Seeking My Heart-Touching Art Language: Conversation with Liu Jianhua

By Laura Shen

文/申雁冰

I met artist Liu Jian Hua in a bright summer day of January in the outdoor café of Singapore Art Museum, the eclectic architecture combing western dome and Nanyang style arcade. In spite of the hot tropical weather, he shook his head and smiled, saying: “it’s not too hot.” Comparing to the hot pot cities along Yangtze River of China, including Shanghai, his current residence, the tropical Singapore Island is much comfortable. After ordering food with the waiter, he said: “One of the merits in Singapore is that, you can speak Chinese here.”

在新加坡藝術博物館的露天咖啡廳，我見到了劉建華。一月的嚴冬時節，在南洋卻是豔陽天，說起悶熱天氣，劉建華搖頭道：「這不算熱」。比起中國長江一帶火爐城市的夏季，比如他現在定居的上海，熱帶的新加坡反倒舒服許多。新加坡藝術博物館是南洋典型的折中主義建築，西式的拱頂與南洋騎樓式長廊結合，似西非西，似東非東。劉建華向服務生點單後對我說，「新加坡這點很好，在這裏可以說中文。」

Liu Jianhua’s artwork Trace has just won the Juror's Choice Awards in Asia-Pacific Breweries Foundation Signature Art Prize 2014, and it is currently exhibited inside Singapore Art Museum. The porcelain installations emulating trace of Chinese ink calligraphy flow from top of the roof down to the bottom along the walls surrounding spiral staircases. It is highly recommended by an Australian Juror, as it creates great interaction between artwork and space, and the trace is a symbol of human being’s soul. Born in Ji An, Jiangxi Province of China, Liu initiated his art career in Jing De Zhen, the breeding field of Chinese traditional porcelain craftsmanship. He worked in porcelain workshop in 1977 and studied in Department of Fine Arts, Jing De Zhen Ceramics Institution, majoring in sculpture since 1985. “During the pioneering period of my career, I was largely influenced by western art. I looked forward to following it and despised ceramics as an art material, frankly speaking.” After graduation, Liu created a series of works inspired by the social environment of China, reflecting its rapid social transformation, high speed, pressures and problems: Regular Fragile presents the scattered and dispersed ordinary stuff, Shadow In The Water is a twisted and fuzzy Bund in Shanghai, Boxing Time is filled by clenched fists ready to fight, while miscellaneous products Made In China from manufacturing industry in Yi Wu, Zhe Jiang Province, flooded from gigantic container in Yiwu Survey. Export-Cargo Transit imitates the scenario of smuggled junk products from developed countries waiting to be imported domestically.

劉建華的《跡象》剛剛斬獲亞太釀酒基金會簽名藝術大獎的評審團獎，展覽正在進行中。《跡象》安置在轉角樓梯處，牆面上流淌的黑色陶瓷裝置模仿中國書法「屋漏痕」，隨階梯旋轉而展開。作品受到評委會一位澳大利亞評委的推崇，認為這件藝術品本身與策展空間保持高度互動，自然流淌的墨跡象徵人類靈魂的蹤跡。劉建華出生江西吉安，藝術生涯起源景德鎮，1977年在雕塑瓷廠工作，1985年進入景德鎮陶瓷學院美术系雕塑專業学习。「一段時間裏，我的藝術形式深受西方影響。那些時候，我是有些看不起陶瓷這種材料的，一心嚮往西方的藝術表現形式。」大学毕业后，劉建華創作了一系列社會題材作品：《日常·易碎》裏那些飄落四散的遺棄雜物，《水中倒影》裏海市蜃樓般縹緲扭曲的上海城市景觀，《拳擊時代》中即將格鬥拼殺的拳擊手套，《義烏調查》裏浙江義烏蓬勃的小商品行業生產物從集装箱裏滾滾而出，享譽世界的「Made in China」自此始。《出口——貨物轉運》模擬了发达国家通过走私渠道运到中国沿海的大量生活和工业垃圾的场景，這些作品與中國的快速發展和社會劇變同步，反應社會衝擊帶來的快節奏、高壓力和無奈。

The year 2008 is the turning point for Liu. Nameless has discarded social critics, and provides a tranquil space for limitless imagination. “Since then, I gradually clarify my art language. I notice that human beings nowadays are depleting their energy and wisdom, and ceaselessly consuming themselves. With Internet, smart phones, Apps, human relations are diluted, and distance between hearts is driven far. Under the seemingly affluent and rapid surface is the constraint of human being’s power, it is extremely hard for people to calm down and think. I want to provide a quiet space outside the ordinary life, a bright art space where people can rest.” He discovered his new art language by exploring Chinese traditional culture. He admires the Song Dynasty. “It is the zenith for the evolution of Chinese culture and a miracle of Han people, its art institutions and ceramics technology are unsurpassable hitherto. However, this return is neither a repeat of the past, nor a borrowing from the ancestors, but a new interpretation, a reflection of what is happening right now, what confusions people are facing currently.”

2008年是劉建華藝術風格的轉捩點。有別於社會題材時期的批判，作品《無題》提供了一個安靜的空間，給藝術以無限想像。「自此，我開始逐漸明確個人語言。今日，人類在消耗自身的智慧和能量，處於一個不斷自我消耗的過程。人們使用互聯網、智慧手機、App，人與人變得生疏，心與心的距離非常遙遠。在節奏飛速而看似豐富的表面下，人類很難去安靜體會、自我思考，人的作用不斷受制。我想提供有別於日常生活的一個寧靜空間，一個藝術場，它敞亮，可以讓人休息。」這種藝術語言回歸到了自身，即中國文化。他對宋代高度推崇，「它是中國文化的最高峰，漢人的奇跡，當時的畫院、陶瓷技術，至今無法超越。然而我對中國文化的回歸，不是為了表現古人的偉大，亦不是假借中國文化來表現自我，而是將扎根於血液的自身文化與當代實踐結合，反應今日的感受與人類發展問題。」

Merriment created around 1998 is perhaps the most known work of Liu Jianhua. The sexy female bodies in cheongsam without heads sitting, leaning, lying in sofas, beds and bathtubs are inspired by Liu’s personal experience. “My generation grew up in Culture Revolution period during which sex is a taboo. These images come from the female spies in the movies I watched that time, they usually wear cheongsam, a silhouette depicting body line in a sexy style. They have become our generation’s sex icon, its incarnation. My works represent the impulse for women.” The porcelain-made cheongsam bodies lying in plates look like food ready for eating. His works choose a third road between the post-colonialism and gender critics, an integration of both. Externally, he express his dissatisfaction for the western’s Orientalism contempt, and domestically he points out the powerlessness, materialization, lack of self-determination of Chinese women, or rather, people of China.

劉建華最為人熟知的作品，大概是1998年前後創作的《彩塑系列——迷恋的记忆》與 《彩塑系列——嬉戏》。穿著華麗旗袍的女性，沒有頭顱，唯有凹凸有致的性感身體，盤坐和躺倒於沙發、浴缸、餐盤裏。「這種創作靈感，源於我自身的經歷。我這一代人年輕時處文革年代。作品形象源於那時候電影中的女特務，她們往往穿著旗，身體曲線凹凸有致，對我這一代人是性的化身，這些作品傳達了對女性的衝動。」那些躺落於盤中的旗袍瓷器，仿若盤中餐般秀色可餐。劉建華兼性別批判和後殖民主義批判于一身：對外，批判西方對瓷器、旗袍等東方主義戀物癖與後殖民主義俯視；對內，抨擊中國女性，或者中國人，在社會中的物化、商品化、無力感、話語權缺失。劉建華站在介於內與外的第三條道路上，不滿於西方對東方的偏見，亦不認同中國自身的諸多弊病。

Our conversation happed in Singapore, a place where East and West meet, the destination for Chinese immigrants for centuries. Liu claimed to me that he was not good at English, therefore it was really convenient for him to order dish with the Singaporean waiter who can speak Chinese to him. When he talked with me about China, he was using folk and knife to eat his Italian breakfast. This image is no strange to me. In today’s Singapore, it is easily spotted that people with Chinese physical appearance get accustomed to use folk and knife, enjoy western food and fluently speak English. Or rather, this is a globalized scenario everywhere in the world. Perhaps the first generation Chinese in Nanyang are just like Liu Jianhua, eating western food while holding Chinese heart. Among the 15 finalists of Asia-Pacific Breweries Foundation Signature Art Prize, there are several young overseas-Chinese artists, such as the Grand Prize Award winner Singaporean Chinese Ho Tzu Nyen, Singaporean Chinese Robert Zhao Renhui, and Australian-born Chinese Owen Leong. “It is hard to purely depend on artworks to define the identity of its creator. It is unclear in what cultural environment these artworks are developed. They are very global, the author may come from anywhere in the world. Especially for the younger generations, they are already the fourth-generation locally born Chinese in Singapore, the Chinese tradition has largely faded and substituted by western culture, modernity, globalization, new science and technology,” Liu said. In comparison, artworks of Liu Jianhua and Peng Wei, both from China mainland, and Yao Jui-Chung from Taiwan, are highly recognizable and contain strong cultural characteristics and local features.

我們的交談發生在新加坡這個東西交界、華人移民地的域場中。劉建華自稱英文不好，咖啡廳點單時，服務生是會講華語的新加坡華人，點單對他方便許多。他一邊與我探討著中國文化的種種，一邊用刀叉吃著義大利早餐。這一情景非常熟悉，比如在今日的新加坡，擁有中國面孔的華人習慣用刀叉、吃西餐、講英文。又或者，這是全球化的今天全世界不可避免的文化混雜。或許初期來到南洋的第一代華人就像劉先生此時一般，西餐飲食，中國心理。亞太釀酒基金會簽名大獎中，有不少年輕華人藝術家的作品，比如此次獲得最高獎勵的新加坡華人何子彥和入選展覽的趙仁輝，還有澳大利亞華人Owen Leong。說起這些海外華人藝術家的作品，劉建華說到：「單從作品本身很難看出創作者的身份，看不到是形成于什麼樣的文化背景下，非常國際化，作者可能來自任何國度。年輕一代在新加坡已是第四代華人，華人文化血脈越來越淡，受西方、現代、全球化、新科技的影響很大。」相比之下，來自中國內地的劉建華和彭薇，以及臺灣的姚瑞中的作品則擁有很高辨識度，作品具有濃郁的文化特性和本土意識。

An interesting discovery from the biographies of the 15 APBF Signature Prize artists is that most of them have overseas, or western, education background, such as artists from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh receive education in U.K and U.S, Singaporean artists get educated in U.K or Australia, while Indonesian artists chose to go to Europe and so on. On the contrary, artists from China and Japan are mostly locally educated, for which, Liu Jianhua is an example. Education background reflects the diverse culture and social trends of different countries. “Today, more and more Chinese young artists study overseas. It is owned to today’s economic and social condition, and it is a good phenomenon. In fact, I do not have much chance to get touch with these new generation young artists. I look forward to communicating and cooperating with them.” Liu Jianhua said.

倘若查看參展的15位藝術家簡歷，一個有趣現象是，多數藝術家受過海外，或者 「西式」教育，比如印度、孟加拉、巴基斯坦藝術家多留學英美，新加坡藝術家多選擇英國和澳洲，印尼藝術家留學歐洲等等，而中國、日本等地藝術家則多本土教育，劉建華就是一位。教育背景反應了不同國度的文化特點與社會價值。「今日中國年輕一代藝術家越來越多人選擇出國讀書，現在有這樣的條件海外留學，是好事。其實我和年輕一代出國留學的藝術家交往不多，我很期待和他們交流合作。」

To what extend does an artist’s nationality and identity influence your judgment to his or her artwork? Especially if you read foreign art, will you be influenced by the prejudice on culture and nation to evaluate it? I ended our conversation with the last question. He thought for a while and answered: “Fundamentally, the value of art is that it can touch your heart. Heart-touching art will be appreciated, whatever the background it comes from.”

在我們欣賞一件藝術品時，國籍和身份會如何左右判斷？特別是碰到異域作品時，是否會根據作者的國籍和作品出處，依照文化與民族偏見來下定論？我最後問。他沉思許久，說到：「歸根到底，看一件藝術品，就是看它能否打動你。打動人心的作品會引起共鳴，無論文化背景如何。」

Abbey Laura San is a creative writer on city, architecture, contemporary art and society of Asia. She reflects on how to improve life quality through aesthetic, literary, and philosophical way. www.abbeylaurasan.strikingly.com