内容提要
　　超现实的叙事 ——对庞茂琨近作的解读文 / 鲁虹
在我将庞茂琨的近作展命名为“今日之神话”以后，不少朋友都甚感困惑。因为一提到“神话”二字，人们就会很自然地想到中外古代关于神仙或神化了的英雄故事，而庞茂琨的近作并没有涉及相关内容，用以上命名似乎有点牵强。对此，我想解释的是，我所理解的“神话”一词其实与人们既往对“神话”一词的理解并不相同。如果说，后者更多涉及的是历史与现实中根本不存在的人与事，同时是指中外古人对自然现象与社会生活的想象性解释与向往;那么,前者则明显将当今生活中已然存在的人与事按特殊的价值观加以扭曲、夸张与颠倒。借用《现代汉语词典》的说法，这类现实的“神话”乃是“荒诞的无稽之谈”。[1] 从表面上看,“今日之神话”总是以自然而然的形态出现，但实际却是超现实的，其目的就是要让人们认可和仿效之。在本质上，它是一种强制性的集体行为。不过，我对“神话”一词的如此理解与运用，并不是发明和创造。实是对法国符号学家罗兰•巴特相关著作《神话——大众文化诠释》的借用。[2] 事实上，在罗兰•巴特那里，“神话”是有待揭露的欺骗。所以，在书中，他十分智慧地对流行于现实中的许多文化现象，如摔跤、旅游、广告、玩具、葡萄酒、牛奶等等进行了“去神化”的解读，让人深受启发。也正是通过一系列文章，人们逐渐了解到：在现实中人们通常认为极为自然而然的事，往往有一些复杂的意义运作方式在底下支撑着，其必然会体现出特殊的意识形态、立场、价值判断与别有用心的含义。倘若只是以简单而平面的眼光去观看，人们就只能看到事物的外观或表象。
正是基于以上背景，我认为艺术家庞茂琨在近作中采用的创作方法十分接近罗兰•巴特的方法论，这不光使他的艺术面貌发生了根本性的变化,也使我们看到了一个全新的庞茂琨。[3] 最近，我借到川美油画系上课之时，专门去看了他的新作，我感到这批新作对形象的塑造仍然是非常写实的，而且，无论是造型、用笔，还是用色都体现出了很高的造诣与技巧，但他的画面组合却是超现实的。从艺术史的角度看，庞茂琨显然受启示于艺术大师达利，但他更强调切入生活的现场。如若加以对比，我们似乎可以发现：在庞茂琨早期绘画的叙事方式中，总会有以“反映论”为基础的“现实主义”文本支撑着，它们基本是在一个个貌似真实的空间里呈现了一个个貌似真实的故事；而在他新近绘画的叙事方式中，则显然有超现实主义的、结构主义的文本支撑着，于是，他的画面既近距离地解读了人间万象，也显得荒诞不经。更加重要的是，借助于犀利的洞察与分析，其向我们揭露了隐藏于其后的种种观念与含义。那么,庞茂琨何以会发生如此巨大的变化,即不再像以前那样从“反映论”的立场出发，采用“现实主义”的手法去“真实客观”地再现“现实”，却要从“虚拟美学”的立场出发，去制造一些现实中并不存在的“假象”,以致造成了批评家吕澎所说的“假象奇观”呢？[4] 难道他的所作所为就是出于纯粹反叛与创造新艺术风格的考虑吗？难道他是想用制造“假象”的方式来出人头地吗？答案是绝对否定的。从与庞茂琨的交谈中，我体会到，因受康德思想的影响，在现今的庞茂琨眼中，现实或自然仅仅只是一种表象或幻象而已,如若被其迷惑，就很容易得出既表面又浮浅的看法。弄得不好,还会成为各种流行意识形态的被动图解。反其道而行之，只有按自身的理解去破坏这个表象世界，进而制造出一个个“假象”与虚构的事件。也就是说，对来自外部世界的图像进行重新编码与演绎，才能真正解释本质的世界，或者表达出个体对现实世界的真切感受。从这个角度出发，我们可以认为，庞茂琨在近作中表达的乃是他个人对生存体验的理解、想象与升华。这些新作所选取的题材看似漫不经心，其实是他深思熟虑的产物。而对新型的文本的运用也使得他从传统“现实主义”绘画的框架中解放了出来。人们倘若要认为这是一种大胆的反叛行为也未尝不可。作为呼应，相信大多数观众必然会根据庞茂琨所提供的新艺术框架去作相应的阅读与理解。谁也不会天真地以为他近作中的事件就是生活本身。很明显，也正是在此过程中，庞茂琨方才逐步建立了更新的表征与形式系统。这意味着：每一种新的艺术样式都包含了一种独特的世界观与叙述方式，因此，对于新型绘画的研究，必须将大的文化背景、艺术家个人经历与具体作品结合起来，否则就会把十分复杂的问题搞得简单化。
我注意到，在庞茂琨的近作中，经常会出现四个基本的元素，那就是舞台、幕布、动物与人。但有少数作品偶尔会缺少一两个元素。而且，在进行艺术表现时，他常常会把以上四个元素进行随意性、夸张性的组合，这一方面很好地体现出了“人生如戏,戏如人生”的深刻道理,另一方面也为自己设立了一个全新的叙述框架，进而完成了对于日常的颠覆。因此，那些在生活中司空见惯的现象也随之具有了陌生化的效果，而那些现象中的异化之处或不自然的地方，则会给我们留下极深刻的印象，促使我们去进行反思。
我的确是孤陋寡闻，在看到庞茂琨新近创作的《 COSPLAY 》系列之前,还没见过类似现象，所以也不知道画中的小女孩、小男孩究竟在干什么。经介绍才知道，在现实生活中，有一些小女孩、小男孩常常会以某个网络、游戏、漫画中的虚拟形象为蓝本，然后去扮演、且堂而皇之地进入现实之中。可能我们平时很多人看到这些现象后，会无所谓，认为只是小孩子们在猎奇、好玩、游戏、出风头罢了。但更深层原因是：由于深受西方网络文化、卡通文化、消费文化的影响，这些小女孩、小男孩的价值观也好，生活方式也好，已经与传统文化发生了根本性的断裂，虽然他们整天都泡在糖水之中，过着衣食无忧的生活，但先前已有的物质快感早已消失，加上他们有的人基本丧失了人生理想，进入了无聊的状态，所以，转而模仿国外青少年，希望通过扮演理想偶像的方式进入虚拟世界，以获得一种超越的快感。这足以说明，我们的教育出大问题了，应该采取相应的措施才是。
再来看看他新近创作的《巧合》系列中关于博弈的作品吧，我认为应该从两个方面来解读：首先，激列的摔跤场面隐寓着社会上人与人之间的残酷博弈。众所周知,在功利滔滔的消费社会,为了利益的争夺，人与人之间全然已经没有了真情。一些朋友、亲属甚至连亲情都会丧失干净,结果,他人成了自己的监狱（萨特语）；再者，以罗兰•巴特的观点看，在现场与电视中“倾全力演出的摔跤，其本质是一种纵欲的现象”，而这样夸张的场面，与古代竞技场中的摔跤完全不同，已然变成了一种虚假的表演，是人们花钱、花时间寻求刺激、快感与娱乐的享受性的节目。[5] 另一系列关于杂技的作品《 蜕变》虽然同样呈现的是与表演相关的现象，但那些小演员们的特技表演都是超越身体极限进行的。也就是说，这些小演员在为老板挣得金钱的时候，付出了身体受到伤害的代价，他们的下半生将痛苦不堪。所以看起来非常扭曲与令人难受。当然，通过这样的画面我们还可以联想到更多，即在生活中，不少人有时也像画中的小演员一样，为了获得所需要的某些东西与利益会扭曲自己，竟至放弃了人生的价值追求。其实，庞茂琨还创作有其他系列的绘画，限于文字，在此我就不一一解读了，相信有着相同背景的观众自会有独特的理解与感受。
综上所述,有一点是非常明确的，即在庞茂琨所设立的“舞台”上,他试图向我们解读好几类生活现象，而且完全是他对生活的切身感触。作为艺术家,他已非常直觉的意识到了这些现象中的一些问题,并把其智慧地呈现了出来。不过，他并没有提出十分具体的解决方案。我想这就足够了，接下来应该是政治家，教育家与家长的事。据我所知，由于时间太紧,他的另外一些作品,如关于“消费”的系列与关于“旅游”系列尚未完成，但从草图中，我感到这两个系列的作品对畸型消费与旅游做了很好的刻画，如能参加展出，展览效果一定会更好。这是极为可惜的。最后，我想指出，庞茂琨出于个人的理解与学术背景，不仅坚守了绘画性的特点，而且努力将观念性和绘画性结合得很好，既发挥了自己的所长，也显示了他作为艺术家的一种历史责任感。另外，他决不抱残守缺，大胆寻求从以往的创作模式中超脱出来的行为也十分难得。衷心盼望艺术家在今后会向我们展现更新、更好、更多的作品，祝愿艺术家不断跃上艺术的新台阶。
2010年7月3日于深圳前海注：[1] 见《现代汉语词典》（2002年增补本），1123页。[2] 上海人民出版社，1999年3月版。[3] 庞茂琨的新近创作，并不是直接以罗兰•巴特的理论为指导而进行的，或许，他在创作前并没有阅读罗兰•巴特这些相关的文论。
我感到，他是从直觉上悟到了生活中的异化现象，于是，转而采用了全新的艺术创作方法。[4] 见《假象的制造与问题》,吕澎,载于《艺术当代》2006年第3期。[5] 见《神话——大众文化诠释》,上海人民出版社,1999年3月版，3-14页。^_^The Surreal Narrative—An Interpretation of Recent Works by Pang MaokunLu Hong
After I entitled the recent work by Pang Maokun the title Mythology of Today, a number of friends felt perplexed. Whenever we mention the word “mythology,” people naturally think of ancient stories of mythical heroes and immortals both Chinese and foreign, but Pang Maokun's recent work does not touch upon any such content; the use of the title thus appears somewhat irrelevant. I would like to explain that my understanding of this term “mythology” is not exactly the same as the common understanding of the word. If this latter refers largely to people and events with no actual existence in reality or history, as well as the imaginative explanations and desires of natural phenomena and social life put forth by the ancients, then the former—my interpretation—refers instead to the obvious twisting, exaggeration, and inversion of the people and events already existing within contemporary life through the lens of a specific value system. To borrow a phrase from the Modern Chinese Dictionary, this type of real mythology is “an absurd and groundless statement” [1]. Superficially, the “mythology of today” always appears in natural forms, but it is actually surreal, its goal being to attain recognition and imitation. Its essence is that of an obligatory collective behavior. But this understanding and mobilization of mythology is not invention or production; rather it borrows from French semiotician Roland Barthes's work Mythologies [2]. Actually, for Barthes, myth is an deception to be exposed; in his book, he wisely executes an “anti-mythological” interpretation of a number of popular cultural phenomena, including wrestling, swimming, advertisements, toys, wine, and milk, allowing the reader a profound sense of enlightenment. Just as through a series of essays, the reader gradually realizes: many of the things that people take as natural occurrences in their daily realities are often propped up by the complex work of meaning, necessarily experiencing certain ideologies, positions, value judgments, and ulterior meanings. If they view things with only simple and reduced perspective, people can only see the surface or exterior.
On the basis of this background, I believe that the methods of production artist Pang Maokun utilizes in his latest work is closely related to Roland Barthes's methodology, not only causing a fundamental change in the appearance of his work but also allowing us to see a whole new Pang Maokun [3]. Recently, when I happened to be at the oil painting department of the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, I paid a visit to him for his new work: I feel these pieces are still realist in their modeling of forms, shape, brushwork, and color all reveal a high degree of skill and accomplishment, but the composition of the canvas is actually surreal. From the perspective of art history, Pang Maokun is obviously inspired by the master Salvador Dali, but he further emphasizes the penetration of the scene of life. In comparison, we discover that the narrative styles of Pang Maokun's early painting are invariably supported by a text of realism based on a theory of reflection, such that an Seemingly real story occurs within an seemingly real space; the narrative styles of his recent painting, on the other hand, are obviously supported by the texts of surrealism and structuralism. As such, the paintings more closely interpret the manifold phenomena of the human world, and appear fanciful. Even more importantly, drawing support from insightful analysis, the works reveal to us all manner of concepts and meanings previously hidden from view. How does Pang Maokun embrace such an enormous change, no longer beginning from the position of reflection theory and using the methods of realism to objectively represent reality but rather setting out from an aesthetics of the fictive to produce a series of false appearances with no existence in reality, creating what critic Lü Peng has referred to as the “spectacle of deception”? [4] Is it possible that his work emerges from consideration of pure reaction, a production of a new artistic style? Or could it be that he wants to use this method of the production of false appearances to achieve success?
The answer is absolutely negative. In conversation with Pang Maokun, I came to understand that he has been influenced by the thinking of Immanuel Kant, believing that reality and nature are simply a sort of presentation or illusion; the confusion they cause makes it easy to fall into shallow and superficial ways of thinking. If handled poorly, this can become a passive illustration of all manner of popular ideologies. Avoiding this path, we must destroy this world of illusions according to our own personal understandings, then create one after another the false appearances and fictive events. That is to say, only by rearranging the codes and narratives of images from the outside world can we truly explicate the nature of the world or express the true feeling of the individual towards the actual world. Beginning from this perspective, it follows that what Pang Maokun expresses in his recent work is his own personal understanding, imagination, and distillation of the experience of existence. The themes chosen for these works seem offhand, but they are actually the products of careful consideration, just as the operation of new forms of texts have allowed his painting to achieve liberation from the traditional framework of realism. It would not be inappropriate for this to be seen as the behavior of courageous rebellion. Likewise, I am confident that much of the audience will necessarily engage in similar readings and understandings according to the new art framework Pang Maokun has provided. No one will naively believe that the events in these works are life itself. What is clear is that in this process Pang Maokun only gradually establishes a replacement system of surface characteristics and forms, implying that every new form of art contains a unique worldview and narrative method. Therefor the research into new forms of painting must integrate the larger cultural context, the experience of the artist, and the specific work, or else a highly complex topic will be overly simplified.
I noticed that in Pang Maokun's recent work there usually appear four basic elements: stage, curtain, animal, and human (although a small number of works will occasionally lack one or two of these). Additionally, while engaging in artistic expression, Pang Maokun often randomly and exaggeratedly combines these elements, perfectly reflecting the profound logic of the phrase “life is a drama, drama is life.” On the other hand, this also establishes a new narrative framework, completing the subversion of daily life. Because of this the common occurrences of life are also made strange, while the alienated and unnatural portions of such phenomena leave us with deep impressions and give pause for reflection.
I am far behind the times: before seeing Pang Maokun's recent series Cosplay, I had never seen this phenomenon, and had no way of knowing what the young boys and girls in the paintings were actually doing. After an introduction I learned that, in the real world, there are some children who often take the fictional forms of the internet, games, and comics as blueprints, openly performing and bringing these forms into the real world. Perhaps many of us would remain unmoved after seeing this phenomenon, thinking that this is little more than the novel showing off or fun and games of children. But there is a deeper reason: because these boys and girls have been profoundly influenced by Western internet culture, cartoon culture, and consumption culture, their value systems and lifestyles have already become fundamentally disjointed from the traditional culture. Although they spend their days in sweet surrender without any worries for food and shelter, the earlier sense of material pleasure has long disappeared. Additionally, some of them have already lost ideals in life and entered a state of boredom, turning to imitations of foreign youth and hoping to enter a virtual world through the performance of their idols and ideals in order to attain a transcendental pleasure. This is sufficient evidence that there are serious problems in our educational system, and that we need to adopt relevant measures.
Looking again at the works of the recent series Coincidence, related to games, I believe that this series should be interpreted from two aspects: first, the intense wrestling scene is a metaphor for the cruel social games between people. It is common knowledge that, in this consumption society with its surging material gains, real sentiment has already completely vanished from interpersonal relationships in favor of the struggle for profit. Some friends, relatives, and even intimates will lose their cleanliness, and as a result, other people become a prison for himself (in the words of Jean-Paul Sartre). Furthermore, adopting the viewpoint of Roland Barthes, live or televised “all-in wrestling … is the spectacle of excess,” and this exaggerated scene, totally different from ancient skilled wrestling, has become an empty performance, an enjoyable program for people spending time and money searching for excitement, pleasure, and entertainment [5]. Another series of works on acrobatics entitled Transformation also conveys a phenomenon related to performance, though it shows young actors performing special skills that over the limit of the body. That is to say, these young actors, while earning money for their boss, pay the price of bodily harm and anticipate an extremely painful physical situation for the rest of his life, thus appearing distorted and suffering. Of course, these paintings also allow us to think of many more associations in which many people in daily life are just like these performers, contorting themselves in order to attain certain necessities or profits, sometimes even abandoning the pursuit of the value of life. Pang Maokun has further produced a number of other series of paintings, but due to the constraints of this article I will not elaborate on their interpretations one by one, confident that viewers will with this background find their own unique understandings and feelings.
In summary, there is one point that should be very clear: on the “stage” that Pang Maokun has set up, the artist attempts to interpret for us a variety of phenomena entirely through his personal thoughts and feelings toward life. As an artist, he has already become directly conscious of a set of problems within these phenomena, and wisely expresses these as well. He has not, however, proposed concrete solutions. I think that this is enough, and that what follows lies with politicians, educators, and parents. Because of time constraints, some other works, including one series about consumption and another about travel, have yet to be completed, but from the sketches I sense that the works of these two series aptly portray deformed consumption and travel. If they could be exhibited, the effect of the exhibition would certainly be even better. This is highly unfortunate. Finally, I wish to point out that, because of his individual understanding and academic background, Pang Maokun not only holds fast to characteristics of painting but also successfully integrates the conceptual with the painterly, making good use of his own strengths and expressing his own sense of historical responsibility as an artist. Besides this, he most certainly does not cling to the past, but rather courageously seeks detachment from past models of production. I sincerely hope that the artist will in the future exhibit for us ever newer, better and more works. I wish that he could continue with his journey toward a higher artistic level.
July 3,2010 in Qianhai, ShenzhenNotes:[1] See Modern Chinese Dictionary (2002 supplement edition), p. 1123.[2] Shanghai People's Publishing House, March 1999.[3] Pang Maokun's latest creations were certainly not directly guided by the theories of Roland Barthes. He may not even have read Barthes before creating these works.
I get the feeling that he intuitively sensed the phenomenon of alienation of life, and therefore began applying an entirely new artistic
creative method.[4] See “The Production of and Problems with False Appearances,” Lü Peng in Art China, 2006 issue 3.[5] See Mythologies, Shanghai People's Publishing House, March 1999, pp. 3- 14.

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