機倉象一個巨大的療傷器，緩緩飛行，玄窗外鐮月高懸，白云象綿花絮褥般的上下翻升，遠處仿佛傳來歌聲，遠處仿佛傳來話語和喧聲……倫敦的影子卻漸漸淡開了去。
令人想不到的是，這次倫敦之行，終于演變成一場生死的糾結，在圣喬治住院一周，種種情境自是難于言表。由此想到多年前老友劉湧也是在倫敦發(fā)病，痛不欲生，碾轉回到巴黎，方知是胃出血，診病就醫(yī)，好一番辛苦麻煩，據說他也因此歸國，改變了長期居留西方的人生計劃，想到這種種的變因，感嘆唏噓。
我與劉湧絕不止這一件事情有著相似的經歷，我們是發(fā)小，是那種冒根朋友，少年時代在昆明，我們幾乎每天如影隨行，劉湧在家為幼，我在家為長子，均受父母寵愛，所以我們各自擁有一間屬于自己的獨立小屋。在那個蕭瑟的年代，我們就是這個城市小小的中心，各路有志青年的聚集地。劉湧自幼聰慧、靈巧，什么東西一摸就會，一學就通，是我心目中的潮人和達者。多年來，昆明這個小城最早玩搖滾、騎摩托、干公司、弄電腦、開汽車、辦出國，劉湧可都是走在前面的人……記得是劉湧教會了我騎自行車，每天我們騎車沿著西壩河到郊外去寫生，穿過佛面垂柳，后面是一排排高高的楊草果，在風中搖動樹影，時而滿目幽綠，時而反射銀白的陽光，象是那晃惚懵懂的歲月：湖光山色、河邊洗衣的少女、水上船家、撒網的漁翁、釣魚的少年、發(fā)呆的牛兒、葦草邊東張西望的水鳥……我們一一畫下這一切，只知道癡迷的畫著，身外的世界，暮鼓晨鐘，離的好遠，那是我們共同經歷的生命中最單純美好的時光。
我和劉湧先后考上四川美院，劉湧入川美國畫系就學四年，師從馮建吳、賴深如、黃海儒、李有行、杜顯清、白德松等一代名師學藝，我仍記得劉湧畢業(yè)創(chuàng)作是以云南撒尼山村生活為素材的工筆長卷手貼；格調高雅，暗含摹古之風，卻具現代的才情和精準的造型，是不可多得的佳作。以此優(yōu)異的成績畢業(yè)之后，劉回了云南，在云南藝術學院做了教師，這也是當時的天之驕子，今后但見劉湧，總是輕騎座駕、追風而來、絕塵而去，總之來去匆匆，無暇細談了。2000年，劉湧由巴黎歸國，我在昆明操持上河會館，見到劉湧，提出想邀請他辦個巴黎期間的學術講座及他作品展的想法，劉欣然應充，以后卻了無音訊，上河會館到創(chuàng)庫8年虛位已待，我曾在昆明為五湖四海的朋友和各路藝術家辦了不少展事，卻始終未能幫助老朋友辦一件事，這一直是我的遺憾。
今春回昆小住，劉電約我到文化巷小聚。說此番正在為自己的個展做準備，后領我去一家表畫坊中看了許多他近來創(chuàng)作的作品。劉氏新作，大抵屬于文人和實驗之間的水墨類綜合風格，在傳統(tǒng)的文人寫意的題材和方法間穿插和強調了現代構成和分割的元素，因而畫面既有值得品味的細節(jié)和墨色趣意，也交織著張力和沖突。但以我看來，劉湧的新水墨，以其說是實驗的，不如說是游戲的，劉湧的一些小品畫到放松之處，已然不分中西，不問來路，是自由的嘻戲，歡欣鼓舞，春意盎然的涂鴉和信筆，游刃有余的一派生機，相信由此前行劉湧的畫作當更有氣派和意寓，必大有可為。其中要意，可能莫過于藝術家能保持一種“玩”的心態(tài)，中國繪畫講究游于藝，山水是可游、可行、可居之所：山石林泉，山川河海皆是寄意抒情之所，花鳥更是物我皆忘，是人格和志向的寄托，如梅、蘭、竹、菊、鳥語人心，是性情的自比和寫照。簡言之，是心性的抒寫。
2004年我赴孟加拉首都達卡，考查旁邊的一個小村莊，那里正進行的一個國際藝術工作坊，在這個遠離都市的小鄉(xiāng)村，藝術家們要拋棄原有的工作習慣和原來熟悉的經驗，進行新的冒險和探索，藝術家們因地制宜地利用現有和原生態(tài)的生活材料來進行嘗試：被子、雞圈、干樹枝、泥團、樹葉、家什農具甚至自己的身體。傍晚，沿著小路我散步到村外的河邊，一切景象與我20年前為追尋高更的夢想遠赴云南西雙版納的瀾蒼江邊是如此的想象，有時侯，換一個更長遠的地理視覺和更廣闊的生活經歷，再回首反觀許多自以為熟悉和了解的經驗，會帶來新的啟示性的感悟，是什么讓我、讓我們?yōu)橹畩^斗的一切，離初衷如此之遠呢？在那條沉默的不知名的亞洲印巴河流的岸邊我留連了整個黃昏……當我開始起身回村，接下的景向令我震驚：一片暗影籠罩的村莊上空突然升起了三個巨大的孔明燈——這也是藝術家的作品，它卻在那一刻打動了我的心，燦爛、神秘、莊嚴、在暗金色的夜空中冉冉上升……頓時我的淚水奪眶而出，歲月長久，人生短促，唯有藝術超越這一切，我們在人世中糾結，亦步亦趨，唯恐不在時代的風口浪尖上，費盡移山的心力，窮盡海淵的謀略，亦是枉然。今方知只有回到原點，回到生活，回到能簡單的發(fā)出聲音尋找快樂的地方，才能恢復本能，釋出本心，照亮世界……許多年來，這是我視為畢身受用的寶貴體驗和財富。
劉湧不是也在創(chuàng)作中進行著這些個快樂和思想的操練嗎？中國藝術的偉大之處在于將人生修行和藝術境界的修為合和為一，在劉作品中有時讀出的漢字：“問心”、“天爵最尊”、“諶冥最貴”、“大版為業(yè)”……既表達了一種觀念又代表一個想法，其時，人與人之間，真正的差異和不同，正是想法的不同所致，反之，男女之別，胖瘦膚色，美丑老少，只是表面的不同。其時不同的想法導致了不同的人生觀念和態(tài)度，長期以來我們大多數人都被訓練成了一種“我做得仍不夠好”心理的一群，我們應該從那種不斷想把自己變得更強大、更野心勃勃的理念中逃跑出來，回歸簡單，回到能產生快樂的地方，回到那怕微弱但散發(fā)出真正生命和思想光輝的狀態(tài)中，我想，沒有比畫一幅水墨和寫一段文字更好的方式了。
寫罷這篇病中吟，飛機已經降落在北京，拖著仍虛弱的身體，在回家的路上，車上播放著剛逝去的邁克爾·杰克遜的《微笑》；盡管心在疼痛，你仍然微笑……我想起林夕的一個句子：原來你并非不快樂——與老友劉湧共勉。
葉永青
2009年7月7日完稿于北京
You Are Not Unhappy Originally - To My Old Friend Liu Yong
by Ye Yongqing
Flight cabin is like a giant wound-curing place, flying slowly. A quarter moon was hanging there, bright and clear, and the cloud was like cotton, dancing outside the cabin. There seems to be singing from far, or words, noise…The shadow of London started to fade gradually.
It is so unexpected that this trip to London finally turned into an entanglement of life and death. During that week in St. George hospital, I experienced different situations, making me speechless. Those situations reminded me that my old friend Liu Yong also got sick in London, tormented and tossed to Paris. That time he got gastrorrhagia, followed by quite a dramatic trip. It is said that he also chose to go back China and changed his plan of living in western countries in the long term because of that journey. Those things are just like sighs in life.
Liu Yong and I have much more in common other than the abovementioned experiences. We got to know each other when we were little, lifelong friends. We both spent our childhood in Kunming, and almost every day together. Liu Yong is a junior in his family while I am the eldest one, so we both were deeply loved by our parents. Both of us had a separated room, in those bleak days, in the center of this city, and in such a place with quite a few ambitious young people. Liu Yong was smart and intelligent when he was very young, and learned everything so quickly, creating an icon in my heart. In those days, Liu Yong always was one of the first ones who played rock music, rode motorcycle, operated company, learned computer, drove automobile and went abroad…I still remember that Liu Yong taught me to ride bicycle. We went to the outskirt along Xi Ba River to sketch. Going through weeping willow, there were very tall eucalyptus leaves, moving back and forth in the wind. They looked green sometimes, and reflected sunshine sometimes, resembling those dreamy and innocent days: mountains and lake, girls washing clothes by the river, boatmen living in lake, fisherman casting net, youth fishing, buffalos dazing, and water birds observing everything by reeds…We caught everything in our paintings, obsessed with painting. The world outside, and the peace of monastic life all moved far away. Those shared days were the pure, clear and beautiful time in both Liu Yong’s and my life.
Liu Yong and I were admitted by Sichuan Fine Art Institute. Liu Yong majored in traditional Chinese painting for four years, and his teachers are Feng Jianwu, Lai Shenru, Huang Hairu, Li Youxing, Du Xianqing, Bai Desong and other great art masters. I still remember that Liu Yong’s graduation creation was a long roll of fine brushwork on rural lives in Sani Village, Yunnan province. His work is elegant and with both ancient style and modern artistic talent, plus accurate design, which can be regarded as a rare piece. After graduated with such excellent performance, Liu came back to Yunnan and became a teacher in Yunnan Art Institute. He was the pride in art area in Yunnan then, but at the same time, it was not so easy to talk to him since he always came and left in a hurry. In 2000, Liu Yong came back from Paris. I was in charge of Upriver Club and asked him to hold a seminar on his experience in Paris, and an exhibition at the same time. Liu agreed with great pleasure, but there was no follow-up since then. Upriver Club and Loft have been waiting for 8 years. I have managed to hold quite a few exhibitions in Kunming for friends and artists in from everywhere, but failed to do one for my old friend. This has been a great pity to me.
This spring I came back to Kunming, and Liu called to meet in Wen Hua Alley. He told me this time he was preparing for his solo exhibition, and took me to a painting mounting place to see his art creations. Liu’s new works belong to a comprehensive style of ink category between scholar painting and experiment. In addition to traditional scholar spiritual themes and methods, there were elements of contemporary structure formation and separation. Therefore, there were not only tasteful details and elegance in his painting, but also tension and conflicts. From my point of view, Liu’s newly created ink paintings are more like a game rather than an experiment. Some of Liu’s paintings were so relaxing that it’s impossible to say whether they were Chinese or western. They are free games, pleasant, inspiriting and vivid doodle and random painting, with highly competent vitality. I believe from this point on, Liu Yong’s paintings should be with more strength and moral, and with great potential. The key is that artist can maintain his mentality as ‘playing games’. Chinese painting is particular about finding relaxation and enjoyment in the arts, and mountains and lakes are places for relaxing, for travelling and for living. Mountains, rocks, forests and springs, lakes and rivers are all places for affection and spirit, and flowers and birds are also inner sustenance of personality and ambition. For example, plum, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum and birds are self metaphor and personal portraiture. In one word, these things are descriptions of personal inwardness.
In 2004 I went to Dacca, the capital of Bangladesh. I visited a village nearby and there was an international art workshop going on. In such a remote village, artists had to get rid of their original working habits and familiar experience, and started new adventure and exploration. Artists took advantage of local and ecological materials to do experiment: quilt, henhouse, dried branch, mud, leaves, agricultural appliance and even their bodies. All these were similar to my experience 20 years ago: I went to Lancang River in Xishuangbanna to pursue my dreams. Sometimes, a shift from familiar surroundings and experience to a far-away geographic location and a broad life experience can bring along brand-new inspirations. What indeed created the distance between what I struggled hard for and what I originally intended to? I lingered along that unknown Indian-Pakistani river for the whole evening…When I went back, what I saw shocked me again: there were three huge Kongming Lantern hovering over that dark village—the masterpiece of these artists, which shook the bottom of my heart at that moment. Those glitter, mysterious, holly golden colors rose slowly at that dark night…I burst into tears suddenly. Only art can transcend long history and short life. We tangled in such a world, following others’ steps and dancing with others’ tune, with the fear of not standing in the frontier of the time. We exerted every bit of our mental efforts, and tried all kinds of tricks, but finally what would we get? Today it is finally to be realized that we are going back to our starting point, back to our life, and back to those simple places with easy pleasure. Then we can recover, can relieve our heart, and can lighten the world…For the past few years, all these ideas have been regarded as my lifelong treasure and precious experience.
Doesn’t Liu Yong the one who practices his mind and seeks fun in his creation? The greatness of Chinese art is to combine one’s personal progress and art pursuit together. In Liu’s works we can find these characters: ‘question our heart’, ‘honored nobility of heaven’, ‘precious sincerity’…which expressed a thought and represented an idea. In fact, the difference between human beings is from different ideas. Conversely, the differences between male and female, fat and thin, beautiful and ugly, are only superficial differences. Different ideas lead to different life values and attitudes. For quite a long time, most of us have been trained to have the thought that ‘I haven’t done good enough’. We should get out of the mind state that we should become stronger and have larger ambition, and we should go back to simplicity, back to the places with happiness, and back to the position with real life and enlightenment, no matter how weak they are. I suppose there is no better expression than an ink painting or a paragraph of words.
After I finished this ‘moan in sickness’, our flight landed in Beijing. I dragged my weak body, going home. Smile was being played in the car, from Michael Jackson, who just passed away. Though I can feel my heart aching, I still keep a smile on my face…Suddenly, I thought about one sentence from Lin Xi: You are not unhappy originally—mutual encouragement for my old friend Liu Yong, and me.
July 7, 2009
Beijing
