曾健勇：制造“童年艺术”的陌生感
文/陈荣义
曾健勇
中文：
在中国当代艺术发展的进程中，以儿童为创作题材的艺术举不胜举，就架上绘画而言，大体有这三类：一，当代艺术中部分主流画家;二、拥有集体面貌的“卡通一代”中部分画家;三，部分风格和年龄不统一的非主流画家。根据目前这些艺术家的阵容和创作的效果史来看姑且可以把这一现象称作“童年艺术”。“童年艺术”的价值从艺术的效果史来看主要来自第一类艺术家的创造，“卡通一代”画家由于丧失任何的文化针对和当下关怀而沦为庸俗的社会反映和肤浅符号置换的艺术，价值微乎其微;风格和年龄不统一的非主流画家大都是跟风的盲从者，几乎不值得讨论。“童年艺术”的第一类艺术家像张晓刚、方力钧、唐志冈、刘野、曾梵志、王兴伟、李继开等等的创作具备强烈的文化针对性和当下关怀以及作品具有敏锐的感觉、深刻的思维、严肃的判断和智慧的创造。正是因为有后者的艺术，“童年艺术”已成为中国当代艺术发展中的一条重要的暗线，它折射出“儿童”在中国当代艺术表达中已成为一个重要的符号以及这个符号自身力量的强大。
曾健勇的绘画正是取材于“儿童”，从2007年开始创作的《大队长》系列到后来的《成长》系列和最近的《少年时代》系列等作品，在这些作品中他努力使得自己在中国的“童年艺术”中拥有一席之地。事实上，曾健勇已经做到了这一点，如今，人们看到那些一脸稚嫩，大大的眼睛如同玻璃球般透明，脸上和身上部分皮肤有着像疤痕或污垢，胸前戴着黑色红领巾和手臂上戴着三道杆的大队长身份袖章的少年儿童的画面就明白是他创作的作品。曾健勇在这些看似符号化的作品中成功地塑造了属于自己的少年儿童的镜像以表达画家对个人童年史的记忆和现实想象。
作品《大队长》系列与画家个人的童年史记忆有关。画家曾对自己的童年是这么回忆的：“我小时候连大队长都当不上，觉得大队长不像学生，觉得学习好的女生都漂亮，我的童年不太清晰，很模糊地就过去了。”显然，大队长是画家童年记忆的一个心结。画家作品中出现标准像的拥有大队长身份的少年儿童，这些孩子从精神面貌上看起来天真无邪、懵懵懂懂、愣愣中带着疑惑甚至无辜的眼神。显然大队长并不是画家自己，而是与他有关系的人：可能是他的同学、进而可能是他儿时暗恋的对象或者情敌、或者瞧不起他的人。出生于文革后期的画家把学习优秀和女生的美丽都和大队长挂钩象征高不可攀的权力和等级制度的同时也很容易把他和她看作同一阶级的敌人。进而表达自己(还有别的同学)对大队长充满嫉妒、自卑、仇恨等等复杂的心态。而这一切对于处于懵懂、纯真并不十分知道自己扮演的角色的大队长来说是那么的沉重和无辜。画家以今天大人的角度对他们的追忆显然是还原和想象儿时的心境，在这里主要表达了童年历史人们对大队长的人性误解所带来的伤害，以同情表达批判。在接下来的《成长》和《少年时代》等系列作品中表达了画家对童年的现实联想。画家对儿子的童年生活进行观察和表达。儿子刚刚当上中对长有可能不久以后就当上大队长了。这对于没有大队长人生经历的画家来说也许充满期待，但是有一天他看到了外表强悍的儿子在半夜梦醒时是那么的无助的样子，他才发现儿子的内心没写在脸上。那么，哪天儿子当上了大队长后半夜梦醒时有可能还是那么无助的样子。他下意识的认识到“大队长”只是一个身份外衣，大队长和所有的少年儿童一样具有生理和年龄的规定性。这样一来，画家在《成长》和《少年时代》等系列作品中，少年儿童的表情和形象发生了微妙的变化：《成长》系列中，儿童的眼神开始变得忧郁，知道了自己受伤的痛，《少年时代》系列中，孩子的眼神中开始不信任，他(她)们的身体往后退缩、收紧或者相互拥抱，他们显得无助、寻找安全等。画家在这两组作品中，揭示了包括大队在内的少年儿童的人性的真实那一面，表达了画家对大队长的宽容和理解，正如画家自己所说：“作为艺术家，我珍视人类本性中的弱点，如非理性和脆弱，我试图在作品中面对这些特质。”曾健勇的作品总体上制造了少年儿童单纯的镜像，并在他(她)面前笼罩上一层模糊的面纱，带着人类童年的历史和现实隔膜的神秘。
曾健勇不是儿童心理学家，也不是社会学家和人类学家，而是一个画家，他清楚自己的“童年艺术”必须要落在相匹配的风格和语言上面。对于风格上的考虑，曾健勇一直擅长绘本图书、三维动画，作为70年代出生的艺术家很容易照搬本已轻车熟路的卡通风格，但他要避免卡通徒有视觉的外表而缺少内涵。另一方面，他很清楚具有文化针对性的儿童形象，最后通过对现实中的小孩形象和艺术效果史中的小孩形象的进行杂糅、归纳和修辞达到自己画面中理想的少年儿童形象，这种形象介于卡通和现实之间，手法上则介于写实和意象之间，制造了儿童形象的绘画陌生感。在艺术语言的应用上，“童年艺术”中语言的运用涉及油画、雕塑、水墨、图片等等。曾健勇同样对这些语言很熟悉，他经过理性分析后选择了水墨。对此曾健勇说：“武术可以和拳击、柔道、跆拳同台比试，水墨也是中国功夫，软刀子也可以杀人。”他在运用水墨时做了综合使它显示出油画般的效果，其中倾向写实的手法有效传递形象的感染力。这些对于中国的水墨艺术界来说感到奇怪和陌生。反过来，西方艺术界在看懂他作品的内容和精神的同时对水墨这种新媒介如何能产生这种效果也产生了好奇。曾健勇的这种做法好比中国旅法艺术家黄永砯在威尼斯双年展中的作品，其中中国战国时期的战车尽管是套用的是西方的装置概念但实物的元素却是中国的，正是这种中国元素让西方观众感到神秘不已。
以上陈述证明曾健勇自己自觉地纳入当代文化的体系并在中国当代艺术发展的坐标中寻找自己艺术创作的独特坐标点，他在《大队长》、《成长》、《少年时代》系列作品中所创造的形象和手法以及它们与个人心理的关系形成自己独特的“童年艺术”面貌给中国当下流行的“童年艺术”带来新鲜的陌生感。（静笃斋2012）
English:
Zeng Jianyong:To create the strangeness of “Childhood Art”
Chen Rongyi
In the process of Chinese contemporary art development, it is full of works that are created with the children as the material. List goes on the shelves of painting, which generally have three categories: first, the mainstream of contemporary art painter; second, a part of the artist of the collective face of the "cartoon Generation, "Third, part of the style and age is not a unified non-mainstream artist.
According to the current number of the artists and the effect of their creataion,we can call this phenomenon
"Childhood Art." "Art childhood," the value of the effect of the history of art from the point of view from the first category of artists to create, "cartoon generation" artist because of the loss of any culture and against the current concern of the community and has degenerated into a vulgar and superficial symbols reflect the replacement of the Arts, Minimal value; style and age is not a unified non-mainstream artists are those who blindly follow the trend of almost not worth discussing.
The top-class of the ‘childhood art’ artists, such as zhangxiaogang, Fanglijun, Tang zhigang, Liuye, Cengfanzhi, wangxingwei, Li Jikai and so on. Whose creation has a strong culture of immediate concern, as well as targeted and works with a keen sense of profound thought, to judge the seriousness and creatation of wisdom. It is because of the latter's art, "art of childhood," has become an important development of the dark line of Chinese contemporary art, it reflects the "child" has become an important symbol in the expression of Chinese contemporary art, as well as the symbol of its own become strong .
Zeng Jian Yong's painting is based on the "children", from the "captain" series which he created in 2007 to "grow up" series and the recent series of "youth", and other works, in which he try to make him find a place in the "art of childhood” of china.
In fact, Zeng Jianyong has already done this now. At present, people who see the look of tender, eyes as big as a transparent glass ball, his face and body as part of the skin has a scar or dirt, his chest, wearing a black and red scarf 3, wearing arm-bar armbands in his capacity as leader of the children on the screen is aware of his creative work. Zeng Jianyong successfully created the image of himself in these symbols of his works to express his own personal history of childhood memories of imagination and reality.
The "captain" series have some relation with the memories of the childhood of the artist.
The artist once recalled his childhood like this: when I was young, I don’t have the ability of the captain. I thought that the captain is not a student, and in my mind the girls who are good at studies is beautiful. The memory of my childhood is not clear, it went past quickly.’ Obviously, the captain is the confused feeling of the artist’s childhood.
The children emerged as the standard captain in his works. Those children who looked from the appearance of spirits is innocent, confused. Obviously, it is not the artist himself, but the person who has relationship with him. Maybe his classmates, the loved in his childhood or his rival, or who look down on him.
Burned after the Cultural Revolution, the artist linked the beauty of girls with good study and the captain is the symbol of power hierarchy and at the same time is also very easy to him and her in the same class as the enemy. To express themselves (and other students) on the head, which full of jealousy, inferiority, hatred, and so complex state of mind? All of these are for the captain who knows nothing is so heavy and innocent. In this time’s point of view of adults and artists recall the state of mind as a child. It is mainly talking about the hurt which was brought by the misunderstanding of the captain in childhood, and express sympathy for the criticism.
Then in the next, and < adolescent age >and other series of works express the reality imaginary of artist towards the childhood.
The artist observed the life of his son to express his own feeling.
The Son has just become the chief and has the possibility to become a leader in the near future. This is maybe full of expectations to the farther who has no experience of great captain, but one day he saw the appearance of helpless of his son who wake up in the middle of the night , though the son is tough in appearance. He found his son's heart was not the same in his face. Then, on a day when the son of leader when the night is likely to wake up of helpless. He subconsciously aware of the "great leader" is only in his capacity as a coat, the captain and all the children have the same physical ages and the nature of the provisions.
As a result, in the "growth" and "youth" and other series works, the children's faces and the image have taken place subtle changes: in the "growth" series, children's eyes started to become depressed, aware of his injuries Pain, in the "youth" series, the children's eyes become have no confidence, her (his) body go to back, or tighten or embrace each other, they are helpless and want to find safety.
In the two groups of his works, they have revealed one of the real human nature of the children including the captain. And expressed the patience and understanding the artist to the captain. it just like the artist said that : “ as an artist, I cherish the weak point of human nature, for example ,the unrational weakness, I try to face them in my works.” On the whole, the works of Zeng jianyong created the pure image of the children, and veiled them, in the mystery of the memory of the history and reality of the childhood of the human.
Zeng Yong is neither a child psychologist, nor is it an anthropologist and sociologist, but a painter. he know that his "childhood art" must fall to match the style and the level of language.
According to the consideration of style, Jianyong have been good at picture books, three-dimensional animation. As the artist who was in the 1970s could easily copy the cartoon style, but he only has to avoid the cartoon's visual appearance ,not to avoid lacking of connotation. On the other hand, he clearly has targeted the cultural image of the child, through the image of the child in the reality and the effect of art history in the image of a child for miscellaneous, summed up their own rhetoric and the screen image of the ideal of children, this is between reality and image of the cartoon, is on the way between realism and image, create a children's painting with the image of strangeness.
In the application o language on arts, "Arts of childhood" in the language relating to the use of oil painting, sculpture, ink, pictures and so on. Jianyong have the same familiar with these languages . through rational analysis, he chosed ink. He has said: "wu shu can compete with boxing and judo. Ink is also a kind of kongfu, just like the weak knife also can kill people."
He made use of ink when it shows the result of integrated oil painting, which tend to realistic and effective means of transmission of the image of the appeal. For those of Chinese ink painting and art is very strange and unfamiliar. On the other hand, Western art in his work understand the content and spirit of this new media of ink on how to produce this effect of curiosity. Have the courage to build such an approach can be compared to Chinese artists in France HUANG Yong Ping in the Venice Biennale in the works, of which China's Warring States period, although the vehicles are applied to the Western concept of the device but the physical elements are China, which is China kinds of elements to allow viewers in the West felt the mysterious of china.
Above statements demonstrate that he has his own get in to into the system of contemporary culture and to find his unique place in the development of Chinese contemporary art .in his "captain" and "growth", "youth" series works, the Created image and the way they are painting , as well as personal and psychological relationship to form their own unique "art of childhood" to the face of China's current epidemic "of childhood art" brings fresh strangeness.(JingDuZhai2012)
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