程乾宁+胡小玉
Cheng Qianning + Hu Xiaoyu
认识程乾宁和胡小玉是在去年白夜策划的罗家寨展览活动上，那个展览上的很多展板设计制作都是程乾宁负责的。我也因此知道他从美院油画系毕业以后，在兵马俑博物馆工作，主要负责展览。他后来的创作也就因为工作的缘故开始关注坟、遗址、废墟、尸体这一类东西。要说这类素材实际上在今天是相当酷的。整个世界现在都在弥漫着“保守主义”的浪潮，复古风流行得一塌糊涂。但是在西安要处理这些话题就显得十分吊诡。
I got to know Cheng Qianning and Hu Xiaoyu last year at the exhibition curated by Bai Ye in Luojiazhai village. Cheng Qianning was responsible of posters design for that exhibition. His full-time job after graduation from oil painting department of XAFA has been mainly on exhibitions in the Museum of Emperor Qinshihuang’s Terra-Cotta Warriors and Horses. This job has related his creations to “cool” things today like tombs, relics, ruins and dead bodies. A worldwide wave of “conservatism” is shaping an overwhelming wind of restoration trend. But Xi’an is a fairly awkward city for this discussion.
在程乾宁的工作室里挂着一幅四川某个陵墓的遗址。有趣的是，程乾宁说他迷恋废墟的原因是废墟的结构、肌理给他在画面上制造大量很过瘾的笔触和层次丰富的灰颜色提供了极大的空间。毫无疑问的，观“古”，用“古”都是现代情绪，但是像程乾宁这样把学院派技法的惯性投射在文化遗产的“质地”上的做法，不在少数，同时也是十分中国特色的。我曾经看见一群美院学生在老师的指导下用印象派的“外光”观察出发去集体写生毫无外光魅力的一个寺院里的建筑。不过，程乾宁和胡小玉在创作过程中出现一种“快乐的迷失”，或者说“顺杆爬”的十分具有弹性的探索路径。
Cheng Qianning has a piece of work hung on the wall in his studio. It is about an ancient tomb site in Sichuan. He has interesting reasons for those ruins’ attraction to him. He just likes the exciting grand stroke effect produced by their structure and texture and the layered gray which provide big empty space for a frame. Actually any observation or utilization of “the ancient element” is rooted in feelings of “now”. Practices of projecting skills of academism to the “fabric” of cultural relics are adopted by many and very Chinese. I know an example about XAFA. I once saw a group of students being instructed by their teacher to sketch a building in a temple by applying the impressionism “external spectrum”, which technically could hardly add any charm to the building. However, for both Cheng Qianning and Hu Xiaoyu, their processes of creation have brought to them a “pleasing sense of lost” and a flexible route of “just taking advantage of each outcome” to explorations.
在胡小玉研究生毕业创作“盾”系列中，小玉希望在她的专业“装饰”和“装置”之间保持平衡，在学术和商业之间留足灰色地带。题材自然还是来自文化遗产的“盾”，但是很明显地，“盾”是一个非常好地诠释西安文化艺术焦灼状态的符号：进取还是坚守？或者既进取又坚守。“盾”系列的第一件作品采用透明材质，素材来源的迷人纹样也被小玉充分利用。在之后的作品中，就开始出现我说的“快乐的迷失”或者说“顺杆爬”：透明的有漂亮纹样的“盾”展开了至少两条岔路：“透明”和“纹样”，小玉对这两条岔路进行通吃。“透明”路径延伸出目前小玉正在创作的几幅油画上：透过玻璃器皿看到的工作室的样子。我问她为什么喜欢透过一个东西去看物体，她想了想回答说，有时候透过一个媒介看东西或者说通过折射，反而可以看到真实。“纹样”路径延伸出“盾”系列的第二件作品：纹样变成了集成电路。实际上，集成电路可以成为一个艺术家一生的题材，透明也一样，但是在小玉这里，题材的跳越性极大。我猜想她有可能陶醉在这种“迷失”中，或者在“迷失”中才真正地、不断地找到自己。
In her “Shield” series of works for Master graduation, Hu Xiaoyu tried to achieve a perfect balance between “decoration” and “installation”, in a way, to leave enough space of flexibility between academics and commercialism as well. Still a symbol of cultural heritage, “shield” obviously functioned as representational of the anxious cultural status of Xi’an. To develop, to conserve, or both, is still a question. The first piece of “Shield” series turned out to be a creation made from the transparency and fantastic original patterns of raw material. Following a “pleasing sense of lost”, Xiaoyu utilized both tendencies of “transparency” and “patterns” to her following means of creation. About her recent paintings of the views at her studio looking through a glass container with the “transparency” reflection, I asked her why she preferred to look an object through another. She said sometimes the truth could only be seen through a media tool or refraction. Meanwhile, “pattern” led to the integrated circuit of her second piece of the series. With big spans between her subjects which may be life-long topics for others, Xiaoyu could be content with this sense of “lost” and search for the self herein.
程乾宁也不甘落后，对废墟的兴趣跳跃到对鱼的尸体的兴趣：在最近的一幅油画作品中，鱼的尸体占据了画面的主要部分。
Chen Qianning’s attention also spans from ruins to dead fish bodies which has been shown in one of his recent oil paintings.
但是不管如何跳跃，恐怕他都无法回避他的博物馆工作，西安的文化环境。在西安文献展第二次展览上，程乾宁和胡小玉在A区入口的狭窄走道上做了一件影象装置《N号坑》：利用工作之便，他们把兵马俑2号坑的三维动画投射到用他们工作室里的家具、装饰、电器等营造的私人空间的地面上。他们在观众的必经之路制造了一个私人和公共的、个人和集体的杂交地带。
But his artistic association could still not be separated from his daily museum obligations and the local cultural context. Their works exhibited in the 2nd Domumenta was a video installation placed at the entrance of the narrow doorway in A-zone. This video named “Pit N” was about the projection of Pit 2’s 3D programs on their own furniture, decorations, electric appliances and the floors in the studio. A hybrid field about privacy and public & individual and congregation was produced for every visitor to pass through.
程乾宁
1972年9月26日出生
1998年毕业于西安美术学院油画系，获文学学士
2007 参加首届西安文献展
《玫瑰色风景》，2007，油画
胡小玉
1975年1月24日出生
1998年毕业于西安美术学院油画系，获文学学士
2007年毕业于西安美术学院装饰艺术系，获美术学硕士学位
2007 参加首届西安文献展
《假象NO.6》，2007，油画
《盾—1号》，2006，装置，（二人合做）
胡小玉说：短暂的驻留，温柔的报复。
程乾宁说：冬至，
冗长的等待
却如约而至。