the viewer. The period of 2011-2012 is an important time for the artist and his creatures in painting to check out and test with the observer.
花坛 150x180cm 布面油画 2012
Flower Bed 150x180cm Oil on canvas 2012
从箱子中掉落的圆球仍然担心自己过快地成为圆形，它们有意地要做一回具体的事物，当它们刚刚成为花坛和棕榈树时（《花坛》2012），它们又变成了米奇（《Mickey可以帮助你》2012） ，米奇是斯大林吗（《红色界限》2012）？士兵可以开花吗（《白花瓶》2012）？花朵是瞳孔般的陷阱吗（《陷阱》2012）？
The balls fallen from the suitcase were still worrying about to become a sphere in a short time. They want to be a truly things on purpose. First, they become flower beds and palm trees (“Flower Bed”, 2012). Then, they become Mickey (“Mickey can help you”, 2012). Is Mickey Stalin (“Red Boundaries”, 2012)? Can soldiers blossom (“White vase”, 2012)? Are flowers pupillary traps (“Trap”, 2012)?
Mickey可以帮助你 150x180cm 布面油画 2012
Mickey can help you 150x180cm Oil on canvas 2012
红色界线 60x80cm 布面丙烯 2012
Red Boundaries 60x80cm Acrylic on canvas 2012
围绕着从圆球变成圆形的目光的陷阱，布满风暴和夕阳、绝望和无序的舞台开始安静了下来。
Surrounding by the trap of the eyes that changed from balls to round, the stage filled with storms and sunsets, despair and disorder began to calm down.
白花瓶 65x110cm 布面油画 2012
White Vase 65x110cm Oil on canvas 2012
就像此刻的行文，肆意的比喻和想象似乎远离了绘画本身。这一点和徐小国的创作一样，是一条必经之路，这是与异化的语言和世界的一次正面冲突，因为只有这样，我们才可以对自己和自己正在做的工作进行回顾，没有什么“早知道”，也没有什么“本来就”。用第一把钥匙才能找到第二把钥匙。
Like the writing of this moment, wilful metaphor and imagination seem far from the painting itself. Just like Xu Xiaoguo's works, it is a necessary way which is a direct conflict with catabolic language and the world. Because only in this way, we can review ourselves and what we are doing, there is nothing "known", there is nothing "as is". You need the first key to find the second key.
陷阱 60x80cm 布面丙烯 2012
Trap 60x80cm Acrylic on canvas 2012
2012年创作的《白化病人》里的病人离开了，徐小国绘画的内容得到了自由。斑马从此等于条纹，紫色开始溢出钴蓝。他开始自由地编织内容和结构，或者说是开始以结构为内容，以形式为内容，再给它们置入一个意识流动的光色的空间之中。
In "Albino Patient" which is created in 2012, the patient left, leaving the content of Xu's paintings free. Zebra equals stripes, purple begins to overflow cobalt blue. He began to freely weave content and structure, or to say taking structure as content, taking form as content, and place them in a space of light and color where consciousness flowed.
白化病人 200x300cm 布面油画 2012
Albino Patient 200x300cm Oil on canvas 2012
这就是众所周知的徐小国的“笼子”。他亦因此获得进一步的解放。无论是图底关系的处理还是形色分离的探索以及叙述方法的尝试都只是艺术家语法的一种，当在空白处用尽方法描述和表现之后，我们发现这些繁复的笔触和色彩似乎掩盖了什么真相？那初始的空洞与恐惧变得更多更大，笼子本身和笼子形象的网格中的事物就要成为经验之外的语言（有一部分仍在阅读的经验中），似乎绘画因此获得了自己的权力。
This is known as Xu Xiaoguo's "cage". He was further liberated. No matter how to deal with the figure-ground relation, the exploration of shape-color separation or the attempt of narrative methods, they are all just one kind of artist's grammar. When we exhausted the methods of description and expression in the blank, the truth seems to be covered by these complicated strokes and colors? The initial emptiness and fear become bigger and larger, and the cage itself and the things in the grid become the language outside of experience (part of which is still in the experience of reading), as if the painting thus acquired its own power.
大笼子1 200x300cm 布面油画 2013
Large Cage 1 200x300cm Oil on canvas 2013
就像印象派在走进自然试图获取真实的光和色时他们收获得是前所未有的被放大夸张数倍的冷暖和微妙。这是工具和目的两者双重的迷失，是形与色、存在与观察间的迷局，此时的状态，语言、对象、作者、媒介全部在场，又虚无得像山石林木那么自然隐匿。
Just like the impressionists, when they went into the nature trying to get at the real light and color, they got cold, warm and subtle feeling that had never been magnified. This is the double loss of tool and purpose, a puzzle between form and color, existence and observation. In this state, language, object, artist and media are all present, but hiding in the nature as mountains, rocks and trees.
球笼 250x290cm 布面油画 2013
Ball and Cage 250x290cm Oil on canvas 2013
第二把钥匙的反面就是第三把钥匙。艺术家来到了自己的左边（或右边），2013-2015年间，徐小国以“反面”的动作对正负形、色彩关系、空间位置反复把握练习，这是一种抽象得近乎具体的实验，他需要承受来自习惯、美学、意义和时间的多重考验。直到“球笼”（《球笼》2013）的出现（实际上是“旅行箱”里那些圆形的锁的再次出现），徐小国意识到，需要疾速地回返到第一道关卡处，去确认好此前的判断。
The opposite of the second key is the third key. The artist came to his left (or right). From 2013 to 2015, Xu Xiaoguo repeatedly mastered and practiced positive and negative forms, color relationships and spatial positions. This was an abstract and concrete experiment, and he needed to bear multiple tests from habits, aesthetics, meaning and time. It was until the advent of the "Ball and Cage" ("Ball and Cage", 2013) (actually it’s a reappearance of those round locks in the "suitcase") that Xu realized he needed to quickly return to the first fear to confirm his judgment.
球形组织 5 200×250cm 布面油画 2015
Spherical System 5 200×250cm Oil on canvas 2015
再回看徐小国2015-2018年间“织体”、“球形组织”、“类推的迷局”等系列创作时，我甚至觉得作为观众是奢侈的，而作为画家的观众又是幸福的；奢侈的是我们穿过体量数量巨大的思辨和手工的劳作后轻而易举地作出判断，幸福的是同行获得了他带来的新的秩序经验和思维美感，我们因为这样的路径而得以去反观自己的工作。
When I look back at Xu Xiaoguo's works from 2015 to 2018, such as "Texture", "Spherical System" and "Analogous Puzzle", I even feel that the audience is luxurious, while as the painter’s audience is fortunate. The luxury is that the audience can easily make judgments after going through a huge amount of speculation and manual work. The fortunateness is that the peer has gained the new order experience and thinking aesthetic feeling brought by him. Because of this path, they can review their own work.
织体14 120x155cm 布面油画 2018-2019
Texture 14 120x155cm Oil on canvas 2018-2019
类推的迷局 2 230×290cm 布面油画 2015
Analogous Puzzle 2 230×290cm Oil on canvas 2015
在2018-2019年的《织体14》中，徐小国差一点点就要打磨出第四把钥匙，我猜想他一定也知道，但他的习惯是反复确认，这“偶然”出现的果实是自己努力的结果吗？还是绘画（画布、颜料、笔触、手感）关系的结晶？需要我去摘取这颗果实吗？他在问题中觉悟。
In “Texture 14” (2018-2019), Xu Xiaoguo was close to polishing the fourth key, and I suspect he must have known that, but his habit was to repeatedly confirm that if this "accidental" fruit was the result of his own efforts? Or is it the crystallization of the painting relation (canvas, paint, brushwork, feel)? Do I need to pick this fruit? He was awakened by the problem.
白 200x300cm 布面油画 2018-2019
White 200x300cm Oil on canvas 2018-2019
我私下里管这样马上的当下的觉悟叫当代艺术。显然，第四把钥匙就是在这来回的奔跑、反复的疑问中诞生。它是肉身，是肉身处于时间和空间里，是肉身正在面对“空白”的画布和虚无、“描述”的语言和诱惑。
I personally call this immediate awareness as “Contemporary Art”. Obviously, the fourth key is born in this running back and forth, repeated questions. It is the body, the body in time and space, the body is facing the "blank" canvas and nothingness, the language and temptation of "description".
蓝 200x300cm 布面油画 2019
Blue 200x300cm Oil on canvas 2019
享受问题的方式是提出问题、思考问题、解决问题、在问题中反问问题、得到答案时反推问题，犹如此刻和此前的徐小国，在语言的快感中时而迷狂时而克制。在2018-2019年间，徐小国通过了景观、语法、形式来到了隧道的出口，行进的他就要看到却还未看到外面的景象。它或许是白昼般的夜里曝光过度的霓虹，或许是晨曦中的村庄，亦或是沙漠上升起的海市蜃楼。（《白》2018-2019、《蓝》2019）、《红》2018）。
The way to enjoy question is to put forward questions, think about questions, solve questions, ask questions in question, and push back questions when getting answers. Such as Xu Xiaoguo at this moment and before, he was sometimes crazy and sometimes restrained in the pleasure of language. From 2018 to 2019, Xu Xiaoguo came to the exit of the tunnel through landscape, grammar and form. He was about to see but had not yet seen the outside scene. It could be an overexposed neon in the daylight-night, a village in the morning, or a mirage rising from the desert. (“White”, 2018-2019; “Blue”, 2019; “Red”, 2018).
红 200x300cm 布面油画 2018
Red 200x300cm Oil on canvas 2018
当徐小国疾驰驶向出口的时候，他就是第五把钥匙。过往所有的图像：球体、织体、纹体、笼子、椅子、圣迹、海洋、城墙、远山、林木、山石，所有图像之上的线条、质感、修辞，所有语言之上的情感、理想、问题都成为碎片，已然分不清它们是要从这个身体里喷薄而出还是它们如灰烬中的光辉正将你笼罩。
As Xu Xiaoguo hurtled toward the exit, he was the fifth key. Past all of the images: sphere, texture, striatum, cage, chair, holy relic, ocean, city wall, distant mountains, trees, rocks, above all images of lines, simple sense, rhetoric, all language of emotion, ideal, question become fragment. It cannot distinguish them either is bursting out from the body or is like the ashes of light surrounding you.
星空 6/2020 224x300cm 布面油画 2020
Starlight 6/2020 224x300cm Oil on canvas 2020
徐小国将2020-2021年新近的创作概括取名为“星光”，这当然是一种譬喻。就像文章开首时我以空白来比喻开始。但我们可以再问一个问题，真的只是比喻吗？我们在将绘画、内容、面貌比喻成“星光”，还是在将意象、质感或是所求比喻为 “星光”，还是为观者的解读、行家的分析提供一个入口？我想象的是，徐小国来到了这里，只有这唯一的词汇可以形容他此刻在绘画中的状态。绘画者不单正在其中创造，他也时时刻刻地在旁边看着。
Xu named his latest work “Starlight” (2020-2021) is a metaphor. Just like I use “blank” at the beginning of the article as a metaphor of “a starting point”. But we can ask one more question, is that really just a metaphor? Are we comparing painting, content and appearance to "starlight", or are we comparing image, texture or desire to "starlight", or are we providing an entrance for audiences' interpretation and experts' analysis? I imagine that Xu Xiaoguo came here, and this is the only word that can describe his state in painting at this moment. The painter is not only creating in it, he is also watching it all the time.
星光 7/2021 160x180cm 布面油画 2021
Starlight 7/2021 160x180cm Oil on canvas 2021
“星光”系列作品正是这样，艺术家将自己戳穿，放出光辉，让自己在真假不明的浑浊绝望中透出干净和荣光，艺术家也将绘画戳穿，让绘画在具象与抽象、本质和观念的桎梏中得到它自然的位置；这是绘画与绘画者相互映照而产生的光辉。
As the series of "Starlight" itself, the artist transfixes himself and reveals his brilliance, allowing himself to be clean and glorious in the muddy despair of uncertain truth and falsehood. The artist also transfixes painting to find its natural place in the fetters of concreteness and abstraction, essence and concept. This is the light produced by the mutual reflection of the painting and the painter.
2022.3.16
关于作者
贺勋
艺术家、诗人、孑孓社策划小组成员，1984年生于江西，2006年毕业中国美术学院，现生活工作杭州和北京。其创作涉及绘画、文本和策划，关注农耕文明、神巫信仰和文学习惯在日常事物中的象征作用，着重于发现被忽视或被压抑的语言、民俗事项、图腾制度对当 代生活的影响，藉此寻找人类普遍的情感关联、永恒的记忆及其衰败的历程。
He Xun
Artist, poet, member of Jiejue community, born in 1984 in Jiangxi province, he graduated from China Academy of Art in 2006. Now, he lives and works in Hangzhou and Beijing. His works include paintings, text, and curating, focus on farming civilization, sibyl beliefs and literature used to symbolic role in the normal course of things, focus on finding those which are ignored or repressed on language, folk customs, totem system and the influence of the current generation of life to find universal human emotionship, and eternal memory and its decay.
关于艺术家
徐小国
1977年生于陕西西安，2000年毕业于西安美术学院油画系，现工作生活于北京。徐小国的作品涉及绘画，图片，影像，声音等艺术形式，近年来获得“798艺术节青年艺术家邀请展”一等奖，“北京电影学院国际新媒体艺术三年展” 影像艺术青年艺术家学院奖,“光华千玉奖”等等。其作品多次参加国内外重要艺术机构的群展，其中包括瑞士卢塞恩美术馆、莫斯科当代艺术博物馆、澳大利亚白兔美术馆、波兰BWA美术馆、尤伦斯当代艺术中心、今日美术馆、中央美术学院美术馆、台北当代艺术馆、台北关渡美术馆、澳门艺术博物馆、OCAT当代艺术中心、朱屺瞻艺术馆、石家庄美术馆、当代唐人艺术中心、伊比利亚当代艺术中心、白盒子艺术馆、学古斋、香港奥沙艺术中心。
重要个展包括:“徐小国近作”徐小国个展，当代唐人艺术中心； “枝曼间隙”徐小国个展，当代唐人艺术中心； “徐小国”徐小国个展，当代唐人艺术中心；《CIGE—艺术家养成之路》徐小国个展”；“空间纹体”，今日美术馆；“small country”，白盒子美术馆；“2011徐小国‘降噪’6/25”，蒓萃艺术空间；“两条路线-翁奋/徐小国双个展”,BWA美术馆；“圣迹—徐小国作品展”，荔空间；“戏幕背后”徐小国个展，香港奥沙艺术中心 — 新加坡；“徐小国个展”，香港奥沙艺术中心 — 上海；“等待演出”徐小国个展，香港奥沙艺术中心 — 香港；“徐小国个人展览”，尔东强艺术中心；“人造风景”徐小国个展，朱屺瞻艺术馆。
Xu Xiaoguo
He majored in Oil Painting and graduated from the Xu Xiaoguo Academy of Fine Arts in 2000. Currently based in Beijing, Xu Xiaoguo works take various artistic forms such as painting, pictorials and video、experimental music. In recent years, Xu Xiaoguo had been lauded with various accolades for his art, including but not limited to first prize for the "798 Arts Festival Young Artists Recommendation Exhibition", the "Academy Award for Young Artists of Film Media" from the Beijing Film Academy International New Media Arts Triennial Exhibition and the "Guanghua Qianyu Award".
Xu has actively participated in numerous exhibitions both at home and abroad. Significant solo exhibitions of his include“XU XIAOGUO RECENT WORK”Xu Xiaoguo Solo Exhibition ,2016 “BE-TWEEN THE GREEN” Xu Xiaoguo Solo Exhibition,Xu Xiaoguo Solo Exhibition in 2015 at Tang Contemporary Art Beijing, From Space to Textureby Today Art Museum, Small Country by White Box Art Centre, 2011 Xu Xiaoguo ‘De Noise’ 6/25 by Chun Cui Contemporary Art Space, DWIE LINIE/TWOLINES– an Exhibition by Weng Fen and Xu Xiaoguo at the BWA Gallery, Traces of the Sacred –Xu Xiaoguo Solo Exhibition at Li Space, Drama Behind the Curtain Xu Xiaoguo Solo Exhibition at the Osage Gallery Singapore, Xu Xiaoguo Solo Exhibition at the Osage Gallery Shanghai, Wait For the Show Xu Xiaoguo Solo Exhibition at the Osage Gallery Hong Kong, Xu Xiaoguo Solo Exhibition at the Deke Erh Art Center and Artificial Landscape Xu Xiaoguo Solo Exhibition at the Zhu Qizhan Art Museum.