吴华《中国“她”艺术》代表性艺术家 / 四六文摘

吴华

1962 生于北京

1987 美国宾夕法尼亚州立大学建筑与规划硕士

1987-1991 工作于美国波士顿和纽约建筑师事务所

1991-1994 成立台北建筑设计事务所，任教于台北铭传大学

2003 客座教学于美国罗德岛艺术学院

2004 客座教学于中央美院建筑系

2005 联合国教科文组织“北京和北京”新旧城市保护与发展艺术展及论坛策展人

2007 至今为大的建筑设计公司创始人、合伙人

现居北京，职业建筑规划设计师、艺术家

Wu Hua

1962 Born in Beijing

1987 Pennsylvania State University / Master Degree of Architecture and Urban study

1987-1991 Working in Elkus/Manfredi architects and Peter Marino architects

1991-1994 Architectural Teaching and Working in Taipei

2003 Visiting professor at Rhode Island School of Design

2004 Visiting professor at Central Academy of Fine Arts

2005 Curator for UNISCO'Beijing and Beijing’ Urban Development and Art exhibition forum

Since 2007 Founder and Partner of DADA Architects ltd.

Currently lives in Beijing, Professional Architect and urban planer, Artist

自画像布面油画 2011

Self-Portrait

Oil on Canvas

80x60cm

生是不由自主的

吴华1962年生于北京，成长于急遽变迁的社会与意识形态轮回的背景下。她的自由艺术创作可以2015年为界，分为两个阶段。这一年她在今日美术馆举办了“生——吴华个展”，展出了吴华在2005-2015年间的创作，它们大多是布面作品，运用了油彩、丙稀、马克笔、粉笔、蓝墨水，也有少量复合材质的作品。唐克扬称它们是吴华的“心灵日记,它从灰暗的日常中萌芽、生长、缠绕、愈合，在现实中'挣扎求生’而'释放重生’”。这次展览中有一幅《自画像》（布面油画，60*80cm，2011）引起了我的注意，与其它作品藉由万物生长的有机线条布局自我的意念不同，吴华直接抒写了自我的心象并命名为自画像。这是介于抽象与具象之间的形象，层层堆积的白色占据了大部分画幅，丰富的肌理蕴含着复杂的往事，它们经年累月地包裹着同时也覆盖着的是一个幽幽的“黑洞”，既不知其深，亦不知其广。

An Unintended Life

Born in 1962 Beijing, Wu Hua was raised under a turbulent environment both socially and ideologically. In my opinion, there are two stages to Wu’s artworks, divided by the year 2015. That year, she unveiled works from 2005-2015 in her first solo exhibition “Sheng / Life” at Beijing’s Today Art Museum. The show displayed large canvas artworks, with uses of oil, acrylic, marker, ink and mix media installations. As noted by curator Mr. Tang KeYang, the works are Wu Hua’s “diaries of the soul: stemming, twirling and healing from a habitual bleakness. In their strive to survive, a sense of liberation is achieved.”In her “Sheng / Life” Exhibition, a piece that made a particular impression on me is “Self Portrait” (Oil on canvas, 60x80cm, 2011). Different from her other works where Wu Hua maps out her mind through wild and organic lines, here, Wu Hua boldly illustrates her consciousness and deems it a self-portrait. The piece floats somewhere between abstract and realism, with layers over layers of white coating up the canvas. Its rich textures seem to embody an unspoken past, as if attempting to cover up a gloomy blackhole with unknown depth and width.

暗与远油画布、丙烯卡、纸板、铁丝、螺丝钉 2020

Dark Distance

Acrylic、Cardboard、Wire and Screw on Canvas

90x60cm

这样一幅自画像，就像一个洞口将我引向在现实秩序和逻辑以外的另外一个世界。我不能不承认，这另外一个世界我也曾经来过，那些似曾相识的经验和感受当初是如此惊心动魄和刻骨铭心，然而在我与我们成长的过程中却被逐渐忽略甚至遗忘了，我们也逐渐地就没有能力去正视和反思它。吴华在画布上用力刮过的凌乱笔触，显然不是对结构或抽象等绘画形式的探索，更像是她从“集体遗忘”中挣扎出来重建时间的连续所留下的痕迹。这是生的一部分，也是吴华的心结。吴华谦逊地把自述放在展览图录（香港：中国今日美术馆出版社有限公司，2015年版）的最后，开篇的第一句话就是：“生是不由自主的，它既是主动的又是被动的,它欢喜也残酷。”

Such a self-portrait has led me to a world where I had once been - far from rules and rations of the normal world, filled with familiar sentiments and experiences that were thrilling and important to me. Yet these experiences tend to distance away from us over time, eventually forgotten. And we in return also lose the courage to face such sentiments and experiences. Indeed, Wu Hua’s unrestrained strokes are no attempt at structure or style, but evidence of her struggle to rebuild and preserve an experience that was forgotten. This is a part of life and birth (Sheng), and also Wu Hua’s pain. As she humbly states at the end of her exhibition pamphlet: “'Sheng’” is involuntary, active yet passive, joyous yet cruel.”

接插铁丝和电线接头 2021

Cable
Wire and USB cable

50x50cm

圈子铁丝 2019

Circle

Wire

80x60cｍ

在第二阶段的创作中，吴华转向了不同媒介的并置及其相互作用的实验。她将观念与感官、记忆与手工实践综合在一起，对历史和现实提出了问题。在2017年“丝路云裳艺术展”（太庙，北京）和“机杼”当代艺术展（金鸡湖美术馆，苏州）上，吴华的新作引人嘱目。这种融合了绘画与各种日常物品的艺术实践，源自20世纪最重要的艺术家之一劳申伯格开创的Combine Painting，吴华藉此解除了画布的二维空间局限，然而她的目标不是挑战艺术中的现有元素，重新评估现有的材料与技术，以打破现代主义的既定框架。吴华的艺术实践是要在现实与历史之间的断裂处建立起链接，她透过各种媒介来模糊以往与今日现实之间的壁垒，以历史的记忆来观照现实。

In the second stage of Wu Hua’s creations, she turns to a new variety of mediums as she experiments with their juxtapositions and reactions with one another. She integrates concepts with senses, memories with craft, and thereby challenges history and reality. In 2017’s “Silk Road & Celestial Clothes Art Exhibition” (Beijing) and “Loom” Contemporary Art Exhibition (SuZhou), Wu Hua’s works stood out particularly. The exhibitions focused on combining painting with everyday objects – inspired by 20th century artist Robert Rauschenberg’s “Combine Painting”. With such opportunities, Wu Hua breaks free of the two-dimensional restraints of canvases, with a goal to reassess the relationships between materials and technologies, and thereby breaking the structures molded by modernity. Wu Hua's artistic practice is to establish a link between the reality and history. She blurred the barrier between the past and the present reality through various media, and observed the reality with the memory of history.

纸盒01 卡纸宣纸水墨铁丝金属网螺丝丙烯 2018

Box 01

Cardboard paper rice paper ink wire wire screw acrylic

60×50cm

重峦金秋 2018
卡纸、宣纸、水墨、金属网、铜丝、铁丝、绢丝金线、螺丝、丙烯
Rolling mountains in golden autumn
Cardboard, rice paper, ink, metal mesh, copper wire, iron wire
silk gold thread, screws, propylene
85×185cm

吴华所使用的材料，可视为截然不同的两个部分。一是承载了人文、人性与个人化体验的画布、水墨、丝绢、衣裙，另一是意义指向确定的“公共”象征。在她的作品中，我们看到与丝绢、墨痕和霓裳牵连、固定、纠缠、拉扯的是带刺的铁丝网、金属质地的纱网、制式的金属网格、锃亮绷紧的金属线、细密的别针、肉眼不易觉察的订书钉、工地用脚手架、装修现场的木梯子……还有，在画布中央突起的刀痕、粗暴外翻的画布裸露出植入的金属网格——我们看不见刀，却无时无刻不感觉到无形的锋利以及暴力的存在,这是真正的残酷。

文（摘选）/宋晓霞
中央美术学院人文学院教授、博士生导师
译/温伟廉

The materials chosen by Wu Hua can be separated into two types: one representing culture, humanity and personal experiences, consisting of canvas, ink, silk, dresses; the other depicting particular “public” symbols. In her works, we see clashes between opposing materials: silk dresses intertwining and struggle against barbed wires, metal webs, pins, staples, construction ladders… We see slash marks and sharp, hard objects piercing out of the soft, tangled canvases and dresses. Although we see no blades or knives, an invisible sharpness and violence prevail throughout the piece, manifesting an absolute cruelty.

Text (Excerpts) / Song Xiaoxia
Professor and Ph.D Supervisor, CAFA School of Humanities

Translate / William Wen