Written by Yan Xiasong.
The charm of black and white photography lies in simplicity and simplicity. Human sense has a natural preference for simple information, and being able to separate some regular simple information from complex and changeable nature happens to stimulate human beings' sense of the beauty of things, which is also the philosophical thought of the ancient Chinese tradition. The essence of the art pursued by the photographer Liao Yunzi is precisely this kind of purification and simplicity, giving people a kind of true beauty of life after abandoning the complexity of the world.
Time flies, I have known Mr. Liao Yunzi for more than ten years, in the first few years because I am not in the same city, there are fewer gatherings and more separation, in recent years, I have returned to Zhuzhou, and naturally get together more, often get together, drink tea, talk about some innocuous topics, and most importantly, often talk about his photography and art, philosophy and other related topics. I have a deeper understanding of Liao Yunzi's photography. The reunion is a bit of a return to the primitive, the taste of "wabi-sabi", the pursuit of a simple and simple elegance in the fleeting time and the impermanence of all things.
Liao Yunzi's "Imagery Ink" also draws on the freehand style of classical Chinese ink painting from the return to the primitive and the simple, and the "meaning" in Chinese painting art is originally conceived from the nature of the landscape, which is the integration of man and nature. Liao Yunzi's preference for water has reached the point of no return, and his "imagery and ink" uses water as the carrier, "so there is often no desire to see its wonder, and there is often a desire to observe it". Borrowing the ever-changing instantaneous scenes of water, with the visual context of points, lines and planes, it expresses a rhythmic beauty, a philosophy and a feeling.
Fish Play Remnant Lotus is a bold attempt by Liao Yunzi, the fish in the water double play is mainly gray, with typical ink characteristics, the lotus branches are thick in color, and there is a lot of white space in the space, full of minimalist style of "less is more". The picture pays attention to simplicity, naturalness and vividness, visually giving people a sense of simplicity, openness and smoothness, and the whole photographic work produces a delicate and rich visual aesthetic experience in silence and peace.
Fish Play Remnant Lotus" Liao Yunzi.
Innovation is the life of artistic development, and in the current era of rapid development, art also needs to continue to flow and extend in the times, Liao Yunzi has been thinking about how to change the future of photography art. The biggest limitation of photography is that it is bound by time, there is a limitation of deduction, literature can reproduce scenes by recording, photography does not press the shutter everything becomes history, in addition, visual communication also makes the problem more complicated, which is an imperceptible limitation. According to Buddhist philosophy, photography is "instantaneous creation", and according to Buddhist philosophy, "there is a body in the present, but there is no body in the past", and "all things are changes in birth and death and in an instant, and the previous moment is not the same from the next moment". Liao Yunzi perceives that although photography is constrained by time, if the image of space is extended, then the richness of the image expression of space on a certain scale of time will be enhanced. Photographers should not only transform the "here and now" into a "real" image, but also embody a contemporary humanistic context. This requires us to give full play to our material strengths, extend the media world, jump out of photography theory, exchange space for time, and sublimate the image of the moment into the humanistic wisdom of the moment.
Paying attention to the subject's state of existence reflects the artist's conscience. A philosopher once said that the greatest contradiction between human beings and nature is the contradiction between the rapid disappearance of resources and the expansion of human desires. Infinite plunder is squeezing the living space of human beings, especially the rise of modern industry, which has led to the relationship between people and between people and society becoming more and more alienated, indifferent and withdrawn, and society has given birth to a kind of alienating force, which has made the relationship between man, nature and self out of balance, which also brings a new proposition to the artist, and the artist must expand his vision.
Liao Yunzi's work "Dreamland" embodies this introverted quality, the picture of water in the lower quarter of the work is thick and colorful, very Chinese engraving, and the middle is from the bottom to the top from thick to light, similar to the splash of ink in Chinese landscape painting, and the upper quarter is left blank. The color and ink have changed from heavy to light, from near to far, creating a dreamy artistic conception and opening up the space for people's imagination. At the bottom of the work, you can vaguely identify the real and virtual character configurations, and you may think that these are two people who are facing each other, whether they have the motivation to communicate, or whether they subconsciously defend themselves and make them pass by. Whether they are looking into the boundless and confused distance is a mystery. Different people in the same work may have different artistic conceptions. According to the Swiss art historian Heinrich Wolflin, this is a shift from tentacle to vision, blending the style of Monet, the father of Impressionism.
Dreamland" Liao Yunzi.
Mr. Qian Mu discussed the art of Chinese painting in "The Spirit of Chinese History", "Chinese painting is different, painting mountains does not have to be like mountains, painting trees does not have to be like this tree, but in his paintings, this mountain and this tree can be like his painter's mind and artistic conception." This is the introverted nature of Chinese artists. This is also what Liao Yunzi's new photographic skills need to show. The essence of art is not simply to imitate objects, but to reflect people's thinking in the process of artistic activities.
Photographers must also inherit and develop from the vertical and horizontal axes, the modern world is an era characterized by integration and infiltration, and art should adapt to the development of society. Western Fauvism has absorbed the expressions of the East and Africa, creating a sparse and simplified artistic conception that is different from Western classical painting, and has an obvious freehand tendency. Lin Fengmian, one of the founders of modern art education and modern painting in China, has achieved the perfect unity of oriental charm and western forms, and his paintings have the colors of western fauvism, cubist structure, and impressionist light and shadow.
In recent years, Liao Yunzi has absorbed the freehand of Chinese painting vertically in the continuous exploration of photographic art, and used traditional printmaking and splashing ink. At the same time, he also borrowed Western technology horizontally to enrich his photographic art. It strives to generate a new, individual, and realistic aesthetic understanding through instantaneous scenes.
The Chinese are good at using water to express their aspirations, and the turbidity of water is linked with human morality, and from the ever-changing pictures formed by the flow, fluctuation and reflected light and diffuse light of water, they look for characteristic scenes, so as to reflect the complex relationship between man and society, man and nature. The "Tired Water" series reflects the decadence and fatigue of the industrial age through the exaggerated and distorted lines produced by the light and shadow of water. In addition to the Chinese woodcut and splashing ink techniques, it also integrates Western symbolism, metaphor and exaggeration. It is a typical example of the anthropomorphism of things. The "Tired Water" series is divided into five works: "Frightened", "Lonely", "Wandering", "Confused" and "Struggle", with very different styles. The five works fully mobilize the emotions and imagination of the audience, impact people's hearts with shocking and extreme vision, and achieve the integration of realistic mentality and vision. Postmodernism believes that given a text, representations and symbols have infinite and multi-level interpretive possibilities, and also gives the first person the opportunity to create a second time, and creation and re-creation make the essence of the work expand and sublimate. Liao Yunzi's works achieve the purpose of multiple interpretations in the rich and diverse forms of expression that draw on the strengths of others. In particular, in "Horror", except for the wave lines of very little water below, the whole painting is left with a lot of blank space, and the lines of the work are twisted and exaggerated except for the minimalist picture, expressing an inner truth in the unreal and fantastical scene. The materialization of illusory pictures and the anthropomorphism of real objects are the new artistic styles of Liao Yunzi's photography. The impact of emotional tension, magical and exaggerated imagination, and the direction of spiritual intrinsic essence make Liao Yunzi's works have their own distinctive characteristics.
Frightened" Liao Yunzi.
Liao Yunzi believes that innovation cannot have a "path-dependent" solid-state thinking, and it is necessary to find the road to "nirvana" in the process of constantly examining society and understanding the world. The road is at your feet, and as long as you go forward, there is a view.
First instance: Zhou Xue.
Second trial: Liu Shuqi.
Third trial: Wang Bo.