因彼而行 Unadulterated

因彼而行

文 / 周褐褐

冬日的成都，天空一贯铅灰色。工作室的花园里，植物大多休眠了，却有迷迭香还郁郁葱葱，散发着浓烈的原始芬芳。此刻，我仰望天空，观望树木，观察昆虫。我知道，生命的力与美遍布地下地表，无隙不入。始终秉持着对物的敏感，对心的珍视，情感流溢，怦然心动，想象力总在达之不及的地方。

此时我只有 5 岁。

我们通过感官体悟外界，运用大脑映射世界，利用身体进行物质交换，借由社会关系进行利益交换……似乎这就是“存在”的全部含义。而如今，现代社会影响了我们多数的动手能力，后现代社会降低了我们的思考能力，让一切不再那么自然；思维有了定势，生活成了公式，想法虚浮，人性苍白。如此这般，过些年还会存在“触景生情”吗？

我们登高望远，心旷神怡，转头间却发觉孩童已有三三两两拿着纸笔，涂抹出最初的模样。他们和我们的世界相互交织，却又不尽相同。

懵懂幼小的身躯，总能跃动着某种良性的力量，在不经意间显现，真诚的渗透力令人瞠目结舌。在思辨深刻的当下，我们已经可以不再混淆“交响乐曲”与“音符的集合”，“鸿篇巨制”与“词语的集合”。但是，我们对于孩童们身上为何迸发出这样的力量依然知之甚少，不明白这些如春风般吹散成年世界阴霾的力量到底源自于何处呢？

今天，我们也许不会再次陷入已被否定的传统：用不可知的概念来解释不知道的缘由。因为从希波克拉底到盖伦，这种力量曾被假设为一种非物质的“精气/活力/生命力”。结果后来也才明白，活力论就像燃素说、热质说、以太说一样，无不是我们探寻世界真谛的过程，而非结果。木材的燃烧，热量的传递，光线的传播，基因的表达，生命的存在与逝去，并非寻常的物质实体，而是能量以各种形态集合、组织、结构、流进流出的过程。生命的繁衍与扩散，实则为基因努力表达、延续的具体呈现。同样，作品的诞生，也是概念被竭力表达、延续的具体呈现。

作品“五月初五五点五十五”标题为我的女儿粽子的出生时刻，摘选于粽子五岁时写给我的一封充满爱意的信。不会写字的她没有使用任何定式书写技法，从“成熟”视角看来或显稚嫩，可抑扬顿挫的笔触间让我强烈地感受到一种自发性的颖慧。它的出现唤回了我儿时的记忆，拉近了抽象思维与具象表现，填补着童年消逝导致的情感表达上所出现的巨大裂隙。

作品的创作过程中，常有邻居带着孩子过来做客。屋外寒冷，屋内温馨。每每谈及当下让人叹为观止的小神童们—— 3 岁识数的小孩子，6 岁握笔的小画家，9 岁登台的吉他手，13 岁的物理天才……大家无不啧啧称奇，不约而同地从心底里涌起类似的回忆：“我以前也想当个科学家呢”“当年家里人也都夸我画画好”“我小时候，也曾经一目十行过目不忘……”我想，或许他们回到家里能够重新找回当年的爱好，也是非常好的事情呢。

你还记得小时候特别擅长什么吗？

“母体”包含两件独立作品，本次呈现的是“母体：无言之音”——暗淡、踏实、温暖的包裹。作品由现年 11 岁的天才吉他少女 YOYO 与我合作完成，所呈现的绝非阴幽且不可知的情境，而是隐秘的独特性主宰——一种醇厚的朦胧意识，无懈可击的创造呼唤，无穷无尽的力量源泉。在链接大家的血液里，是音符永不消逝的流动，速弹吉他绽放的金属激情。我在她们身上所感受到的，是现在或曾经具有却因为种种原因遭到埋没的能力，感受它们以这样或那样的形式存在与生长，并藉由生长表现自身秩序与天地伟力的过程。

存在与生长包括两个方面，一是生命之海里的基因，二是意识之海里的觅母（meme）。如果生命之海里的奋斗已经足以让我们感动，那么意识之海里的存在则是更为精彩。“新型复制基因（觅母）能够进行自我复制的条件一旦形成，这些新的复制基因必将开始活动，而且开创自己的一种崭新类型的进化过程。这种新进化发轫后，完全没有理由要从属于老的进化。”（[英]理查德·道金斯，《自私的基因》）

基因的进化过程在不断改变我们的身体，觅母在不断优化我们的思想。一件精彩的作品、一支优美的乐曲、一篇动人的文字、一个精辟的见解……都能在我们的身体毁灭后流传下去，并且在我们的孩子们身上、在被触动的人身上得以活跃表现。通过创作和表达探索这些源自本真的力量，还有非常复杂和漫长的工作要做，例如还原论者将其视为一种物理和化学的存在及反应现象，而新生机论者将其视为一种超越物理和化学的范畴的整体生命力（生物体内的物理和化学反应现象综合起来形成的“生物能量场”）等等。大家都在孜孜不倦，奋力前行。

作为一个想法的阶段性表达，新作只是生命之力的一次定格，光锥旁侧尝试留存的剪影；创造的种子在每个人降生之初都已种下，必将破壁、萌发、生长、繁衍。

愿新的缘起始于此处。

Unadulterated

By Zhou Hehe

In the winter, the sky above Chengdu was leaden as always. Most of the plants in the garden of the studio were dormant, only rosemary was still lush and exuded a strong original fragrance. At this moment, I looked up at the sky, watched the trees, and observed the insects. I knew that the power and beauty of life were all over the ground. I had always upheld the sensitivity to objects and the cherishment of the heart. With overflowing emotions and palpitating heart, I extended my imagination to places beyond reach.

At that time, I was only five years old.

We understood the environment with senses, mapped the world with mind, exchanged for materials and benefits with bodies and social relationships, respectively… these seemed to be the full meaning of “existence”. Nowadays, modern society has affected most people’s hands-on ability. Postmodern society has reduced our ability to think, making everything less natural. Thinking has a set. Life becomes a formula. Ideas are illusory, and humanity is pale. In this way, will there be “feelings stirred up by the sight” in the next few years?

We climb high and gaze far, feeling relaxed and happy. When we turn around, we find that there are children holding the pen and paper and painting the original appearances. The world of them and that of us are intertwined, yet not the same.

Ignorant little bodies can always evoke some kind of benign power, which appears inadvertently with amazing penetration of sincerity. At the moment of profound mental analysis, we are no longer confused by “Symphony” and “Collection of Notes”, “Literature” and “Collection of Words”. However, we still know very little about why children are so powerful. We do not understand where comes this power, which blows away the haze of the adult world like a spring breeze?

Today, we may not fall into the tradition that has been denied again: to explain the unknown reason with an unknowable concept. From Hippocrates to Galen, this power was once assumed to be an immaterial “Essence/Vigor/Vitality”. Later, we come to realize that the theory of Vitality, just like that of Phlogiston Theory, Caloric Theory and Ether Theory, is the process of our search for the true meaning of the world, instead of the result. The burning of wood, the transfer of heat, the spread of light, the expression of genes and the existence and passing of life are not ordinary physical entities, but the process of energy gathering, organizing, building, flowing in and out in various forms. The reproduction and spread of life is actually a concrete presentation of the genes’ endeavor to express and continue. Similarly, the birth of a work is also a concrete manifestation of the concept being expressed and sustained.

The title of Five Fifty-Five on Fifth Day of the Fifth Month in Chinese Lunar Calendar marks the birth time of my  daughter Zongzi, and this work is extracted from a letter filled with love, which she wrote to me at the age of five. Being unable to write, she didn’t use any fixed writing technique. From the perspective of “adultness”, this might seem immature, but the cadenced strokes touched me with a strong spontaneous talent. Its appearance recalled my childhood memories, drew closer the abstract thinking and figurative expression, and filled in the huge gaps in the emotional expression caused by the disappearance of childhood.

During the creation of the work, there were often neighbors coming around with their children. Despite the coldness outside, the indoors was warm and sweet. Every time when we talked about the marvelous little prodigies of the moment, such as the 3-year-old kid who could count, the 6-year-old little painter holding a brush, the 9-year-old guitar player on the stage, and the 13-year-old physics genius… we all amazed and reminded of similar memories simultaneously from the bottom of our hearts. “I used to dream to be a scientist”, “my family also praised me for painting at that time”, “when I was a child, I was also able to read rapidly and memorize at the first sight…” Perhaps, they might return home and found back their childhood hobbies. That would be very good.

Do you still remember what you were particularly good at when you were a child?

Matrix consists of two independent works, and Matrix: Silent Sound, a dim, steady and warm embrace, is on display this time. The work is completed through cooperation with the 11-year-old talented guitar girl YOYO. It presents not a sinister and unknowable situation, but a secretive and dominant uniqueness, which is a kind of mellow consciousness giving out impeccable calls and endless source of strength. It is in the blood that links everyone. It is the ever flow of notes and the metal passion of the fast-playing guitar. In them, I feel the ability which I have now or in the past, yet is buried due to various reasons. I feel they grow in different forms and express their own order and the power of heaven and earth through growth.

The existence and growth consist of two aspects, one is the genes in the sea of life, and the other is the memes in the sea of consciousness. If the struggle in the sea of life is enough touching, then the existence in the sea of consciousness is even exciting. “Once the conditions for self-replication of new replication genes (memes) are formed, these new replication genes will start to move and create a new type of evolutionary process of their own. Once this new evolution starts, it doesn’t have to subordinate to the old evolution.” (Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene)

The evolution of genes is constantly changing our bodies, and memes are constantly optimizing our minds. A wonderful work, a beautiful piece of music, a moving piece of text, and a brilliant insight… can be passed down after the destruction of our bodies, and can show their influences on our children and on those who are touched. There are very complicated and lengthy work to be carried out, so as to explore the prime power through creation and expression. For example, the reductionists see it as a physical and chemical existence and reaction phenomenon, while the neovitalists regard it as a kind of overall vitality that transcends the scope of physics and chemistry (a “biological energy field” formed by the combination of physical and chemical reaction phenomena in living organisms), etc. Everyone is tirelessly struggling to move forward.

As a staged expression of an idea, the new work is only a freeze-frame of the power of life, a silhouette of the light cone which tries to maintain. The seeds of creation have been planted at the birth of every people, and they are bound to break the testa, sprout, grow and reproduce.

I hope this exhibition could evoke new starts.

Link：展览360全景在线