空间游戏——王卫的空间装置作品

卢迎华    

“捕捉器”是王卫的新作，他以一种庞大复杂，极具压迫性、滞重压抑得令人不适的语调，毫无保留地道出现实的残酷。在近几年中，王卫一直凭借着其对空间的极度敏感性创作了一系列与空间密切关联的装置作品，并不遗余力地探讨从空间的变迁到生存状态的转化等具有一定普遍性又带有时代特殊性的命题。在“捕捉器”中，他运用了被放大数十倍的木制 “捕鸟器”与极具“侵犯性”的钢铁制成的脚手架在整个展览中营造出空间与空间由诱惑与欲望彼此连结的一个庞大的、繁复的充满荒谬感的现实丛林。在王卫众多的装置作品中，他把生活的片段（建筑这一日常行为）和物体（包裹着绒毛的上不着天下不着地的柱子和放大了的捕捉器）通过抽离、添加或放大等方式展现在观众的面前，并运用心理学的诀窍和解释，把我们尊重的、令我们感到满意的一切同真实的世界联系起来，沉着地虚构了一个冒似符合我们熟悉的世界。从“虚伪的空间”到 “临时空间”，在作品所营造“空间中的空间”和关注空间与观众的互动所带来的感受是王卫创作的主线。他相信，“空间与空间的悖论关系能使观者产生一种无所适从的感觉。”

“虚伪的空间”是一系列灯箱作品。王卫根据不同展览的场地，在布展前事先进场拍摄原始的建筑内部，并将这些拍摄到的图像做成灯箱景片，由记录着所在空间的灯箱片组合而成的可活动的“房间”在展览期间被来回移动，制造出一种关于空间的混乱和假象。在“临时空间”的作品中，艺术家通过购买二手砖和雇佣工人用他购买的砖在展厅中砌起一个四周封闭的“临时空间，”在建好后又迅速将其拆除并出售拆下的砖块。他以艺术事件的方式，通过现场，摄影和录像的纪实手法浓缩了超速度都市化的建设流程，再现了 “建即是为了拆”所产生的时间和空间的临时性与我们对于建筑物所拥有的普遍期待背道而驰，临时与永远在此滋生出一种荒诞关系。当我们小心翼翼地环绕着王卫制造的 “临时空间”和展厅四壁狭小的通道行走，现实的突变、空间的压抑诱发出内心的对于“快速”和“发展”的不安定感和恐慌。

现代社会以物为本和表面化的短期价值导向突显“欲望”的力量和欺骗性。欲望是行动的原动力，制造出一种充满诱惑而危机四伏的生活方式。王卫孜孜不倦地试图戳破 “欲望”的面具，探其内幕的究竟。德勒兹将欲望视作是生产，尼采将欲望视作是对不存在的原因的虚构。而王卫的 “捕捉器“就是这两种欲望结构的连接和建造者，在制造假象的同时生活本来的面目〉“捕捉器“是对特定空间的完全侵占和彻底利用的空间装置作品，锈迹斑斑和粗糙坚硬的铁制脚手架和轻盈光滑的木条制成的“捕鸟器”在展厅中互相交错。撒满鸟食的“捕鸟器”对布满展厅中的鸟儿充满不可抵挡的诱惑，放大了数十倍的“捕鸟器”有“大而无用”的嫌疑，根本无法捕捉到鸟，却足以引起观众的好奇并使得他们艰难地穿越脚手架所留出的各种缝隙来做近距离观察，并毫不迟疑地轻松地穿过宽大的缝隙也进入到“捕鸟器”当中。王卫就是这样在作品中设计了一个充满诱惑和欲望的是非之地，不管是在“里”还是在“外”，是“进”还是“出”，在王卫布下的虚拟与现实的“欲望之阵”中，鸟儿也好，我们也好，都已不自觉地深陷于王卫的“捕捉”之中。王卫的一系列装置作品提炼源自于个人的生活体验，又带有社会的普遍经验。它不像新闻，不在于报道一些具体的问题。他倾向于在作品中营造出一种带有“拙”意的空间意境，将观众紧紧地包裹起来。在这种去意识形态、排斥纯粹个人情感和形式主义的艺术风潮中，王卫的作品兼备了三者而为我们提供了一种新的出路。

 2005年7月28日于团结湖

Playing With Space - Wang Wei's Installations

Carol Lu

Wang Wei's new work Trap is massive in scale and compositionally complex. Menacing, heavy and intense, it inspires awe and discomfort simultaneously. With an acute sensitivity towards space and architecture, Wang Wei has created a series of installation works in close relation to space, addressing the dramatic transformation of our physical domain and the rapid transition of our surrounding environment - tapping into the emotions and experiences that define our times.

Wang Wei's installation work presents a slice of reality, such as the mundane act of construction, or a particular object, like pillars covered with fur or a blown-up bird trap. Through isolating, appending, or enlarging these common objects, the installation steadily fabricates an alternative reality that draws from our collective knowledge of the world.

Wang Wei's previous works Hypocritical Space and Temporary Space were about creating "space within a space," emotionally engaging the viewer and pushing the "paradoxical relationship of the unusable space within a space [to] force the observer into unknown and uncomfortable territory." Hypocritical Space is a series of installations made of light boxes. Depending on each exhibition venue, Wang Wei would photograph the interior of the architecture in its original state prior to the exhibition. These images were printed onto room-size light boxes that are pushed around the gallery during the exhibition, generating confusion and illusions about the space among the audience.

In Temporary Space, Wang Wei commissioned brick mongers to build and demolish a windowless and doorless structure inside a gallery. The bricks for the structure were re-claimed from demolition sites. After the structure was built and demolished, the bricks were sold back to the brick mongers. In this work, the hurried urban construction process happening beyond the gallery walls was mimicked and condensed through an art happening, a series of documentary photographs and a video within the gallery. It addressed the contradiction between the time and spatial temporality of "building in order to demolish" and our general imagination of architecture, projecting an absurd connection between temporality and eternity. Circumventing the "temporary space" through the narrow passage around the brick structure, this unexpected twist on reality brought on a sense of insecurity and panic when faced with the realities of "speed" and "development."

The wide spread materialistic mentality and superficial pursuit of short-termed benefit in the modern society underline the overbearing influence and deceit of "desires." Desires are the fundamental driving force for actions, manufacturing a popular life style that is full of temptations as well as risks. Wang Wei persistently attempts to tear down the mask of "desire," and to explore its truth. Deleuze thought of desire as production while Nietzsche claimed that desire as a fabrication of non-existent reasons. Wang Wei's Trap brings to life these two divergent ideas, trying to reveal truth by creating deceptions. Rusty and solid iron scaffolding densely interlocks with a bird trap made of smooth and light wood sticks. Permeating the gallery, the centrally placed bird trap adorned with seeds is irresistible to the birds inhabiting the exhibition space. While the blown-up trap is useless to catch any bird, it is large enough to catch the eyes of the viewers who precariously negotiate through the forest of rusty scaffolding to take a closer look. As the audience moves through the openings into the bird trap, they find themselves deep in the heart of an ominous steel bar jungle. This is a zone where once entered, one can no longer tell what is "inside," and what is "outside." In any case, the birds and the audience are caught in a "trap of desires," both fictional and real.

Both personal experiences and social phenomenon are inspirations for Wang Wei's work. Rather than react to specific issues, he creates a unique artistic language and tone in an environment that completely envelops viewers. In the current artistic trend that calls for non-ideological expressions, rejects absolute manifestation of personal emotions and formalism, Wang Wei's work demonstrates all of these three aspects and thus indicates a new possibility for us.

Tuanjiehu, Thursday, July 28, 2005