From dust to the mirror
By Zhu Zhu
(For Chinese version please scroll down)
Before Zhang Zhenyu began using dust as a medium, he spent almost six years making his newspaper series. Every day for one year he used a needle to erase the entire content of that day’s People’s Daily newspaper. For two years, he also erased the ink on the China Daily and Beijing Daily newspapers. Each time it would take him five to six hours. He called this part “reading”. It corresponded with the “copying”, for which he would take the scraped-off bits of paper and mix them to- gether in a blender with sheets of newspaper to create a paper pulp. From this pulp he would make new paper. Then, using a knife, he stenciled the content of the newspaper onto the paper. The characters in the end were barely legible.
These two manual rituals, bordering on obsessive-com- pulsive disorders, helped him get through some depressing times in Beijing. They were the mirror image of each other, forming a little self-circulating system between them. Even as these repetitive daily practices yielded a little comfort and freedom, they made even more apparent the divisiveness of the subject. Even as he resisted and eliminated the outer in- formation world, he nearly forced himself to become a part of it, working in a state of intense anxiety. When the fissure was almost at the edge of collapse, it was only when he entered this machine-like state – as if he were on sedatives – did he then find comfort. The circle of this small sealed off system had one crack, just like sheds in the Dark Ages had small win- dows, through which poisonous forage could be brought in, chewed and ruminated upon.
One day when Zhang Zhenyu he noticed the dust dancing in the sunlight indoors, and he was entranced by the beauty and emptiness of the dance and the tension in its contradiction. He began considering the possibility of using dust as a me- dium. After a period of experimentation, he created a method
– he would use a brush to collect dust and mix the dust with glue to make a thin film-like layer. He made layer upon layer, “more than 30-40 layers, sometimes over 100,” so the end re- sult was a thick texture and volume. The changing colors of the dust were apparent; the layers could be seen in the edges of the work. The finished works express a feeling minimalist abstraction and the aesthetic elements were simplified and omitted. They remained only in the subconscious. Audiences are confronted with only a smooth and dark mirrored surface.
That is exactly the effect that Zhang Zhenyu wishes the dust to achieve. But it not where the meaning of the work ends. The reflection of the viewer in the mirror is the work’sdynamic continuation. Each person can see his or her own reflection in the work. “ What do you see when you look at the work?” He sees the mirror as “a method of questioning.” (Quoted from “Zhang Zhenyu in conversation with Liao Wen”.)
The encapsulation of the “Reading” and “Copying” series is broken. The “Dust” series creates a kind of open situation, inviting others to come in to read: to read the book of dust and to read themselves. In other words, reading becomes a kind of ritual that refers dust to the self-image. There is no clear direction of meaning but it presumes a mysterious up and down movement: dust rises up to the wall and is given a solid, intense, even totem-like sense of existence. But when a viewer standing in front of a work experiences the self-reflec- tion, he or she may go in the direction of dust’s original state: transient and destroyed.
One thing China does not lack for is dust. The radical and blind process of modernization, the destruction of the en- vironment, and the trampling on of people by the system… these are all reflected in the metaphor of dust. Just like T.S. Eliot’s verse in The Wasteland: “I will show you fear in a handful of dust.” But we need to view the sociological mo- tive of Zhang Zhenyu’s medium with caution. He had a pro- ject in which he asked people to send him dust samples to go into the mirror so that he could express the theme of the “homogeneity of cities and culture”. However, for him, in the pendulum-like movement between society and universality, he evidently leans toward the latter. In his and in our visual imagination, dust is the origin of the world and it is also the end of the world. That is a kind of barrenness and emptiness.
Paper, dust, and, smoke: all of these mediums are characte- rized by lightness, thinness and a proximity to formlessness. They are the invisible parts of the over bloated materialistic reality. But they also form the deepest mirror image. Espe- cially in the “dust” series, Zhang Zhenyu provides an artis- tic form that makes us stop and think deeply. Whenever this form solidifies, we must reopen it, so that the dust can be a dynamic medium again, so that it can confront different se- mantics.
Beijing, March 2016 (Translated by Amy Qin)
Before Zhang Zhenyu began using dust as a medium, he spent almost six years making his newspaper series. Every day for one year he used a needle to erase the entire content of that day’s People’s Daily newspaper. For two years, he also erased the ink on the China Daily and Beijing Daily newspapers. Each time it would take him five to six hours. He called this part “reading”. It corresponded with the “copying”, for which he would take the scraped-off bits of paper and mix them to- gether in a blender with sheets of newspaper to create a paper pulp. From this pulp he would make new paper. Then, using a knife, he stenciled the content of the newspaper onto the paper. The characters in the end were barely legible.
These two manual rituals, bordering on obsessive-com- pulsive disorders, helped him get through some depressing times in Beijing. They were the mirror image of each other, forming a little self-circulating system between them. Even as these repetitive daily practices yielded a little comfort and freedom, they made even more apparent the divisiveness of the subject. Even as he resisted and eliminated the outer in- formation world, he nearly forced himself to become a part of it, working in a state of intense anxiety. When the fissure was almost at the edge of collapse, it was only when he entered this machine-like state – as if he were on sedatives – did he then find comfort. The circle of this small sealed off system had one crack, just like sheds in the Dark Ages had small win- dows, through which poisonous forage could be brought in, chewed and ruminated upon.
One day when Zhang Zhenyu he noticed the dust dancing in the sunlight indoors, and he was entranced by the beauty and emptiness of the dance and the tension in its contradiction. He began considering the possibility of using dust as a me- dium. After a period of experimentation, he created a method
– he would use a brush to collect dust and mix the dust with glue to make a thin film-like layer. He made layer upon layer, “more than 30-40 layers, sometimes over 100,” so the end re- sult was a thick texture and volume. The changing colors of the dust were apparent; the layers could be seen in the edges of the work. The finished works express a feeling minimalist abstraction and the aesthetic elements were simplified and omitted. They remained only in the subconscious. Audiences are confronted with only a smooth and dark mirrored surface.
That is exactly the effect that Zhang Zhenyu wishes the dust to achieve. But it not where the meaning of the work ends. The reflection of the viewer in the mirror is the work’sdynamic continuation. Each person can see his or her own reflection in the work. “ What do you see when you look at the work?” He sees the mirror as “a method of questioning.” (Quoted from “Zhang Zhenyu in conversation with Liao Wen”.)
The encapsulation of the “Reading” and “Copying” series is broken. The “Dust” series creates a kind of open situation, inviting others to come in to read: to read the book of dust and to read themselves. In other words, reading becomes a kind of ritual that refers dust to the self-image. There is no clear direction of meaning but it presumes a mysterious up and down movement: dust rises up to the wall and is given a solid, intense, even totem-like sense of existence. But when a viewer standing in front of a work experiences the self-reflec- tion, he or she may go in the direction of dust’s original state: transient and destroyed.
One thing China does not lack for is dust. The radical and blind process of modernization, the destruction of the en- vironment, and the trampling on of people by the system… these are all reflected in the metaphor of dust. Just like T.S. Eliot’s verse in The Wasteland: “I will show you fear in a handful of dust.” But we need to view the sociological mo- tive of Zhang Zhenyu’s medium with caution. He had a pro- ject in which he asked people to send him dust samples to go into the mirror so that he could express the theme of the “homogeneity of cities and culture”. However, for him, in the pendulum-like movement between society and universality, he evidently leans toward the latter. In his and in our visual imagination, dust is the origin of the world and it is also the end of the world. That is a kind of barrenness and emptiness.
Paper, dust, and, smoke: all of these mediums are characte- rized by lightness, thinness and a proximity to formlessness. They are the invisible parts of the over bloated materialistic reality. But they also form the deepest mirror image. Espe- cially in the “dust” series, Zhang Zhenyu provides an artis- tic form that makes us stop and think deeply. Whenever this form solidifies, we must reopen it, so that the dust can be a dynamic medium again, so that it can confront different se- mantics.
Beijing, March 2016 (Translated by Amy Qin)
從灰塵到鏡像
朱朱
張震宇以灰塵為媒介之前,用了近6年時間,製作他的 報紙系列:其中有一整年,每天用針尖刮除當日《人民 日報》的整版內容,在另外兩個整年中,刮除的分別是
《中國日報》和《北京日報》,每次耗時需要5、6個小 時,對此他稱之為“閱讀”。與這種閱讀行為對應的 是“抄寫”:他將刮除下來的紙屑,與部分報紙合在一 起攪拌,打碎成紙漿,重新做成紙,再以刀具在紙上刻寫報紙的內容,儘管字跡最終仍是難以識讀的。
兩種強迫症式的勞作幫助他渡過在北京最初的壓抑時光,它們之間也互為鏡像,構成一個自我循環的小系統,儘管有那麼一點禪門日課式求自在、解脫的意味, 但這裡更多地呈示出主體的分裂,他既是在抵禦、消解 外部的信息世界,又似乎是在惶然的心態裡逼迫自己成 為它的一部分;分裂似乎已到崩潰的邊緣,唯有依賴服用了鎮定劑般的機械狀態,在巨大的勞動強度裡才得以舒解。這個小系統的封閉圈上存在著一個豁口,就像黑 暗的厩棚設有小窗,帶毒的草料會從那裡遞進來,被 咀嚼被反芻。
有一天他在室內註視到灰塵於日光中舞蹈,受惑於它所顯露的、美與虛無之間的矛盾張力,開始思考以此為媒 介的可能,經過一段時間的反复實驗,尋找到一套完整 的工作方式——他用排刷蒐集隨處可見的灰塵,在膠合 作用下形成薄層,再通過層層疊加處理,“三四十層以上,甚至超過一百層”,形成相對厚重的質感和體積, 灰塵的冷暖色與差異性隱現於其中,四周的留邊可視 為積層的證據。成形後的作品帶有最低限度的抽象構成 效果,審美因素被盡量簡化和迴避,只作為無意識而存留;觀眾所面對的是一層光滑的、幽暗的鏡面。
鏡面正是張震宇要從灰塵中轉化出來的最終形態,但並 非作品意義上的最終完成,觀眾影像的置入是作品的動態延續,每個人都可以在作品裡看見自己反射的影像,“透過它,你看到了什麼?”他視鏡面為“一個 提問式的方式”。 (引自《張震宇與廖雯訪談》“閱 讀”與“抄寫”系列之中呈現的封閉性被打破了,“灰 塵”系列在事實上創制了一種開放的事態,邀請他人進行閱讀,閱讀灰塵之書也閱讀他們自身,或者說,讓閱 讀成為了灰塵與自身相互參照、乃至等同起來的某種儀 式。這裡沒有明確的意義導向,但預設了一種隱秘的升降運動:灰塵上升到牆面,並被賦予了堅實、強烈甚而 是圖騰式的存在感,而人在它面前作出的自我審視,可能會趨向於灰塵那種低伏、易逝、湮滅的本來狀態。
在中國,最不缺的就是灰塵:激進而盲目的現代化進程,生態的毀滅性破壞,以及體制對個人的踐踏……這 些都可以經由灰塵得以隱喻和折射,一如艾略特在《荒原》中的詩句:“我會給你展示在一把塵土中的恐懼”;(TSEliot: The Waste Land)但需要謹慎地看待張震宇 使用這一媒介的社會學動機,儘管他有過一個通過公開徵集各地灰塵來製作鏡面的項目,並且希望表達“城市的、文化的同質性”主題,但對他而言,在社會性和宇 宙性認知的鐘擺運動中,他無疑更傾向於後者。在他也 是在我們的視覺化想像裡,灰塵既構成世界的起源也構成世界的末日,那是一種本質的荒蕪和空無。
紙、灰塵,以及他在更早時期運用過的煙霧,這些媒介 的共通特質在於輕,在於薄,接近無形,是過度膨脹 的物質現實裡幾乎不可見的部分,但它們也許恰好構成 了最深層的鏡像關係。尤其是在“灰塵”系列之中,張 震宇提供出了一種足以讓我們久久駐足和沈思的藝術形式,而這種形式一旦固化,就需要再一次打開,讓灰塵重新變成活性媒介,去對應不同語義。
2016年3月