By Night — Manifesting Reality
— Some thoughts on Han Qing’s oil painting
Han Qing’s works expose human nature and social reality through renderings of the evening light. Perhaps daytime is not our real life, but night is our real life.
Han Qing’s work is filled with a kind of sadness, like the artist himself. Han Qing is not an outgoing person who makes a strong first impression. You even feel a little impatient talking with him, because his Mandarin is not very standard, and he speaks very slowly, so you must first adapt for some time to be in tune with him. Moreover, his thoughts tend to jump around, and sometimes his replies leave you lost, far from what you wanted to get out of him. His way of thinking is similar to that of a poet. Actually he used to make music before. Perhaps the fluidity of music causes his thoughts to grow unstable and jumpy. Still, this “off” expression has not influenced his clear articulation of the innate meaning of his works.
Han Qing started to paint the night light since 2000. He attempted to borrow the desolate and dazzling light to express the sense of lost, confusion, and loneliness of our contemporary lives. By day, we exist as a group; by night, we become ourselves. By daylight we camouflage ourselves; only by night do we contemplate who we are, liberating ourselves. By day we pretend to be sanctimonious angels; by night, alongside the devil, we indulge ourselves in fervor and desire. The night is a paradise for desire, a place where our hearts long to arrive. Yet the night is also a hellish place where we perish, losing ourselves to lasciviousness and luxury. If daytime is the high tide of life, then night is when we get to taste its authentic meaning. As the sun goes down, the streetlamps start to shimmer. These artificial lights lose their natural touch. In this fictive landscape, we start to reconsider the occurences and circumstances of daytime. What comes into our minds? When you walk on the expansive street after all the Dionysian indulgence and fervor, as street lights elongate your form, as the distanced automobile headlights stab your eyes—you look ahead, attempting to discern some truth: who’s walking in that far-off place, and what is happening there?
Perhaps, our lives in the daylight isn’t real after all, it is the night that truly defines us. In terms of painterly language, Han Qing used those rosy reds, perhaps a subtle hint of sensual desire, to convey the authentic lives of modern citizens, which are ambiguous, forlorn, and at loose ends. Han Qing’s oil painting relies on a different set of techniques compared to other artists. Many artists start from the darker colors as they paint, but Han Qing starts from the brightest, lightest colors, and when the painting is nearly done, no revisions are made. Like pencil sketches or developing photos, the texture of his work is very thin and the paint, very watery. This method can only be accomplished quickly, in a state of fermenting passion, which may be a reflection of his character, as he leads his life in passionate indulgence. The nocturnal life is what he paints about himself, standing in the street on a desolate night, the light of cars passing him by—what could he be thinking? What do these works tell us? Do we feel the same way? Are we all equally lonely and lost? Where are we going from here?
Zhao Shulin
March, 2006, Beijing
在夜里——再现真实
— 对韩情油画的一点认识
韩情的作品有一种迷幻的忧伤，和他这个人有很相像的地方。韩情给人的印象并不是那种很张扬的人，和他谈话你会觉得有点着急，因为他的普通话说的不是很标准，而且语速很慢，你需要适应一段时间才能听得清楚。而且他的思维跳跃性很强，有的时候他回答你的问题会让你觉得似乎和你想知道的东西离的很远，这种思维方式有点像个诗人，而其实他原来也做音乐的，也许是音乐的那种流动性使他的思想也变得不是很稳定，出现跳跃性，但是这种表达并没有影响到他把自己作品的内涵阐述清楚。
韩情是从2000年之后开始绘画这些关于夜晚灯光的作品的，他试图借用这种夜晚凄迷、眩目的灯光来表达出当代人生存状态的那种失落，迷茫和孤独。白天我们是一群人，晚上我们成为自己。白天我们把自己伪装在一种假象中，只有到了晚上我们才知道自己是谁，我们才开始解放自己；白天我们假装天使，道貌岸然，夜晚我们才和魔鬼一起放纵激情和欲望。夜是我们欲望的天堂，是我们内心想要到达的地方，然而夜也是地狱，我们在夜里沉沦，我们在夜里将自己放弃，我们在夜里体验淫荡和奢华。如果白天是生活的全部高潮，那么在夜里我们开始体味人生的真谛。天黑下来的时候，灯光开始亮起来，那些人造的灯光失去了自然的光芒，在这种假象中，我们开始反思白天的境遇，这个时候我们想到什么？在激情和放纵之后，当你走在空旷的街上，路灯拉长了你的身影， 远处车灯会刺伤你的眼睛，你的目光会向远方延伸，你企图看清一些真相，在更远的地方有谁还在行走，那里会发生一些什么？
韩情的作品通过对于夜里灯光的描述为我们揭示出掩盖在生活表面背后的人性及社会的真实场景。也许白天并不是我们的真实生活，而夜才是我们的本真。在油画语言上，韩情使用了那些玫瑰红，甚至是一种隐含色情的肉欲的色彩传达出当代人真实的生活状态，这种每天都发生在我们生活现中的状态正是都市人暧昧、凄迷、无所适从的真实现状。韩情的油画和其他的艺术家在创作上也有着一些不同的手法，很多艺术家在创作油画作品的时候都是从深颜色画起，而韩情的作品却是从浅颜色和最亮的色彩开始画起，颜料几乎是一遍完成不做修改，有点像画素描或者照片的显影，他的画面很薄，颜料很稀，这种方法只能在一种激情的状态下迅速完成，这也许正是反映了他的性格，因为他这个人的生活几乎就是在一种激情的放纵之中的消耗，昼伏夜出的生活正是他作品对于自己的描述，在凄迷的夜晚，他站在街头，汽车的灯光从他的身边划过，他想到了什么？那些作品告诉我们些什么？我们是否也和他有着相似的感受？我们是不是也同样的孤独和迷茫？我们要走向什么地方？
赵树林
2006年3月于北京