PINK PUNK PARK | 艺术家介绍：刘川
刘川绘画中的漫画叙事
文/孙逸飞
叙事究其本意是对于事件的叙述。从此意义上来说叙事是由叙述与事件所组成的。叙述使事件本身得以展现，而事件又成为了叙述的内容。叙述本身能否达成，涉及到叙述的方法是否能够准确的传达事件本身。在文学领域，写作者使用文字去描述事件；而在电影领域，创作者们使用图像（镜头）去描述事件。对于同样使用图像去描述事件的漫画家来说，图像本身不是（照片）纪实性的。其中杂糅了绘画性的画面感，以及图像本身符号化的所指含义。漫画究其本身，并非像我们通常认知的那样，仅仅是给小孩子看的图画。从叙事的角度来说，漫画的本质是用图像在写作，其本身也能够具有很强的文学性与艺术性。而漫画与其他叙事方式相比，更加需要符号与镜头语言的配合，才能够完成对于事件的描述。
刘川本科期间学习的是中国画专业，这使得他在人物塑造方法上，更习惯使用线条而非光影去塑造形象。同时，由于对传统国画媒介丧失兴趣，他开始转向寻求新的画面处理方式。而对于漫画形式的使用，成为了让他能够摆脱国画媒介桎梏的同时又适合他本身造型习惯的一个契合点。基于对漫画的兴趣，刘川在研究生期间开始了他新的绘画实践。
在漫画的叙事方法中，为了在单一图像中表现丰富的动态，其往往采用一种将多个时间点并置在单一图像中的表现方式。
与其说刘川将漫画挪用到了绘画之中，不如说他是在以漫画的叙事逻辑在进行绘画创作。作为一种图像写作，漫画的目的首先是希望读者能够理解整个故事或是叙事的表达；其次，漫画需要能够吸引读者继续阅读下去。而一种表达的达成，其必然需要大量固定的能指符号，而上述的所谓“重叠反复”、“速度线”抑或是“爆炸效果”都是漫画叙事之中常见的标准化符号。为了吸引读者，漫画家需要以更加高效简明的图像去表达内容，而不至于显得冗长乏味使读者失去兴趣。如果想要描绘“一个人在走路”这一事件。对于一个画家来说主人公可以走在路上、在森林里、在下雨天……但在漫画中只需要一个主人公在走路的场景就能够完全表达这一事件，而对周围的环境的描绘，对于“一个人在走路”这件事就显得冗余了。从此意义上说，在叙事里，漫画是在做减法而绘画是在做加法。漫画关注的是画面对于事件的准确描述，而绘画关注的是所描绘的形象本身的造型趣味。所谓绘画中的漫画式叙事结构，是一种画面的叙事，一种图像的写作。这种写作基于大量既定的能指符号排列于画面之中，而画面最终的绘画效果是基于叙事基础上的刻画。如果将刘川绘画中叙事的表达视为骨骼，那么最终的画面效果是附着于其上的肌肉。
基于此，刘川对于人物周围环境的描绘，在其大部分绘画作品中总保持着克制的态度，因为出现在画面中的每一个元素都有其所承担的叙事角色。
除了对于漫画叙事性符号的使用之外，漫画叙事中的镜头感也被使用在刘川的绘画中。在漫画里，除了表现运动的符号之外，分镜之间的分割所带来的时间叙事也尤为重要。在《JOJO的奇妙冒险——星尘斗士》中，上部的分镜描绘了人物的近景头像，而下部的分镜则是人物的中景，两个镜头被白线分隔开，成为两个独立的镜头，并按照漫画的阅读习惯（由上至下），展现出时间的先后顺序。这种随着镜头的推移所带来的时间先后顺序的叙事方法，也同样被使用在刘川的绘画中。
刘川的绘画起始于对漫画语言的兴趣，这种兴趣最后又成为他面对绘画创作时的工作方法与态度。他从漫画中所汲取的，并非表面上的卡通形象，而是内在的表达逻辑。他的艺术实践起始于使用图像来表达事件的愿望，漫画式的叙事结构是达成目的的有效手段，而绘画的造型旨趣丰富了叙事本身的内涵。刘川的工作方法在同时期的画家之中是独特的，这种独特性不仅来自于图像叙事所带来的的丰富意指，更来自于画家对于整体画面独特的经营方式。
LIU Chuan's Cartoon Narration in Paintings
Author/Sun Yifei
The essence of narration is the narration of events. In this sense narrative is made up of narrative and events. The narrative makes the event itself manifest, and the event becomes the content of the narrative. Whether the narrative itself can be achieved decided by whether the narrative method can accurately convey the event itself. In literature, writers use words to describe events; In the film world, creators use images (lenses) to describe events. While, for cartoonists, who also use images to describe events, the images themselves are not documentary. It combines the painting sense of painting, as well as the signified meaning of image itself. Cartoons, in themselves, are not just pictures for children, as we often think of them. From the perspective of narration, the essence of comics is to write with images, which can also have strong literariness and artistry. Compared with other narrative modes, cartoon requires more coordination between symbols and lens language to complete the description of events.
Liu Chuan majored in Chinese painting during his undergraduate study, which made him more accustomed to using lines rather than light and shadow to create images in terms of characterization methods. At the same time, due to the loss of interest in traditional Chinese painting media, he began to seek new picture processing methods. The use of comic forms has become a fitting point for him to get rid of the shackles of traditional Chinese painting media and at the same time suit his own modeling habits. Based on his interest in comics, Liu chuan began his new painting practice during his graduate school years.
In the narrative method of comics, in order to show rich dynamics in a single image, it often adopts a way of expressing multiple time points juxtaposed in a single image.
It is not so much that Liu Chuan appropriates comics into his paintings, but rather that he is using the narrative logic of comics to create his paintings. As a kind of graphic writing, the purpose of cartoon is to hope that the reader can understand the whole story or narrative expression. Secondly, comics need to be able to attract readers to continue reading. To achieve an expression, it must require a large number of fixed signifiers, and the above so-called "overlapping repetition", "velocity line" or "explosive effect" are common standard symbols in comic narrative. In order to attract readers, cartoonists need to convey their content in more efficient and concise images, without being tedious and turning off readers. If you want to depict the event of "a man walking". For a painter, the hero can walk on the road, in the forest, in the rainy day... However, in the cartoon, only a scene in which the hero is walking can fully express this event, while the depiction of the surrounding environment is redundant for the "one is walking". In this sense, in narrative, caricature is subtracting and painting is adding. Cartoons focus on the accurate description of events, while paintings focus on the interest in the shape of the depicted images themselves. The so-called comic narrative structure in painting is a kind of picture narrative, a kind of image writing. This kind of writing is based on a large number of established signifier symbols arranged in the picture, and the final painting effect of the picture is based on the depiction of the narrative. If the narrative expression in Liu Chuan's paintings is regarded as the skeleton, then the final image effect is the muscle attached to it.
Based on that, Liu Chuan's depiction of the characters' surroundings always keeps a restrained attitude in most of his paintings, because each element appearing in the picture has its own narrative role.
In addition to the use of comic narrative symbols, the sense of perspective in comic narrative is also used in Liu Chuan's paintings. In comics, in addition to the symbols of movement, the time narrative brought by the division between the mirrors is also particularly important. In JOJO's Wonderful Adventure, The Stardust Fighter, the upper shot shows a close-up of the character's head, while the lower shot shows a mid-shot of the character. The two shots are separated by a white line and become two separate shots, showing the chronological sequence according to the reading habits of the comic (top to bottom). This narrative method of time sequence brought by the passage of the lens is also used in Liu Chuan's paintings.
Liu Chuan's paintings began with his interest in the cartoon language, which eventually became his working method and attitude towards painting creation. What he draws from comics is not the appearance of cartoon characters, but the internal logic of expression. His artistic practice begins with the desire to use images to express events. The caricature narrative structure is an effective means to achieve the purpose, while the purpose of painting enriches the connotation of narrative itself. Liu Chuan's working method is unique among the painters of the same period. This uniqueness comes not only from the rich meaning brought by the image narration, but also from the painter's unique management method for the overall picture.
展期 / Duration: 2020.11.08 - 12.07
开幕 / Opening: 2020.11.08, 16:00 - 19:00
地址 / Address: 中国上海市黄浦区鲁班路68号花样年·卢湾68四楼
4F, Huayangnian·Luwan68, Luban Rd., Huangpu District, Shanghai, China
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