站台-dRoom预告 | 沈正麟个展《绿光》将于4月17日开幕
沈正麟：绿光
Shen Zhenglin: Green Flash
策 展 Curator | 王将 Wang Jiang
开 幕 Opening | 2020.04.17 3:00pm
展 期 Duration | 2020.04.17 - 05.17
地 点 Venue | dRoom-站台中国
站台中国dRoom空间郑重地宣布，我们将于2020年4月17日呈现沈正麟个展《绿光》。本次展览串联了《虚拟圣殿》与《Mnemosyne》（记忆女神）两个系列的作品，试图以绘画图像间的互文关系来建构一次悠远的时空对话，探讨了人工神话、仪式场域、情境冥想等相关问题。而新的主题也激发了艺术家在绘画形式语言上的推进。
本次展览由策展人王将策划，将持续至2020年5月17日。
This exhibition is curated by curator Wang Jiang. It will last until May 17 2020.
· 绿光 ·
文/王将
“绿光”一词来自于艺术家沈正麟的提议。当我询问他的意图时，他的回复让我惊讶，因为我得到了一个听起来有点温暖的答案。这里，不妨先引用一下他的原话：
“绿光是一种罕见的光学现象，在日落之后和日出之前的短暂时刻才有机会被看到，对我而言，绿光带有一种人文主义情结。在这次展览的新作品里，我有意让亮部颜色包裹在大面积的暗色之下，为的是毫无保留地赞美那一瞬间的珍贵。”
这种解释让我想到法式文艺片中的情感桥段，似乎要迫不及待地展开一段浪漫之旅，然而对于这种修辞激起的假想必须在这里终止。因为艺术家性格上的含蓄或狡黠，都会在话语表述中产生一些复杂的成分，一味偏信便会使我们对作品的理解出现脱轨。另一方面，艺术家的话语策略总是建立在不同程度的不确定性之上，意图让每位观众都来参与到对作品的开放式解读之中。因此，为了能够更加冷静地去理解的展览中这些新作品，必然要直面作品，必须得看得更细。由细节的品读与论证来组成具有说服力的阐述，才能真正澄清这晦暗不明的“绿光”到底照亮了什么？
展览《绿光》所提供的是《虚拟圣殿》与《Mnemosyne》（记忆女神）两个系列的展示，前者是艺术家沈正麟更近期的实践与推进。从基本面貌来看，前者描绘了具有某种“未来感”的空间，后者是对古典神话雕塑的刻画。同时面对这两个系列的观众，必将在时空感知上经历强烈的心理差异。而这种分裂性出现在同一位艺术家的创作中并不多见，何况它们的完成时间又是如此靠近。
过去、现在、未来——心理学中将文艺创作的时间取向归纳为三种类别，它们本可以作为艺术家创作的分析路径，诸如适用于一些当下广为人知的艺术样本。不论对上古图腾的撷取，或对晚近政治时期的回眸，或对当代社会情境的记录，或对后人类景观的异想，都能反应出艺术家较为固定的时间心理取向及审美趣味。但单一模版似乎并不适用于沈正麟的创作，他的思绪总是在距离悠远的时空片段间瞬移。特别的是，两个系列中的时空差异，似乎被一种隐秘的形式能量调节得尤其和谐。它们互相呼应，显示出一种联系。
在《虚拟圣殿》与《Mnemosyne》（记忆女神）之间，究竟存在着何种联系？从作品标题的词义来看，这是一个关于神殿与神的言说。现代／未来神殿与古代神像的组合，共同指向了 “神话”建构的方式。而这种时空并置实际上隐喻了现代神话学的理念——当代世界的传奇未曾脱离过上古神话的“原型”，公共生活中的特定空间也充当着诸多新型异教崇拜的圣所。在此我更愿意将《虚拟圣殿》作为重点论述对象，并不时与《Mnemosyne》进行参照，来开展对沈正麟作品中图像和绘画语言的细致勘查。
1.守殿人
《虚拟圣殿No.1》作为整个系列的开篇之作有着序言般的意义。当我们的视线还无暇理清画面中的空间秩序，一个被黑色工业胶衣包裹的人形，如同蝙蝠状地倒挂在近景之中。胶衣刺目的明暗对比，将人形化约为两级化的黑白层次，隐匿在具有抽象倾向的画面空间之中。
Virtual Sanctuary NO.1，2018
布⾯油画 Oil on canvas，161.3×111.3cm
值得注意的是，人形在平面布局中呈现出45度角的倾斜姿态，这种对角线构图在宗教绘画中常被用于描绘圣灵的主题。在沈正麟过往创作的大幅抽象作品里，这样的形式结构也被用来表明绘画主题的宗教属性。
他对这一形式的运用在过往的展览文本中曾有一些阐明：2011年的巴黎之行中，由圣母院玫瑰花窗倾斜射入教堂内部的光线，带给了他持久的触动。此后通过对古典宗教绘画的考据，使他体会到对角斜线构图的深刻意味，并将此与教堂光线的斜射形式看做是一种具有神圣力量的联系。而现在的画面中，胶衣人形却成为了“圣显”情境中的主角。在那贴身包裹的胶皮之下，诡异隆起的躯体也许预示着某种变异。
胶衣符号并非只是质感强烈的视觉材料，它也黏连着复杂的当代社会文化标签。对它的讨论可以涉及诸多次文化的议题（恋物文化、朋克文化、BDSM），而这里需要重点指出的是艺术家提供给观众的“恋物”视角——它本质是一种意识形态的操作。恋物现象在当下纷繁复杂，被不断地正当化的同时，其隐秘性亦在不断地向每个个体的私处深挖。欲望的矿藏被发掘，又是否是在被过度开采呢？绿光下的胶衣人形亦拧结着纵欲及克制，似乎在他身上正持续着一种欲罢不能的爽感。通常圈友会将胶衣视之为第二皮肤，因此它成为了欲望的投射之处。
在作品中，艺术家对这层皮肤的执迷，体现在他对每缕光泽不分具细的专注描绘。同样观众可以在面对《Mnemosyne》系列时，获得类似的感官经验。艺术家提供的视点与大理石雕像之间有着极其亲近的距离。对于大理石肢体与表面的特写，诱发观众用一种被赋予了触感的目光，去摸索这些被极尽刻画的形体。也许，在《虚拟圣殿》中这位身着胶衣的守殿人形象，正是当代恋物情结的拟人化实体。
2.另一个世界
当我们继续去阅读这些绘画，一个空间的全貌逐渐展开。空间设置了绿色光源，是我们在诸多当代场景中习见的样式。这种人造绿光在艺术创作中的使用，也有不少可供参照的范本，诸如埃利亚松的绿光计划与布鲁斯瑙曼的绿光空间。艺术家们通过使用绿光来营造一个非日常性的空间。它在那里是具有明确指向的象征符号，或者作为激发观众情绪的存在。
Virtual Sanctuary NO.8，2019
布⾯油画 Oil on canvas，200x200cm
但在沈正麟的绘画作品中，绿光并不是一种材料，而是绘画对一种现实景象的选择与形式的重构。他在项目自述的文本中提到，激发《虚拟圣殿》的灵感来自于一家广东的知名夜店。正是一次亲身体验让他意识到，在特定公共空间与宗教仪式场所之间存在着共通与演绎的关系。光，是建构宗教空间的重要元素。以自然光采集为照明途径的建筑范式，成为引导信徒沉浸宗教氛围，激发上帝信仰的方式。人工照明在其中只起到一定的辅助作用，这也意味着人在神灵崇拜之中所应表达的谦逊。
而在沈正麟所描绘的“圣殿”之中，人造绿光成为了主角，它弥漫出人的骄傲，不分昼夜地照亮人造之物。因为这些人造绿光，我们得以看清这个幽暗的空间，也可以发现，当光遇见镜面，光被折射后映现出更多被视线遮蔽的景观。一方面“圣殿”中的镜面陈设，让我们联想起某些宗教寓意，镜子往往被隐喻为进入另一个世界的通道。另一方面，非常规的作者视角与延展的镜面空间，使作品突破了传统的刻板范式，与欧洲古早的建筑内景绘画产生了巨大差异。那些18、19世纪的老画师代代沿袭着水平透视的规则，一丝不苟得刻画着古典宗教建筑的制式。与其相比，《虚拟圣殿》是艺术家沈正麟自由视线的定格，这样的取景方式更多地依托于对抽象形式的体悟。画面中抽象结构／空间的力场，也将观众的意识引入了一个充盈着信仰与能量的形而上世界。
这种抽象化取向在《Mnemosyne》系列中既已显现，雕塑的身体被画框截取，完形的轮廓被打破，具体的主题被隐蔽，物象边缘成为了分割矩形平面的线条，画面充盈着具有情绪力量的蓝色调式。《虚拟圣殿》与《Mnemosyne》都从具象绘画的领地对抽象世界进行了一次探步，而前者无疑走得更加深入。
3.崇拜与祭祀
《Mnemosyne》中的雕塑，纪念了诸神的传说，而《虚拟圣殿》则建构起仪式化的场域来行使着某种隐秘崇拜。在双联画《虚拟圣殿NO.9》中，画面中央的前景出现了黑色皮肤的头颅。在面具和头盔的装束下，这一形象酷似一位召唤原始灵性的音乐DJ。
背景空间中流线型态的结构和内饰，则具有一种未来主义的美学特征。二者共处并激发出穿越原始和未来的时空冥想。而在另两件作品之中，观者即能看到这种冥想所唤醒的奇异事物。《虚拟圣殿No.7》中出现了令人惊悚的血盆大口，穿过尖牙与血舌，我们的视线便可以掠见欲望的深喉，这是一个目光无法穷尽黑色深渊。据沈正麟的描述，张口的符号是出自于滚石乐队的标志变异，而我也曾在某部邪典电影中见到过类似的形象。但让人心中不明的是，这样的形象，究竟是嘶吼还是掠食？是畏惧还是崇拜？
《虚拟圣殿No.11》是该系列中尺幅最大的单件作品，加之对称性的构图，更显示出它在系列作品中的中心意义。沈正麟在这里挪用了培根的经典符号，一整块从中央剖开并悬吊着的牛肉。肉的刻画手段使用了一种意象化的强烈笔触，观者对它的视觉认知恍惚在真实与虚幻之间，它正恰当地隐喻了生命的易朽。食与肉，两件绘画的互文让我想起了关于普罗米修斯的祭祀神话：他应许了神与人分食约定，将象征永恒的骨留给神，将不断腐朽的肉分给人，这终使人无法逃脱生命的穷尽。回到这件描绘肉的作品，吊诡之处在于，它的构图与形式线似乎隐现出了宗教绘画中的 “复活”场景。由此它带来了另一种悬疑——这里的肉，是祭祀神灵的贡品？还是图腾崇拜本身？在每个现代人心中，都会有个人立场下的答案。
展览《绿光》在《虚拟圣殿》与《Mnemosyne》双系列的呼应关系中，勾画出神话的仪式场域与时空变异。绿光，是艺术家沈正麟绘画内部照见内容的人工光源，也成为作品讨论的主题本身。它所包含的复杂意象，包括自负、悬疑、未来、神秘。在这一语境中，对绿光的创造是人类意欲彰显自身神性的举动。同时，绿光在《虚拟圣殿》中的照见之境，则是现代文明对宗教仪式空间的模拟与异化，它所力图建构的正是人类自我崇拜的新神话。但我们必须清楚，人造绿光在这些“圣殿”中所建构的只是一种现象。对神、神话的追求并非在一种科学制造的现象中可以安稳地觅得。神、神话尚还存在于道德秩序中，存在于某个不言自明的领域内。所以，“虚拟圣殿”本身也显示出一种讽喻意味。而《Mnemosyne》正像记忆女神一般，为观者带来一种历史的回望与比较，提醒我们不可轻视那些隽永的传说。灾难、奇迹、英雄、魔鬼——古老神话中所蕴含的一切原型，都将在每个当下，以全新的形式，不断地上演。
正如在这个展览所处的时间，Covid-19引发的全球性危机正复现着远古时代的洪水神话。一种严重依赖现场参与的展览与市场模式被疫情冲击而出现停顿，它也引发了艺术世界的动荡。在书写这个结尾的此刻，手机页面跳出一条令人不安的快讯——佩斯艺廊总裁马克格里姆彻感染病毒，所幸的是病情正在好转。但愿能在这位业内模范身上重现英雄之旅的故事，克服宿命之中的磨难，带回更多“希望”的征兆。此刻重审展题《绿光》，我也希望它在作为沈正麟作品的理性概述之外，能为观众带来一些温暖的寓意。
2020.04.09 20:00 北京
“Green flash is a rare optical phenomenon and can only be seen in the transitory moments after the sunset and before the sunrise. For me, green flash possesses humanistic sentiment. I intentionally wrap bright colors in large area of dark color in the new works exhibited this time, so as to praise the rarity of that moment unreservedly.”
His explanation reminds me of the emotional plot in French literary film as if one eagerly hopes to start a romantic journey, yet the hypothesis stimulated by the rhetoric has to stop here. Artists often produce some complex points in discourse expression because of their implicit or crafty characters, so our understanding about the works may derail in case of blind and one-sided belief. On the other hand, the discourse strategy of artists is often based on various degrees of uncertainties, and they are intended to attract every audience to be part of the open understanding of the works. Therefore, in order to understand the new works exhibited in a more calm way, it is necessary to face up to the works and see them more carefully. Only by providing compelling description which consists of reading and argument of details, can we truly clarify what has been lighted up by the opaque “green flash” on earth.
The exhibition “Green Flash” puts on display two series, namely Virtual Sanctuary and Mnemosyne. The former one represents the latest practice and promotion of artist Shen Zhenglin. Seeing from the basic features, the former series describes the space with certain “sense of future”, while the latter depicts the classical mythology sculpture. The spectators who face up to the two series will surely experience sharp psychological difference in space-time perception. It is not common that such division appears in the works of the same artist, let alone the completion time of both series.
Past, present, future – psychology reduces the time of literary and artistic creation to three types. They could have been seen as the analytical path of artists’ creation, such as being applicable to some artistic samples which are currently widely known. Either the retrieval of ancient totem, or the review on the recent political period, or the record of contemporary social situation, or the freakishness of post-human landscape can reflect the relatively fixed psychological orientation and aesthetic taste of artists. However, a single template is seemingly not suitable for the creation of Shen Zhenglin as his thinking often moves suddenly between long-distance space-time fragments. Particularly, it seems that the spatial and temporal disparities are adjusted extremely harmonious by a kind of secret formal energy. They take concerted actions and demonstrate a kind of relation.
What is the specific connection between Virtual Sanctuary and Mnemosyne? It can be found from the meaning of the title of work that this is a speech between temple and deity. The combination of modern/future temple and statue of ancient god jointly points to the way of building “myth”. Yet, the juxtaposition of time and space is actually the metaphor of the concept of modern mythology – the miracle of the contemporary world has never broken away from the “archetype” of ancient myth, and the specific space in public life also serves as the holy place of many new heretical worship. Hereon, I am more willing to take Virtual Sanctuary as the key object of discussion while referring to Mnemosyne from time to time, so as to conduct a meticulous exploration into the image and painting language in the works of Shen Zhenglin.
As the introductory work of the whole series, Virtual Sanctuary No. 1 has the preface-like meaning. When our eyes are still too busy to figure out the spatial order in the picture, a human shape wrapped up in a black industrial gel coat is hanged upside down like a bat. The harsh light and shade contrast of the gel coat reduces the human shape to the polarized black and white layers, hiding in the image space with abstract tendency. Noticeably, the human shape demonstrates a slant posture of 45 degree angle in the plane layout, and the diagonal composition is always used in religious painting to describe the theme of Holy Spirit. In the large abstract works created by Shen Zhenglin previously, such formal structure was also employed to indicate the religious attribute of the painting theme.
The application of the form by him was described in previous exhibition text: in the trip to Paris in 2011, the ray of light injected into the church from the rose window of the Notre Dame impressed him in a long-lasting manner. Since then, he has experienced the profound meaning of diagonal slash composition by researching into classical religious painting, and seen the oblique form of church light as a connection with holy power. In the current picture, the human shape in gel coat becomes the protagonist in “manifestation of divine beings” scenario. With the package of the formfitting gel coat, the quirky and ridgy body may indicate certain variation. The gel coat symbol is not just the visual material with strong sense of quality, and more importantly, it adheres to the complex label of contemporary social culture.
The discussion on it may involve many topics about subculture (fetish culture, punk culture and BDSM). It should be pointed out that the “fetish” perspective presented by the artist to the spectators is, in itself, the operation of a kind of ideology. Fetishism is complicated and constantly legalized at this point, and its secrecy is also digging into the privates of every individual. As the mineral resources of desire are tapped, are they over exploited? The human shape with gel coat under green flash also indulges in and restrains sensual pleasures with twists as if there is a forbidden better feeling on his body. Fans of Moments often see gel coat as the second skin, so it becomes the projection place of desire.
The addiction to the skin by the artist in the work is reflected by his specific and concentrated description of every wisp of shine. Likewise, the audience can obtain similar sensory experience when looking at the series of Mnemosyne. The viewpoint offered by the artist enjoys truly close distance with the marble statue. The feature of marble limbs and surface induces the audience to use a kind of sight endowed with touch to explore the bodies depicted the best. Probably, the image of Sanctuary guardian in gel coat in Virtual Temple of God is definitely the personified entity with contemporary fetish complex.
When we continue to read these paintings, the complete picture of a space is gradually unfolded. The space is set up with green light, which is a style we often see in many contemporary scenes. The utilization of man-made green flash in artistic creation also has many referential templates, such as the Green Flash Plan of Eliasson and the Green Flash Space of Bruce Naumann. The artists seek to create a non-daily space by using green flash. It is a symbol mark there with clear pointing, or exists to stimulate the emotion of the audience.
However, green flash is not a kind of material in the paintings of Shen Zhenglin; instead, it is the selection of realistic scene and reconstitution of the form by the painting. He mentioned in the readme file of project that the inspiration of Virtual Sanctuary comes from a famous dance club in Guangdong. It is because of the firsthand experience that he recognized that there is a mutual and deduction relationship between specific public space and the place of religious rites. Light is an important element of constructing the religious space. The architecture paradigm with the collection of natural light as the lighting way has become the mode to guide the followers to immerse in religious atmosphere and stimulate the belief in god. Artificial illumination is just auxiliary in this regard, meaning the modesty of people which should be expressed in god worship.
However, in “Sanctuary” described by Shen Zhenglin, artificial green flash has become the protagonist as it permeates the pride of people and lights up man-made objects both day and night. It is because of the man-made green flashes that we can see clearly the dim space and find more sceneries shielded by sight line when light meets mirror surface and is refracted. On the one hand, the mirror surface displayed in Santuary reminds us of some religious moral as mirror is often the metaphor of the channel to another world. On the other hand, the non-conventional visual angle of the author and extended mirror surface space enable the work to break through the traditional inflexible paradigm, forming a sharp difference from ancient paintings of building interior scene in the Europe. Old painters in the 18th and 19th centuries followed the horizontal and perspective rules and meticulously depicted the system of classical religious architectures. By comparison, Virtual Sanctuary is the freeze-frame of the free sight of artist Shen Zhenglin , and such a way of view-finding relies more on the realization of abstract forms. The force field of abstract structure/space in the picture also brings the consciousness of the audience into a metaphysical world full of belief and energy. The abstract orientation has been demonstrated in the series of Mnemosyne, where the body of sculpture is cut out by the frame, complete outline is broken, specific theme is shielded, image edge becomes the lines dividing the rectangular plane, and the picture is full of blue mode with emotional power. Virtual Sanctuary and Mnemosyne explore into the abstract world from the manor of figurative painting, while the former undoubtedly goes deeper in this regard.
At 8 PM on April 9, 2020 in Beijing
✧ 关于艺术家
About Artist
- 沈正麟，生于1986年，2009年毕业于鲁迅美术学院新古典主义工作室，现工作并生活于北京。沈正麟的绘画以图像比较学作为基础，在具象与抽象的双重线索上不断推进。在他的近期作品中，最常见的主题是围绕人造景观而展开的空间重组和虚拟想象。近期个展包括：《绿光》（站台中国 dRoom，北京，2020）；《MNEMOSYNE》（KIAF , 首尔，2019）；《虚拟圣殿》（三潴画廊, 新加坡，2018）；《野心时代》（站台中国，北京，2015）
✧ 关于策展人
About Curator
- 王将，一位活跃的当代艺术策划人与创作者，从2016年至今策划的机构展览与独立项目近50场，近期主要兴趣集中在艺术社会学与神话学。他在常规策展工作之外，是一位拓展策展语法边界的冒险者，并逐步建立出一种新范型。
- Wang Jiang, an active curator and producer of contemporary arts. He has been curated about 50 exhibition and independent projects since 2016. His main interests are focus on art sociology and mythology. In addition to his regular curatorial work, he is an adventurer who expands the boundaries of curatorial grammar and gradually establishes a new paradigm.
D-ROOM是由站台中国当代艺术机构于2016年10月启动的艺术项目，通过基于物理和虚拟空间上的互动行为探讨和反思在当下现代生活背景下艺术新的可能性所在。
Platform China Contemporary Art Institute was founded in 2005 in Beijing, and moved into 798 area in the end of 2015. Platform China is an experimental and open platform. As a finder, pusher and participant of art, Platform China focuses on the promotion of the art practice and the construction of the art ecology, continually promoting the international communication on contemporary art.