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présentation - 展览介绍 :
Qiu Xin AND Uncle Qiu’s DNA - Some Color for You
by Yan Feng
Qiu Xin has all his friends call him Uncle Qiu. We’ve been doing it for over a decade. He loves to hear it, in part because it is so out of line with his appearance and age. When he is with friends, he is Uncle Qiu. When he is with others, he is Qiu Xin.
In 2004, when Qiu Xin was still in his third year of college, he won a great prize out of the blue. That was when I met Qiu Xin, winning the prize of this great friendship, which has lasted a decade. When I say friend, I am talking about someone you speak frankly with, someone you can reveal your DNA to. That is the kind of friendship we have.
Uncle Qiu has good DNA. This isn’t something I say casually. There is a scientific basis to this conclusion. Uncle Qiu the Elder, aka Qiu Xin’s father, once worked for a mysterious company that was the only provider of DNA testing in Beijing, and using his privileged access, he gave Uncle Qiu Junior a DNA analysis. Qiu was quite pleased with the orderly layout of his DNA. The analysis showed that his DNA was much better than his father’s: many errors in the code descending from previous generations worked themselves out in him.
The DNA of Qiu’s artwork is a reflection of his own DNA, and just like the person himself: smart AND persistent AND smug AND stubborn, with just a little touch of profoundness. Frankly speaking, his artworks have good DNA. Our circle of friends has privately agreed, in all seriousness, that Uncle Qiu has a very academic character and artistic personality, and that his approach to learning is certainly very international. Uncle Qiu places a lot of emphasis on his theoretical achievements. Some of them have been recorded in writing. They are truly excellent. We call them The Analects of Uncle Qiu:
Uncle Says:
I like clumsy painting techniques / I am wary of proficiency / proficiency is in the realm of technique / proficiency is not an issue for me / but I do know what it leads to / it is worth exploring whether becoming proficient will help or hinder expression / I cannot stand to let such a thing happen / so I switch materials / switch methods / in hopes of maintaining that level of excitement / that is why my works look so different from each other / so called standards are relative / it depends on the scope of the discussion
Uncle Says:
So called artworks are traces / traces reflect the state at the time of creation / that being the process of creation / the process is more important than the outcome / I focus more on process / where there is process, there are rises and falls / there will be change and imperfection / this process is imbued with emotion / I think that this is very precious and interesting / this is what I want to present
Uncle Says:
I focus on the current / masters are not there for us to surpass / masters are just a topic of conversation / art history itself also needs to be deconstructed / art cannot be limited to art history / art history can only teach you how to survive in the cracks / but art history cannot teach you how to make good art
Uncle Says:
My earlier life is a history of demolition / it is incomplete / fragmented / rapacious / it just happens to fit with that side of human history / mankind’s activities have changed the earth in a violent manner / omnipresent / repeated reconstruction and recreation / this has gradually come to construct my worldview and methodology
Uncle Says:
At first I always hoped to paint quickly / to finish as fast as possible / and see the results / I still maintain this style / but I have realized that some work must be done step by step / with a sense of rhythm / when I say I don’t care about outcomes, it is not that I have discarded visual beauty / it is that I now understand that when the process and rhythm are grasped, good things emerge
Uncle Says:
To a certain extent / art should be destructive / should conflict with the surrounding environment / should scrape against it
…
This absolutely is the stuff of theory!
These are the academic AND rigorous AND profound Qiu-style theoretical DNA strands that were born in Uncle Qiu’s studio, which remains standing while surrounded by the rubble of demolition. Just like the Bodhi dharma facing the wall, he has turned his studio into a vestment that serves as the container for his body and soul. It is said that Uncle Qiu wears this vestment several hours every day, and has completely memorized every single thread of it. He can walk through his studio with his eyes closed. It is his own kingdom. He loves this vestment so much that in this exhibition, he is completely recreating his studio in the exhibition hall.
In fact, several of the most important DNA strands in Uncle Qiu’s works are explained in the abovementioned Analects of Uncle Qiu: the resistance that has formed from his mind springing back against powerful external forces; the individual perspective he has gained from his pursuit of physical strength and betterment; and the unique techniques he has built from rebelling against art history and drilling through its cracks (in consideration for the reader’s lung capacity, I have chosen to list only three).
China has become the land of demolition in recent years, but for Uncle Qiu, this has been something that has been pent up in his heart for decades. Since he was a schoolboy, he’s been watching everything around him being knocked down. He and his schoolmates, with their brand new backpacks, would have to tiptoe over demolished walls every day to get to school. Deep in his heart, he just couldn’t stand it. Many years later, having finally travelled to Europe and America, he found the best analogy: in other countries, a rural bakery can easily get along for a century; in China, our landmark buildings and even our schools are knocked down only after a few years.
His resistance to and aversion for this situation have been growing over the days AND the years, leading directly to this exhibition, where a series of discarded and destroyed things are brought back together and imbued with new lives as artworks. These materials are more naturally fitting to his current condition. For these works, Uncle Qiu is the lord rewriting their DNA.
He is also his own lord. When I first met Qiu Xin, he was very pale AND very skinny. He is still pale, but he is no longer so skinny. That is because around the time I met him, he started working out very diligently AND professionally, working out in the gym. His reason was quite simple: he didn’t like being so skinny. Height can’t change but muscle can. He eventually built up a large chest, muscles that appeared not only on his body but in his artworks as well. He spends a lot of time working out, to the point that they say if he’s not in his studio, he must be in the gym.
I’ve never asked what first led Qiu Xin to go to the scrap station and buy those old crate boards, those crate boards covered in nails and shipping tags, some showing damage and the marks of corrosion. These things are not suited for making paintings, not suited at all, but he has turned them into the base for paintings.
Amazingly, these completely untreated pieces of scrap have somehow been seamlessly integrated with Qiu Xin’s oil painting language without a bit of disconnect or force, to the point that people feel this is the way it always was. Unconsciously and effortlessly, Qiu Xin has solved an issue that plagues readymade artistic creation: expression is either too rigid or too straightforward. Qiu Xin found his own solution. Through these two-dimensional and three-dimensional, even two-and-a-half-dimensional works, we can see how relaxed and skilled he is when facing the core creative issues of material and technique, even when his actions are themselves a provocation against the norm.
His relaxation and skill are built upon his repeated self-refutation and rebellion over the past several years. Back in the day, everyone thought he would use the success of the first series to make a pot of money. No one imagined that he would stop that series so abruptly. When I asked him about it, his response was immediate: I don’t want to repeat. That’s not what I really want to paint.
He hates playing it safe.
Usually, it’s rather odd for a painter to make sculptures. Sculpture and painting are two totally different things, two separate sets of logic. Qiu Xin is one of the few painters I’ve seen who can make proper three-dimensional works. The three-dimensional artworks in this exhibition transform decay into magic. They possess their own classic style. Those wood shavings and scraps that he has treated as brushstrokes have a kind of internal resonance with his paintings, a kind of impulsive force, and a force that might be connected to his years of bodybuilding.
From DNA to AND, what appears to be a simple reverse process, has taken Uncle Qiu on a decade-long twisting journey. Since graduation, he has always doggedly persisted in grasping every detail connected to creation, including driving nails and stretching canvases. In the movie of his art, he is not just the director but also the AC, even the continuity director AND the one who hands out lunches. He is always subverting himself, pushing himself, making those around him confused, tired and even a bit worried.
Where does the warrior decked in orange AND camouflage hide? How does the red, radiant Mushroom Cloud surge up into the sky? From whence comes the tranquility of that cold blue Hard White? Why is the olive-drab group eating the Strange Dinner so silently? Who is the deep red Tough Guy holding his Violent Show for? Who is the blood red Big Heart beating for? For whom are the red and green Fighting Cocks fighting? Why does the red and green man and woman Fall Silent on Each Other? For whom is this Fake Tiger standing rigid? For whom is the Cockpit, in warm and cold tones, taking flight? Why is the bright red box being Security-checked? Among the Bloodthirsty in their black and red shorts, who has eaten whose fist? How did the black Weary Giant AND the brown Weary Giant fall down, and how will they stand? Between the monochrome and the multicolored Haze, which one makes our breath grow heavy? … When it comes to these seemingly unconnected yet closely connected problems, who else could answer them but Qiu Xin? What exactly is he planning to do with all these colors?
I don’t know why, but Uncle Qiu and those artworks of his always get me thinking about prehistoric cave paintings. Many times I have imagined Uncle Qiu and his studio as a caveman and a prehistoric cave, just sitting they’re painting so truly AND persistently AND sacredly, working, pushing. Sometimes it gets me feeling a bit reverent.
But, to this point, Qiu Xin has still never been completely satisfied with any of his artworks, just like he’s not satisfied with himself. Qiu Xin has quite the sense of humor, and most people with a sense of humor are wise. His ancestral home is in the northeast, and his hometown is famous for its lion’s mane mushrooms. He’s always found these mushrooms to be a bit ridiculous. It doesn’t taste any good, but it’s treated as this precious thing, passed around as gifts. I told him he could call this exhibition A Lion’s Mane Mushroom for You. He said he might as well call it Mushroom Plants vs. Zombies…
Many years ago, the first time Uncle Qiu held a solo exhibition; I gave him a clear crystal frog I had gotten at the Swarovski headquarters. It implied that he had turned from a frog into a prince. What should I give him for this exhibition? How about this essay? This solo exhibition is a bit different from his past ones. That is because this is an exhibition without a curator. In other words, Uncle Qiu is the curator, and he’s curating for Qiu Xin, as well as for himself. He’s going to show you a lot, and you might even like it.
邱昕AND邱叔的DNA——他给你颜色，也给你好看
文／岩峰
邱叔，是邱昕规定我们这些朋友对他的称呼，一叫十几年。他爱听，也很受用邱叔这个跟他的形象、年龄原本有着巨大反差的叫法。在朋友这边，他是邱叔，在别人那里，他是邱昕。
2004年，还在大三的邱昕，提前没有任何征兆的得了大奖，就是在那个时候，我认识了邱昕，收获了这枚保质期眼看着已经大于10年的朋友。所谓朋友，是肯互相说实话的，是肯展示自己私密的DNA的，我们，就是这样的朋友。
邱叔的DNA不错，这可不是随意下的结论，是有科学依据的，老邱叔先生，也就是说邱昕的父亲大人，曾供职于北京唯一一家为人提供DNA图谱测试的神秘公司，近水楼台先得月，给小邱叔做过一次DNA图谱测序后，他那DNA排列的阵仗让邱昕到现在都很是自得，图谱序列显示：其DNA严重好于父母，几个上一代的DNA错码愣是被他自动纠正过来了。
邱昕作品的DNA整个就是他自己DNA的翻版，跟他那个人一模一样：聪敏AND执著AND臭美AND倔强，还带着那么一点点深邃。说实话，这些作品的DNA相当不错，我们这些朋友私下里都严重认可：邱叔绝对有自己的学术品格、艺术人格，而且还是很国际化的学术范儿。邱叔还很注重自己的理论素养，这里有一些被记录在案的文字，堪称口吐蓝莲花，真心精彩，姑且称之为《邱叔曰》：
一曰：
“生涩的绘画方法我更喜欢/我警惕熟练/熟练还是技术范畴的事/熟练对我来说不是问题/但他带来的后果我也知道/一旦熟练起来是影响表达还是有助于表达都值得探讨/我不能容忍这样的事发生/所以我会换换材料/换换方法/让自己能够维持那个兴奋度/作品的各种面貌就是这么来的/所谓的标准都是相对的/这取决于你想在哪个范畴里讨论”
再曰：
“所谓作品都是一些痕迹/痕迹反映了制作时的状态/也就是制作的过程/过程比结果重要/我更注重过程/有过程就一定会有起伏/会有变化和不完美/这个过程就被倾注了情感/我觉得这很珍贵很有趣/这也是我想呈现的”
三曰：
“我关注当下/大师不是用来超越的/大师只是个谈资/艺术史本身也是需要被解构的/艺术不能只局限于艺术史/艺术史只能教你在夹缝中生存/但艺术史不能教你怎么做好艺术”
四曰：
“我之前的生命就是一部拆迁史/不完整的/破碎的/强奸似的/他恰巧和人类史有共通的一面/人类活动对地球的改造也是暴力的/无孔不入的/反复的重构与再现/这逐渐构建了我的世界观和方法论”
五曰：
“原来我总是希望画的快/尽快完成/看到结果/现在我依然保持着这种风格/但我明白了有的工作就是要按部就班地做/要有节奏感/我说我不注重结果并不是抛弃了视觉上的美感/而是我明白了把握好过程和节奏才会有好的呈现”
六曰：
“从某种程度上讲/艺术要具有破坏性/与周围环境发生冲突/产生摩擦”
……
——这，这简直是搞理论的材料嘛！
这样学术AND严肃AND深度的邱氏理论DNA片断，就诞生在邱叔那周围已经被拆光，但是他的地盘还在正常续约的工作室里。达摩面壁一般，他已经把工作室变成了容纳自己肉身和灵魂的木棉袈裟，据不完全统计，每天邱叔穿着这袈裟的时间是平均几个小时，这件袈裟的每个针头线脑都被他倒背如流，他闭着眼都可以在他的工作室自由行走，那里是他完全主宰的自由王国，他爱极了这袈裟，以至于本次展览要把工作室在展出现场全景复制！
其实，邱叔作品里面的几个最关键的DNA片断，在前面的《邱叔曰》里都已道明：内心对强大外力的反弹带来的蚀骨铭记与反叛AND推崇强健体魄进行健美实践自我优化得到的个性视角AND倒行逆施反推美术史在夹缝里钻研出的另类技法（考虑到您的肺活量，在此暂列三个）。
CHINA被等于“拆呢”是近些年的事情，但对邱叔来说，是已经在心里堵了几十年的事儿，从上小学的时候，眼见着就是四下里被拆来拆去，他和同学们背着新书包，一次次跨过学校那些随意被拆掉的院墙墙基……那些拆，他内心是不能容忍的，多年以后，在他终于游历过欧罗巴和美利坚后，他找到一个合适的比喻：国外的乡村面包店可以安然度过百岁光阴，我们国内的地标建筑甚至学校却可以几岁就拆！
对于这件事，他内心的反抗和抵触一天天AND一年年生长起来，最后直接导致了这次展览他的一批把废弃的、被拆的旧物，重新合拢，重新给其输入生命活力的作品出现。这些材料更天然的契合了他的生存状态，对这些作品来说，邱叔是重新编写DNA的造物主。
而他，更是自己的主宰，我认识邱昕的时候，他很白AND很瘦，现在，他依然很白，但是不瘦，因为从刚认识他的时候，他就开始很认真AND很专业地健身，在健身房健身，他健身的原因很简单，不喜欢自己那么瘦，身高改不了改肌肉，于是，最后练出一身胸大肌，那些胸大肌不光长在他自己身上，还长在他的作品里。他用在健身上的时间很多，以至于大家经常说，邱昕不是在画室，就是在健身房。
我没有问，是出于一个什么原因，让邱昕第一次去废品收购站，买回那些废旧箱板，那些带着钉子，带着寄件和收件信息的箱板，其中有一些已经出现破损和腐朽的迹象，它们原本不是适合作画的媒介，简直是相当不合适，但是居然被邱昕当作了称手的画基。
神奇的是，那些未做任何处理的边角废料，就那么天衣无缝和邱昕的油画语言结合在了一起，一点都不突兀，一点都不牵强，甚至让人觉得原本就应该这样，不经意地，看似毫不费劲的，邱昕解决了一个现成品创作经常遇到的问题：表达生硬或者过于直接，邱昕找到了自己的方法，通过这些两维AND三维甚至两维半的作品，我们可以看到他面对材料和技术这两个艺术创作的核心问题时，是多么轻松、娴熟，虽然这个行为本身对寻常的那些规矩带有明显的挑衅。
而这些轻松AND娴熟是建立在几年来他一次次对自己的否定和背叛上，一如当年，在很多人以为邱昕会靠最开始的系列赚个盆满钵满的时候，没有人想到，邱昕很快就停止了这一系列的创作，当我问他为什么的时候，他回答很干脆：不想重复，不是自己真正想画的。
——他讨厌打安全牌。
一般来说，画画的人做雕塑，是件挺不靠谱的事儿，雕塑和绘画的创作是两码事，是两套逻辑，邱昕是我见过的为数不多的搞三维作品很地道的画画儿的人，这次展出的几件化腐朽为神奇的立体作品，有他自己的典型风格，那些被他当作油画笔触和肌理的刨花和废料，跟他的绘画有一种内在的呼应，有一股冲劲，这股子冲劲不知道是不是得益于经年累月的健身。
从DNA到AND，看似一个最简单的反序，邱叔折腾10年了，从大学毕业以后，他一直坚持自己掌握所有跟创作有关的细节，包括钉钉子、绷画布，在他自己的艺术大片里，他不光做导演、还做场记，甚至做剧务AND做发盒饭的，他不断推翻自己，折腾自己，让别人费解，让别人都累，看着还有点心疼：
橘红的AND迷彩的战士，埋伏在哪里？红亮耀眼的《蘑菇云》，怎样冲天？冰蓝的《深白色》，哪般安宁？军绿的吃《陌生的晚餐》的集体，为何沉默？浑身肌肉酱紫的《硬汉》，为谁进行《彪悍表演》？血色的《大心脏》，为谁跳动？红红绿绿的《斗鸡》，为谁撕杀？红绿的男女，缘何《相顾两无言》？原木色的《假虎威》，为谁僵硬？冷暖双色的《驾驶舱》，为谁而飞？大红的箱子，为何《检查》？褐色《野人谷》，为谁赤裸？黄绿的车站AND黄绿的空中楼阁，谁是谁的《靠山》？穿黑红短裤的《嗜血者》，谁吃了谁的老拳？黑色的《疲惫的巨人》AND裸色的《疲惫的巨人》，为何倒下，怎样站起？单色的AND复色的《阴霾》，是谁让我们的呼吸变得更加沉重？……这些看似失联实则关联的问题，除了邱昕谁还能给我们答案？这么多颜色，邱昕是要给谁好看？
不知何故，邱叔和他的那些个作品，总是让我想起史前岩洞壁画，我一次次在心里把邱叔和他的工作室幻想成一个史前洞穴和一个野人，就那么真实AND执著AND神圣过了头的那么画呀，做呀，鼓球呀，有的时候，还真有点让我肃然起敬呢。
但是，到现在为止，邱昕对自己所有的作品，没有一件是完全满意的。就像他对于自己不满意一样。邱昕是个挺幽默的人，幽默的人多半智慧。他的老家在东北，猴头菇是他老家特产的菌类，他说他觉得猴头菇这个东西很搞笑，一个并不好吃的东西，就那么堂而皇之，被当作一个礼物送来送去，我说，那你这次的展览题目可以叫：送你一个猴头菇。他说，那还不如叫《菌类植物》大战僵尸……
很多年前，邱叔第一次办个展的时候，我送他一个从诗华洛士奇总部带回来的透明的水晶青蛙，当时寓意他从此青蛙变王子，这次展览，送他什么呢？送他这篇文字吧。这次的个展，与他以往的个展有些不同。因为，这次是一个没有策展人的展览，或者说，这个展览的策展人就是邱叔，他为邱昕策展，也为自己策展，为的是给你这许多颜色，也给你这许多好看。
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