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LOVE NO.1 120x120cm LOVE NO.2 120x120 cm 材料：丙烯 2007年
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从2000年到2001年与师傅学习绘画的时间里，我开始潜心创作我的新专辑，我在内心里寻找自己的创作主题。2002年我在东京的涩谷，纽约的时代广场，香港的尖沙嘴码头，在北京长城拍摄了一个短片，在这几个城市我邀请到为我拍摄这组短片的人员全部是做电影导演或者电视导演的专业人员。在这个短片里，我邀请路人对着镜头说同样一句话：“I LOVE PANDA。”这个关于PANDA的短片是为了配合我的第五张个人创作专辑里面一个热爱环境关注生态的环保主题，为此，我创作了一个卡通故事，在专辑里我朗诵这个故事，我请著名音乐家三宝为我创作了长达20多分钟的背景音乐，我自己当时没有意识到自己在流行音乐的创作上和表现手法上已经开始跨界。
早在1998年我创作了《MADE IN CHINA》的词曲，没想到这首歌给了我人生的改变和转折。1998年4月在美国洛杉矶，我制作完成了《MADE IN CHINA》整张音乐专辑。《MADE IN CHINA》是我对祖国的一份赤诚热爱，是我在外面的世界更客观地看待自己的祖国，是我在旅途中自我完成的爱国教育，我看到了自己身后的民族文化土壤给我的自信和勇气，在中西方文化比较下，使我能够发挥出独特和与众不同的地方。然而，在1998年末，在我的《MADE IN CHINA》出版前几天，这张专辑没能顺利出版。《MADEINCHINA》被有关部门的审查批准文件上批示：《MADE IN CHINA》词意晦涩难懂，用“中国制造”作为歌名有损中华民族尊严。当时，我没有借此炒作或者诉愿，我切断了所有我身边和音乐有关的关系，我甘愿做海里的一粒沙，我用行动来理解和接受现实里存在的误读和不理解。我想，那是我对祖国的“爱”。那是我命运的一部分，爱，是要付出代价。
多年之后，我发觉自己一直在用“爱”这个主题在创作。
绘画和音乐是两个不同的媒介，彼此又有很深的联系。目前，音乐已经不能完成我的表达，绘画给我带来自由。严格意义上讲，我的绘画语言是强调观念和视觉。我用自己的语言，用诚实大胆和想象力。我还用音乐去绘画，希望每幅作品都能传达出不同的情绪。
我没有想要成为艺术家，我只是一直在过着艺术家的生活。我认为一个人的生活方式比做艺术还重要，我认为自己的生活方式比艺术本身更有意思，我的旅行，我做音乐以及绘画，是一个理想的实践过程，其中的困难和快乐自己品尝。我在两个长期居住的城市间往返——北京和纽约，我和它们之间的距离，在不同文化的交错中，我的作品相对清醒和独立。
2005年，我定居在纽约，在那里建立了我的画室。我画LOVE，用有序地排列和机械化地堆砌把LOVE字填满整个画面，我用很强烈和纯粹的色彩，用金色或者银色，用黑色或者白色，也有灰色。我还用鲜亮的粉色，那种粉色令人眩目刺眼，很不正常的粉色。那些都是LOVE的语言。这里会因为颜色和质感的不同带来变化，我想要去影响别人的视觉，强迫你去思考与这个字的关系和LOVE带给你感受。
我希望这个爱的主题可以延伸下去，LOVE可大可小，可以简单，也可以很复杂。有正面，有负面。有毁灭的力量，也有创造伟大奇迹的动力。我曾经开玩笑地说；“爱情是生产力”。当然，我的作品——LOVE 不仅仅想表达男女之间的爱。这一点早已证明。
我将用“爱”去创造“爱”，因为没有“爱”能够代替“爱”。 LOVE，是我连绵不断的灵感源泉。
艾敬 2007年11月14日星期三
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ALL ABOUT LOVE
by Ai Jing
I got to know Zhang Xiaogang in 1999, when he had just come to Beijing. After he saw the draft cover design for my third album “Chasing the Moon” that I carelessly scratched in my recording studio in Tokyo, he said to me: “You can learn painting, I will teach you.” In “a place full of fresh flowers” at the northeastern corner of Beijing, I started to learn painting in the temporary studio of Master Zhang. It was a special period in my life. I secluded myself from all connections to music and remained quiet and meticulous like a grain of sand at the bottom of the sea. I amused myself painting, and played music in the studio. I painted a skeleton named “Mr. Bones.” My teacher asked why I had painted a skeleton, cold and lifeless. I replied that it was “love,” adding that if there was no love in its heart, than it was a skeleton. Ma Liuming, Chen Wenbo and other senior students of Master Zhang laughed at me, saying that I had exaggerated the meaning of the word “love.”
While I was learning painting from 2000 to 2001, I started to concentrate on the creation of my new album, searching my heart for new themes of creation. In 2002, I made a short film in Shibuya in Tokyo, Times Square in New York, Tsimshatsui in Hong Kong, and the Great Wall in Beijing. All the crew members I invited to shoot the footage in these cities were professional film or TV directors. In the short film, I invited passersby to say the same sentence: “I love pandas.” The short film on pandas was made to accompany the theme of environmental protection and ecological preservation that was in my fifth album. To that end, I created a cartoon, and recorded the story in my album. I invited San Bao, the famous musician, to compose the background music of up to 20 minutes for the album. I didn’t realize at the time that I had begun to make breakthroughs in the creation and expression of pop music.
When I composed the music and lyrics of "Made in China" in 1998 I never expected that the song would change my life. I completed the album in Los Angeles in April. This song was an expression of my true love for my motherland, a way to objectively look at my motherland from the outside world, and a patriotic self-education completed during my journey. I found my confidence and courage arising from my national cultural background, which enabled me, through a comparison of Eastern and Western cultures, to develop my own unique and different style. Unfortunately, the album had still not been approved several days before the scheduled release date in late 1998. The relevant department commented on "Made in China": Both the music and lyrics of "Made in China" are too obscure, and it hurts the national dignity of the Chinese people to use "Made in China" as the name of the song. I didn’t make a fuss about the decision or try to protest it. I cut off all my relations with music, preferring to be a grain of sand at the bottom of the sea. I would understand and accept the misunderstanding and incomprehension with my action. I thought that it was my love for my motherland. It was just a part of my life; love has a price.
Many years later, I find that I have all along been using “love” as a theme to create.
Painting and music are two different media, but they're closely connected. Currently, music no longer satisfies my need to express myself, but painting gives me freedom. Strictly speaking, my painting language focuses on concepts and visual effects. I use my own language, my sincerity and bravery, as well as my imagination, to paint. I also use my music to paint, hoping that every painting can express a different emotion.
I never wanted to be an artist, but I have been leading an artist's life. I think that one's lifestyle is more important than artistic creation, and I believe that one's lifestyle is more interesting than art itself. My travels, musical creations and painting, are a steps taken in the realization of an ideal, in which I have savored both hardship and joy. I travel back and forth between the two places that I live--Beijing and New York. My work remains relatively clear and independent in the space and intersection between different cultures.
In 2005, I settled in New York and set up my studio there. I painted "Love" with the whole canvass covered with the word LOVE in mechanical rows. I used strong and pure colors, gold and silver, black and white, sometimes gray. I also used bright pink, which is glaring and abnormal. Those are all the language of love. Different colors and a sense of quality bring changes. I want to influence the visual perception of others, and force people them think about the relationship with the letters and the feeling love brings to you.
I hope this concept of love can be extended. Love can be big or small, simple or complicated. It can be positive or negative. It has a destructive power, or the power to create great wonder. I used to say in jest: “ Love is a productive force”. Of course, my work "Love" does not only express the kind of love between a man and a woman. This has been clear for quite some time.
I will use Love to create Love, for no Love can replace Love. Love is my eternal source of inspiration.
Wednesday, November 14,2007
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与爱何干？
艾里克·C·希纳
成功的艺术总是传递一种思想。艺术家通常被成为思想传递者，虽然并非总是如此，但他们大多通过视觉方式，讲述故事，传递思想。由于艺术作品供他人欣赏，每位观众都会将自己的经验和思维过程融入到他们所欣赏的艺术之中，因此对艺术家初衷—原意—的理解也就五花八门。所以，无论对于象征艺术还是抽象艺术，可谓是仁者见仁，智者见智。根据欣赏者经验所产生的故事可能与艺术家本意南辕北辙。然而，有些艺术家极其擅长设计他们的作品，让观众必须按照其规则进行。他们所提供的信息非常清晰，人们很难逃出艺术家所设定的概念陷阱。艾敬就是这样的艺术家，她所设定的陷阱，如果可以这么说的话，充满了所有人所熟悉的字眼：爱。
艾敬的作品真可以说是充满了爱，或由太多“爱”字组成的网格和线状世界。她的大幅画布上充满了爱，几乎没有其他任何解读的空间，因为整个画面上“爱”字一个挨一个，密密麻麻。有时，爱字酷似背景，如在《金色的爱1号》中，金色文字飘浮在如同染上光彩的田野之上，由于其金属质感和洋洋暖意，画布似乎在发光。相反，其他作品要么是黑底白字，要么是白底黑字。这里，爱的概念彰显无疑，易于理解。有时，艾敬也会将反过来，将“爱”字倒着写，从而使得原本清晰的感念变得晦涩难解。总之，爱并非总是唾手可得。
因此，艾敬所表达的信息也许并不象开始时所说的那么明显。她以精美的文笔抓住了观众的想象，并将他们固定在“爱”这一大概念上。这不仅能给观众一种亲切感和幸福感，还会在观众的头脑中引发一定程度的焦虑、兴奋、以及机会丧失或错过感。简而言之，“爱”是一个掺杂了各种情感的术语，同时它又是我们生活的一部分，无论我们是否真正“拥有”它。对艾敬来说，她要表达的信息非常简单：爱是生活中不可分割的一部分，是她希望向世界传递的一种甜美情感。然而，观众对这种真诚信息如何反应将取决于他们对爱的体验，无论一个人的自身经历对这种情感带来什么影响，但是，艾敬的绘画都真正流露出快乐与祝福。
艺术家自身经历很大程度上解释了她对爱的痴迷，更重要的是，为什么她要将爱的概念向世界传播。实际上，艾敬多年来一直从事着爱的传播，尽管形式不一。作为亚洲最受欢迎的民谣摇滚歌手之一，和一名才华横溢的演员，在过去的十几年中已为世人瞩目，这一切都归功于她发自内心的歌唱。她的歌充满了对故乡沈阳的思念，讲述了她爱的经历，以及她对让她周游世界的巡回演出生活的追忆。在她整个演唱和演艺生涯中，她总是从艺术中寻求神奇力量，来平静她活跃的生活。如今，通过第一次参加这样的群展，艾敬掀开了生活新篇章—艺术家将通过它阐述人类关系与情感。
形式上，艾敬的绘画融合了流行艺术和基思·哈林及其爱好者所推崇的精选街头涂鸦。在金银色画布上用金属颜料作画揭示出她对沃赫尔的痴迷，而直接在画布上采用黑白颜色作画说明她的画法深受雷蒙德·派迪伯恩或小野洋子概念广告牌作品的直接影响。她的作品几乎与菲里克斯·冈萨雷兹-托里斯作品同出一辙。在她爱的网格后面似乎有一种体制在发挥作用；重复使用“爱”的术语暗示了身体陷入爱的痛苦，不能自拔。正如冈萨雷兹-托里斯的作品一样，它与实体、总量以及时间流逝有着密切的关系。两位艺术家的作品都表现出对人类爱之精髓的探求，都渴望一个没有邪恶与伪善的世界。无论其灵感来源于哪里，艾敬为我们提供了大量如同她一再赞美的字眼一样复杂的作品。爱是一个广义的概念，也正因如此，她的作品为所有人所接受。
总之，对爱的理想化可能会推动艾敬在艺术道路上前行，而事实可能会在观众与其作品交流中激发他们的想象力。一组由四幅金色画板组成的名为《love pig》的绘画再次拼出“爱”字，其中每个字母占一个画板。一头粉色会飞的猪占据了左上方的画板，与大写字母“L”共享画布空间，而在组画右下方的画板上，精子状白云飘浮在“E”上面。飞翔的猪与白云似乎暗示着爱的短暂，也象征着艺术家顽皮的天性和欢快的心境。她的作品透着一种迷人的魅力，这归功于这头会飞的猪。这可能暗示着艺术家自身对爱的探求，和徘徊于中国、香港、日本和美国之间的人生旅程。不仅她的歌唱生涯，而且她对艺术的爱始终伴随着她。对艾敬来说，爱是几乎是一种将我们联系在一起，值得庆贺的纽带，最重要的是，它是一种通道，通过它，艺术家将她的快乐信息传向世界。
Eric C. Shiner
纽约独立策展人、艺术史学家、评论家。耶鲁大学艺术历史系博士。在美国多本艺术杂志中发表艺术评论，现在纽约PACE大学教授亚洲艺术，策展了很多与亚洲艺术相关的展览。
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What’s Love Got To Do With It?
Eric C. Shiner
Successful art always delivers a message. Artists, in general, are perhaps best described as messengers who relay stories or ideas, most often, but certainly not always, in visual form. Frequently, the artist’s original intent—the primary story—takes on countless other readings as the work of art is viewed by others, each of whom bring their own experiences and thought processes to the proverbial table. Both figurative and abstract works of art are thus widely open to the interpretation of the viewer, and the stories that spin off from the experience of looking may very well be quite far away from the artist’s own. However, some artists are exceptionally skilled at framing their work in such a way that the viewer must play by their rules—the information provided is so crisp and clear that one may find it difficult to escape the artist’s conceptual traps laid out before him or her. Ai Jing is just such an artist, and her trap, if it can be called that, is baited with a most heavily-loaded term familiar to all of us: Love.
Ai Jing’s work is perhaps best described as an overload of love, or as a gridded and linear universe populated by the actual word “love” in excess. Her large canvasses are quite literally covered with row after row of the term, and there is nary a space for any other reading, as the words continue one after another across the entire picture plane. At times, the letters mimic the painting’s ground, as in Golden Love No. 1 where gold letters float upon a field of similarly tainted brilliance—the canvas seems to glow thanks to its metallic nuances and warm message. Conversely, other works feature white letters on black ground, or black letters on white; here, the concepts of love are laid bare and made easily accessible. Ai Jing also reverses the term, spelling “love” backwards, at times, thus making an obvious concept more inaccessible. Love, after all, is not always so easily obtained.
And to that end, Ai Jing’s message is perhaps not as obvious as it might first appear. By bombarding the viewer with her exquisitely rendered text, she captures one’s imagination and keeps it locked under the over-arching concept of “love.” This then might not only instill a sense of warmth and happiness in the viewer, for it might also provoke certain degrees of angst, agitation, loss or missed opportunities in the viewer’s mind. To put it simply, “love” is a term that precipitates a variety of emotions, yet it is something that is always a part of us, whether we truly “possess” it or not. For Ai Jing, her message is simple: Love is a necessary part of life, and a sweet emotion that she wants to send out to the world. How the viewer responds to this heart-felt message, however, depends on his or her own experiences in the department of love, yet no matter what one’s personal history might add to the equation, overall, Ai Jing’s paintings truly radiate with joy and benevolent wishes.
The artist’s own history provides much explanation for her fascination with love, and more importantly, the dispersal of that concept to the world beyond. In fact, Ai Jing has been sending out the message of love for years, albeit in a much different form. As one of Asia’s most beloved folk and pop singers and a talented actress as well, she has been in the spotlight for well over a decade thanks to her straight-from-the-heart songs that feature reminiscences of her hometown of Shenyang, stories of her own experiences with love, and the memories of an itinerant life that took her to all corners of the globe and back. Throughout her entire singing and acting career, Ai Jing has always turned to art for its magical power to calm her otherwise active life. Now, with her first inclusion in this group exhibition, Ai Jing is embarking on another chapter of her life—that of an artist with something to say about human relationships and emotions.
Formally, Ai Jing’s paintings reference Pop Art and the culled-from-the-streets graffiti art of Keith Haring and his compatriots. Her use of metallic paints in her gold and silver canvasses hints at a fascination with Warhol, whereas her more direct canvasses in black and white reference the in-your-face impact of Raymond Pettibone or the conceptual billboard work of Yoko Ono. Her work may best be placed in the same family as that of Felix Gonzalez-Torres. There seems to be a system at work behind her grids of love; the repetitive use of the term hints at the sheer accumulation of bodies enmeshed in the throes of love, much like Gonzalez-Torres’s work was directly linked to actual bodies, weights and the passage of time. Both artists’ work grows out of a search for the pure essence of human love, and both seem to long for a world void of evil and hypocrisy. Regardless of her sources of inspiration, Ai Jing presents a body of work that is as complex as the term that she glorifies again and again. Love is a universal concept, and because of that, her work is accessible to one and all.
In conclusion, the idealization of love might fuel Ai Jing’s artistic processes, but its reality is what ignites the viewer’s imagination when interacting with her work. A set of four golden canvasses titled Love Pig features the word “love” spelled out yet again, but here, each letter of that word is given its own canvas. A pink flying pig inhabits the upper left canvas, sharing space with a large capital “L,” and a sperm-shaped cloud in white floats just above the “E” in the lower right canvas of the grouping. The floating pig and cloud seem to hint at the ephemeral nature of love, just as they indicate the artist’s playful nature and bright spirit. Yet, there is a charming quality to the work thanks to the presence of the flying pig, and this may be indicative of the artist’s own search for love and to her own journeys between China, Hong Kong, Japan and the United States where not only her singing career, but also her love of art, has carried her over the years. For Ai Jing, love is a most celebratory link that bonds us all, and more importantly, a conduit through which she can send her delightful message around the world.
