當我第一次面對劉永剛的大型文字系列雕塑作品的時候，我的第一個感受是“站立的文字，行走的人”，還有一個感受是“象形的文字，象徵的意”。劉永剛用“愛擁”這個題目為他的文字雕塑系列命名説明他給作品注入的是一種“愛的寓意”。感受著這種雖不強烈但卻溫暖、難以言傳只可意會的象徵性的愛意，我在劉永剛“字雕藝術”的叢林中神遊，並試圖從藝術史的邏輯中探尋其愛的源泉。
漢字是中國的文化之根，許多當代藝術家都從古老的中國文字起步，走上了現代藝術的探索之路，我甚至認為在中國當代藝壇中存在著一種可以稱之為“書法主義”的巨大潮流。受西方解構主義藝術思潮的影響，許多中國藝術家將漢字或書法的某一方面的特性進行放大，強化突出其某個特定的元素，通過對漢字的挪用、解構和重組，創作出大量既帶有鮮明的民族文化特色又具有強烈的時代氣息的藝術作品。同樣以漢字為起點，但探索的途徑和方向卻是多種多樣的。有人解構漢字的形體，有人變亂文字的意義，有人重建文字的結構，有人甚至將文字的書寫從平面形式引入到行為藝術和觀念藝術的範疇。其代表性的成果有谷文達把書寫變成修煉的道場，意在呈現潛藏在漢字中的“道法自然”的老莊境界；有徐冰對漢字結構的改造，強調文字形與意的雙重背離；有曾來德把中國書法變成表演藝術，強調書寫行為與動作過程中的情感體驗；還有張強把書寫作為觀念性的行為藝術，強調表達與理解之間的背逆性。
劉永剛把文字變成了雕塑，把平面的文字變成了三維的構成，這是一種獨一無二的創造。説劉永剛的作品是雕塑也可以，説是裝置也同樣成立。承繼著倉頡造字那種本初的質樸和秦皇漢武時代那種浩蕩的雄風，這些大篆體的字雕作品散發著渾厚而又強烈的陽剛之氣。
雖然被稱作文字，但劉永剛的字雕作品並不是對已有漢字的模擬，更不是對可讀文字的複製。正如評論家賈方舟先生所指出的，這是一些似是而非的文字，它們既讀不出字音，也辨不出字義，而只是一種與中國文字相類似的形體結構，或者説只是一種具有漢字結構特徵的視覺形象。由於組成雕塑整體的結構或者説那些漢字筆畫式的線條的彼此交織，作品給我們帶來了一種強烈的人體形象的聯想。由此，冰冷的石頭獲得了鮮活的生命，靜止的形體産生了行走的動感，雕刻的文字傳達了強烈的激情。更奇妙的是，這些“站立的文字”竟傳達出一種鮮明的情侶般相攜相擁、相親相愛的視覺意象。
“愛的寓意”是劉永剛的“字雕藝術”的主題，但這是一種寬泛而不確定的象徵性的愛意，它不只是代表人間的愛。由於雕塑造型的非人格化亦即其構成的抽象性，作品的象徵對象可以漫延擴展到所有的生命，它們甚至還包括非物質性對象之間的密切聯繫，譬如這些作品本身所體現的中西兩種文化元素之間的交融與結合。我似乎還感覺到，正如道家的“太極圖”，亦如蒙德里安的由十字交叉所形成的方格子抽象構圖，這些作品中那些糾纏咬合在一起的形體也象徵著宇宙萬物陰陽互補、矛盾相生的永恒真實。
他的這類作品帶給人們的也的確是一種極簡主義的構成性與冷峻感，而他那些顯露出刻鑿痕跡的雕塑作品其表面肌理也具有井然有序的秩序感。經過劉永剛的改造，漢字由象形與表意變成了抽象與象徵，中國古老的文字與西方現代的抽象藝術實現了水乳交融般的契合。在劉永剛心裏，既有對傳統中國文化的深切眷戀，又有對西方抽象藝術的熱烈嚮往。在他的藝術世界中，古今東西各種文化因素已經融為一體，變成了一片孕育創造生機的富饒沃土。
我始終認為藝術家的創作是與藝術家的人生閱歷密不可分的，造型藝術則是藝術家形象化的自傳，毫無疑問，劉永剛今天的藝術之路與在德國的留學經歷密切相關。德國人的性格中有極端情感化的一面，因而德國藝術總是熱衷於對人的生與死的探究，對生命的終極意義的關懷，甚至是悲劇情感的表達。德國人的性格中還有極端理性化的一面，這在他們的哲學和科學技術成果中得到了充分體現。德國人是雙重性格，其文化藝術是矛盾的混合體，既有極端的理性，也有極端的情感。旅居德國十多年的劉永剛無疑受到了德國文化藝術巨大而深刻的影響。
王端廷中國藝術研究院的研究員，專門研究西方藝術，著名批評家
Fusion and Splitof Form and Meaning: Interpretation of Liu Yonggang’s ‘CharacterSculptures’
Wang Ruiting,fellow of China Arts Academy specializing in western arts, famouscritic
When I first sawLiu Yonggang’s large character sculptures, my first impressionswere ‘standing characters, walking persons’ and ‘hieroglyphiccharacters, symbolic meanings’. The title ‘Embrace of Live’indicates his infusion of ‘the message of love’ into his works.Feeling the symbolic love that was warm though not passionate, andthat could hardly be conveyed in words, I wandered through theforest of his ‘character sculptures’ and sought the origin of thelove in the logic of art history.
Chinesecharacters are the root of Chinese culture. They are the startingpoint of many contemporary artists’ journey of modern art. I evenbelieve in the existence of a strong tendency of what I call‘calligraphism’ in the contemporary circle of Chinese artists.Influenced by western deconstructionist art, many Chinese artistsmagnify certain features of Chinese characters or calligraphy andhighlight particular elements. By loaning, deconstructing andreorganizing Chinese characters, they have created a great numberof up-to-date works with distinct traits of national culture. Butthe same starting point may lead to different approaches andorientations. Some deconstruct the shapes of characters, somereshuffle their meanings, some reconstruct them, and some even takewriting from two dimensions to performance art and conceptual art.Representative works are: Gu Wenda’s turning writing intomeditation, aimed at revealing the Taoist aspect of characters; XuBing’s restructuring of characters, with emphasis on the doublecontradiction between their forms and meanings; Zeng Laide’sturning calligraphy into performing art, with stress on emotionalexperience in the behavior and action of writing; and Zhang Qiang’sturning writing into conceptual performance art, with stress on thecontradiction between expressing and understanding.
Liu Yonggangturned characters into sculptures from two-dimensional charactersinto three-dimensional characters. That was a unique creation. Youmay regard his works either as sculptures or as devices. Theyinherit the pristine simplicity of the first Chinese characters andheroism of the Qin and Han Dynasties. The dazhuan-style charactersculptures emanate a profound and powerful masculinity.
Despite thename, Liu’s ‘character sculptures’ are not imitations of particularChinese characters, and even less the duplication of any. Asobserved by critic Jia Fangzhou, these are semblances ofcharacters; being illegible and unable to be pronounced, they arebut structures resembling Chinese characters, or visual images withfeatures of Chinese characters. Due to the general structure, orrather the crossing of those stroke-like lines, the sculptures arestrongly reminiscent of human bodies. Because of that, the coldstones seem to acquire vitality, the still shapes appear to bewalking, and the sculpted characters start to express fierypassions. Still more wonderfully, those ‘standing characters’convey distinct images of lovers embracing each other.
‘The message oflove’ is the theme of Liu’s ‘character sculptures’, but that is anextensive, uncertain love. It does not simply signify human love.Because of the depersonalization of the sculptures, or theabstractness of their compositions, the symbolic meaning may extendto all living beings, even including close links betweennon-material entities (the fusion of Chinese and western culturesas embodied by the sculptures, for instance). Moreover, I seem tofeel that the twisting, joining shapes, like the Taoist diagram ofthe universe or Mondrian’s abstract checkered compositions ofcrosses, are also symbolic of the eternal truth of the yin-yangopposition and complementation between all that is in theuniverse.
Liu borrowed theimages and structures of Chinese characters as well as the plasticlanguage of modern western abstract art. When he cut each stroke ofhis ‘pseudo-characters’ into cuboids of the same size and polishthem smooth like mirrors, he was playing the role of an engineer.His works of this type convey the composition and coldness ofminimalism, while the surface textures of his sculptures, withtraces of carving and chiseling, produce an effect of orderliness.He turned hieroglyphic, ideographic Chinese characters intoabstract symbols so that ancient Chinese characters are perfectlyfused with modern western abstract art. Liu cherishes both the lovefor traditional Chinese culture and the passion for westernabstract art. In his world of art, cultural elements—ancient orcontemporary, eastern or western—are blended into fertile soil forcreation.
I always believethat an artist’s creation is inextricably associated with hisexperience of life, and that plastic art is his or her graphicautobiography. There is no doubt that Liu’s artistic career has alot to do with his stay in Germany. The German character has twoaspects: one is extremely emotional, and that is why German art isso much about life and death, the ultimate meaning of life, and theexpression of tragic feelings; the other is extremely rational,which is fully embodied in their philosophy, science andtechnology. Because of that, their culture and art are mixtures ofcontradictions. They must have had profound influence on Liu, whospent more than ten years in that country.
Wang Ruiting,fellow of Fine Arts Institute of China Arts Academy