2008年4月5日——4月20日，由中国美术馆韩劲松策划，0工场艺术中心主办的“想·象重生”展在北京798艺术区0工场艺术中心举办。这是0工场装修改造后的首个开放展。当今艺术状态下架上平面创作面临太多的直白与简单图解等想象力匮乏的问题，画家做的是一篇社会规定的命题作文，社会学汹涌而至，以文害义。基于此，提出“想·象重生”试图重新思考画家的主体定位及其表达的话语方式。“想”是一种内在驱动，构成语言行为的价值主体，体现为“我想我在”。其超越性注定了它与现实世界的远，既不拿现象说事，亦不同于近距离和图像学。“想”可以致广大、尽幽微，天马行空，繁花入梦，因此画中有诗。“象”是“想”的视觉形式的表达，象立意尽。本展览参展的8位艺术家：刘欣、闫振强、徐松波、胡李海、杜江岩、马铁明、刘世健、牛敏就是在这个命题下集中起来的作风稳健、从容面对内心真实的整体，在“想·象”的关系模式中他们各自以其入境之“想”和可玩味之“象”重张绘画美学品质，回归生命本真自性，精彩可以想象。
韩劲松

Thinking·Regeneration of Images
——the 2nd “Ping·Shi” Art Exhibition
The age of pictures has destroyed man’s ability of thinking. The creation originates from picture and ends in picture. The men who surrounded by pictures are unable to refuse them and are also unable to think. Those skills of simplified symbol-joint, shifting, joking imitation and juxtaposition are abused excessively. The art works have therefore become vulgar diagrams of sociological theories. The artists are confused insignificant skills as their “I.D cards”. They are feeling selves-satisfied and, inciting by noises of the theories, want to insist on obstinately to the end. In any case, excessive colloquialism and simplistic reflection led to the lack of imagination. It has become a problem that everyone is an artist but everybody a phony artist.

The title “Thinking·Regeneration of Images” is put forwards by reason of reconsideration that what a painter’s subjectivity and his express pattern are. “Thinking” is a psychological ability and also a system sustaining language. Its transcendence destined the distance between it and realistic world. The spirituality of so called “transcendence of this life” or “metaphysics” has entrusted to itself romantic poetry, and it is thereby different from the “new generation” who are flat and insipid because of the close distance as well as the pictorial paintings. “Thinking” may expand to boundless and has a most fantastic idea which including total feeling, thinking and connection. It is a free thought and its subjectivity is the idiom “I think therefore I am”, namely an independent personality. The “Image” means seal, characters, speeches and pictures that are material expression of the “thought”. It embodies a visional form in a painting, and expresses meaning while it is established. In the model of “thinking·image”, we stress the former. Although the men have to response stimulation of the modern world, an artist needs the personality of “thinking” in order to avoid submergence of “me” by external world. It should be that the artists who get together in the exhibition posses separately their deep “thinking” and pondering “images”.

Imaging landscapes——Art works by Liu Xin, Yan Zhenqiang, Xu Songbo, Liu Shijian and Niu Min express undetermined mental scenes. Liu Xin’s works contain flavor of metropolitan fashion and however not reduction of reality but decrease of material trace. He goes beyond a popular expression of life sentiment. The beauty gradually varies towards as a metropolitan mirage that is fictitiousness, plane and patterning. The man is abstracted as merely an outer form floating like a dissociating shadow. The landscapes of mountain and water, painted by Yan Zhenqiang, convey a classic perception. The painter merely studies into landscape with ink and color that therefore attracts attention. He has a good grounding in basic skills of bi-mo (brush and ink). Recently Yan has try to develop into skills of green and thick colors by which might take a turn for a vivid composition. The tableaus of landscape open a pure space by which people might long for a transcend world. These compositions come from rather nature than the heart. Xu Songbo’s works are about the allegories of which individual spirit breaking through the barrier of contemporary society. The painter concentrates not on exposing the unharmonious situation but on reviving, through transform and docking, a forgotten historic memory in order to carry forward the lost spirit of nationality. He imagines that mounted troops of Han and Tang dynasties are galloping upon the ruins of post-industry era. This kind of encounter brings about a fantastic feeling that the military accomplishments overspread the agony caused by conflicts of civilizational evolution. It’s interested that Xu Songbo constructed by realistic means a fantastic space which looks very true, and therefore convincible and dramatic. Liu Shijian is sensitive to confusion and disorder of modern society. He wants start from his own cultural experience to sort out a direct pictographic clue to both tradition and modern. The painter shifts the pictures as his pleases, and weaves them a net of narration which are filled with ridicules. Still, the sketch by Niu Min is depiction of dreams with graceful and restrained sentiment, such as in the misty rain.

The feeling-expressible life——works by Hu Lihai, Du Jiangyan and Ma Tieming belong to live entity which are different from those landscapes. The landscape is a subjective throw which directly expresses feeling and, by form of equal structure, points to the original intention itself. The paintings by Hu Lihai have scorching hot that each brush holds continuing consciousness and flowing tension. No matter what scribbling or dyeing colors, all his means turned into spiritual patterns pouring desire, agony and love over the canvas. It let us believed that a painting form is by no mean artificial production but the life itself in the experience. Only in the form of language the truth of life release easily. Hu Lihai’s paintings express inner disappearing and meditation. Du Jiang’s paintings express tragedy-like anxiousness and disturbance by nervous lines, distort shapes which displaying inner commotion. Ma Tieming’s paintings show an imposing manner of walking or standing between heaven and earth. The landscapes reflect totally his inner   grand scenes. Like the former two painters, Ma is able to hold effective strength and grasps the entirety that showing life vividly.

A pure form——The styles of Xie Tian and Zheng Genhao are characterized by pure form in pattern, colors and materials which are different from those of the formers two styles. Their works are just the works themselves that challenging to imagination by means of the cool thinking. Xie Tian constructed his own painting language by thick colors with denseness, gorgeousness and vagueness. Zheng Genhao is well known the materials and comprehends their functions in creation of modern conception, including recognition of physical quality and artificial nature. The understanding aroused enthusiasm for experiment of materials. A lot of works are made in recent years and opened a realm of which is more abstract, more pure and more essential.

By means of different languages, the 10 artists mentioned above explained their imaging art and their imaginations about art. It’s believed that they and their works might bring us more enlightenment.