The Ideal Standard
　　皮力（1999）PI LI 1999

　　钟鸣，这位和杨冕一样生活在四川盆地的散文家曾经在纪念海子的散文中这样描写过一个当代中国的城市：“这座城市建设冲突，模仿成性、大胆妄为，充满了政治幻觉、复杂的身世、客气但是城府很深的名流、在风沙和温带大陆性季风型气侯里逐步退化的女性的美貌，又忙又累的脸、成功的逃税者、暧味的中产阶级、冠冕堂皇的保守主义，涉猎上流社会的拙劣动机和举止、频繁的社交、宴会、典礼、光荣和梦想、轻浮与急躁、滞重。”之所以在这里引用这段写于10年前的文字，既是因为它对九十年代中国文化状况惊人的预见性，也是因为它在某种程度上和杨冕的作品有着互文性，精确的描述出中国当代艺术的社会文化背景。
　　在89年代以来的中国新艺术运动中诞生了两种以流行文化为表现媒材的艺术风格：政治波普和艳俗艺术。这两种风格是以西方艺术史的发展脉络作为我们对中国当代艺术分类的标准的典型例证，但是事实是这两种风格和它们潜在的风格原型有着明显的鸿沟和价格取向上的差异。政治波普的落脚点是政治，其典型特点是流行文化符合和政治符号的对应和并列，而艳俗艺术则是对政治和通俗文化图示的双向篡改，其落脚点仍是政治，不过这种政治中掺杂了更多个人记忆的成份。无论如何两种风格所针对的是意识形态，流行文化实际上只是他们所使用的媒材，而不是他们所关注的焦点。或者说他们关注的是对主流意识形态的消解，流行文化只是一个符号。然而进入94年代后，流行文化或者说消费文化已经不可挽回的成为当代中国社会各个方面的实际主宰力量。如果说政治波普因为尚能预见流行文化的消解作用并因而具备某种意义的话，那么同样思路指导下的艳俗艺术实际上已经沦为一种满足海外“艺术观光客”观光心理的工艺品。因为艳俗艺术一没有对当代中国社会变化的敏感，二没有比政治波普更深入的思考流行的“中国特色”，只落下一个政治符号的噱头。但是无论如何，事实是从八十年代以来我们的艺术从来就没有对流行文化有过应有的深入思考。而对杨冕这一代生于70年代的画家而言，他们实际上是中国当代变化的受益者，或者说流行文化已经成为他们血液的一部分。和前两代画家不同的是他们并不相信流行文化能够成为我们幸福的使者，而与之相对应，杨冕的深刻之处在于，他认定流行文化或许是一柄双刃的剑，它或许能够消解实际存在的权势的压迫，但是在这种消解过程中，它又成为新的权势，对那些被它从旧的权势中解救出来的人形成的新压迫。
　　可以说杨冕作为更年轻也是更多的感受到消费文明巨大威力的画家，似乎能超越狭隘的意识形态误区，对流行文化能有一个相对冷静的思考。他的早期作品《街头时尚忆》是对传为唐代绘画的《簪花仕女图》的进行的文本改造。《簪花仕女图》是以描绘唐代贵族妇女为主的中国古代人物画的经典作品，而杨冕除了保留画面构图和大的颜色基调以外，将古代贵族妇女换成了出现在今天的大街小巷中的时髦女性。和原作品中人物恬静、优雅的姿态相比，这些当代的“消费贵族”们手持无线电话，身穿流行服装，肩挂名牌皮具，一个个忙忙碌碌，却不忘摆出一副好姿态。可以说从这件作品起，杨冕创作的基本取向已经奠定，即他将创作的触角伸向“时尚”，企图从时尚的变迁中把握转型期中国社会的某种特点。本来《街头时尚忆》的产生，给画家一种可能性，他可以从对古典文本无休止的图示修正中，反观今天的时代趣味。但是杨冕放弃了这种做法，而是追溯到时尚的源头，追溯普通中国市民阶层的梦想和行为方式的源头。他将创作的视角转向了“广告”，并毫无例外地将他们理解为“标准”。
　　杨冕将日常广告中的图像用自己的方式刻画出来。所有的这些人物在他的画面中失去了原先的光泽，他们被画家用种技巧虚化，弱化，沦为一个平面，或者说是一个不真实的存在。这些图象即使是真实的，也像是被蒙上了一层人工的迷雾。所有的这些无异于在向人们展示左右我们生活的各种“标准”虚幻的一面。在这里，微笑已经不再是一种表情，一种情绪的外化，相返它只是一个面具，一个现实与梦想之间距离的指示物。它越是灿烂就越意味着距离的遥远和标准的高不可攀。最后，所有画面的精华便落实在那道反复出现的色彩上。如果说这一个个美妙的瞬间虚化处理还为观众们保留着撩开面纱接近美好的可能的话，那么这道色彩的出现则似乎预示着无可挽回的否定。我们甚至可以将它看作是一种故意的破坏，对于标准和现实生活之间距离的无情肯定。
　　杨冕的绘画是一个奇怪的混合物，它是流行图像、社会评论和学院主义的三者结合。他的绘画并不是直接挪用大众的图像，而是用学院化的油画技法将这些图像雅化，从而实现一种图像上的转换。在这商业文化抚育出来的一代画家身上，学院主义和流行文化的关系就象家庭文化和社会文化一样，后者往往还有着盛于前者的影响力。所以杨冕进行的转换造就了社会批判的双向性，对于学院主义的调侃和商业文化的质疑。
　　“标准”意思着对标准和现实的追问。如果说这些作品展示了弥漫在社会上的标准是什么的话，那么这些作品的潜台词是“谁是这些标准的制定者？”。从社会学的意义上说广告形象的出现本身或许不是为了确立某种标准，微笑本身的也不过是一种引诱而已。这些形象的个体存在尚可让人们感觉到其肤浅，但是一旦他们超量的存在，肤浅便开始隐含在亲情之中，并深深的渗透在整个社会的潜意识之中。它们也正是以一种调侃的形式暗示出这种超量的存在和亲情的虚伪性。杨冕的作品正是在这个基点上获得更深的意义空间，展示出新一代画家的个性化特征。
　　和艳俗艺术和政治波普相比，他对流行文化有着更深的了解，他不是将现成的图像作为一种手法，而是将它们作为自己工作的对象本身。这样他回避了某种危险，或者说是前几代中国画家的悲剧性命运：即为诸如西方的展览策划人、画廊老板一类的政治艺术掮客所利用，将中国当代艺术中正常的、公正批判精神肆意曲解成针对某个非西方化意识形态的挑战，成为西方政治观念的注脚和文化侵略的借口。杨冕的作品展示的是一种双向性，他批判的是商业文化本身，不过批判本身并不带有意识形态的狭隘性。因为商业化文化何以成为一个标准，这个问题的答案或许并不完全在商业本身，在某种程度上答案其实在于人自身；同样这个问题不仅存在于中国，它也会在日本、美国、德国、世界的任何一个地方出现。所以，杨冕的成功之处还在于，他通过一个中国问题拆射出一个世界问题。从杨冕的作品中，我们可以看到一个真实的中国场景，一些真实的市民心态，也可以看到中国当代艺术真正平等的为世界艺术提供经验的可能性。

　　Zhong Ming, a prose write who lives in the sichan (basin) area where Yang Mian resides,describes a modertn city of China in a requiem to the memory of Haizi like this:”The style of urban construction is in conflict,bold imitations abound,full of political illusions, complicated life experiences,polite but shrewd celebrities, a gradual deterioration of female beauty amidst the windy temperate zone of this continental monsoon climate, busy and tired faces,successful tax dodgers, dubious middle-class people,pertentious conservatives clumsy intentions ahd behavior upon stepping into first class society,frequent social activities, banquets, ceremonies, glories and dreams, frivolity and heavy anxiety”. The reason for including this quote here,which was written some 10 years ago, is not only because of its shockingly accurate forecast of the state of china’s culture in the 90s, but also because to a large extent, Zhong Ming’s thoughts can be applied to Yang Mian’s work; both of which descrilb precisely the social and cutural background of china’s modern art.
　　Since1989, two artistic styles which focus on popular culture were born form china’s new art movement, political pop ahd Gaudy Art.These two styles exemplify the art world’s proclivity to classify China’s contemporary art movement by using developmental threads from wetern art history as its frame of reference. The temporary locale of political pop is politics,whose defining characteristice reflect equivalent and parallel motifs found in popular culture and political symbols.In comparison, Gaudy Art is a two-way distortion of popular culture and political symbols, whose temporary locale is still politics, though the oplitics here is mixed with an additional ingredient:one’s personal memories. However the two styles may described by critics, they are both aimed at ideology, and popular culture is just the medium they use, rather than their focus. Or one could argue that their only concern is the deconstruction of main stream ideology, and popular culture, in this sense, is nothing but a means to an end.From the beginnig of 1994, popular art or consumer art has irrevocably become de facto dominating force in all walks of life in mainland chinese society If Chian’s political pop is believed to have some kind of significance because of its ability fo predict the recognized effect of popular culture,then Gaudy Art under the same thinking has actually declined to the level of handicraft which can only satisfy the voyeuristic psychology of ocerseas, kitch-seekng,”sight-seeing tourists”. This is because Gaudy Art, for many Chinese observers,bears little relationship to the changes in contemporary Chiese society.On the other hand, others have argued that no art form delbves deeper into the “Chinese characteristics”of popular culture than political pop.What remains for Gaudy Art may be only a frame of political reference. However, despite the political Pop/Gaudy Art classifications, the fact remains that since the 1980s,China’s artists have not paid enough serious attention to popular culture. Young painters like Yang Mian who were born in the 70s. are actually the beneficiaries of the changes in contemoprary China .In many respests, popular culture now flows through their veins. However, they differ from the last two generations of painters in their in their skepticism towards popular culture’s ability to become their envoy of happiness. The profoundness of Yang Mian lies in his thinking that popular culture is perhaps adouble-edged sword that can erase the oppression of power and influence which exists around us.But during the process of providing diversion,popular culture has evolved into a new form of power that creates new means of oppressing those who have ostensibly been liberated from the old power via popular culture.
　　We can say that as a young painter who feels the overwhelming force of consumer culture at a much deeper level than others.Yang Mian is able to surpass the narrow,misleading zone of ideology and form a relatively calm means of teflecting on popular culture.His early work “street Fashion Comments”is a revision of the text of the Tang Dynasty painting “Group portrait of Noblewomen”. “Group portrait of Noblewomen” is a classic representation of china’s ancient people,and in particular, the noble women of the Tang Dynasty, Yang Mian has changed the original ancient noble women into today’s fashionable ladies in his painting, while remaining true to the traditional structure and colors of the classical painting. Compared with the peaceful and elegant posture of the figures in the original work,all the contemporary “aristocrats of consumerism” appeat in Yang Mian’s work with mobile phones, fashivable clothes,and leather bags of famous btands, all looking extremely busy, how ever still finding time to strike elegant poses for themselves. It can be said that starting from this specific work,Yang Mian’s direction of artistic creation was determined, i.e. his creative voice has been extended to “fashion”, using his best talents to capture certain characteristics of chines society in transition as reflected in fashion’s rapid changes. Initially, the creation of “street Fashion Comments” bave Yang Mian the possibility to endlessly compare the interests of our era by graphically revising classical texts. However, Yang Mian gave up such practices and instead went back to the source of fashion and the dreams ahd behavior of normal Chinese citixens. In this way,he has turned 　　the visual angle of his creation to“advertisement”by uniquely reinterpreting these ads as the new“standard”.
　　Yang Miang reinterprets images of everyday advertisements in his own style. All the figures in his paintings have lost the ad-quality brilliance they once had,They are weakened and faded by the painter’s use of various techniques untill they are teduced to a flat angle, or until a point where they no longer really exist.Even though the paintings are inspired by real ads,they now appear to be covered in a layer of man-made mist. These painterly techniques are no different than an ad man’s display to the consumer of an illusory likeness of the “standards” thant dominate our life . Here, a smile is no longer a kind of facial expression, nor a display of one’s mood.On the contrary, the smile is mask, and indicator of the distance between reality and dreams. The more brilliant the smile,the farther the distance will become,and the higher the standqrd is for one toreach.Finally,the essence of Yang Mian’s works is ground to amonochromatic slash of vibrant color that appears repeatedly throughout the paintings.The mist of theose wonderful monents remains for his audience as a dream-like possibility for the vievwe to unveil and approach acertain glory. However , the appearance of this slash of color also forecasts a denial of reality , to a point beyond any salvation. We can even regard it as an intentional in flivtion of damage and cruelty,which confirms the vast distance between today’s” ldeal standard” of beauty and our own reality.
　　Yang Mina’s Paitings are a bizarre mixture, which rely on a combination of popular advertisement, social criticism and an academic’s perspective. His paintings do not simply appropriate the popular ad-images directly. By using the academic’s painting skills which technically shift the images, he recreates the image in an even more elegant fashion than the original. For artistis like Yang Mian , who were brogght up in a commercial culture, the relationship between academic and popular culture is as close as the relationship between family and social chlture, where the latter in both cases sometimes has more influence than the former. Finally , the painterly shift in images created by Yang Mian produces a two-way social criticism: a snub to academics and a challenge to commercial culture.
　　The “ideal standard” tefers to Yang Mians’s challenge to social standards as they measure up to reality .If we say that his works ask the question: “What are society’s standards?”, Then the unspoken words of the works are: “Who is the producer of these standards?” From the socialist point of view , the existence of advertisement by iself does not necessarily signify the establishment of certain standards;a smile by itself is only a form of seduction .Examined in dividually , Yang Mian’s works may cause some viewers to suspect these are just shallow pictures of pretty girls, but once such images become too ubiquitous, shallowness will begin to hide in the intimacy of people and root deeply into the subconscious of the entire society. Yang Mian’s works. by using satire, trace the overabundance of this shallow existence and the hypocritical nature of such intimacy.In this respect, Yang Mian’s works attain a level of much deeper meaning and reflect the individualistic characteristics of the new generation of painters.
　　Resisting classification as either Gaudy Art or Political Pop, Yang Mian’s work represents a deeper understanding of popular culture.Instead of simply using existing images as kind of artistic technique in itself, he goes much further and truns ad images into his own raw materials. In doing so, he manages to avoid the danger of appropriation.Sone observers have commented that excessice appropriation may have been the tragic destiny of Chinese painters of earlier generations who fell victim to the phenomenon of being pulled in carious directions by both Eastern and Western political thinkers and art brokers. With the post-cultural revolution opening of China, western art critics’ perspectives on Chinese modern art may have distorded the spirit of open and fair criticism among China’s own contemporary art critics to a kind of heightened defense of non- westrn ideology. This then became entangled in Western political views and used as evidence of Western cultural invasion,Yang Mian’s works do not fall into this trap and instead display a unique two-way perspective. His critical view is in response to the question of why the commercial aspects of culture have become an entire culture unto themselves,while at the same lies with in people themselves. Interestingly, this phenomenon exists not only in china,but also appears in japan the united states, Germany or any other commercial cultuer in the world, finally yang mians talent also lies in his ability to reflect a world-wide phenomenon from the unique perspective of a Chinese solial problem.In yang Mian’s works, we view on one lever, a true Chinese scene, the trus psychology of mainland Chinese people, and on the other, the possibility for China’s contemporary artworks to bring some pieces of China’s genuine, adnd more importantly, equally valid reality, to the world art stage.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　文章来源：《2005杨冕眼中的“标准”》