萧搏个展
2008.4.26－2008.6.07
开幕式：2008年4月26日下午15：00
展览地点：站台中国当代艺术机构草场地主空间 B
策展人：凯伦·史密斯
长期以来，大师们也同样为了如何在画面中适当安排各种元素从而形成最佳构图，为如何选择一个相关的主题而绞尽脑汁，直到创作出满意的作品。相比之下，我的创作只是依据任意的一连串的事物所提供给我的元素而成。
——艺术家语
萧搏的早期作品， 主要取材于一些旧时代的老照片、电影片断等，着重采纳举世闻名或人尽皆知的关于历史事件以及领袖人物的图片，运用众多图像构成的画面来对某个瞬间进行描述，从而展示人们所参与的瞬间的重要性，并使其定格而成为永恒。而他近期的作品，焦点从公众人物和历史转化到涉及普通大众的个体及人文环境：探究从重要的历史事件到个人经历所带来的影响。他将一个事件安置在一个一个的框架里进行描述，一个瞬间是一部分，世界便在不停变换当中，并且永远不同。对电影的涉猎，以及时间的流逝，即便短暂也一样可以体现其对于历史的特殊的影响。他的作品体现了对历史和时间的细微而机敏的观察，但离开笔触将会失色许多。作品也同样有着抽象的痕迹在：表现形式都很简洁，用极少的线条描绘出更多的意境，看上去仿佛在画布上雕塑一般。和众多的平面化的中国当代艺术相抗衡，有着如此厚重笔触的作品总是令人有耳目一新的感觉。一句话，是内容和技巧的绝妙结合。这些通过假想的视觉活动而获得的简单的画面设置，使画面变得栩栩如生，令人重新思考到底是什么构成了我们的历史。
他从书籍、杂志、互联网甚至古玩市场获得他所感兴趣的人物面貌和特质。在他简洁明了的画面中，毛泽东、邓小平等政治领袖的形象成为中国意识领域的代言和特殊符号，他用抽象的手法、极少的线条，表达了更多的意境。绘画带给他的，从因创作而产生的兴奋逐渐转移到对新的表现方式的探讨。他不满足于视觉“游戏”，将焦点从色调和笔触上抽离，揭伪取真，剔除扰乱视觉的色彩，更加关注情节——即瞬间，这恰恰使得观者无需花费很多时间就能看出画面中人物之间的角色转换。人们看作品也许只在第一眼就感觉画面的力量，判断作品的意义，都是暂时的经验。
萧搏的作品，正在超越绘画本身的简单行为：表面的质感，抽象的痕迹，色彩的选择，形成了一个简明的复合体。当人们都在关注悲剧、事故等叙述性的事情时，生命的脆弱及嬗变，带他回到他所感兴趣的时间和瞬间，永不休止。他尝试向人们展示绘画的新可能性，使用多种画布形成的场景让人觉得任何事都可能发生，就好像读一本书，你永远不知道下一页将发生什么。
For Immediate Release
SNAPSHOT!
XIAO BO SOLO EXHIBITION
APRIL 26 –JUNE 07, 2008
OPENING RECEPTION: SATURDAY APRIL 26, 2008, 3PM
VENUE: PLATFORM CHINA CONTEMPORARY ART INSTITUTE (MAIN EXHIBITION SPACE A & SPACE B IN CAOCHANGDI)
CURATOR: Karen Smith
Great masters wrestled for long periods of time with the arrangement of various elements of a composition, making decisions about one object relevant to another, until they achieved a satisfactory composition. By contrast, I composed my paintings according to the random sequence in which the elements presented themselves to me.
---Artist’s statement
Xiao Bo’s paintings draw largely upon old photographs and film clips. The early works focused primarily on known or familiar photographic images of historic events, and in particular, immediately recognizable political leaders. These images are then transformed into paint to represent a frame-by-frame analysis of an instant, a process during which the moment becomes as important as the individual people who are depicted participating in it, and even the event itself.
His recent works evidence a shift away from the focus on public persona towards the individual, both in terms of the human condition, and of situations concerning ordinary people. Here then, a move from the historical import of events past to the weight of past personal experience.
Xiao Bo’s use of a frame-by-frame sequence of paintings makes an obvious reference to film, to the passage of time—albeit short—and to the weight a minute can accrue in terms of its historic impact. This makes an extraordinarily powerful visual statement. But this statement would not be as powerful were it not for the nature and quality of the brushwork employed. This is perhaps the most delightful quality of Xiao Bo’s painting. The works take on an lyrical quality, even as the forms described are without question succinct, minimal, mapped out in highly efficient sweeps of line, almost as if Xiao Bo were sculpting figures and spaces on canvas. What Xiao Bo achieves is a marvellous combination of content and execution that both brings the paintings to life, and makes people think about how history is made.
In the new works produced for this exhibition, Xiao Bo’s paintings are moving beyond the simple act of painting. Emerging from his canvases we find a narrative of modern life, suffused with concerns for the tragedy that unfolds daily within the immediate social environment. Modern life sometimes feels so fragile. It changes abruptly from moment to moment, which brings Xiao Bo back to the fact of time, and how moments can change lives. The use of multiple canvases for each work creates a sense that anything can happen: “just like when reading a book you never know what’s going to happen on the next page.”
Please contact us for more information or any further images.
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