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WHAT ON EARTH
by Lion Nie, Liu Mao Nian
Lion Nie 聂继军
Liu Mao Nian 刘懋廿
Graduated from Henan University with a major in Fine Arts and later attended the Beijing University School of Economics and Management; Lion Nie was a member of the International Photography Society and the New York Photography Society. He engaged in branding, creative work, and art collection for 25 years. He was awarded the title of one of China's top ten brand planning experts in 2002 and published the personal painting collection "Relations" in 2022.
曾先后就读于河南大学 美术专业
北京大学 经济管理学院;
国际摄影学会会员,纽约摄影学会会员
从事品牌策划创意工作和艺术品收藏
2002年被评为中国十大品牌策划专家
2022年出版【关系】个人绘画作品集
Born in 1965 in Huangling County, Shaanxi, he graduated from Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts in 1988 and was assigned to teach at Yan'an University the same year. He has been living in Beijing since 2007 and participated in more than twenty international and domestic group exhibitions from 2007 to 2023.
1965年出生于陕西黄陵县,1988年毕业于西安美术学院,同年分配至延安大学任教,2007年至今居住北京。2007年至2023参加国际国内群展二十余次
1976年出生,北京澍雨画馆馆长,策展人。
2004年毕业于清华大学美术学院环艺系,2017年毕业于北京大学哲学系,2023毕业于加拿大TWU大学神学院,美国洛杉矶GETS神学院哲学博士在读。
Born in 1976, Wu currently serves as the Director and Curator at the Shuyu Yin Art Gallery in Beijing. He graduated from the Environmental Art Department of the Academy of Fine Arts of Tsinghua University in 2004. With the background in fine arts, Wu then studied Philosophy in Peking University in 2017, and is currently finishing a PhD in philosophy at GETS Theological Seminary in Los Angeles, the United States.
Wu Tiehan 吴铁汉
The Exhibition
Where should we begin when we attempt to understand what Being is and the significance of the Being of all things? Two artists try to respond to these questions about the ontology of life in their respective artistic languages.
The philosopher Heidegger once proposed that solving the problem of Being should start with the Being of the problem itself. It's rational that artists view everything from the perspective of humans themselves. They express their inner cognition in different artistic ways. These two artists have made their own choices and established a relationship with Being, exploring the characteristics of human life.
So, we cannot help but ask, what are the characteristics of human life? Its chief characteristic lies in its transience. When people perceive life from the perspective of time, they are part of a temporal Being. In other words, among all living things, only humans have a clear understanding of time, which explains that they are worried about nothingness and death. When time passes and never returns, people will always live in a moment of reality. When you say "now", this moment has already passed. Time will inevitably ensure its endpoint, indicating that people have to acknowledge their limitations. It is within this limited life that humans seek infinite transcendence and eternal love. Abstract art has a special charm in expressing metaphysical concepts like absurdity and rationality, life and death, corruption and salvation.
The concept of abstract art has a history of over a hundred years. The reason it can continue to attract people's attention is because it can help every viewer eliminate any sense of distance during the exhibition, strongly feel their own Being, and fully appreciate insights they can comprehend. This confidence guides and develops every person who loves art and awakens their creativity. On the other hand, the uncertainties inherent in abstract art are also very attractive. In any one scene, it's impossible to replicate oneself and draw two identical works. Abstract art breaks away from concrete cognition and develops people's observational ability and imagination. Art has its own logic and pursuits; it requires a rigorous thought process and disciplined creative techniques. It is more about making things that ordinary people cannot overcome. Our daily routine becomes the normal state of life. Years going by is just time passing, but having a rigid outlook is the worst reality. Only rigorous examination can reveal life’s difficulties, and only after enlightenment can one know its meaning. This exhibition showcases the accumulation of time, perhaps the best observation of interpreting it.
Life is absurd. Therefore, when art expresses absurdity, it contains the power of resistance. According to Albert Camus, "I resist, so we exist." The front is "me", and the back is "us". Artists resist for the sake of human nature, for the sake of this human situation. We resist for the sake of humanity being in absurd situations, and we think about this issue on behalf of humanity. The two artists have swept away the absurd and rebuilt it from the ground, which fits the situation of modern people, and we call it postmodern society.
当我们试图理解什么是存在以及万物存在的意义时,我们应该从哪里开始呢?两位艺术家试图用各自的艺术语言来回应这些关于生命本体的问题。
哲学家海德格尔曾提出,解决存在问题应从问题本身的存在开始。艺术家从人类自身的角度看待一切,这是理性的。他们以不同的艺术方式表达内心的认知。两位艺术家做出了自己的选择,建立了与存在的关系,探索人类生命的特征。
那么,我们不禁要问,人类的生命有什么特点呢?它的主要特征在于它的短暂性。当人们从时间的角度看待生命时,他们就是暂时存在的一部分。也就是说,在所有生物中,只有人类对时间有清晰的认识,这也就解释了他们对虚无和死亡的担忧。时光一去不复返,人永远活在现实的某个时刻。当你说“现在”时,这一刻已经过去了。时间必然会确定它的终点,这表明人们不得不承认自己的局限性。人类正是在这有限的生命中寻求无限的超越和永恒的爱。抽象艺术在表达荒诞与理性、生与死、腐败与救赎等形而上概念方面具有独特的魅力。
抽象艺术的概念已有一百多年的历史。它之所以能够持续吸引人们的注意力,是因为它能够帮助每一位观众在展览中消除任何距离感,强烈感受到自己的存在,充分体会到自己所能领悟的感悟。这种自信引导和发展每一个热爱艺术的人,唤醒他们的创造力。另一方面,抽象艺术所固有的不确定性也很有吸引力。在任何一个场景中,都不可能复制自己并画出两幅相同的作品。
抽象艺术脱离了具体的认知,发展了人们的观察能力和想象力。艺术有它自己的逻辑和追求;它需要严格的思维过程和严格的创作技巧。更多的是做出常人无法克服的事情。我们的日常生活成为生活的常态。岁月的流逝只是时间的流逝,但僵化的看法才是最糟糕的现实。只有严酷的审视,才能揭示人生的艰辛,只有悟透,才能明白人生的意义。这次展览展示了时间的积累,或许是解读时间的最好观察。
生活是荒谬的。因此,艺术在表达荒诞的时候,就蕴含着反抗的力量。阿尔贝·加缪说:“我反抗,所以我们存在。”前面是“我”,后面是“我们”。艺术家为了人性、为了人类的处境而反抗。我们为了人类处于荒谬的境地而反抗,我们代表人类思考这个问题。两位艺术家把荒诞一扫而空,从头开始重建,这符合现代人的处境,我们称之为后现代社会。
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