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3月25日，艺术家孟阳阳受Raffaella Gallo女士邀请参与ARTCaffè第66次Artist Talk活动，通过线上对谈的方式与观众进行关于创作的个人思考，并在Q&A环节与观众进行了关于文学、具身经验、当代中国文化语境、女性身份的多重讨论。 The artist Meng Yangyang was invited by Mrs. Raffaella Gallo to participate in ARTCaffe's 66th edition on March 25th. During the online Artist Talk, Yangyang shared with the audience her reflections on art practice followed by multiple engaging discussions in the Q&A session, including literature, embodied experience, contemporary Chinese cultural context and female identity. “The Radical Brush: Paint Differently” 
©ARTCaffè，截选自 2022.03.25 艺术家对谈录屏 / Excerpt from the artist talk recordings  孟阳阳 Meng Yangyang 私人书写II The Diary II，2020 46 x 34 x 2 cm 布面油画 Oil on canvas 艺术家创作回顾 | The Artist's Practice 孟阳阳的首次个展于2007年在台北举行,从此正式成为职业艺术家。这个时期她认识到艺术家最重要的品质是诚实和勇敢——需要真诚而残忍地剖析自己和暴露自己,凭直觉和感性去尝试。那时她也意识到她对人们内心世界的微妙变化很感兴趣。 Meng Yangyang started from her first solo in Taipei in 2007, when she officially became a professional artist and learned that “the most important quality to be an artist is to be honest and courageous: it takes courage to brutally analyze and expose myself, to follow the instinct and intuition and give it a go.” That was the time she also realized that she was interested in the subtle change of people’s inner world.  孟阳阳 Meng Yangyang 追寻与逃离 Pursuit and Escape，2012 120 x 170 cm 布面油画 Oil on canvas 孟阳阳深受中国书法的影响，从一开始，她的绘画就以激进的线条和快速有力的笔触为特色。对她来说，书法是一种抽象的艺术：“汉字的线条、节奏，字体的空间结构，运笔的力量和速度，还有文章的布局和留白，这些都是我在学习和运用的。特别是书法的力量和速度感，我常常用在画面中来打破平静。用或刚烈、或怪异的笔触在画面制造一种强有力的破坏张力，画面被撕扯扭曲从而调动观众的情绪。” Deeply influenced by Chinese calligraphy, since the beginning her paintings have been featuring radical lines and very speedy, forceful brushstrokes. To her, calligraphy is an abstract art: “Unique strokes, fonts, the speediness and powerfulness, as well as the space of the composition, all of this I have absorbed and used in my own work to break the sense of peace. I use radical brushstrokes to destroy, to ruin, to distort, to shake the audience’s emotions.” 2011年至2017年，孟阳阳搬到了北京的艺术家村，在那里，她和其他艺术家一起享受着乌托邦式的社区生活。那段时间里她的绘画也发生了变化，她开始用既黑暗又闪烁的强烈对比来表达复杂而迷茫的感觉:“在我的作品中，色彩是非常重要的部分。在艺术语言中色彩是最具感性的一种视觉形式，色彩有自己的温度和性情有它自己的温度和气质。在人类活动的各个领域，在需要越来越多感知力的时代里，色彩敏感性及意识是对付迟钝与冷漠的有力武器。” Between 2011 and 2017, Yangyang moved to the artist village in Beijing, where she enjoyed the utopian community life with her fellow artists. At that time, her paintings changed as well and she started to convey complicated and confuse feelings with the use of contrast and highly saturated colors: “In my work, color is very important. I think color in Art has its own temperature and temperament. We live in a world where so many areas need empathy, awareness, sensitivity and color is the most powerful weapon againstindifference and dullness.”  孟阳阳 Meng Yangyang 听说风很大 I Heard It's Windy，2021 115 x 175 cm 布面油画 Oil on canvas 2021年，在准备BROWNIE Project个展时，孟阳阳尝试了与以往非常不同的布展方式：“我用了非常克制的颜色，去掉了画面中多余的环境和杂音，极力去营造一个空灵禅意的心灵舞台。在一个纯黑的展览环境里，焦点全部聚焦在作品上，更能加重这种宁静的效果。” Preparing her solo at Brownie Project in 2021, Yangyang decided to make a huge change: “I restrained my use of colors, I expelled unnecessary details from the setting. I wanted to create a calm, peaceful stage.” The environment of the exhibition at Brownie Project was pretty dark and the focus was on the paintings to give a sense of peace and to “help the audience to put their attention on the paintings as well as on their inner world.”  
Meng Yangyang: To Be Heard In A Whisper / Exhibition View 问答环节| Q&A Q: 谢谢，您的演讲非常精彩。我想问您在创作的过程中会参考一些材料吗？还是说完全都是由自己来创作的？ Thank you so much for sharing your work! My question is what is your source material? Do you have source material that you look at? Or is everthing made without external research or external prompts? A：我平时有一个习惯，就是收集看到的一些资料，比如说我在翻阅书籍的时候，或者上网浏览的时候，随时随地就会把感兴趣的颜色、形象、触动我的线条储存起来，在创作过程中我会拿出来再去体会当时收集这些素材时的感受，在创作中反复去琢磨、提炼出我想要的东西。 I actually have a habit that in my daily life whenever I read or browse the Internet, I will collect anything that interests me, such as the color, figures and lines. So when I am painting, I will look at all those source materials and distill something that matters to me.
孟阳阳 Meng Yangyang 时间写诗——白日 Poetry of Time，2016 200 x 150 cm 布面油画 Oil on canvas / Q: 我刚刚从你的画作当中感受到了平静和内心的平和，我想要知道你有没有受到某些画家的启发，因为你的绘画风格在我们平常去的美术馆中并不常见。 I love the paintings, there are such good feelings of tranquility and peacefulness coming to them, and I came to think about if you were inspired by any of the painters because that's pretty rare in the museums I've seen. A：在求学阶段我们就会学习很多大师的作品，油画、美术史，这是必须的，我个人也喜欢很多当代艺术家。刚才说的那种平静应该是我最近几年来比较特殊的变化，我敢肯定地说是来自于中国的传统美学、宗教和哲学的影响。虽然我学得不是很深， 但是我已经明显地感觉到作为一个中国人的根基、血脉对我的影响。所以作品的转变、作品的丰富度可能更多地来自于中国文化。它并不是来自于个别艺术家，或者是个别一个人的影响，应该是来自于文化、修养的提高。 Back to my school life, we studied a lot about oil painting, those masterpieces and art history. I also look up to a lot of famous contemporary artists. But the sense of tranquility and peacefulness is actually something that I learned from traditional Chinese culture, religion and philosophy. I just feel deeply resonate with it, although I am not an expert in this field. I'm feeling a stronger calling from my Chinese blood and roots in the traditional culture. I don't think I am particularly influenced by some specific painters or artists, and the transition in my recent work is actually the result of Chinese culture and my deeper understanding of it.  孟阳阳 Meng Yangyang 有黑色皮肤的少女 Dark Skin Girl，2020 100 x 80 cm 布面油画 Oil on canvas / Q: 我们现在在一个比较全球化的社会当中，所以对于每一个年轻人，包括您作为一位年轻艺术家，都多多少少受到文化冲突的影响，就像您提到特别喜爱中国传统文化，但是同时在谈到灵感选取的时候有提到美国垮掉的一代的作家，又有提到西方的哲学家海德格尔，在这方面的冲突你是如何处理的？以及你是如何把二者融合的，你是更倾向于哪一方面？ As young people living in an era full of globalization, we are all facing cultural conflicts, especially people who study abroad or people who study western paintings, so I really want to know what's your opinions in terms of dealing with Chinese traditions as well as western traditions, as you just mentioned you are inspired by western philosophers like Heidegger, and you also really love the writers from the American Beat Generation. I am curious about how you combine and mix different cultures together and show it in your paintings? A：首先我觉得应该从我的成长，从最小的时候说起，我是在一个西南城市，重庆长大的80后，我从小接触的文化其实更多地来自于西方、日本、美国，从小我们接触的并不是四书五经，更多的是一些流行文化。在这样的环境下长大的我，自然地对西方的文化更加熟悉和接受。然后再加上美术、油画，这些都是西方流传过来的东西，恰恰相反的是，直到十年前我去西方旅游以后，我才对中国传统的东西特别有兴趣，因为有了比较以后，我发现我们真正忽略了很多传统文化对我们的影响。我们在成长过程中可能受到了更加浮夸，更加好玩的西方文化的吸引，反而忽视了传统文化，所以近十年我是回过头来再来补习中国的一些美学。我最早的作品反而比较西化，最新的作品反而越来越宁静，越来越有东方的味道，这是一个反向的过程，我们这一代人也没有办法控制自己的成长，成熟以后才知道我们自己的文化有多重要。 I was born in the 1980s in a southwest city of China, Chongqing. At that time the Chinese young people were actually deeply influenced by the pop culture from the western world, especially those from Japan and USA, so actually, at the very first beginning, I was pretty familiar with western elements. Also, the art education I received was more about western art, but it was not until ten years ago when I literally pay a visit to western countries and I suddenly had a very strong interest in Chinese culture, and I realized I missed so much of it. I was attracted by seemingly fancy western elements and turned a blind eye to the interesting essence of our own culture. So as you have seen during the process, my early works were more or less western style, but my latest works are one step closer to the eastern culture. You see as I grow up, I gradually form or strengthen the roots in my own culture, the Chinese culture.  孟阳阳 Meng Yangyang 夏月流银 Silver Summer Moon，2021 120 x 100 cm 布面油画 Oil on canvas / Q: 我对于您的作画过程是比较感兴趣的，因为笔触非常大胆但同时又能够表现出一种非常细腻的情感，那么您是采取普通常见的油画的创作方式吗？还是有什么特殊的创作方式？ I wonder how do you use this kind of bold strokes and at the same time convey transparency and delicateness. Do you adopt the common oil painting creation method? Or is there a special way to create? A: 刚开始进入职业的时候，我的作画方式全凭直觉，大约十五年前，那个时候充满了勇气和无畏，作画方式全靠激情和直觉。经过一段时间纯感性的发挥之后，我发现我自己想表现的东西靠直觉来表现的话，会有一点受局限，而且你会越来越清晰地感受到有自己个性的表达，就是有很强烈的欲望想要有自己独特的印记，经过几年的时间摸索，最后我发现我对书法、中国绘画，一次成型的作画方式非常感兴趣，这种作画方式有别于传统油画堆砌式的，细腻琢磨的方式，这种直率、直接的表现方式更多地来自于中国绘画。但是中国绘画受到颜色的局限和材料的局限，所以我近期几年的作品就在油画材料、画布上有自己独特的处理，让它发挥出类似于中国绘画一次成型的效果。 15 years ago, when I just graduated from my university, I painted everything spontaneously, I just followed my instinct, my passion, my intuition, but soon I noticed that I hit a bottleneck. I wanted to make a breakthrough and create a signature style, like making my painting really unique. So I started to explore the use of traditional Chinese calligraphy which means painting everything just in one go instead of using the traditional oil painting method. But the traditional Chinese calligraphy has its drawback which is there aren't many choices in terms of materials and colors, so I basically try to strike the balance between the two. Therefore, my works in recent years have a unique treatment on oil painting materials and canvases, which makes the effect similar to the one-time molding of Chinese paintings.
孟阳阳 Meng Yangyang 在雪地上写信 Writing in the Snow，2021 150 x 100 cm 布面油画 Oil on canvas / Q: 我的问题比较细节一点，在回归到传统文化的过程中，你是怎样来做这样一个转换和提升，加速学习和成长的？你是否平时有大量阅读的习惯，比如说阅读了哪些类型的书籍？你怎样把这些阅读的内容融合到作品中？ I have a detailed question that is how do you process your transformation or transaction by speeding up the turning back to our traditional culture？What kind of books do you read, and how do you combine and mix the context into your paintings? A: 读书其实是非常有用的，但我个人的经验是走更多的路能有更多真切的体会，所以我在很早以前就意识到了一个问题就是我的作品，包括我由于年龄和阅历的原因，个人根基--特别是作为一个中国人的根基比较浅，不管读了多少书都是浮于表面的，没有深刻地意识到你应该为此做些什么。所以16年的时候我去了一趟欧洲旅行，那一次的体验告诉我很多不一样的东西，东方和西方确实有很大的差异，西方人对自己的文化理解的程度远远大于我们东方人对东方文化的理解程度。所以我回来以后在骨子里发生了很大的变化，我发现我特别渴望补充这方面的缺失。在17年我从北京出发走了古丝绸之路，那一次我非常有目的性地进行了一次古丝绸之路沿线古迹和博物馆的考察，包括每个美术馆。那一次的自驾旅行收获非常大，除了完整地了解了历史文化，还有就是让我更加地独立，去掌握自己需要的东西，去真正理性的思考。实际的体验比看书来得更加有力量，我们应该反复地去做这样的行走，去做这样的活动，来加强这样的感受。 Indeed reading books is very important but I think what matters more is actually the experience in person to experience and see with your own eyes. I used to think my paintings and myself are pretty shallow compared with the deep roots of Chinese culture. And I thought if I was on the road I could learn much more. So I spent 3 months traveling to Europe in 2016. I saw the sharp differences between Chinese and Western arts, and I also noticed that western people are really proud of their culture and have a very deep understanding of it. But in China, it does not seem to be not the case. When I came back to China I just had this huge change: I wanted to reclaim my roots as a Chinese. In 2017, I decided to drive alone along the traditional silk road. I basically visited every museum I met. After I came back from that trip, I became more independent. I felt more motivated to fill the gap that I lost in terms of Chinese culture. So in my experience, compared to reading, traveling to see something in firsthand is much more important and certainly can give you more inspiration. I want to be on the way all the time if possible.  孟阳阳 Meng Yangyang Big Dog，2018 150 x 200 cm 布面油画 Oil on canvas / Q: 您是如何看待，有可能观众最先认识到的是您女性的身份，然后才是您的作品？ My question is how do you handle the issue of people seeing you the person as a beautiful woman first, rather than seeing the work itself? A：其实以前很多人第一次看我的作品的时候都以为我是男生，因为我的作品比较强烈，用笔用色都比较大胆。但是近几年因为女性主义的兴起，大家越来越在意作为一个女性艺术家，你的想法，或者是把你归类到女性主义艺术家这个类别里面。但是对我来说除了我知道我是一个女性，但单纯在创作上层面上没有考虑这个问题。我没有说必须要去做一件女性主义作品，而是很自然地把人作为关注点，而不是性别、社会地位、身份。同时，我在创作内外也清楚自己作为女性的身份。我希望尝试的是在更大的舞台上，放在更大的层面上去看待地球上发生的所有关于人类的内在的和外在的事情。 When I was young, most people thought I was a man when they first saw my work, probably because they thought my painting had pretty bold strokes and radical colors. And to be honest, because of the rise of feminism, many people started to characterize artists as the representative of feminism or not. I don't force myself to put feminism into my work, and all of my paintings are spontaneously focused on human beings, like what we have in common, instead of gender, social status, identities. Meanwhile, I am conscious of my identity as a woman. I try to put myself on a broader stage to focus on all the internal and external things happening on earth about human beings regardless of gender. 关于艺术家 About the Artists 孟阳阳 Meng Yangyang 1983年出生于中国重庆市，2006年于四川美术学院油画系获学士学位，2009年于四川美术学院油画系获硕士学位，现工作和生活于上海。 孟阳阳的绘画对象始终与人物及其身体有关。她以轻盈并具有流动性的笔触将人物心绪与情感具象化，同时对人物形态进行东方气质的提纯与赋形，运用留白和色彩的把控营造暧昧灵动的意境剧场，邀请观众在这些面部与性别模糊的肖像中，寻找诗意与灵魂的共存。孟阳阳曾于BROWNIE Project（中国上海，2021）、五五画廊（中国上海，2018）、J.CHEN画廊（中国台北，2010&2007）、Olyvia Oriental画廊（英国伦敦，2007）等空间举办个展，重要群展包括多伦现代美术馆（中国上海，2021&2018）、喜马拉雅美术馆（中国上海，2019）、中国美术馆（中国北京，2017）、Castello Di Rivara当代美术馆（意大利都灵，2016）、今日美术馆（中国北京，2016）等。孟阳阳曾两次入选罗中立奖学金，作品被纳入包括Olbricht Foundation、PCP Collection等多个国际重要私人收藏。 Meng Yangyang (b. 1983, Chongqing, China) graduated from Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts with a BA in 2006 and an MFA in 2009. She currently lives and works in Shanghai. Human characters and their bodies as perpetual subjects, Meng Yangyang’s work visualizes our moods and emotions with light-bodied and fluid brushwork, refining and reshaping the figures with an Oriental temperament. The negative space and delicate palette in her paintings create an ambiguous yet dynamic theater that invites the audience to find the coexistence of poetry and soul in these misty-faced and genderfluid portraits. Meng Yangyang has been solo exhibited at BROWNIE Project (Shanghai, 2021), Gallery55 (Shanghai, 2018), Gallery J. CHEN (Taipei, 2010 & 2007), Olyvia Oriental Gallery (London, 2007), among others. Her recent group exhibitions include Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art (Shanghai, 2019), Shanghai Himalayas Museum (Shanghai, 2019), NAMOC (Beijing, 2017), Castello di Rivoli Contemporary Art Museum (Torino, 2016), Today Art Museum (Beijing, 2016), etc. Meng Yangyang has twice been awarded the Luo Zhongli Fellowship and her works have been collected by numerous important private collections such as Olbricht Foundation and PCP Collection. 关于ArtCaffè About ArtCaffè ARTCaffè 是一个由意大利工程师Raffaella Gallo创立的非盈利组织。自2017以来，Gallo致力于经营管理ARTCaffè |ARTSeeing 社团，打造一个以上海为基础的分享与当代艺术信息的国际平台。通过这个平台，Raffaella Gallo 也不定期地组织艺术导览、讲座和其他活动。 ARTCaffè is an non-for-profit event founded by Italian engineer Raffaella Gallo(b.1976). Since 2017, Gallo has been managing the ARTCaffè|ARTSeeing community, an international platform where people can share information related to contemporary art, with a focus on Shanghai. Within this platform, Raffaella Gallo also organizes galleries and museums visit, lectures and workshops. Instagram: @artcaffe_byraffaellagallo |
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