蔡锦：美人蕉叶的红色成长

　　蔡锦的画自1990年代初一直都在重复一个主题：美人蕉。她的蕉叶不断的变形和重复，在重复中不断的变化。这种蕉叶被赋予一种非常主观和女性化的红色。红色和蕉叶成了一种个人意义的自我形式，她似乎通过这些像真实的女性那样的蕉叶，将画布作为一个土壤、日常用品或者空场，就此开启了一个与语言世界的独自对话。

　　还没有一个中国女性艺术家像蔡锦这样长期而深入执着于一种自我的形式绘画。尽管美人蕉的形象来自她安徽家乡的一种真实的植物，但蔡锦只是借助它的某些东西，就像蔡锦自己说的，她画芭蕉叶只是在画自己的东西，“只是我借助这么一个东西在画” 。当然，借助的意思只是指一个形式的开端，实际上，还并不是借助于一个芭蕉的图像形状。

　　芭蕉进入画面以后，紧接着是一个变形和色调的主观化。那些芭蕉叶在被蔡锦初次看到时，都已是枯干和松脆状态，并呈现焦黄或者灰黑色，枝叶上还略呈水迹和烟尘。但蔡锦笔下的美人蕉好像被浓稠的血液浸泡过，枝叶的质感甚至有被泡胀后的粘厚和湿腻的纤维状态，这些浓重而被渲染的红色调的蕉叶，还与一些同样浓重的青蓝色的蕉叶层层叠叠的交错在一起，构成一种女性化的繁复和迷离的生命形式。

　　芭蕉枝叶的粘稠感，单体枝叶以及多个枝叶交错在一起的结构，红色调的明暗和深浅，都在蔡锦的画面上不断地微妙变化。这都是一种主观化的处理，这个主观图像又同时具有女性化的特征。事实上，蔡锦从真实的芭蕉叶引用的并不仅是一种植物的形式，而是这种花卉激发了她的自我感受。她后来描述：芭蕉“大片的叶子包裹着树身，一种肌肤的肉红色。原来的绿色已完全没有了，可眼前枯萎的形和色紧紧抓住了我。那根、茎、叶片里仿佛还残存着呼吸，这是一瞬间的无以名状的感触。”

　　蔡锦把自己使用颜料画芭蕉叶，描绘成“粘稠的颜料像一股灵液在画布上侵蚀、蠕动。” “粘稠”是一个特别重要的形式特征，这个词即使指枝叶的质感，也指色调像血液一样。将血红色跟蕉叶联系在一起，几乎是蔡锦一开始就具有的强烈反应。她感觉“那种叶子枯了以后，你可以看到还有血液的感觉，一下子都在那里了，你被它抓住了。那里面好像特别有生命的一种感觉。” 起初，蔡锦的红色美人蕉比较漂亮，是那种单纯的唯美的调子，后来则逐渐向血红、粘稠、浓重的色调演变。

　　红色调可能在九十年代初维持了没几年，蔡锦之后的色调实际上倾向于一种血色，而不是一种绘画意义的红色。红色对于蔡锦而言，好像是一种身体反应，是一种心理或者生理性的颜色。她好像对红色一开始就有一种生理性的血液反应，就如看到枯萎的蕉叶，是一种血液被抽空的感觉。她说“红色叫我痴迷，在这个色域里，我的画笔分外敏感。这是一种内在生命的需要，它完全支配着我的感受。” 在更准确的意义上，红色不是一种绘画性的颜色，而是一种生命性颜色。蔡锦的血红色也曾被人解释为女性主义的性主题，但蔡锦的血红色实际上要包含比性更广泛的内容。

　　蔡锦的红色调并不是始终以一贯之的不变，事实上，她的色调有三个不同阶段的变化。第一阶段是在1990年代初，蔡锦的血红色像一种粘稠的迷离的青春能量，高调的蔓延和往外浸染。第二阶段则是在九十年代中期，血红色开始发污，呈干迹斑斑的血渍状，不再有粘稠感。血污感的这批作品实际上主要是装置绘画，画在诸如床垫、自行车座、女鞋、沙发、睡垫等现成品上，红色发污是由于红色颜料与现成品中的污渍混合后的效果，但蔡锦后来一直延续这种色感。第三阶段则是2000年以来，芭蕉枝叶大部分呈灰黑色，红色只是零星点染，若有若无，一种衰败感好像在蔓延，这似乎回到了蔡锦最初看到的那些枯死蕉叶的表象。这个阶段的画甚至都没打底色，直接在麻布上作画，使灰黑色的蕉叶具有一种灰烬感。

　　这些不同红色调接近一种身体反应，蔡锦也寻求一种不同的媒介形式。第一阶段的美人蕉主要是一种自我象征，画布就像一片土壤，只不过美人蕉被移植到画布上来种植，并像女人的青春成长一样复杂而自我充沛；第二阶段的装置绘画则是一种自我印迹，那些日常用品表面都有柔软的布面或者充塞棉垫层，就像女人用品上的经历痕迹；第三阶段的空白麻布就像一个农家空场，散落着一些红色渐褪的灰黑蕉叶，隐喻着接近一种衰败的归宿。

　　蔡锦一直强调她不是有意要用红颜色，而是来自一种自我需要。她几乎一开始就将真实的芭蕉叶包裹的树身看作是一种肉红色的肌肤，芭蕉枝叶作为一个形式载体，主要是它具有一种“肉红色”，这是一种集形式、质感和色调于一体的形式，用于对应一种自我的变化，女人的外表、生活和内心能量随着时间的变化而兴衰。但也不能仅仅将蔡锦的绘画看作是一种自我表现，她并不只是表现自己在画面外的生活和自我，而是她的大部分时间被与画布束缚在一起。画面形式经常是一个发现、延伸和构造的过程，这就像在画布上培育一棵芭蕉叶，自我就像是一种养料，自我充沛和梦幻的时刻，这棵芭蕉叶就张扬；自我灰暗时刻，芭蕉叶就枯萎。

　　蔡锦的作画都是从局部开始，她将其比喻成“像虫子爬一样的，满满的都侵蚀到了。” 画面“就像在绣花，在编织一件毛衣，无休无止地处于一种状态中。” 蔡锦似乎要让她的绘画像是一种自我的分泌物或者像一种溢出的水迹，她试图处于一个事先并不知道要最终画什么的状态，而是从局部开始，逐步扩展出整个图像形状、结构和色调，这有时候依据形式本身在画面上突然发现的可能性，有时候则按照个人的心性和情绪。她要表现的是一种自我分泌、流露或溢出，但这种被呈现在画布上的又是一种不确定的自我状况。蔡锦喜爱某种混浊的不定形的意象，比如斑痕、水迹，污渍，实际上她画面上的主体还不是芭蕉本身，而是附在芭蕉表面的这种混浊不清的精神意象，从这样一个局部意象开始，让其在画面上延伸和扩展。这种局部的延伸方式也是以一种昆虫、生命或水流的方式，比如蔓延、蠕动、浸染、侵蚀。

　　很难将蔡锦的画归为一种女权主义或者女性主义，事实上她很少有政治和艺术上的关于主义和看法的表达。蔡锦的艺术几乎只涉及一种个人意识和女性方式，但这种个人意识和女性方式具有一种真正意义的现代精神和图像特征。比如她的芭蕉形象倾向于一种复杂、繁琐、粘稠，这些都具有一种个人传记意义的精神分析特征，她将自己的画面结构比喻成像女性编织的毛衣和徽州建筑繁复的窗格，个人就像芭蕉叶的斑痕和水渍一样，在其中无休无止、不胜痛楚的渗入其间，但这种繁琐对不确定体系的深入和探险，又具有一种不厌其烦的神秘吸引力。

　　蔡锦不是在画一种真实的花和植物，而是在创造一种个人意识和通过画面的自我成长。她试图不是按照任何想法绘画，而是真正按照内心的引导，这种引导永远不会知道以后是怎样一种景象，而这正是现代绘画的真正意义和出发点。很少有中国画家能做到这一点,而蔡锦在逐渐接近这一目标。就像蔡锦曾经说过的，她的画现在可能只跟个人有关系，跟艺术史没有什么太大关系，它服从于一种绝对的个人心性和流露，但当这种个人流露深入到一定程度后，也许会跟艺术史发生关系的。

　　 2007年9月14日写于望京

Cai Jin: Beauty Banana Leaves Grow in Red

Written by Zhu Qi

　Caijin has been repeating a single subject – Beauty Banana in her painting since the beginning of 1990s, however, her banana leaves have been changing all along. The leaves are granted a very subjective and feminized color – red. Both the leaves and the color are Cai Jin’s own style. She seems to have started a conversation with the language world through those female-like leaves and by taking canvas as soil, everyday supplies or a barnyard.

There are no other Chinese female artists who have been as deeply devoted to one form of art as Cai Jin has for so long a time. Despite the images of Beauty Banana come from a real plant in her hometown in Anhui, Cai Jin only borrows part of the plant’s traits, just like what Cai Jin once said, “I just refer to it.” Of course, here “reference” only indicates the beginning of a style instead of the image of the plant.

After Beauty Bananas entered the picture, a transformation followed. The color tone became subjective. When Cai Jin first saw the leaves of beauty bananas, they were withered and brittle and appeared sallow or charcoal. What’s more, there were water stains and soot on the leaves. But the Beauty Bananas painted by Cai Jin look like having been soaked in thick blood. The stems and leaves looked thick and wet like fiber, seeming swollen after being soaked. The thick and exaggeratedly redden leaves intervein with those thick and ultramarine leaves layer upon layer, forming a feminized life style which is complicated and mysterious.

Everything on Cai Jin’s painting, including the sticky feeling for the plant’s stems and leaves, interverning of single and multi-branches, and the lighting and depth of hues of red, changes subtlety. This tact is very subjective and the subjective picture has female features at the same time. In fact, what Cai Jin gets from the plant leaves are more than the shape of the leaves. The plant arouses her inner eelings. “Big leaves wrapped the bole, looking like flesh-colored skin. The plant was no longer green, but the withered shape and decayed color caught me,” said Cai Jin later, “It seemed that there was still breath left in the roots, stems and leaves. It was a nameless feeling in a flash.”

As for her painting of banana leaves, Cai Jin describes that “the sticky paint erodes and creeps on canvas”. “Sticky” is an important feature of shaple. It not only refers to the nature of the plant, but also refers to the blood-like hue. TO connect blood red with the leaves was almost the first strong response Cai Jin had. She feels that “The feeling is all there. You can still see the blood after the leaves have withed. You are caught immediately. There is life there.” At first, Cai Jin’s Beauty Bananas have pure and aesthetic hues that were very beautiful. Later, the hues became blood red, sticky and heavy.

The hues of red stayed for only a few years in 1990s. Later Cai Jin tended to work with redness of skin. To Cai Jin, red is like a reaction of human body, a psychological or physiologic color. She seems to have a physiologic blood reaction to red from the very beginning. Just like seeing withered leaves makes one feel blood has been taken out entirely. “I am obsessed with red. My brush is extremely sensitive to this color,” says Cai Jin, “It is an inner need in life, which completely dominates my feeling.” In a more accurate sense, red is not a color for painting, but a color for life. The blood red Cai Jin uses has also been explained as something related to the sexual themes of feminism. But it contains more broad contents than sex actually.

The hues of red are not something that never changes. In fact, there have been three stages. The first stage was at the beginning of 1990s when the blood red was like sticky and mysterious energy in youth, spreading and dip-dyeing exaggeratedly. The second stage was in middle 1900s when the hues became dark and looked like stained with blood. The sticky feeling was gone. These series of works were mainly installation paintings. Cai Jin painted on existing objects like mattresses, bicycle seats, female shoes, sofas and sleeping cushions. They looked black because the red paint mixed with substances already existing. But Cai Jin continued this color all along later. The third stage was since the year 2000. Most of the stems and leaves appeared charcoal, while only few red spots could be seen, as if a feeling of decay was spreading, which seemed like returning to the early time when Cai Jin first saw those withered leaves. She even directly painted on flax without preparing grounding at advance, which made the leaves give viewers a feeling of ashes.

These different kinds of red hues are close to reactions of human body. Cai Jin has been seeking for a different medium too. The Beauty Bananas were symbols of life in the first stage. The Canvas was like soil, on which Beauty bananas were replanted and grew like women’s youth which was complicated but energetic. The installation paintings in the second stage were prints of life. All of those domestic objects have soft covers and cotton fillings, like signs on female necessities. The blank flax in the third stage was like a farm barnyard, scattered with leaves which were losing red color, indicating the coming decay.

Cai Jin has kept emphasizing that she doesn’t use red intentionally. She uses it for her own need. She has been regarding the real plant wrapped by leaves as flesh-colored skin from the start. The flesh-colored stems and leaves gather form, nature and hues together, to reflect the changes, women’s appearance and life, as well as inner energy, which bloom and decline as time goes on. We can not merely regard Cai Jin’s painting as self expression, because she reveals more than her own personality and life. Most of her time is tied up with canvas. The style of a painting often contains a process of discovery, spreading and conformation, just like cultivating a banana plant on canvas. The individual is like fertilizer. When he is energetic and has dreams, the plant will flourish; otherwise, it will wither.

Cai Jin always starts from partial when painting. She describes it as “eroding everywhere like a creeping worm”. “Painting is like embroidering and weaving a sweater, staying in one state forever.” Cai Jin seems to make her paintings look like her own secretion or water flows. She tries to not to think she is going to paint. She gradually finishes the shape, structure and hues of the whole picture, according to the sudden possibilities of the shape sometimes, and personal characters and moods sometimes. What she wants to present on canvas is natural secretion, outpouring and overflowing, all of which are uncertain states. Cai Jin likes turbid and shapeless imagoes like cicatrice，water stains and besmirches. In fact, the subject of her painting is not the banana plant itself, but the turbid spiritual imagoes attached to it. She starts form a partial imago and spreads it to other parts, which is also the way in which insects, life and water flows act，such as spreading，creeping，dip－dyeing and eroding.

It is not proper to define Cai Jin’s painting as feminism. In fact, she seldom expresses her perspectives on politics and arts. Car Jin’s art is almost only involved in one individual sense and feminine style, which has modern spirits and characteristics in a real sense. For example, her images of Beauty Banana tend to be complex, complicated, and sticky. All three features have some depth psychological characteristics in a sense of individual biography. She compares the structure on canvas to sweaters wove by women and complex panes of Huizhou architecture. The person himself seeps into the picture endlessly and painfully, like the cicatrice and water stains on banana leaves. However, this complication has long-lasting mysterious attraction to exploration of the uncertain system.

Cai Jin is not painting a real flower or plant, but creating an individual sense and growing in painting. She tries to paint under her inner guide instead of according to any thought. She never knows what the images will be like. This is the real meaning and starting point of modern painting. Although only few modern painters can reach this point, Cai Jin is approaching to this aim. Just like what Cai Jin says, her painting only has something with herself, but it has no great connection with the art history. It is subjected to an absolute personal character and outpouring. It may have some relations with art history in future when this individual outpouring develops to a degree.

Written in Wangjing
September 14, 2007