Yin Zhaohui and Yin Zhaoyu － departure
尹朝辉 尹朝宇 － 出发
aura gallery shanghai

April 19 – May 20, 2008
opening reception April 19, 4 - 8 pm

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The Observer, The Wanderer, The Judge
by Yaji Huang
translated by chieh jane Anderson-wu

The Profile of an Observer

Social practice, knowledge accumulation and technological development have shaped the profile of the observer. As artists, Yin Zhaohui and Yin Zhaoyu propose to raise an observational system in the standardized and denaturalized public consciousness. Their proposal regards the time span of our visions and the lifelessness in their paintings suggests afterimage. The ephemerality and the desolation break the sense of continuum, and a new density of time settles.

In terms of their attempts and approaches, Yin Zhaohui and Yin Zhaoyu have gone through two opposite extremes. Yin Zhaoyu has classical and romantic eyes and hands, his works are reminiscent of British romanticist J.M.W. Turner's art. A remote horizon gives out a mythic ambiance, reminding the audience of the view looking out from an airport. The refined perspective and the grand field of vision are like the scenes a traveler enjoys during his journey. And the cosmopolitanism, anonymity and sense of deja vu carried in his paintings come from his observation of the fast flowing and commercial images ubiquitous in our life.

On the contrary, Yin Zhaohui's observation is inward but his keen representation of hands and bodies can be compared to the photography of John Coplans, who interprets his aesthetics with his own flesh. The images of both of the artists are asexual. Nonetheless Coplans is pursuing eternity through his sculptural fashion and Yin Zhaohui is presenting, in an age that physical icons are consumed excessively, the body parts that can't be replaced or erased by images. The partially enlarged human organs are transformed, by the observant artist, into a smooth, asexual specimen, not unlike the cold wax statues displayed in museums". The statues are installed there to meet the cruel desire of their viewers.


Lighting in regard to Observation

Turner's application of lights and colors was based on the advancement of observational methodology in the 19th century. In his paintings completed during the 1830s and the 1840s, an unfixed illuminant was reflected by all kinds of materials along multiple planes, the mingled lights and colors eventually infiltrated into every secretive part of the paintings. With similar endeavors, both Turner and Yin Zhaoyu have created a distance between the audience and the field of vision; nonetheless, the void between the objects in the paintings subtly gives them a sense of substantiality.

With unprecedented application of lights and colors, Turners's artworks mark the different status of observers in the 19th century. " Light and Colour (Goethe's Theory) — The Morning after the Deluge "(1834) depicted the image of light rings left on the omentum after watching at the sun directly. Such a phenomenon was therefore interpreted by the artist's subjective perception.

Most art critics believe that this painting can be deemed Turner's self-portrait. The haze often seen in Yi zhaoyu's paintings also can also be analyzed in a similar way: the mist rising from horizon suggests the changes of observer's sight and affections due to the changes of observing methods. I boldly assume that Yin Zhaoyu's observation is related to the development of contemporary architecture. Classical or traditional architecture usually emphasizes eternal elements through symbols of solidity or religion, on the contrary the architecture of the late 20th century demonstrated transparency and layered depth. Transparency discloses everything that used to be hidden, but the vaguely reflected images created by Yin Zhaoyu are in fact from his own insight, such as his "Outside the Window"(2007) and "Airport"(2007). Both paintings convey the spatial experience in a transparent building that provides panoramic and penetrative views. Fogs and clouds also reflect the disquiet of the observer in the building (the artist) and his regret towards the dying emotions evoked by the transparency.

The lighting in Yin Zhaohui's artworks also shows the position of an observer. The packed planes imply a cramped space (as John Locke's "Private Room of Mind"), either overly lit or too dim because of camera flash, and the observer behind the camera. The flat square disarranges the domain allotment between subject and object or the observer and the observed. The lack of depth gives the observer (the
artist) a superior status as a judge in a secretive trial that has been carefully arranged by the artist. The scene provokes a lot of doubt in the mind of the audience (passive observers) and they feel they are exiled.

The Revitalization of Nihilism—Sight and Desires

Friedrich W. Nietzsche pointed out that once stimulated, our eyes might duplicate the images we've seen many times instead of recording new things. Indeed, Yin Zhaoyu's landscapes are not painted to create new scenes or to depict the Utopia in his mind but to reshape the open space (landscapes) we are already familiar with as an attempt to represent the nihilism in existence. In his paintings, Yin Zhaoyu dissects the planes into two by the horizon as his approach of exploring issues at two levels.

Through plain strokes and colors, the objects within the horizon are composed to build a certain relationship between the observer and the field of vision in order to create a stage effect—an inner stage. There is not any medium between the observer's eyes and the objects, the audience is reminded of the purity as well as the nihilism of the rebuilt existence.

As the objects beyond the horizon, a lot more personal emotions are added by the artist (for example, the regret for dying affections mentioned earlier). Though the meteorological phenomena are realistically depicted, they reveal, through the artist's inner perception, the meaninglessness and the extreme inanity in affections.

On the same plane, Yin Zhaoyu created a coexistence of real and unreal, and it suggests the artist, as a keen observer, has broken away from the conventional role as a landscape painter.

As a judge/observer, Yin Zhaohui has created a "private room", and with empty organs he has made up a new relationship between the body and desire. As in Gilles Deleuze's theory of desiring-production, the radical demolition of subjectivity is operated through his three syntheses: the connective synthesis of production (Desiring-Machine), the disjunctive synthesis of recording (Body-without-Organs), and the conjunctive synthesis of consumption-consummation (Nomadic Subject).

Through such an operation, an organism of desires is produced. The entangled fingers, hidden faces and fragmentary bodies in Yin Zhaohui's paintings might not be human but only bear a resemblance to human organs because they carry the same negative feelings resulting from desires: pain, solitude, betrayal, alienation, violation and punishment. Such a heavy procedure—a transformation of humanity through a soulless investigation, an overly rational query that has almost gone crazy resulting in an explosive force not unlike excretion—is a solemn adventure of the artist who tries to disclose his own suffering consciousness. “Untitled” (2008) shows such a keen attempt: under surgical lights, a body with an obviously ill skeleton would turn any sexual ideas into death. The build of this body and the scars next to a protruding bone remind the viewers of the dead air in "The Slaughtered Ox" by Rembrandt. The peculiarity (of illness, mutation or of mechanism?) of “Untitled” reflects our fears of pain and cruelty. However, what is still concealed by the artist? The young artist seems never to let us see all of his thoughts and in the ambiguity of his art, he has remade the most drastic desires.



观察者 流动者 审判者
文 / 黄 亚纪


观察者的身形

社会实践、知识积累、科技发明的混合塑造了一种观察者的身形，而尹朝辉、尹朝宇以艺术家的身分作为观察者，在现今已标准化且去自然化的群众知觉中，提出了一层新的观察者机制。尹朝辉和尹朝宇的观察都和视觉中驻留的瞬间有关，他们绘画中的无生命感构成了「后像」价值，短暂性和荒废感断开了时间的延续性，呈现一种新的密度和沉淀。在表现的企图和途径上，尹朝辉和尹朝宇走向了两个极端－尹朝宇的眼和手是古典浪漫的，他的作品让人想到英国浪漫主义者透纳（J.M.W Turner），永远被置于远方的地平线在瞬变的空气光线下显现出一种神秘，这些场景彷佛自当代机场建筑中望出，微妙的景深处理和极度平坦的视野建构出一幕幕旅途停驻所望出的宽广风景，弥漫着世界主义、匿名性、和似层相似的情绪，是在如商品般幻惑影像间的流动者的缜密观察。

相较之下，尹朝辉的观察则是内缩的，对于手、身体的强烈表现可和John Coplans的摄影相互对照，后者以自己的肉体作为阐述美学的文本；尹朝辉和Coplans的影像都是剥除性感的，但尹朝辉显露出来的企图和Coplans追求亘久的雕塑性大不相同－尹朝辉在大量消费肉体图像的当下呈现身体不能以印象交互抹消的部份，局部放大的器官提示了尹朝辉最为一个强势的观察者，刻意描绘成平滑的、无性别感、甚或带有标本化的人体部份连结起蜡像的冰冷形象，响应蜡像馆作为一种「博」「物」馆的陈列暴力，以及将此蜡像化人体生硬地摆放在观者前的观察者的冷酷心态。


光线和观察方法

透纳对光线和色彩的运用奠基于19世纪观察技术的演进，1830至1840年，透纳的绘画出现不定光源，在各种表面和材质间无尽反射，造成光和色彩彼此交融，最终渗透到画面每个私密之处；这和尹朝宇的光线描述极度相似，两者的作品都经过光线的巧妙设计分隔出观察者和视觉经验场域的距离，且将场域中物与物之间的空无添入一种实质感。

透纳标示19世纪观察者新地位的作品，为光与色（歌德的理论）－大洪水的翌晨（1834），画面模仿太阳的环状结构说明了透纳直视太阳后将太阳形象转化为网膜视像的过程，并将现实的理解交由观察者（艺术家）的主观认知，大多评论认为这件作品可视为透纳的自画像。尹朝宇作品频繁出现的烟雾主题可和此做一对应，升于地平在线的烟雾代表了观察角度演进而引起的视觉和情感变迭－我大胆地假设尹朝宇的观察和当代建筑的演化有关，古典和传统的建筑总是在建筑效果的持久性上做变化，并且强调建筑空间的稳固感和宗教感，但20世纪末对于透明的操弄开启了建筑和空间的景深尝试，「透明」的严格意义引申出「将看不见之物之一切尽收眼底」的企图，所观察到的是影像、是反射、是暧昧不明－尹朝宇的风景自视角，如窗外（2007），至地点，如机场（2007），皆反应了透明建筑带来的新视觉体验，是一种带有透视感的、广角的全景画（panorama），而描绘的主体，如频繁出现的烟雾、云层，则传达了在建筑内的观察者（艺术家）所体感到的不定心情，以及将现实理解投射于透明感所唤起的「消逝」的情绪中。


尹朝辉的光线安排同样显示出其作为观察者的位置。尹朝辉的作品多以拥挤的画面象征忧郁狭小的房间（暗喻洛克John Locke的「心灵所在的私室」），光线过亮或不足、强烈急促的光影表现，隐喻了闪光灯和观察者的存在，压平的四方造型拉近且打乱了主体和客体／观察者和被观察者的场域分配，毫无景深的视觉提示则赋予房间内的主动观察者（艺术家）更高阶的审判者的地位，但艺术家刻意营造的匿名性却又将这一连串的审判过程私密化，徒留给被动观察者（观众）一连串的疑问，以及成为局外人的被抛弃感。

虚无的再造－视觉和欲望

尼采（Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche）曾说，「接受到刺激时，吾人的眼睛觉得比较轻松的响应方式是，再一次重制他在先前已制造过许多次的影像，而不是记录印象之中不同的新事物」。的确，尹朝宇的风景，与其说是重新勾画出风景中的新鲜，或是寓意性地描绘心中的乌托邦，不如说是藉由再造我们已经过度熟悉的公共空间（风景）来描写存在的虚无状态。有趣的是，尹朝宇对于景物的再造，可以如同其画面一般，经过地平线的分割分解成两个层面讨论：在描写地表景物时，尹朝宇将观察者和视觉场域之间的距离搭建在布景关系之上，以单纯的笔触和颜色，达到最简单原始的舞台布景感，这种内存式的剧场架构关系，让眼睛和实体之间没有任何中介，一方面提醒观众一种天真的状态，一方面提醒观众这些再造存在的虚无；当描写天空景物时，尹朝宇的再造程序明显加入深刻个人情绪（如文前所说对于「消逝」情绪的反射），这些描绘地维妙维肖的气象，却反而因艺术家个人的内在知觉模式，成为了在意义上和情感上极度虚无的再现－尹朝宇在同ㄧ画面中，完成了两种介于真实和不真实间的景色再造，暗示了尹朝宇以观察者身分提出了和风景画传统价值观的决裂。

作为审判性观察者的尹朝辉所营造的「私室」，透过没有内容的器官逐渐从虚无中捏造新的欲望关系，他的创作进程恰可和德勒兹（Gilles Deleuze）的欲望生产理论相对照：部分对象、无器官身体、游牧性主体－部分对象生产出欲望，无器官身体勾露出超越身体的欲望网络，而游牧性主体最后创生了如人类般的有机体，但却是ㄧ种欲望机器。尹朝辉自纠结的手指、略露出颜面的肖像、到最后带有残缺感的匿名身体，这些只能称之为「若人、像人」的器官（或机器）强调了欲望中所有负面的情绪：痛苦、孤独、背叛、分裂、暴力、处罚，这是一个很沉重的、断裂灵魂的、甚至带有排泄感的人性转化，是过于理性的疯狂，是艺术家将自我痛感和清晰明白意念暴露于自我身体和知觉之外的严肃冒险。

无题（2008）是件极为强烈的作品，带有情色的暴露动作在医疗灯光和病态骨架的反转下让主体彷佛成为一具死尸，体型、肤色、骨侧边的擦痕直觉联想起林布兰特（Rembrandt van Rijn）的屠宰场的牛（1655），更连结起屠宰场或集中营中的死亡气氛。无题是异的，这份「异感」（非人的，是机器吗？是异种吗？是病变吗？）反映了普世对于痛苦和残忍的惧怕，不过，艺术家在这里究竟暴露了什么？隐藏了什么？这位年轻艺术家似乎至今尚未决定是否让观者看见他心思的全部，作品也因之在此欲言又止残留下的暧昧和疑问中传达了最激烈的欲望再造。