能指与所指
----图像之轻与明喻之重
郑念缇
如果我们从语言学出发来叙述图像，比如回到建立词汇本身——“能指是对事物的命名和表达”1，而概念和内涵是所指承袭之处。那么在谈论曾浩的绘画时我想重新审视主体和其意义延伸。这种审视一方面是将所指与外在事物联系，另一方面是回望作者——即创作主体及其所处的时空。
我曾经在拙文《权力与欲望》里谈过曾浩的创作里充满了一种他者视觉。这是一种在所处时代的边缘、人群的边缘、喧嚣的边缘发出的非正常呐喊。在商品拜物教的时代、虚无主义占潮流地位的时代，这种呐喊非常地不主流，是一种在当下绘画图景里位于边缘之域的能指。而作者经年力求的所指之处即是这个时代迈向消费文化高速公路的大多数所刻意忽略之处——即在“狂欢”之后，我们要怎么看待自己肉体以及精神的“活着”。
在曾浩创作过的《门神》系列里，从那些肥厚油腻的色彩里满溢出来的都是这个时代生产出来的典型形象：不尽职守保卫家园的“门神”，在男欢女爱纸醉金迷的图景里呈现了扭曲的占有和纵横的物欲。自2010年曾浩开始创作的《狂欢》里，丰碑建筑和被颜料吹鼓得膨胀的“胜利”人形无一不在声嘶力竭地举杯换盏极尽喧嚣，呈现出一种壮观但又极尽虚幻的场景。其2012年的《活着》系列刻划了在一个高速前进的大时代背景中、在那些丰碑建筑下，卑微弱小、脆弱易碎的小人物的存在。这就是曾浩具有的“他者视觉”，他瞥见在现代性所向披靡的年代里，那些存在的边缘之处。反过来，在面对这些图景时，观者被“强迫地”一窥这个世代全景图（Panopticism）2. 中的真相。
泡影”是曾浩2014年的新作，曾浩认为这批作品是“狂欢”的膨胀之后的最终的宿命。“泡影”作为一种自然现象的存在，却是社会和命运的譬喻。于是作品里，那些张狂的泡影展现的是——喧嚣终究易破而存在注定轻飘。一切成像在作者的笔下都是梦幻泡影，存在已然不再真实。笔者认为作者在创作里用了语用学里的“明喻”法：所有的成像都有如逐渐升腾的虚幻，而存在感是一个个一触击破的泡影。
于是，“泡影”系列里充斥着的幻影如同“被烧成灰烬的名”。3这种比拟近乎悲情，但却是我们所处的时代的成像以及每一个我们的缩影。作者意图描写的也许就是立于这些灰烬之上的存在之轻以及这些灰烬所环绕的那些灵魂所不能背负的重。
和抽象画家或擅用暗喻的作者不同，曾浩选择在视觉叙述里开门见山。我们所处于一个不完美的时代，环顾四周让人震惊的丑陋和失望比比皆是，美好是愿想和彼处永不抵达的乌托邦。作为用视觉明喻和图像真相创作的艺术家，与抽象画家描述意识的重不同的是曾浩直接运用那些卑微的能指，他所选择世人所“轻”的图像，去指涉他看到的存在之“重”。然而，他必须为这些沉重的轻飘、为这些在人间不值一提的图像付出代价。
作为作者，我大概懂得他作为一个视觉作者和人生边缘的观察者对于生命真相的追思，和愿意主动挑“重”的选择。我想他会继续背负这种“重”，以此去完成自己——一个被拣选成为存在真相转译者——一个艺术家的历程。
最终，他的作品要和存在展开一场“表现与被表现，言说与被言说”4的较量。
2015年1月5日 深夜 于北京铁匠营
1. 汪民安主编，《文化研究关键词》，江苏人民出版社，2011年1月，327页；
2. 福柯, 《规训与惩罚》
3. 保罗策兰（ Paul Celan ），“炼金术(Alchemical )” Poems of Paul Celan, “所有的名，这余下的被烧成灰烬的名。这些灰烬是否蒙福。江山立于这灰烬之上，于是这灰烬又环绕那些灵魂。” Michael Hamburger 翻译, Persea Books, NY, 2002 , 157 页；
4，汪民安主编，《文化研究关键词》， 江苏人民出版社，2011年1月，327页；
Signifier and Signified
---Lightandheavy, imageand simile
Christina.Y.Z
Visual artandcreative writingall have one thing incommon,whichisto establish and to cite afigure(image),from which to bring the viewer’s perception to reach at a certain artistic conception.
Ifwe explain an imagefrom the point of Pragmatics,it is liketo go back to the establishment of word--"signifier is the name or expression of certain thing"1,which refers to the signified with concept and connotations. When we talk aboutZeng Hao's painting let usre-examine itssubject andits meaning of extension.This review at one hand is to connect the signified withthe external spectacle,on the other hand it is a gaze unto the author-- which is a thoroughly review of the creative subject and the temporal space in which he lives within.
I haveinmy article"Power and Desire"talked about“the unique perception” of Zeng Hao.He sends out such a psychic cry from the edge of the earthliness, the multitude, and the epoch. Inthiseraof commercial fetishism,this psychic cry is absolutely out of the mainstream as well nihilismdominates at the climax of our time,and this signifier is really “too loud a solitude”.Zeng Hao or the author whotries for years to attach the importance of the dwellings of the signified, which is an extended location thatmost of us in the age of speedy consumption era would rather deliberately to neglect--He brings out an ultimate inquiry which is whenafter"Carnival",how should we treat our physical existence and the spiritual“being”.
Inthe series of “Gate Gods”,Zeng Hao implanted the typical images from our consumption era with theoverflown hyper trophy greasy pigments: the irresponsible “Gate Gods” were spoiled in the material desires,the artist unfolded a voluptuous lifepicture.
Therefore, since 2010,Zeng Hao began to create a series of “Carnival”,within which it was full of the monumentalarchitecturesandthe distorted humanoids which sent out the exaggerated triumphant postures with a deliberately processed plastic-like pigment, the images were shouting and toasting for the make-believetriumphant spectacle.In theyear 2012 , his “Civilian”seriesdepictedthe humble , the fragile and the most lowest class in our modern spectacle in contrast with the monumental buildings.This is his peculiar"otherperspective",he caught a glimpse ofthe edges when the chariot of modernity were invincible.In turn,when the viewer stood in front of these images,he who was"forced"to face the truth of the Panopticism2 .
“BubbleSpectacle”is the series Zeng Hao created in2014,Zeng Haoconvinced the viewer from this series that thepractice is a fatalistic consequence of “Carnival”. “Bubble” as well as a naturalphenomenon,it is also a metaphor of thecollective andeverybody’s Destin (destiny).He unfolds a breakable and weightless reality through these disconcerted, perplexed, virtual images. All images and figures is the metaphor of an illusory life, Being itself is below truth. We have reason to believe that the author adopted a method in pragmatics, we call it “simile”:allimagesare similar as the graduallyrisingillusions,andthe sense of Beingiseven lighter than a bubble.
Then,the ‘BubbleSpectacle”is filled withphantomswhich like “all those names burnt with the rest”3.this is a tragic analogy,butit is the epitome of us inthis era.The intention of his work is definitely to sketch the unbearable lightness of being above such illusory life, and the heaviness of the souls which revolving around these cursed ashes-like life.
In contrast with abstract paintersorauthors who specialize in creating metaphors,Zeng Haoinclines to be straightforward in his visualnarratives.Still, weare in aimperfect era,when looking aroundthere are many shocking ugliness everywhere, the utopia visionis beyond reach.Asan artist who adopts simile and visual reality as the method of creating, who directly attach importance on the humble signifier, which makes him opposite of the abstract expressionism, the latter attaches importance to sketch the current of consciousness. Therefore, he chooses to refer the “heaviness” of being through the “ignored” images in our daily life.However,hemust pay the price forthese heavilylight and real illusions.
As a writer,I may understandhis ultimate inquiry towards the truth of Being, his courage to carry on the heaviness, he is very much an observer on the edge of life, a peculiar visual author. I suppose he will continue to take the initiative to be “heavy”, to bearthe"heavy",in orderto complete a mission of himself--an interpreter of the truth of being-- a journey of an artist.
At the end,hiswork must have a wrestle with Being, about “represent and being represented ,narrate and being narrated”4.
Late on the night of January 5, 2015,Blacksmith Camp , Peking
1.Edited by Wang Minan, key Words in Cultural Studies ,page 327,Jiangsu people's publishing house,January 2011
2 Foucault,Discipline and Punishment
3 PaulCelan, “Alchemical”PoemsofPaulCelan, “All the names, all those names burnt with the rest. So much ash to be blessed. So much land won above the weightless, so weightless rings of souls. ” Translated by Michael Hamburger, Persea Books, NY, 2002 , page, 157.
4,Edited by Wang Minan, key Words in Cultural Studies ,page 327,Jiangsu people's publishing house,January 2011
