运用陶瓷进行当代艺术的转化——吕品昌的远行与回归

The difference between Lv Pinchang and traditional sculptors lies in his transcendence and rebellion. His sculpture education started with his study experience at Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute (now Jingdezhen Ceramic University), but he did not indulge in the study of traditional ceramic art. His master’s thesis “On the Aesthetic Quality of Ceramic Defect Textures” is regarded as his artistic declaration challenging the traditional ceramic aesthetic standards, and this declaration also laid the ideological foundation for his exploration of the contemporary art transformation of ceramic media.

吕品昌与传统雕塑家的区分便在于他的跨越与叛逆。他的雕塑教育起步于景德镇陶瓷学院（现景德镇陶瓷大学）的学习经历，但他却不沉湎于传统的陶瓷艺术研究，其硕士毕业论文《论陶瓷缺陷肌理的审美品质》被看作是他向传统陶瓷审美标准发起挑战的艺术宣言，这一宣言也奠定了他对陶瓷媒介的当代艺术转向探索的思想基础。

Figure 6. Lv Pinchang. Bound Form: Bi No.2, 3, 4. Steel-jade porcelain, 73×72×15cm, 2017.

If it is said that the sinicization of Western realistic sculpture enabled him to create a series of large-scale commemorative monuments with historical themes, which is his artistic odyssey starting from ceramic art and realizing his dream of becoming a sculptor, then ceramic art, as the mother body of Chinese sculpture culture, has always been his channel of rebirth for returning to the essence of art and native culture.

如果说，西方写实雕塑的中国化让他创作了一系列历史题材的大型纪念碑雕塑，这是他从陶瓷艺术开始的艺术远行，从而成就了他的雕塑艺术家梦想，那么，陶瓷艺术作为中国雕塑文化的母体却从来就是他回到艺术本体、回归本土文化的重生通道。

What is most characteristic of his artistic exploration is exactly how to transform ceramic art into contemporary art. For example, the A Fu series is his re-exploration of folk art. He hopes to use the softness, extensibility and plasticity of clay to maximize the sense of expansion and fullness in folk sculpture. Also, the Chinese Freehand Series, which has continued from the 1980s to the present, reflects his attempt to stay away from busy work and secular life by creating the freehand image of “me” and thus reach an inner peace like the “Peach Blossom Spring.” In his works, he is transformed into monks, literati, and artists. The conceptual nature lies in cleverly using and splicing together the ready-made objects he collected during his travels and the “me” in the sculpture, creating the ancient lifestyle of lying and traveling to realize the unceasing literati concerns and spiritual ideals in his heart.

他在艺术探索上最具其个性特征的正是如何运用陶瓷进行当代艺术的转化。如，《阿福》系列是他再度回到民间艺术的触角，他希望利用泥料的柔软性、延展性和可塑性，最大程度地强化民间雕塑式的扩张感和饱满感。还如，从80年代延续至今的《中国写意系列》，体现了他试图通过创作“我”的写意形象来远离繁忙工作与世俗生活，以此抵达“世外桃源”式的内心平静。作品中的他被演化为僧侣、文人、艺人，其观念性在于巧妙利用他远游收集而来的“现成品”与雕塑中的“我”进行拼接，创造出“卧以游之”的古人生活方式来实现其内心难息的文人忧患与精神理想。

Figure 7. Lv Pinchang. Bound Form No.9. White marble, 149×45×28cm, 2016.

Obviously, ceramics is the medium that shapes Lv Pinchang’s art with individuality, yet it is  also highly characteristic of Chinese local culture. This is the most distinct symbolic manifestation of his return to the artistic homeland. Here, there is both the paper-like art as thin as cicada’s wings—Touching the World: Society, and the huge Space Program series that makes people feel heavy. In the Space Program series, he wraps ceramic and metal materials around each other, creating a visual perception of weight tension through the combination of the five elements of earth and gold. The clever integration of abstract geometric forms and naturally flawed textures highlights the warm, rustic quality of the clay material, shaped by its incompleteness and randomness, in stark contrast to the smooth, mirror-like surface and cold, hard nature of stainless steel. This comparison is precisely the visual collision between agricultural civilization and industrial civilization generated by the intertextual effect of the medium itself and ready-made objects. Although Space Program has the implication of human conquest of nature, it also has the deeper metaphor that human beings must abide in harmonious coexistence with nature.

显然，陶瓷是塑造吕品昌艺术的个性化却又极具中国本土文化特质的媒介，这是他回归艺术乡土最鲜明的符号表征。这里既有薄如蝉翼的“纸质”艺术——《触摸世界——社会》，也有体量巨大让人感到沉重的《太空计划》系列。在《太空计划》系列中，他将陶瓷与金属材质互为包裹，通过“土”与“金”的五行融合制造了视觉感知的重量张力，其抽象几何形体与自然缺陷肌理的巧妙结合，充分彰显了残缺性、随机性所形塑的温厚古朴的陶泥质料和光滑如镜、冰冷坚硬的不锈钢形成的强烈对比，而这种比对正是媒介本体和现成品的互文作用生发出的视觉性的农业文明与工业文明的碰撞。《太空计划》虽具有人类征服自然的寓意，但也不乏人类与自然必须信守和谐性相处的更深隐喻。吕品昌对陶瓷媒介的运用正体现了当代艺术如何回归传统文化的命题。

Figure 8. Lv Pinchang. Bound Form No.3. White marble, 70×46×35cm, 2019.