走近他的疑虑
唐昕
摄影并非是对现实被动的记录，它是主观选择的结果，是拍摄者思考或疑虑、困惑或欣赏 目光的追逐，是被对现实盲从或无意识者所遗漏的身旁存在。韩磊以他的怀疑收集起现实 的荒诞。
摄影作为一种艺术创作媒介被采用，在国内从二十世纪30年代后就几乎中断了。由于社会 动荡，它的复制现实的功能和记录功能，以及图像对于百姓的易读性，使它多被当作政治 宣传工具广泛使用。由于要绝对服从于宣传目的，拍摄者主观的发挥和观点阐释被极大地 局限于技术技巧的调控中。因此三十年代以后的中国摄影史几乎就是一个以人物和事件为 主的政治图像史，其艺术创作媒介的属性被搁置。直至二十世纪80年代作为艺术创作媒介 的摄影实验才再次出现。韩磊就是从那时开始至今创作不懈的，用影像诉说并拾起某种现 实存在的艺术家。
也许因为长期以来人们接触的都是被摄影报道的重大现实，是人们太过熟悉的，或者说是 被文字和图片大量反复宣传的，总之对于照片里的人和事，人们认为是值得关注的、有价 值的，是自己不能到场但别人眼见为实的东西，相当于真实存在，自然而然地接受下来， 因为照相机是不会说谎的。然而，到了80年代，人们看到了一些观看起来很“毫无拍摄价 值和意义”的照片，照片里出现了一些日常生活中随处可见的普通人和场景，面对这些照 片里的平凡，人们疑虑了。韩磊的作品在当时就属于这一类摄影。
80和90年代，他的作品以黑白摄影为主，采用抓拍的方法，拍摄的多是北方乡镇日常生活 里的普通人物和场景，戴厚厚的深度近视眼镜、牙齿不整的打花伞青年，坐在车上猴脸妆 扮赶赴演出的男人，候车室被烟囱遮住半张面孔的工人，大雪中聚集在一起的人们，同时 手推两部自行车载着一对双胞胎女儿的父亲，铁路边穿着脏衣眼睛被打破的男孩......有人 说，你越想看什么，就越能看到什么，反之，你不留意的、不重视的东西即使迎面遇见， 也可能进入不了你的视线。韩磊作品中出现的人或场景，可能就是韩磊与他们擦肩而过的 时候他看见了而人们熟视无睹的情形，它确实在当时日常生活中比比皆是。它是人们因为 太熟悉和被不屑一顾而轻视的情形，却被韩磊一个个挑出来一起摆在眼前。人们惊愕了。 那么多荒诞的、离奇的、丑陋的、令人震惊的情节，韩磊到底想看什么，令人惊讶的场景 也同样使他惊讶吗？
近年来韩磊作品被多次展览过，观者对这些作品中的图像已经不再陌生，但是阅读的障碍 依然存在。特别是当社会巨变使得这些作品呈现在与过去迥异的现实背景中，强烈的时代 反差更加重了阅读的困难。我们想重新回到当时的环境是不可能的，如果能接近作者创作 时的思考，也许能有助于观者对作品的解读。因此，我们策划了这个展览，以大量的黑白 小样和试条为主，穿插以几幅成品，这些原始材料来自韩磊1980-2000年间的暗房。
当我们如此近距离地观看这些小样和试条，仿佛又一次拜访了韩磊的暗房，接近正在沉思 的韩磊，透过暗房测试的微小差异琢磨着他的挑剔，追逐他的思绪，却看到了他对当时熟 悉又陌生北方生活的困惑和怀疑。一连串怪诞、略有病态、丑陋......在人们心里酸楚的舞台 上演的都是一幕幕充满滑稽剧的现实。
到了2000年以后，韩磊的创作以大画幅和彩色摄影为主。作为对小样和试条的呼应，展 览还挑选了几幅近期的彩色摄影作品，它们把今天的现实拉回到观者眼前。在这个现实的 反衬下，80和90年代脱离了当时社会现实的黑白照片，如同一部旧时的老电影，现在的人 们把其中的荒诞当作故事不再感到不安，然而，令人不安的怪诞还在上演，又一次出现在 他的彩色作品中。韩磊镜头里依然是他怀疑的目光和从现实中收集到的荒诞。《戴耳套男 孩》《洗头女》《他就是李小龙》，一些你可能每天经过，每天可以遇见的社会底层的外 来者、打工者，他们的窘迫、慌乱、不适被现代化的环境映衬得极不协调。
不同的是这些彩色照片大多以摆拍的方法替代了以往的抓拍，继续以他对现实的惊讶和怀 疑收集和导演着一出出荒诞剧目。他邀请街上碰到的小人物；选取了一些从小商品市场购 买的、廉价的小东西；设计出荒诞的身体和衣饰搭配，共同与小人物未经干预的自然而木 讷的面部或身体表情，营造出一种极其不协调的怪异。
站在一起的人由于注意不同的事物，他们即使肩并肩，也是被间隔着，因角度和选择的不 同看到的也极为不同。韩磊从传统的、原始的感性捕捉，到理性的主观干预，从过去的黑 白到现在的彩色，那些“多余的现实”被牢牢地抓住摆进韩磊的作品中，明确地告诉你韩 磊透过平凡对现实不变的惊讶和怀疑。
2010-2-17
Interpreting Han Lei’s Doubts and Confusions
Tang Xin
Photography is not a passive tool to record reality. On the contrary, it is a medium for the photographer to express his/her ideas, admiration, doubts and confusions. As the result of the subjective and conscientious choices made by photographers, photos are representing things and issues that tend to be neglected by people who lack individual and critical thinking. Han Lei, a pioneering photographer in China, presents to us an absurd reality in his works with a critical approach.
Photography ceased to be considered a medium of art in the 1930s in China because of various social reasons. In the turbulent times back then, it was widely used as a propaganda tool by the authorities thanks to its easy accessibility and its capacity to “replicate” reality. Because photography had only one purpose to serve, photographers were not allowed any freedom to put their own understandings and ideas in their works and could only focus on improving their skills. The photography history in China since 1930s, therefore, is practically a history of political images, featuring major political figures and events. It was not until the 1980s that artists started to experiment with such a medium again in the nation. As one of the pioneers, Han Lei has created many photograph series that illustrate his personal narrative of the reality.
For a long time before the 1980s in China, the pictures were always about some major political events that the public were very familiar with. Photos usually served as an illustrative function alongside a news report. People believed that only important political events were the “worthy” subject of photographs, which could help those who couldn’t experience these events in person get a better understanding of them. They thought that pictures were an absolutely faithful representation of the reality and “cameras can’t lie”. However, in the 1980s, people started to see pictures of “trivial subjects with no value or significance”, which depicted daily people and common scenes. Confronted by the “plainness” of these pictures, many of them taken by artists such as Han Lei, people felt confused and dubious.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Han’s works were mainly black and white snap shots of ordinary people and scenes in small towns and villages in Northern China. In these pictures, you could see young people with thick glasses and irregular tooth alignment, a performer sitting in a truck with a monkey-like painted face, a worker in a waiting room whose face was partially blocked by a chimney, a group of people in a heavy snow, a father of twin daughters trying to balance two bicycles at the same time, a boy with a black eye sitting by the side of rail tracks in dirty clothes, etc. It is said that you would see whatever you want to see and won’t see things that you don’t care about even when they are right in front of you. The ordinary people and scenes in Han’s works that he could see were probably usually neglected by the public, as they’re such a natural part of our everyday life that people tended to take them for granted. But when they were singled out and presented to the public in Han’s photographs, people were amazed by how absurd, surreal, ugly and shocking some of the pictures were. They also wondered: What exactly does Han want to see? Do all these things amaze him as much?
In recent years, Han Lei’s works have been shown in a number of exhibitions and the public no longer find these images foreign. But there still exists a barrier of interpretation, which is exacerbated by the fact that these works represent a past that’s completely different from the present due to rapid social changes in China. It is impossible for us to relive the past. But if we can understand how the artist thought when he created these works, we might be able to interpret them more successfully. That’s why when we planned this exhibition, we decided to show a large number of samples and test strips alongside a few finished works, which were all created by the artist in his dark room between 1980 and 2000.
When we look at these samples and test strips closely, we feel as if we were in Han Lei’s dark room and could see the artist sitting in it, lost in thought. We could imagine him trying to get the perfect picture through endless tests and feel his doubts and confusions on the life in North China, something he felt both familiar and foreign. All these absurd, ugly and slightly morbid scenes in his works reveal to us a reality that is filled with bitter-sweet performances by common people.