On a hazy Saturday afternoon, Beijing’s 798 Art Zone feels like a small city center, buzzing with activity. There’s a refreshing excitement for art in the air. Chinese contemporary painter Xie Qi has agreed to meet in a coffee shop opposite UCCA to discuss her latest series of oil paintings, Clavicle.
“The themes I like the most are the big ones in life—tragedy and comedy together,” says the artist. Xie has been exploring the use of light and the human figure for years, giving her work a quality that’s both spectral and corporeal. For Clavicle, she added a new layer of drama by depicting the human body in various natural poses illuminated by expressive bands of light. The artist sees the clavicle as a line between portraiture and figuration, an axis holding the surrounding parts into focus.
在一个天气朦胧的周六下午，北京的 798 艺术区感觉就像一个缩小的市中心，人声鼎沸，热闹非凡，空气中弥漫着一股因艺术而生的兴奋气息。中国当代画家谢其此时正在 UCCA 尤伦斯当代艺术中心对面的咖啡馆里，讨论着她的最新油画作品系列《锁骨》（Clavicle）。
“我喜欢的创作主题往往是那些生命中的重要议题——悲剧，以及喜剧。”谢其说。多年来，这名艺术家一直在探索如何利用光线和人体来创作，而这也让她的作品充满一种既虚幻又写实的风格。在《锁骨》中，她通过极具表现力的光影叠加效果，勾勒出摆着各种自然姿势的人体，赋予此一系列更多戏剧性。在谢其看来，锁骨是肖像和人体之间的分界线，一条将四周部位划入焦点区域的轴线。
Xie moved from Chongqing to Beijing more than 20 years ago to attend the Academy of Art and Design at Tsinghua University. She often wonders why she hasn’t left the city yet, especially since rocketing studio prices are making it increasingly hard for artists to support themselves. But she says the difficulties are worth it: “Comfortable is not good for art. Beijing relates directly to my work, and here I have to keep things simple.” Besides, she adds, the city gathers open-minded people from all walks of life, such as her friends, many of whom are her subjects for Clavicle.
20 多年前，谢其从重庆搬到北京，进入清华大学美术学院学习。她经常问自己为什么还没有离开这座城市，尤其是不断上涨的工作室租金让艺术家的生存变得日益困难。但她认为，承受这种困难是值得的：“舒适安逸并不利于艺术创作。北京与我的作品是直接相连的，而生活在这里代表我必须一切从简。”此外，她补充说，这座城市聚集许多来自各行各业的心态开放的人，譬如说她的朋友，其中许多位还成为了《锁骨》系列的模特儿。
Her process for this series began with setting the lights and photographing her subjects. “This was a moment different from ordinary life,” she says. “We could feel each other.” Based on the photos, she then drew on the canvas, paint the first layer, wait several days for it to dry, and then paint the second layer. It took her years to complete the entire series.
One of the most fascinating portraits is the profile of a man with a fearful expression, only partly visible in the ethereal darkness. Xie met the subject, French Lacanian psychoanalyst Michel Guibal, during an art residency in Paris. Guibal trained the very first school of Chinese students of Lacan. When Xie Qi took his photograph, he was ill and bedridden, but that didn’t prevent him from sitting for her. He passed away shortly thereafter.
在创作该系列作品时，她会先设置好灯光，拍摄下要画的人物对象。她说：“这个时刻与平时截然不同，我们要互相感觉到对方。”之后，在照片的基础上，她开始在画布上作画——先画第一层，等待几天颜料干后，再画第二层。她一共花了多年的时间才完成整个系列的创作。
其中最引人入胜的一张画像是一个男人的侧脸，脸上流露着恐惧的表情，在虚无的黑暗中若隐若现。这幅画的原型是法国拉康学派精神分析学家吉布尔（Michel Guibal），谢其是在巴黎一个艺术家驻留项目中与他相识。吉布尔是第一个给中国学生培训拉康的讲师。谢其拍摄他的照片当时他正身患重病，卧床不起。但他依然努力坐起来给她拍摄。在那不久之后，吉布尔就去世了。
One might say that there is a psychological analysis behind Clavicle, as if the paintings were a direct representation of the mental state of the subjects. The artist, however, maintains that the identity and narrative of her subjects were never important to her—the body was not a means to an end; it was the actual end. “Appearance and shape, observed from different angles, are truly the main points,” she explains. “But of course there is always something behind it.”
有些人可能会认为《锁骨》一系列隐含心理分析的成分，每一幅画仿佛都是画中人物的精神状态的直接展示。但谢其坚称，创作对象的身份和故事对她来说并不重要，身体不是达成目的手段，身体本身就是目的。“从不同角度去观察外表和形体才是真正的重点。不过当然，创作背后总是不免地会有弦外之音。”她解释说。
Xie’s dramatic use of light also powerfully conveys emotions. “The lights put the subjects on a stage, connoting a certain predicament or dilemma,” she notes. For her recent show in Shanghai, she expanded this use of light outside the canvas, with an installation of neon lights that immerses the audience in her world. She had the idea after learning that the gallery space had previously been a massage parlor and front for a brothel. She plays with the sordid history of the building, adding a new layer of lechery to the exhibition.
The Clavicle series is a breakthrough for the artist. She will soon release a catalog of the exhibition containing all the artworks. Given the explicit nature of the content, she’ll have to find an independent publisher, yet she doesn’t seem bothered much by this fact. “As an artist,” she says, “I have to find a way.”
此外，谢其运用戏剧性的光线来有力地传达情感。“灯光将人物置于舞台中，暗示着某种窘迫或困境。”她解释道。这次在上海的展览她特别将光线搬离画布外，通过霓虹灯装置，让观众更沉浸在她所创造的世界中。她是在得知画廊空间以前曾是一间按摩院和妓院的前厅后，才有了这个想法。她利用这幢建筑过去不洁的历史，让现场更流露一股纵欲的氛围。
对谢其来说，《锁骨》系列是她创作上的一次突破。不久后她将发表一本收录所有作品的展览目录。鉴于画面的内容较为赤裸，她必须寻找独立出版商，但她似乎不受这个问题的困扰。她说：“作为一个艺术家，我必须设法去找寻出路。”
