Alex Carroll‘s art studio spans an entire floor of his family’s Shanghai home. After brewing a fresh pot of jasmine tea and leading me up to the second floor, he bittersweetly admits that there will be no such spacious luxuries after he and his family moves back to America next year. The room is filled with supplies and a series of works that range from pieces in the idea stage to fully completed works. I spent very little of the morning directing our conversation; Alex articulates his thoughts in the same way that he creates his large visual pieces – with purpose. His words are profound with meaning and balanced with both humour and humility. Through chatting with him over the course of an afternoon, I came to know him as a true advocate for boundless creativity and as someone deeply respectful of the China that he has come to call home for the last decade.
在Alex Carroll 位于上海的家中，他的艺术工作室便占了整整一层楼。Alex Carroll 为我煮了一壶茉莉花茶后，带着我上了二楼, 他苦中带乐地表示，明年他和家人回到美国定居后就再也不能享受到这样宽敞的空间了。在这个艺术工作室中，摆满了艺术用品和一系列由他创作的作品，既有处于构思阶段的作品，也有已经完成的作品。当天早上的采访中，只有小部分的时间我需要引导我们的对话，大部分时候，Alex Carroll都能准确清楚地来表达着他的想法，一如他在创作大型的视觉作品时那样，总是带着明确的主题。他的话语意味深长，又不失幽默和谦卑。一整个下午，通过与他的对话，我逐渐了解到他是一名真正在拥护无限创意的艺术家，以及他对中国所怀有的深深的敬意。在过去十年来，这里一直被他称为是自己的“家”。
Neocha: Each one of your pieces is extremely textural and fluid; what mediums do you predominantly work with in order to create the moving energy that is present within your art pieces?
Carroll: I play around a lot with the ideas of the physical and metaphysical. With a charcoal stick, I can communicate a bigger idea by bringing this “dead” material to life. I’ve always thought that working with charcoal was very romantic. I’m able to get this rich value from using black, with only the paper as highlights. I try to achieve density and transparency. Finding a nice balance between light and dark enables me to create the overall mood of each piece.
Neocha: 你的每一件作品都拥有非常突出的纹理质感和流畅性。在创作的时候，你主要会采用什么样的工具来营造出作品中这些充满动感的能量的呢？
Carroll: 我经常会以形而下和形而上的理念来尝试创作，譬如，通过木炭笔，我可以为这些“死”的”材料注入生命力，用以传达出更大的理念。我一直认为，只用木炭笔来创作是一件非常浪漫的事情。只用黑色来创作，我也能够打造出丰富的效果，而画纸就是我唯一的高光色彩。我尝试表现出密度和透明度，如果能在光与影之间找到一个好的平衡，就能让我在每一件作品中营造出整体的情绪。
Neocha: Can you tell us more about your drawing process? How does your art go from concept to completion?
Carroll: Drawing is both an additive and a subtractive procedure. For me, what is taken away is just as important as what is put down. I go out and buy erasers in the same way that I buy pencils; I give it the same attention to detail because I like the erased mark as much as I like the drawn mark. Drawing is about having this vocabulary of marks that you can employ to create the work. You build up a language and the more words you can utilise in your speech, the more dynamic your speech is.
I like to get my drawings to a point where everything flows together – what really excites me is working in black and white with a figure. It’s about being able to trace softness, hardness, density and light. Because our figures are like that; the way we move, when we add stress on one leg, that movement is hard, dark and bold. For my Transient series, I set about capturing movement through space. Each piece is derived from photographs; it represents metaphysical bodies moving out of sync with the physical surrounds and how we all have an expiration date.
Neocha: 你能跟我们分享一下你的绘画过程吗？从作品构思到最后完成创作，这一过程是怎样的？
Carroll: 绘画是一个不断加加减减的过程。对我来说，被擦掉的内容与加入的内容是同等重要的。我在外面买橡皮擦的时候和我买铅笔的时候是一样的谨慎，我都会考虑到至为细微的细节，因为对我来说，被擦除的痕迹与我所描画的痕迹是一样重要的。绘画其实就是在利用一系列自己掌握的“痕迹”来创作出作品，这些“痕迹”就像是语言的词汇一样，你在学习一种语言时，当你积累了越多的单词，你就可以用在你的演讲中，进行更好的表达。
我希望让自己创作的绘画作品产生让所有元素融汇在一起流动的效果，最让我兴奋的是，只用黑色和白色来创作人物廓形。这样的创作需要描画出柔软感、硬度、密度和光线。因为我们的轮廓就是这样的。而表达我们的移动方式时，我们会往一条腿上施力，所表现的状态应该是强硬的，用深度并且大胆的方式展现。在我的《Transient》 系列中，我通过一定的空间来定格运动。每一件作品都是源自于摄影作品的再创作，它代表了形而上的物体与形而下的环境之间的不同步。它还意味着，我们都有一个“保质日期”。
Neocha: How has moving to China influenced your art and the way that you create?
Carroll: Art is so valued here in China. The language itself is an art, writing Chinese is an art. Chinese calligraphy is a series of spontaneous gestures, but yet, every stroke is so learned and practised. I love that immediacy, where the brush stroke breaks and the white of the paper comes through. Coming to China and seeing this whole school of thought; that really affirmed what I was doing and it got me excited about the kind of work that I could create here. I have been so privileged to be in a culture that appreciates art and appreciates that kind of thinking – that just doesn’t exist in America.
Neocha: 移居中国对你的艺术作品以及你创作的方式有什么影响？
Carroll: 在中国，艺术是如此的宝贵。中文这种语言本身就是一门艺术，书写汉字也是一门艺术。中国的书法由一系列自然而然的姿态组成，但每一笔都体现着学习和练习的功力。我喜欢那种即时可见的效果，当毛笔提起时，纸张的白色逐渐透现出来。来到中国，目睹这种思想学派，让我真正明确了自己的艺术创作，因此，一想到我在这里能够进行的创作我就感到非常兴奋。我很庆幸自己能来到这里，这里的文化能真正地欣赏艺术和理解这种理念，这是美国的文化中所缺乏的。
Neocha: In addition to being an artist, you’ve also been an art educator for many years. How has teaching impacted on your perception of art as a whole?
Carroll: I believe that creativity from art paves the way to understanding the world and building self-knowledge. I didn’t grow up in a very creative household. For the longest time, I saw art as a hobby and drawing was something that I did to pass the time. My parents never discouraged it, but they didn’t encourage it. I think it’s so important for kids who don’t have an artistic outlet at home to be able to go to a classroom and see their creations as achievements. Beyond being fun, art is an achievement and it’s a joy to see kids exceed their own expectations – that’s why I teach. Art education is so important; I really believe that it is the key to building self-worth. There are some artists who are confident in what their art is and their artistic voice is so strong. But I’m humbled by art. I love that I can draw. I feel very privileged that I can draw and I always have. When I draw, I don’t necessarily see it as “this is what I can do”, but rather I see it as, “this is what was given to me.” And it’s my job to keep practising it. I’m not a religious person, but I am a spiritual person, and I see this ability as a gift rather than just a talent.
Neocha: 除了身为一名艺术家，你同时也担任了多年的艺术教育工作。总的来说，教学的经验对你的艺术认知有什么影响呢？
Carroll: 我相信来自艺术的创意能帮助人们理解世界和建立自我认知。我并非出身于一个非常有创意的艺术家庭；在很长的时间里，我一直将艺术视为一种爱好，把绘画当作打发时间的事情。虽然我的父母从未阻止我画画，但他们也没有鼓励我去画画。我认为对于那些在家中难以抒发出自己艺术创意力的小朋友，如果能够去到教室中学习，让他们将自己的创作视为成就，对他们来说是很重要的。除了好玩，艺术也是一种成就，当看到孩子们的创作超过他们自己的期望时，实在是一件很令人开心的事情。这就是为什么我选择做教育的原因。艺术教育是如此重要，我真的认为它是建立自我价值的关键因素。有一些艺术家对自己创作的作品十分自信，他们艺术风格是如此的强烈。但艺术让我感到谦卑。我很开心我能绘画，我感到非常幸运，自己会画画，并能够一直坚持画画。 当我绘画时，我不会觉得“这是我所能够做的事情”，而是“这是我所被赐予的礼物”，所以我的责任是不断地练习。我不是宗教人士，但我是一个有精神信仰的人，在我看来，这种能力并不纯粹只是一种能力，更是一份天赐的礼物。
