Chen Linggang 陈灵刚

History on the Paper

When Chen Linggang named his two series of artworks “Heritage” and “Reading”. In his “heritage” series, Chinese ink characters combined with the rugged texture of folds in the rice paper leave a strong impression on viewers. Without a deeper understanding of its history, when traditional Chinese ink painting is completely deconstructed and then reconstructed in a combination of different forms, the significance of these artworks can only arouse our imagination through meaningless symbols. Only if we immerse ourselves in the context of Chinese culture can we directly experience the visual shock of this artistic composition and expression that compels us to question and meditate further on history. In Chen Linggang’s “Reading” series, ink fades away and only the combination of various papers is left. Reading these wordless works is the same as analyzing mysteries in history, which ultimately is the symbolic meaning. The process of reading opens a vast space for the viewer’s imagination.

Excerpts from “History on the Paper” by Rong Jian

纸上春秋

陈灵刚的作品使用了中国传统水墨绘画中两个最基本的元素——纸和墨，但他却以完全不同于水墨绘画的方式来表达他对中国水墨精神的理解。当下流行的各种所谓新水墨绘画，刻意以一种世俗的玩世的或市井的方式来解构旧有的文人绘画传统，用充满着肉感符号和夸张造型的视觉形象来颠覆传统绘画的诗意与意境。这是后现代对古典的肆意解构。在后现代倡导的平面化叙事的背面，体现着是对历史深度的漠视和对传统的背离。陈灵刚的作品，在试图重建艺术和历史的某种关联时，并以自己独有的呈现方式来表达对传统的新的想象时，不管能否取得学术和市场的认可，至少为我们重新理解传统艺术元素的创造性转换提供了一种新的可能性。在他的作品面前，我们能够油然联想到艺术形式的变迁实际也是一部春秋史。

陈灵刚用《阅读》和《传承》来命名他的两个作品系列。在《传承》系列中，水墨的汉字造型和宣纸折叠出的粗狂肌理凸显出一种形式化的张力，在把中国传统水墨绘画彻底解构为一些形式的组合时，作品的“意义”似乎已经溶解在那些没有意义的符号中，它至多只是提供给我们一些联想和比附，只有身临中国文化的语境，你才能直接感悟着这种语言构成和表达对我们的视觉冲击，并促使我们对历史的思索和与追问。在《阅读》系列中，墨也被消解了，留下的纯粹是各种纸张的组合，在这个无字的阅读中，就如同历史所营造的所有未解之谜一样，最后呈现的只是一种象征性，而意义的解读则为所有人的心灵想象打开了空间。

在一个图像爆炸和物欲横流的时代，在一个已经忘记了历史甚至刻意背叛历史的时代，一个对历史和文化充满敬畏的年轻人，只是凭着一种直感和潜在的历史意识，在其同龄人的视野之外，用现代的或当代的观念，书写出自己的文本。这或许也是一种历史的写作。

——荣剑

The mission of young Chinese artists ill the early 21st century has been to redefine a Chinese aesthetic in a contemporary context It is a generation parented by Red Guards who in their revolutionary zeal ironically sought to smash all vestiges of traditional Chinese culture. Today’s young artists have subsequently been raised in all environment of accelerated economic growth and have readily consumed the information super highway of homogenized global culture This recent history has engendered in many young Chinese a crisis of identity and a feeling of cultural loss. Chen Linggang’s extraordinary artistic expression is a manifestation of this contemporary consciousness and cultural concern．

In retracing his cultural heritage Chen Linggang is drawn to the medium of paper. Paper being not only China’s greatest contribution to civilization, but also has been the currency of Chinese artistic expression for thousands of years. In the “Heritage” cycle he applies his own calligraphic renditions of ancient poems and philosophic tracts from Spring and Autumn period. In his “Reading” series the artist appropriates texts torn from classic novels of the Ming and Qing. The yellowing pages from discarded books create panels of earthen texture. The scrunched black type face conjures eroded mountain and water landscapes of the past．

For Chen Linggang language is the DNA of culture. The symbolic pictograms and ideograms of Chinese calligraphy encode the visual and aural perceptions of our ancestors and Encrypt a way of life. In this computer age we lament the fact That we no longer hand write the Chinese character and in fact have forgotten how to do so. In the ‘Heritage’ canvasses the artist crumples his calligraphic works on rice paper and embeds them in a matrix of gridation. The original characters become obscured or distorted, the viewer is forced to reexamine and unravel the inherent meaning of the text．

Within the geometric grid the artist visually compresses both past and present We are reminded of the hypnotic pursuit of harmony and balance in the traditional grids of character composition. Now we are mesmerized only by the dissolving pixilation of our I pads In the gridation the artist also leads us to a reflection upon architectural form and we remember the community grids of hutongs and traditional town planning. At the same time the artist invites a dissertation on the confinement of culture in the new ‘great wall’ of urban high rise.

In his abstraction of language. text and landscape Chen Linggang cleverly creates elegant grids of conceptual depth and aesthetic appeal His unique visual language engages us in a dialogue of both past and present and we share with him an appreciation of our heritage．

George Michell Yang

Director Studio Rouge

廿一世纪初期的中国青年艺术家们的使命就是要在当代艺术语境下重塑一个中国美学观，极具讽刺的是，这代人的父辈恰恰是当年的红卫兵，在那个革命的年代满腔热情地要剔除一切中国传统文化。如今的这些成长在这个经济高速增长时期的青年艺术家们也在消费着这条高速信息道上不断被同质了的全球文化。这段历史也使得中国很多的年轻人心中产生身份危机感和文化迷失感。陈灵刚的艺术创作正是反映此当下意识和文化思考的杰出表现。

陈灵刚在追溯他自己的文化传承过程中被纸张所深深吸引了。纸一不仅是中国对文明的最伟大贡献，而且还是中国几千年来贯用的艺术表现媒介。他的《传承》系列中，采用的素材是自己对春秋时期古诗的书法再创作，在《阅读》系列中，艺术家用的则是从明清小说中撕下来的页面。这些从废弃图书中取出的发黄了的纸张呈现出的是一块块土地的肌理，而那些被揉搓成的黑色字体构成的则是山蚀水流的历史地景。

对于陈灵刚而言，语言就是文化的基因。中国书法的表象性和表意性映射了我们祖先的视听经验和生活方式。而在这个电脑时代里我们发现自己不再习惯手写汉字，有时甚至会忘记如何写字。在《传承》系列中，艺术家把自己写在宣纸上的书法作品揉皱成团，然后把它们放入一个个方格之中，原来的字体变得模糊和扭曲，观者被迫去重新审视和诠释这其中固有的文本信息。

 过去和现在被艺术家同时挤压入一系列几何方格时，不禁令人意识到传统的汉字构成方式中对和谐与均衡的追求，而如今我们只被ipad像素化的现实感而着迷。通过这些方格子，艺术家引领我们联想建筑的形式，让我们记起胡同构架的社区以及传统的城市规划。同时引发对城市摩天楼筑成的新“长城”而产生的文化隔阂的探讨。

陈灵刚在他对语言、文字和地景的抽象过程中创造了由思想性和美学性编织而成的优美方格。他以独特的视觉语言把我们带入一个现实和过去的对话之中，并和大家共享了他对我们文化遗产的一种赏识。

杨传照

艺术总监外滩红寨画廊