Metamorphosis of Butterflies
— A Review of Yinan’s Artistic Creation
by Ji Shaofeng, Director of Hubei Museum of Art
Butterflies in numerous postures constitute the main theme of Chen Yinan’s first solo exhibition, which presents us a visual feast by the fickle and colorful world of butterflies.
Chen Yinan, an artist who looks through the truth of human lives through the metamorphosis of butterflies, confronts us with the birth and death, beauties and sorrows of butterflies, their being struggling to get out of the cocoons and fly freely afterwards, as well as with her “immersive” thinking and grasping of the fickle butterflies.
The immersive thinking and immersive exhibition offer the audience an immersive experience of metamorphosis of butterflies. By that way, artistic experiences and daily experiences are inextricably interwoven through Chen Yinan’s exhibition - “Metamorphosis”. It is without doubt that the inevitable understandings presented in the exhibition are surely to partly derive from the combination of unity and differences for mutual experiences of group and personal experiences of Chen Yinan, as well as a hidden uncertainty among them. For only by this kind of uncertainty can the current existing conditions of orders and norms be broken, and it is one of the inspirations brought by the “metamorphosis of butterflies” to the audience. The fascination born by Chen Yinan with butterflies undoubtedly stems from her personal experiences, which suggests that butterflies are so beautiful to attract you, but they indeed arouse your fear. While the fascination with horror and fantasy, as well as the thinking of living and death, are the main sources of inspiration for art creation. On one hand, Chen Yinan shows her calmness and objectivity like a biologist or museum scholar; On the other hand, she bears romances and literary thoughts as artists. The perceptions of those two kinds of social identities are interwoven in a contradictory way. Not only from the perspective of butterflies in scope of what are involved in biology, or in other words, the natural history, but also from a deep perception of humility in philosophy, the idea she manages to express by the image of butterflies and in a perceptual way, seems to be the fate of butterflies referring to the sorrow journey and fate of butterflies from birth to death, but the implicit essential idea contained in a metaphoric way of the exhibition refers to the living predicament of people in real circumstances.
The existence of butterflies in the nature is as objective as the life of Chen Yinan in our world, which symbolizes “the id”; the butterflies in museum are displayed as biological specimens after their lives end, which refers to the motionless life. Butterflies made of various materials as paper butterflies, ceramic butterflies etc....are not only artistic butterflies, but also the self-presentation of art life of Chen Yinan. Artificial, natural and compound butterflies expand space and continuously change the states with time, as well change the time itself. It is actually the thoughts of the nature of human soul which are reflected from those characters as order in chaos and constant changes, from life, body, identity, ethnic groups, society, memory, repression, repetition and order, from empty grief and gloomy depression, from the unity of existing orders and perceptual orders, from the truth and falsehood, illusoriness and reality, large and small, repetition and diversity, space and time, symbols and entities, from the continuous changes and fleeting moments, and from the unpredictability and routine affairs, through the essence and form of butterflies made of various materials. It’s just a mean by which the essence of human soul emerges through the form of butterflies.
The visual narration of Chen Yinan takes a covert record of the extension of life trajectories in space and time under the circumstances of the unity of diversity of colors and form, the extreme simplicity and extreme complexity, the uniformity in seeming disorder, the internal logistic and order in seeming chaos, and the uncertainty. It is an independent state that mixes up the integration into the urban society and the feeling of restraints and trammels from mass in society, with neither willing to lose oneself nor having courage to demonstrate oneself and identity. It is a gradually increasingly implicit self. It reveals a dilemma where individuals tend to escape from what they have already relied on.
Chen Yinan selects a visual symbol -- the butterfly, which is a way of expression intimate to personal experiences, especially the spirit of one’s own. Despite the difficulties in distinguishing beauty, truth and falsehood of butterflies, and the beautiful moments butterflies bring to her, it would frequently leave her fears, vertigo and collapses, and bring to her the broken dreams and realities, as well as anxious living experiences and confusions. That kind of anxiety has been accompanying her since the very moment she stepped into the society, for the cause of which she feels constrained to contemplate the real living circumstance she relies on. It also enables her to nurture an academic character of sedulous and good thinking as well as proficiency of expression. “This is an exhibition of my own kind.” from which she has repeatedly stressed, we can get a glimpse of the persistence, tenacity and adherence in her characters. She uses the virtual meaning of metamorphosis of butterflies to symbolize the reality of daily life. She realizes an integration of the spiritual imagination of self, real desires and unreal scenes. What she has constituted is a present world repulsed by the inner spirit, where there are crammed dissociation and reconstruction, beauty and pity, sorrow and pain, relaxation and heaviness, hope and disappointment, and the opposition and contradiction of the spirit of flesh. She takes advantage of the game psychology and curiosity of herself through the vague butterflies that are impossible to distinguish between the fake and genuine ones, to express an amazing similarity between the obscurity of art and the obscurity of reality. While so much of the so-called truth of reality is so difficult for the audience to distinguish between truth and falsehood. The thoughts of Chen Yinan just lie in the world of butterflies, and the real Chen Yinan must be hidden among the butterflies of the immersive exhibition. Thus, Chen Yinan who has shown the attendance of sincerity of herself, and who has been increasingly integrated into the urban reality from school to society, and from individual to group, is displayed so quietly in front of the audience. It is especially revealed by the ceramic butterflies when Chen Yinan selects the ceramic as the medium material for the visual self-expression, and the medium material actually equals to concept. For the ceramic itself not only represents an essential symbol for the national culture, which is one of the symbol courtesy of the national culture, but also bears strong spiritual attributes of oriental world, with inevitably fragility of itself. That is also indisputable fact, from which the audience can get a clear understanding of the Chen Yinan’s awareness of problems crammed in it. From this way, the audience is also able to have insights on Chen Yinan’s awareness of problems crammed in it. What the repeated butterflies bring us are not just the endless imagination of “metamorphosis of butterflies” and one kind of energy of motion deriving from the depth of art. She draws out the worldly and humane perception of butterflies, while the formation of butterflies crammed in it is displayed in such a way as what Georgia O’Keeffe described, “The scenes there are so beautiful and so ridiculous”. But what is designed to be expressed by those butterflies are the anxiety and hardship, confusion and bewilderment, restraint and struggle, pain and pity, destruction and reconstruction, the break of cocoon and rebirth, restriction and control, restriction breaking and freedom, protection and appreciation, repetition and difference, unity and order, life and death, transience and eternity, beauty and pity, the real and the unreal, existence and unreality, individuals and group, the past, present and future, and the idea that the past is the future of current life and that the present is the past of the future, as well as the fragile concepts derived from those ideas. The fragility of life, reality, ecology, affection, relationship... and a real living circumstance where person and person, person and nature, person and society, the anxious living experiences and broken reality is interwoven.
It is obvious that the visual text of Chen Yinan offers the audience that warning, while the key elements for the audience to comprehend her visual text lie not only in the same living environment shared with her, but also more in the subjective experience of the life of butterfly.
The writer, Natsume Soseki (1867-1916) wrote following words in the very beginning of his novel Grass Pillow: “I thought in such a way as I was climbing along the mountain paths, that a man making full use of his talents would always be a principled and serious one; a man relying on his emotions to make decisions would always lost his own ideas; if a man stands his ground, he will get rebuffed here and there. In a word, to live is always a hard deed. The more arduous a life is, the more eager a man would be to transfer to a safe place. Poems and pictures are produced when it is realized that wherever you go, life is equally arduous for everyone around the world.”
Chen Yinan bears as well those ideas.
At 5:30 pm 23th, Sep. 2021
In the San Guan Dian of East Lake
蝶变
—— 谈陈艺楠的艺术创作
冀少峰，湖北美术馆馆长
千姿百态的蝴蝶构成了陈艺楠首个个展的问题。这是一个钟情于既变幻莫测又异彩纷呈的蝴蝶世界的视觉呈现。
蝴蝶的生与死，美丽与哀怜，破茧挣扎挣脱与自由飞翔，及伴随着对纷纭变幻蝴蝶的“沉浸”式思考与把握，一个透过蝶变来看人生真相的陈艺楠就这样的扑面而来。
沉浸式的思考，沉浸式的展陈，带给阅读者的则是关乎蝶变的沉浸式的体验。由此，艺术经验与日常经验透过陈艺楠的蝶变就这样交织在一起。当然，充斥其间的必然也混杂着集体的共有经验和陈艺楠个人经验的统一性与差异性，同时又隐匿着的一种不确定性。因为只有这种不确定性，才能够打破现存的秩序条件与规范。这是蝶变带给阅读者的启示之一。当然，对于蝴蝶的迷恋主要来源于陈艺楠的个人经验，蝴蝶美丽，很吸引你，但它的确又令你恐惧之。而对恐怖和奇幻的迷恋，对生与死的思考又是艺术的主要灵感来源。陈艺楠一方面像一个冷静客观的生物学者、博物馆人；另一方面她的确又有着艺术家的浪漫与情思，两种社会身份角色的认知以一种悖论方式相交融。她从蝴蝶视角，以生物亦或说博物学的广度，又能够从人性的哲学深度，以蝴蝶的形象和感性方式表达的看似是蝴蝶的命运，是蝴蝶由生到死的悲怜历程和命运，其实隐喻着的实则是探讨的是现实处境中人类的生存困境。
自然界的蝴蝶是客观存在着的，就像陈艺楠，这象征着本我；博物馆里的蝴蝶则是终止了生命的存在标本，生命是静止的；各种材质的蝴蝶，纸蝴蝶，陶瓷蝴蝶……既是艺术的蝴蝶，又是陈艺楠艺术生命的自我呈现。人造的、自然的、复合的蝴蝶扩大了空间，改变着时态与时间，在乱中有序、变化无常间，在生命、身体、身份、族群、社会、记忆、压抑、重复和秩序，空灵悲怜和幽暗阴沉间，在存在的秩序和认知的秩序统一间，在蝶变的真与假、虚与实、大与小、重复与差异、空间与时间、符号与实体、变化无常与稍纵即逝间，不可预知与日常性间，透过不同材质蝴蝶的本质和形式，映射出的实则是对于人类灵魂本质的思考。只不过人类的灵魂是通过蝴蝶的形式本质得以显现。
陈艺楠的视觉讲述，在色彩的多样与形式的统一间，在物象的极简与极繁间，在看似繁杂，实则整一；看似散乱，其实又有着内在的逻辑与秩序，在不确定中悄然记录着生命轨迹在时空中的延展。这是一个融入了都市社会，感受到群体社会的制约和束缚，既不想丧失自我，又没有勇气彰显自我和身份的独立，是一个逐渐内隐的自我。可以说是既附丽其上，又颇思逃离这么一个窘境。
陈艺楠选择视觉符号——蝴蝶，是和个人的经验个人体验特别是和自我的心灵相亲近的一种表达方式。虽然蝴蝶的美丽与真假难辨，带给她的是美丽的瞬间，但也时常令她产生恐惧、眩晕和崩溃，也带给她破碎的梦和破碎的现实，及焦虑的生存体验和焦虑的生存困惑。这种焦虑从其踏入社会即伴随着她，由此亦迫使她不得不思考她所依附的真实的生存处境，也使她养成一种勤思善思且精于表达这么一种学术品性。她反复强调：“这是我的展览”，从中亦可窥视到她的那种执着、坚韧与坚持坚守。她通过蝶变的虚境来象征生活中的实境，她把自我的精神想象和真实的愿望及非现实景象相黏合，营构出的则是自在的心灵所排斥的现实世界，充斥其间的又是离解与重建、美丽与哀怜、悲伤与痛苦、轻松与沉重、希望与失望，肉身的精神的对立与矛盾。她将自我的游戏心理和好奇心透过真假难辨和含混不清的蝴蝶，诉说着艺术中的模糊和看不清与现实中的模糊和看不清是何等惊人的相似，而现实中的诸多所谓真相又是何等的令阅读者真假难辨。初涉艺坛的陈艺楠很显然既没有勇气去直面这样惨淡的现实，而逃避现实的怯弱也促使她将美好的期待寄寓在梦想时的一瞬。陈艺楠就在蝴蝶间，沉浸式展场中的蝴蝶也一定隐藏着个真实的陈艺楠。由此，一个营造了自我真诚在场的陈艺楠，一个由学校到社会，由个体到群体，并日渐融入都市化现实的陈艺楠就这样静悄悄地呈现在阅读者前面。特别是陶瓷蝴蝶，当陈艺楠选择陶瓷作为自我视觉表达的媒材符码时，其实媒材即观念，因为陶瓷本身既带有强烈的民族文化根性，是民族文化符号礼仪之一，又有着强烈的东方精神属性，不可避免地又带有自身的脆弱性与易碎性。这也是一个不争的事实。由此阅读者亦可以清晰地洞悉到弥漫其间的陈艺楠的问题意识。重复的蝴蝶带来的不仅仅是关于“蝶变”的无尽想象和一种来自艺术深处的动能，她抽离了世俗的人情的关于蝴蝶的认知，而充斥其间的蝴蝶阵型也正如乔治·奥基弗所说“那里如此美丽，又如此荒诞”，但弥漫其间的焦虑与困苦，困惑与茫然，束缚与挣扎，痛苦与悲怜，破坏与重建，破茧与重生，制约与控制，挣脱与自由，保护与欣赏，重复与差异，统一与秩序，生命与死亡，短暂与永恒，美丽与哀怜，真实与非真实，存在与虚幻，个体与集体，过去、现在与未来，及过去是现在的未来，现在是未来的过去，及伴随这些观念而生的易碎观念：生命易碎、现实易碎、生态易碎、感情易碎、关系易碎……人与人，人与自然，人与社会，焦虑的生存体验与破碎的现实相交织的这么一个生存实境。
很显然，陈艺楠的视觉文本给予了阅读者这样的警醒，而阅读者理解阅读其视觉文本的要素，除了与她所处同一个时代与相同的环境外，对蝴蝶生命的主观体验亦是关键因素。
作家夏目漱石（1867-1916年）在小说《草枕》开篇中写到：“我一边在山路攀登，一边这样思忖。若是发挥才智，则棱角分明；若是任凭感情，则会随波逐流；若是坚持己见，则可能处处碰壁。总之，人世难居。愈是难居，愈想迁移到安然的地方。当觉悟到无论走到何处都是同样难居之时，便产生了诗，产生了画。”
陈艺楠亦如此。
2021年9月23日下午
5:30于东湖三官殿