李涛：次生平行世界
李涛的工作是基于材料的，他的材料大多数是人造物如硅胶丙烯、塑料、三合板、水泥......还有一部分是常见的却难以料想的材料，比如空调的内芯、 下跳棋用的玻璃球、宜家的家具......再有一种就真的是普通人不会了解的材料，例如便于雕刻的聚四氟乙烯、看似胶状但是硬度极高的聚氨酯。 所以把这个展览叫做“次生”，也是来自他的工作基础的本性。去他的工作室参观是一种巨大乐趣，像是去往一个次生材料的植物园:五颜六色的材料块，工具(也可能变成材料)，完成的作品(仍然可能被新材料的到来而更改)以及未完成的作品......眼睛和手都可以得到丰富体验，而大脑也必须跟艺术家一起不断组合和想象，因为这一切之间的界限是模糊的而又极度敏感的，似乎每一个来访者都有可能改变它们的样态。
李涛的灵感通常来自于材料之间的偶然相遇，一块和另一块之间的连接呈现出一种胚胎的架势，就会引发下一种，再下一种，直至这些材料几乎生长成他想要的样式。有的时候也来自对另一种质感的观察，比如北京春季狂风中的塑料布。所以他的工作场所虽然像工厂，也确实需要一些专业工人的帮助，但是工作方式却是很古典的，仿佛米开朗基罗面对大理石那样，每一瞬间都需要艺术家的肉身，去往充满材料的物理现场亲自感受和调试。从来没有一张提前画好的定稿，很难在展览开幕之前得到作品的最后图像，因为作品来到展场，又会跟空间发生不同的物理化学作用，一切都将被持续更改到最后一分钟。
李涛的作品给人的第一印象，似乎与俄国的建构主义(constructivism)作品很有可比之处，但它们却不是“建构”的方向，没有对机械和人造物的歌颂，没有在新意识形态宇宙风中的狂喜和向上的气质。艺术家自认为自己更企图摈弃具体社会政治参照，创造一个“去历史“的瞬间。从某种意义上来说这个企图是明显的，李涛是“解构”了这些次生材料的社会政治环境，这种环境是他之前的生活和工作中非常熟悉的，是他作为建筑师亲手建造起来的小区、商场、电影院......是制式化、规模化的城市生活所需要的环境要素。李涛的建筑师生涯使他敏感到这些所有元素带来的重复、庸常和困境，也使他有机会敏感到用同样的东西，可以制造或者揭示一个从来都平行存在的，与日常生活无关的世界。他的作品大多数色彩鲜明，不断给人难以预料的不同质感，不同的凹凸，不同的延伸或者截断，像一件件非常有趣，却又永远无解的“玩具”，有着复杂的天真和充满细节的纯正。
但是与这种解构方向矛盾的地方在于，没有任何身份比一个建筑师更加深刻地从材料和视觉上，参与了一种社会历史的塑形。特别是在一个国家超速发展，城市规模超速膨胀的时段。所以李涛想要的，那种去除社会政治历史参照，个体哲学程度上的悬置时空，几乎是不可能的。这种不可能也参与了作品的意趣，就像我们看到玻璃球，看到泡沫塑料，看到三合板所自然联想起的所有生活一样，次生材料本身，就是一种最具体微妙的政治历史。
Li Tao's work is based on materials, most of them are manmade, such as silicone, Acrylic, plastic, plywood, cement and so on, some are quite common but unexpected, including inner components of air conditioner, glass balls of checkers, and furniture from IKEA; others are usually not familiar to the ordinary people, for example, PTFE that is easy to process, or PU (polyurethane), which is gel-like but with very high hardness. The title of exhibition, "Secondary", is actually to indicate the nature of Li's work. It is a great pleasure to visit the artist's studio, much like going to a botanic garden consisted of the secondary materials: colorful blocks, tools (possibly would be used as materials), finished works (still could be modified with new materials) and unfinished ones. While eyes and hands enjoy the overwhelming experience, one's brain must follow the artist's creative logic to imagine the combinations: since the boundaries among them are blur but extremely sensitive, seemingly each visitor may have effect on their forms.
Li Tao's inspiration often comes from the encounters among materials, the connection of each other breeds new forms, subsequently triggering other connections, so on and so forth, until those materials grow into what he wants. Sometimes, his idea derives from the observation in another way, such as flapping plastic sheets in the fierce spring wind of Beijing. The artist's studio looks like a factory, indeed, that professional workers get involved, but his working style remains quite classic. Just like Michelangelo facing a marble block, at every and each moment, the artist surrounded by plenty of materials must feel and adjust on site by himself. Nothing is finalized yet, the finished forms of works have never been achieved right before the opening of exhibition, because once the works arrive at the exhibition site, they would react with the particular space "physically and chemically", and keep evolving until the last minute.
On the first impression, Li Tao's works seem to be comparable with those of the Russian constructivists, but not follow the trend: they neither celebrate the existence of machines and manmade products, nor bear the ecstasy and positive spirit of the new ideology. The artist himself believe that he is attempting to get rid of the specific references to social politics and create an "ahistorical" moment. In a sense, the intention is quite obvious that Li has deconstructed these secondary materials' social political environment, with which he was very familiar in the past he lived and worked. As an architect, he designed districts, shopping malls, cinemas and so on, the environment elements required for the standardized and scaled city life. Li Tao's experience as an architect makes him very sensitive to the repetitions, mediocrities and dilemmas brought by those elements, meanwhile, utilize the same ones to create or reveal another world, which is always parallel but not related to our daily life. Most of his works are vivid and colorful, constantly offering the unexpected features, such as different textures, concave-convex forms, ways of extending and cutting, as if they are "puzzle toys", very interesting but could never be solved, and filled with complicated innocence and detailed purity.
李涛工作室 Li Tao's Studio
Interestingly, the contradiction to the approach of deconstruction is that no one has been more profoundly engaging in the formation of social history than an architect in terms of materials and visual perception, especially in a period that the country grows and the scale of cities expands rapidly. Therefore, it is impossible to get rid of the historical, social, political references and achieve the suspensing space-time of individual philosophy, as what Li wants. However, this impossibility associates with the relevance of his work, just like we would naturally think of our life when looking at glass balls, polyfoam and plywood, the secondary materials themselves essentially present the most subtle history of politics.
摄影：邓琳
李涛
1971年出生于河南郑州，1995年本科毕业于河南大学油画专业，1998年硕士毕业于湖北美术学院版画专业，现工作生活于北京。他的个展包括2010年在北京塔奥艺术中心举办的《八面玲珑：李涛作品展》和2007年在北京F5艺术中心举办的《中产阶级的魅力》；并多次参加包括北京时代美术馆、成都双年展、北京偏锋新艺术空间、台北亚洲艺术中心等多地举办的各大群展。2018年代表Tabula Rasa画廊参加北京当代博览会和艺术深圳博览会。
Li Tao
He was born in Zhengzhou, Henan Province in 1971. He graduated from Henan University, oil painting department in 1995, and Hubei Academy of Fine Arts with a master’s degree from the printing department in 1998. Now he lives and works in Beijing. His solo exhibitions include Broken Surface and Line: Li Tao Solo Exhibition, Taao Arts Center, Beijing(2010); The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, F5 Art Space, Beijing(2007). He participated in group exhibitions including Beijing Times Art Museum, Chengdu Biennale, PIFO Gallery, Asia Art Center, Taipei. In 2018, Li Tao was represented by Tabula Rasa Gallery at the Beijing Contemporary Art and Art Shenzhen.
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