冠山風 Guanshan Gathering | 王冬龄 Wang Dongling
2013
王冬齡 Wang Dongling
草書 水墨紙本
Cursive Script, Ink on Paper
30 x 65 cm / 11.8 x 25.6 in
$ 4,000
Guanshan is a scenic spot near the Changhe ancient town in Binjiang District in Hangzhou. There were originally ancient temples on the mountain, but later they were destroyed during disturbances. Although they were rebuilt later, they were no longer as before. On April 12, 2013, Zheng Shengtian, Wang Dongling, Mao Weiqing, and several other artists were invited by Huang Luoya to her elegant residence at the foot of Guanshan, discussing plans for exhibitions. They set up a group chat called “Guanshan Gathering”, which was later used as the name for the exhibition.
Once by accident, Zheng Shengtian discovered the brilliant artistic effect that was created by the interaction between ink and canvases, which made him think about different artistic means represented by different media. This confrontation and variation surprisingly happened to be so similar to cultural intersection and misreading. Later in an article titled “Misread and Re-read”, Zheng further elaborated on this concept and said that “it might be impossible to achieve 100% of understanding, but the process of misreading and re-reading should never end.” Focusing on this concept, he has created a piece of video installation, which was exhibited in the show Word and Meaning curated by Shen Kuiyi in 2000 in the US. This time, in Guanshan Gathering, he invited the calligrapher Wang Dongling to join this art production. During the exhibition, there was a video camera recording the whole process of Wang writing Zong Bing’s “Introduction to Landscape Painting” on irregularly prepared canvases. It was edited into a six-minute video piece, which uses different focal points to demonstrate the encounter and interaction between canvases and ink. The audio part was translated using Google Translate, which reinforces the sense of alienation that this dissimilation of traditional calligraphy brings out. Guanshan Gathering was originally unintentional, so let’s just attribute it to the creativity that “misunderstanding” accidentally brought.
冠山是杭州滨江长河古镇附近一处名胜，山上本有古刹，惜毁于动乱，虽后有重修，今非昔比。2013年4月12日，郑胜天老师与王冬龄、茅为清等相聚冠山脚下商讨展览计划，建微群名“冠山风”，后亦以此为展览名。
一次偶然的机会，郑老师发现水墨与油画布交融的艺术效果，遂联想不同媒材各自代表的艺术手段，这种对抗和变异，与文化交遇与误读的经验如此相似。后来在一篇题为《“误读”和“再读”》的文章中，郑老师进一步发挥说：“百分之百的读通或译准可能永远都不会达到，但误读与再读的过程也永远都不应该中断。” 他在2000年曾以此概念创作过一件影像装置，在美国沈揆一策划的《文字和意义》（Word and Meaning）展览中呈现。这次展览他特别邀请书法家王冬龄加入，展览全程录像冬龄在特制画布上书写宗炳《畫山水序》的过程。并剪辑成6分钟的录像作品，以简洁的不同焦点叠现展示了水墨与画布的不期之遇。音频部分采用Google的中文阅读和英文翻译，更加强了将传统书法异化所出现的疏离感。