至此等待——葛辉绘画作品展
前言
葛辉的绘画,看上去大体是浅亮的,没有浓墨重彩的大肆渲染,也更没有繁复的装饰堆砌,线条直接简单,甚至是粗犷。依他的话说,“我的绘画源于最原始的绘画方式,平涂和勾勒,再加上本能的塑造。我相信在没有任何技能的情况下,比如说原始社会或者部落群居,他们在表达一个事物的时候也只能凭借这种方法来完成要表达的图像。”
从艺术创作角度看,葛辉是自由甚至是散漫的,这大概与他学画的经历有关。既没有一直受着学院派的严格训练以至于跳脱不出学院派的条条框框,也不像很多“野路子”出来的人那样,对学院派绘画总有莫名的憧憬。葛辉的画很坦然,他所追求的也只是这种坦然。正因为如此,他的画里才有简单和因简单而生的独特。
本着自由表达的意念,葛辉在自我绘画实践中玩出了自己的味道。看他的画,就像轻飘飘踏入了一个奇幻之境。画里的人物也都轻飘飘施施然地立在略显迷幻的大背景下,维持着仪式一般的姿态,茫然地瞪着眼睛,看向某处。就像塞缪尔·贝克特笔下的两个流浪汉,他们日复一日,一直等待着那个只有一个名字,却永远不会出现的“戈多”。这种等待当然是无稽、荒诞,甚至是虚无,但也是希望。在旁观者看来,流浪汉的等待毫无意义,而对他们俩来说,虽然等待也是一种煎熬,但他们坚信“戈多”会来,并由此开始一发不可收拾的等待……
人有时就是这么奇怪!明知“生活中有种种可能性,而在一切可能性中反映出来的只是自身存在的一种无法逃脱的不可能性。”但还是坚信着某种或许根本就不存在的未来。
葛辉的画里,那些幻化的偶像们似乎也是如此。在某种意义上,他们是艺术家欲望的化身,也是芸芸众生之梦在艺术作品中的投射。他们在等待,等待着亲近,等待着生长,等待着青春,等待着终有一回的心想事成。这样的等待在当下的社会语境下似乎成了区区希望,甚至是荒诞的虚无。即便如此,葛辉依然坚持用自己营造的奇幻之境收容了他们,为他们守候,替他们希望,帮他们等待。让他们在纯净、朦胧、幽深、美好的环境里,洗脱原来的被动与不安,只留宁静安定的存在。
欲望之泉,葛辉的绘画之泉,寂寞之泉。
胡震
2014年6月4日于广州
Foreword
Ge Hui’s painting looks quietly luminous. Indulged in neither rendering colors nor varnishing details, his painting is simple, direct and even wild, just as what the lines feel like. “My painting is made in the most primitive way, that is, merely, flat coloring, contouring and shaping on distinct. I believe this is the only way by which those who know not any techniques, for example in the primitive times or communal tribes, paint what they want to give an expression,” said the artist.
Technically speaking, Ge Hui is free and even somewhat indulgent, which may be attributed to his own experience of studying art. He didn’t go to the specialized academy for highly disciplined education, therefore he is allowed to keepaway from academic dogmas; also, not like many of those who had no any professional training, he has no undefined yearning for the academic paintings at all. Instead, he pursues his own honesty and candidness, exactly as what one can feel in his paintings. This is why his painting could be simple and, thereby, be unique.
In the spirit of free expression, he amuses himself in painting where his own flavor comes to crystalize in an idiosyncratic state. His painting often looks like a fantastic wonderland which one will spontaneouslytread lightly into. Quite the same, the figures, in the slightly illusory background, look as if they are standing on air, and moving slightlyonce a while. They remain long in a seemingly ritual gesture, blankly staring at somewhere, or say, nowhere. It reminds me of Samuel Beckett’s two tramps who wait endlessly and in vain for the arrival of Godot who, however, never shows up. The waiting is no doubt chatty, absurd and even nihilistic; but it keeps hope alive. For an onlooker, the waiting doesn’t make any sense; even for the tramps themselves, the waiting is a suffering. Nevertheless, they wait since they believe Godot will arrive at the end, despite whether there would be an end or not.
How strange human beings are sometimes! Even though we know “There are so many possibilities in life, and what is reflected in all is only the inescapable impossibility of one’s own existence,” we, still, believe in a future that may not exist at all.
The illusory idols in Ge Hui’s paintings are the same. They are in a sense an embodiment of the desire of the artist himself, and also an artistic projection of the dream of all the masses. They wait. They wait for the intimate, the growing, the teen spirit and the final arrival of hope. In the present, such a waiting seems to be merely a day-dream, absurd and nihilistic. Even so, Ge Hui hasn’t abandoned it. Instead, he creates wonderlands as their asylums, where they, again, look out, hope and wait. In this pure, hazy, deep and beautiful environment, they become able to release away the passiveness, the anxiety, and maintain only the tranquility and stability in their own existence.
As it were, the source of desire is the source of his painting, and, his isolation.
James Hu
4 June, 2014, Guangzhou