Nie Mu "Memoire"

NIE MU MEMOIRE

NIE MU MEMOIRE

ISBN 978-3-9523342-1-8

2009

9 783952 334218

目录 Contents

5

一个人的2008 —— 聂幕的“数码绘画” 田霏宇

7

One Woman’s 2008 — Philip Tinari on Nie Mu’s “Digital Paintings” Philip Tinari

9

脱离趣味的游戏 艾未未

11

Breaking Free from Fascinating Games Ai Weiwei

13

艾未未、聂幕访谈 艾未未、聂幕

19

Ai Weiwei interviews Nie Mu Ai Weiwei, Nie Mu

25

作品 Works

59

简历 Biography

一个人的 2008 —— 聂幕的“数码绘画” 作者：田霏宇 翻译：杜可柯

伟大的 2008 在北京已然落幕，留给我们的问题是：这一年到底铸造了什么。现代主义建筑杰作散见于城市周边各处，这些神殿里供奉的是一种新的 城市状态，社会主义的一个新阶段，一种尚未命名的政府统治形式。新的消费设施已充分就位，餐厅、酒店、商场开足马力全力运转，试图将此之外 的混乱置之脑后。首都的人民揉揉眼睛，终于从六十年间从未间断的意识形态幻梦中苏醒过来。聂幕在草场地的工作室四四方方，像一块灰砖。她 坐在数码绘画板旁边，前面是一台MacPro电脑，而她手里拿的是她一年以来的绘画工具：一支塑料尖笔和最新版的Adobe Illustrator图形制作软件。 工作室外，听得到村里大型犬的吠声。 聂幕 2008 年的作品名字很简单，就叫“数码绘画”，好奇的观众可能一下看不明白。远看紧致的构图充满张力，颇具表现主义神韵，颜色也支离破 碎，但实际上——这是最重要的一点——它们是一层一层的数码手绘图案的堆积，一层相当于一天的工作量，每一层都是单独完成的。这些涂层的 图像来源有时是聂幕上网时看到的新闻照片，有时是儿时的回忆，有时是常见的文化符号，有时是某一代人司空见惯的普通事物，有时甚至单纯源于 艺术家毫不相干的设计感。同样，图案颜色也可能直接取自其他数码图像，或者是她从数码色轮上用鼠标点取的。 “黑色总是000，”她说， “每种颜 色都有编号；它们之间的关系永远不会变。”她改变每幅画的大小，即分辨率，将每日工作成果的面积放大或缩小，即使她的实体绘制范围绝不会超 过A4纸大小的数位板。有时，她在单个构图上复制自己的图像元素，用的是最简单的电脑操作技法：Ctrl-C（复制）和Ctrl-V（粘贴）。 聂幕喜欢清楚明确的笔触，认为在这方面电脑比人脑做得更好。 “人会受自己判断的影响，”她说， “但电脑不带任何感情色彩。”她喜欢在不同分辨 率的图案之间玩透视游戏，这让她回想起那些关于错觉制造技巧和图像合成才干的经典问题。她喜欢具有无限复制潜能的大杂烩，这要回溯到她在 中央美院的版画学习生涯。她喜欢虽然单个图案被用于拼接成更大的构图，但是从数位板上那些不协调的水平和垂直边缘线上仍然可以看到绘制 当天留下的痕迹。她喜欢笔画之间无意识的删除或数据丢失的可能性。她喜欢只有当她喊停时，这些画作才得以真正存在，决定某幅作品“完成”的 是一系列美学标准和主观原则不可言说的混合。 然而，对图层进行组织排序这项看似简单的步骤正是数码绘画的精髓所在。图层叠加这道最后工序意味着作品的成形，就是在这一步，聂幕展示 了最近艺术创作中最重要的矛盾之一，即个人意志或品味与某些外部标准之间的冲突，其表现手法类似评批家 Jörg Heiser 所谓的“抉择之绘画” （the painting of decisions）。但这种矛盾似乎更进一步，已经超出了当代艺术的范畴。每一次叠加都完全遮蔽了下面的内容，但每一个图像都只不过 如此：它们是漂浮的，彻底抽离了传统绘画中我们熟悉的支撑物。聂幕的数码绘画是其他绘画的合并，每一幅都漏洞百出。它们是有关记忆和控制的 绘画，最终可见的表面只有一个，这些图像让我们看到什么可以透过叠层最终浮现而什么不可以。因此，叠加行为变成了意志的运用，变成了一种裁 决，决定了哪些在上哪些在下，哪些元素可以覆盖另一些。整个过程开始越来越像——也许对2008年的北京来说不失为一个恰当的比喻——历史 的书写或城市的规划。 聂幕最终决定以两种截然不同的方式回应此矛盾，一种是有意在前景中突出一个可辨认的图像轮廓，另一种则是对时间流逝进行日记式的记录。前 者相对直接，用的是她所熟知的传统绘画原则，讲究平衡和美，最终掌握决定权的是艺术家本人。在这些篇幅较小的作品中，表面以下的层次基本 相当于一种装饰，一种衬托有意义的中心部分的抽象背景。后者，也就是基于时间创作的作品，理解起来更加困难一些。 “我想在安排图层叠加的时 候没有任何选择余地，不经过任何设计，一个东西没了就是没了，就这么简单，”她沉思一会儿，很快补充道， “但我希望关键的元素不要消失。所以 这种语言里存在两种倾向。”就算艺术家的观念创作冲动是仅根据时间顺序组织这些日记式的绘画——举例来说，制作四幅一套的作品，每一幅代 表一个季节的创作成果，按春夏秋冬的顺序排列——其他因素也不可避免地会介入其中。她以其中一幅色彩强烈的京剧脸谱画为例，这幅画是朱 红色的，完成于夏末秋初，如果严格按照时间顺序叠加，最后的成品就会是一张单纯的脸谱画。因此，这幅脸谱被提前安插到图像流里，让那些技 术上说应该早于它的画盖住它艳丽的颜色。 “到最后，”她总结说， “还是有选择余地的。” 最后，聂幕决定摒弃以季节为框架的做法，只按图层数量升序组织她的绘画：11, 29, 70, 100。最后的“100”，也是本次展览展出的作品，既是对之 前一切的总结，也是对一切的删除。这本记录不断变化的情感与兴趣的日记现在已不可读，而这就是一个人的2008。

2008.12.31

5

One Woman’s 2008 — Philip Tinari on Nie Mu’s “Digital Paintings”

by Philip Tinari

The epic year of 2008 has finally drawn to a close in Beijing, and now we are left to ask what it has wrought. Modernist architectural masterpieces dot the fringes of the city, temples to a new urban condition, a new stage of socialism, a new governmentality that has not quite yet been named. A new consumer infrastructure has been set in place, its restaurants and hotels and shopping centers churning in attempted oblivion to the chaos beyond. The people of the capital rub their eyes, awaking from the latest in a sixty-year progression of ideological reveries. In a boxy grey-brick studio in the village of Caochangdi, Nie Mu sits at her digital drawing board, in front of her MacPro computer, making paintings with a plastic stylus and the latest version of Adobe Illustrator, as she has all year. Outside, the giant village dogs bark.

Titled simply “digital paintings,” Nie Mu’s 2008 works do not immediately reveal themselves to the curious. What appear from afar as tense, expressionistic compositions in a fragmented palette are—and this is the main thing—compilations formed from layer upon layer of digital freehand drawings, each a day’s work, each completed separately. These individual layers draw their source material sometimes from news photos she sees while browsing the Internet, sometimes from childhood memories or cultural and generational commonplaces, sometimes simply from her own discrete sense of design. Colors, likewise, may come directly from other digital images, or she may select them with a click at the digital color wheel. “Black is always 000,” she says, “and every other shade has a number; the relations among them never change.” She varies the size, which is to say the resolution, of each drawing, altering the digital scale of each day’s work even as her physical parameters never exceed this A4-sized plastic board. Sometimes she reproduces her own elements across a single composition with the simplest of digital tactics: Ctrl-C for copy, Ctrl-V for paste.

Nie Mu likes the definitive brush strokes that a computer seems better suited to make than a human. “People have their judgments,” she says, “but the computer is unsentimental.” She likes the play of perspective among images of different resolutions, the way it echoes classical questions of illusionistic gamesmanship and compositional acumen. She likes the bricolage of potentially infinite reproducibility, which takes her back to her Central Academy training as a printmaker. She likes the way that even once pieced together into larger compositions, each component image still reveals the traces of its making in the jarring vertical and horizontal edges it retains from the day she drew it, alone, on the plastic board. She likes how the possibility of accidental deletion, data loss, looms over her every brushstroke. She likes how these paintings exist only when she says stop, deciding based on some ineffable alchemy of aesthetic criteria and arbitrary principles that a given work is “done.”

But it is in the deceptively simple step of organizing and ordering the component layers for printing is where the digital paintings reveal their stakes. This final act of layering is the stage where the composition takes shape, and it is here that Nie Mu plays out one of the key tensions of recent art, between individual will or taste and some external set of criteria, in something like what critic Jörg Heiser has called “the painting of decisions.” And yet the tension seems to go even further than the sphere of contemporary art. Each marking totally obscures everything below it, but every image is only that: a floating image, completely lacking what traditional painting knows as support. Nie Mu’s digital paintings are amalgamations of other paintings, each full of holes. They are paintings of memory and control, paintings about what is and is not allowed to show through and appear on the final, single visible plane of the surface. And so the act of layering becomes an exertion of will, a verdict about what is allowed to cover what else, in a process that begins to seem—perhaps appropriately for Beijing in 2008—a lot like writing a history or planning a city.

Nie Mu has ultimately decided to respond to this tension in two distinct ways, creating some paintings that consciously foreground a recognizable figurative gesture, and others that serve as diaristic records of the passage of time. The former are relatively straightforward, structured according to principles she knows from an older standard of painting, something that has to do with balance and beauty, something that rests finally on the artist’s judgment. In these smaller works, the layers below serve mostly as adornment, an abstract background to a central, meaningful flourish. The latter, time-based works present more difficulties. “I want to arrange the layers without any choice, without any contrivance, such that if something is gone, it’s simply gone,” she muses, but quickly turns to say, “and yet I hope the key elements don’t disappear. Those are the two tendencies of this language.” Even if the conceptual impulse is to organize these diaristic paintings with recourse only to chronology—creating, say, a suite of four paintings each compiling a season’s efforts, spring, summer, autumn, and winter—other factors cannot but enter into play. She cites the example of one particularly strong Peking Opera mask, painted in vermilion late into the summer. If that painting were arranged chronologically, it would become nothing but a painting of a mask. And so the mask is inserted into the flow earlier, and compositions that technically predate it obscure it. “In the end,” she concludes, “there are still choices.”

Finally, Nie Mu decides to abandon the seasonal framework and organize her paintings based solely on an ascending number of layers: 11, 29, 70, 100. The final “100,” shown in this exhibition, is both the summation and the obliteration of everything that has gone before it. A now imperceptible diary of shifting emotions and interests, this is one woman’s 2008.

December 31, 2008

7

脱离趣味的游戏 作者：艾未未

聂幕近年来的图像制作发生了根本变化。 在二维荧光显示上的涂抹，反复无常，纠葛缠绕，跌宕起伏，镜面般光滑的材质隐藏着波澜不惊的温情和厮杀。绘画终于脱离传统技术层面，不再有 厚度，堆砌，没有物质的颜色和笔触，矿物或是化学的气味，水分或是重量。图像通过键盘敲击指令，2.0双核数字技术，从两进制代码转变为十进 制代码运算的画幅，有精确到无限小或是无限大的可能。光源和纯正的色彩来自画幅的背面。这一切还只是开始，如魔似幻疯狂生长繁衍的数字技 术的生命仍是处在婴儿阶段，这仅是一张电脑制作图像生成的准入技术凭证。至于之后的故事，聂幕的艺术生涯却终究是更更深色的蓝，所面对的 视觉可能性是比大还要大的一切。 下文中断裂的文字，在精确的错误显示之后所剩的含义，来于对人工智能生成图像的观测和想象，此时的超宽幅画面还无法真正全方位显现，人工 智能何时可以没有人工也智能，消除人类情感痕迹的科技终将人类像废物般抛弃，应该是所有游戏的终级诱惑。 关于技术更新与人类情感生理性滞后的恩多次分裂重组的文字没有真实含义，只是疲惫无力的情趣与数字技术的错误生成和偏执地超速变异生长 的心理上的消费。由技术生成的图像终将践踏和葬送传统绘画行为所依赖的习惯，品味，规定动作的非标性反复，在风格和趣味的绝望中的沉闷拖 欠，笨拙的恋物癖和精明手工艺技巧活的混合之物，建立在反智的基础上的方言绝唱。以众叛亲离的疯狂决绝出速度、空间、能量、效率，聂幕想必 深知其任重道远。 聂幕的艺术工作所涉及的词汇： 编程、更新、生成、复制、共享、插入、自动、删除。 精度、锐化、层、分层、可分、密度、不同层、最小的、最大的。 设置、路径、记忆、混合、可识别、乱码、病毒、死机。 记忆、情感是是谁的附着之物。聂幕的画面中的可辨识部分，包括她的童年识图经验中的困扰，学院的教义和其它的记忆中没有理由的残存，始终是 挥之不去的表层理性依据，这些因素渐渐地混迹藏匿于画面的唯有数字才可以将它们摘出来的层面中。 未来不是今天腾不出手来做的那些事情，不是山后的那座山，河尽头的又一条河。未来是你的一个指令，是可点击的，是世界对你的想象，对保存与 删除的选择。未来就是这样的残酷，因为你清楚地知道它已经落入你的手中。 未来还是泛情的，是手与键盘之间的部分，不可记录的部分。言说只是一种习惯性努力，一切最终以技术的方式生成，以数字化精确显示。技术是更 新人类的可能，是新人类的目光，气息，欢声和叹息。即使是在最远离人性的这片土地上，试图在抛弃耻辱的历史轨道上提速，民主，法制，公平，正 义的实现终将是技术革命的产物，这也是仅有的希望。 叠加和隐蔽。无限层。同位。数字空间中的无限次的叠加。置换。 超级薄指零厚度。超级繁复指同一性。 保存。打印。 如此这般，我们日常的电脑前的时间，徐缓地进入了不可控的可能。

2009.01.01

9

Breaking Free from Fascinating Games

by Ai Weiwei Translator: Philana Woo

Nie Mu’s images have undergone fundamental changes in recent years.

The strokes on the two-dimensional florescent displays appear capricious, entangled and tumultuous; the slick mirror-like sheen conceals a sea of affection and strive. The painting ultimately departs from technical convention and ceases to have density or buildup, the physical traits of color or brush strokes, or the scent, moisture and mass of minerals or chemicals. Through keyboard commands and 2.0 dual core digital technology, the images undergo precise transformation from binary code to decimal code paint operations, resulting in either infinitely small or infinitely large possibilities. Luminous sources and untainted hues shine forth from the images’ backgrounds. But all of this is just the beginning; the illusory, magical and exponential growth of digital technology is still in its infancy. This computer-generated image is merely proof of access to technology. To this extent, the boundaries of Nie Mu’s artistic creation are ultimately rosier, and our vision confronts even greater possibilities than this.

The text in the following paragraph contains calculated errors; the meaning that remains derives from my observations and imagination of images generated by artificial intelligence. At present, we are capable of reproducing panoramic views and yet, it is not enough; we have yet to transcend the boundaries of the man-made. When indeed will artificial intelligence have the capacity to function without human intervention? Technology that eliminates residual human emotion will ultimately abandon human beings like discarded rubbish; this should be the ultimate temptation of all computer games.

Because of the human emotion and physiology lagging behind technological upgrades, the reorganized characters repeatedly pressed into the crack lack any genuine meaning. It is just weary lack of vital interest and digital technology’s errors that generate and are bigoted against the excessively fast variations generated by psychologic-driven consumption. Images generated by the technology will eventually be trampled on and put an end to acts of traditional painting that rely on customary taste, the provisions of the action of non-standard repeatedly in style and taste of dull despair arrears clumsy fetishism and handicraft skills smart living objects are mixed together, and built on the basis of antiintellectualist dialectic swan songs. To be utterly isolated outrightly ruled out the crazy speed, space, energy, efficiency, Nie Mu must know its a long way to go.

Vocabulary associated with Nie Mu’s work: Programming, update, progress, duplicate, sharing, insert, automate, delete.

Resolution, sharpness, layer, ungroup layers, separability, density, different layers, smallest, largest.

Set up, path, memory, mixed, discernibility, legibility, chaos, virus, shut down.

Memory and emotion are both forms of attachment to objects. Nie Mu’s images consist of identifiable parts, including her troubled childhood experiences in trying to understand images, college teachings and other irrational memories. There is no reason why the residual surface is always the lingering rational basis. These factors gradually mingle and hide in the surface and can only be plucked out by digital capability.

The future is not the things you put off doing today; it is not the mountain beyond this mountain, or the river that begins at the end of this river.

The future is your command, it can be clicked on, it is the world’s imagination of you, it is the option to save or delete. Such is the cruelty of the future, because you understand clearly that it has already fallen into your hands.

The future is still open-ended; it is the part between the hands and the keyboard, the part that cannot be recorded. Speaking is only a habitual effort; ultimately everything will be technologically-generated, precisely displayed via digitalization. Technology offers the potential of renewing humankind; it is the vision, breath, cheer and sigh of the neo-human. Even given the terrain most distant to human nature, try to abandon the shameful historical path to improve democracy, rule of law, equity and justice. The realization of these goals is the final outcome of the technological revolution, and our only hope.

Overlay and hide. Infinite layers. Superimpose. The limitless layering of cyberspace. Replace.

Ultra thin is zero density. Multiplicity is uniformity.

Save. Print.

And thus, the time we daily spend in front of the computer slowly enters uncontrollable possibilities.

January 1, 2009

11

艾未未、聂幕访谈 2008年12月31日上午 艾未未、聂幕

艾未未：咱们就随便聊。

焦躁？

聂幕：好的。

焦躁？可能有一点焦虑。

你每天看报吗？

焦虑是什么？

看。

就是干什么都有一些心不在焉，想啥都不能投入，别人觉得可能很

你不是上网上的比较多吗？

好，但我不能投入，心都不在上面。

对，所以这些东西都重了。基本就可以选一个看，消息都差不多。

不实。后来怎么就过去了呢？

除了新闻类的，你上网还干什么？

我也不知道为什么就过去了.

就是你查需要的所有的东西，有书、电器，还有什么比如说生活有什么

有了这个工作室吗？

问题，必需品，这些都是在网上看。

有工作室是我非常高兴的一件事情。

除了这些还有什么乐趣吗？

是吧，我觉得是你的一件大事。

乐趣挺多的。

对，是我的一件大事。原来的那个也是我的工作室，但就是不对。

有没有跟人网聊过？

有点不安。

这个没有做过。

由于不安，经常在工作室里睡着了。

为什么不开发？

这个经验我也有，曾经租过一个工作室，到了工作室我就想回住处，到

我也不知道为什么，比如MSN、QQ、开心网这些全都没有。比如说别

了住处就想去工作室，怎么都不对。

人来和你聊，而我不想更主动。

不踏实。

你有QQ吗？

一个地方能够舒服了，是挺不容易的。你要处在一个舒服的状态才会

没有QQ。原来有一个MSN，后来没有用过。

想去做事。是吧？

你有博客吗？

嗯。

原来有过一个博客，现在也找不到了。原来想的是每天说一句有趣的

没有这个状态，其实很难做事。

话，坚持了一段时间，就停了。

或者没有一个被监督的状态，大家对你没有什么要求，这个时候就变

时间长了就没趣了。

得非常轻松。

对。

什么时候是有要求，什么时候没有要求？

你是哪一年的？

30 岁前后好像自己都有要求，别人也有要求，后来就觉得怎么样都

我是73年的。

可以。

36岁了？

怎么样就可以了？

对，36岁了，明年本命年了。

就是说没有什么人生必须怎么样的要求，比如说必须有一个工作，一

有恐慌吗？

个事业，一个家，这些必须的都没有要求。

没有。

你家里对你管得严吗？

人家说过了三十肯定有恐慌的。

小时候很严。那个时候每个家庭都有些问题，那个时候的父母都比较

过了三十五六也没有。

苛刻。

明年开始就会有。

谁更苛刻一点？

可能也没有。前一段就是30岁的时候有过，我觉得过了那个时期就没

两个交替着苛刻。

有了。

轮番？

什么感觉？

我爸爸到我十几岁以后就不苛刻了，但是我妈开始跟上了。

就觉得活了这么大，没有什么特殊的乐趣，这样不好，我设想的独一

他们两个值班换岗工作做得很好。

无二的生活，还没有找到，那个时候有恐慌。而且年纪到了三十好像

是的。

没有出现你十几岁，二十多岁时设想的应该有的状态。

这对你的性格有影响吗？

有一些失望？

挺有影响的。

那个时候比较茫然，像18岁时的感觉。

他们苛刻在哪些方面呢？

会有什么特征呢？恐慌吗？

就是看你不大顺眼。

对。

什么事让他们觉得不顺眼？

13

所有的事情都....

对。

放别人家了？

是挺难的事？

他们有他们的事，不至于。

开会时那几十少数民族都坐成一片，朋友看了，说怎么跟《西游记》似的。

后来一直放到六岁。

嗯。

反正就是从什么驼背、吃饭、说话，还有很多。

那人肯定小时候爱看电视剧《西游记》。

是在新疆？

所以只好说这事没法在意？

这不叫苛刻吧，哪个父母都想让自己的孩子坐的正一点，手别乱搭桌

很可笑。

对。

人都会有利己的想法，假如你在意自己的伤害的话，你就会一直在意。

上，不要翘腿什么的，站有站相，坐有坐相。

每次必须得穿戴成那个样子。

是你姨养？

太利己也不是一件好事。

是。所以现在我觉得他们也算不错了。虽然他们也有非常过分的事情。

糟蹋。

不是姨，是阿姨。

对，站在别人的立场上想也觉得情有可原，是这样啊.....

你记仇？

小时候我也打扮成少数民族，而且自己特别喜欢打扮成那样。

还有这样的事？真被丢了吗？

稀里糊涂。

我不知道。我爸说喂母乳不好。

最后也不是稀里糊涂。现在挺好。

小的时候我妈妈说我这个孩子最好的事情就是她不记仇，我当时 想……

你喜欢打扮吗？

哦，要有三鹿你就有福气了。

这样？

你表现的很不记仇？

挺喜欢的，过一阵兴趣就淡了。

那就活不到现在。

嗯。

对，然后突然到二十多岁的时候全都想起来了，说我小时候你们……

什么时候第一次用口红的？

你就揣着一身的石子儿。

正在进行时？

你是能够泛回来的那种。

大概十五岁吧？

后来想还好，新疆的牛奶比较好。

进行时，而且最好到怎么样都不要特别过激，这是比较好的。分手也

什么叫能够泛回来？

什么感觉？

所以你是喝牛奶长大的。

不要太过激，在一起的时候，也不要干柴烈火。

就说一段时间不记仇，但只是周期性不记仇，过一会儿就涌上来了？

没有像想的那么好看。

对。

肯定是干柴烈火过？

可能。也可能是等到自己跟他们当年的年龄差不多了，就会想，他们那

是对着镜子吗？

你个子比他们高吗？

会觉得干柴烈火或者是很幸福的时候会非常不安，分开时也会觉得非

时候怎么这么对待我。

对。

比他们都平均高一些。

常不安，这两个极端都让人不安和焦虑。这种感觉总是不大好。

有过什么比较大的不能说创伤吧，值得记忆的事？

自己买的还是用朋友的？

这是喝牛奶的好处。长得像谁？

体验过的，至少知道各种弊端。

耿耿于怀的？

是一个亲戚送的，颜色无法挑选，就觉得终于有了一支口红。

两个都像一些。

对，但是你要真的要面临同样的情况，又会有发烧的感觉，失去控制。

画的时候有什么？是跟你的性的意识同时出现的吗？

更像谁？

不断处在煽火和熄火之间。

对，你的经历？你上过附中？

是时间接近。

圆脸像我妈，中间这些像我爸。

我还没有那么烈火。

对。

15岁？20年前了？

棋盘是你妈，棋子是你爸。

还是比较平静的？

附中是哪一届呢？

嗯。

比如说眼睛，眼睛比较浅这些都是我爸的。

对，而且注意力经常被转移到其他的事情上。

88届。上了学第一年就是6, 4。

记得住牌子吗？

性格呢？

你能有什么其他事情？

6, 4跟你有关系吗？

一会儿把这些都删了。

性格跟他们俩都不大像。

觉得别的事情有兴趣进去，注意力集中很投入，之前焦虑的事又忘

6, 4美院要有什么活动的话，附中就全校组织游行，游行了好几次，你

不能，谈话怎么能删呢。什么牌子记得吗？

像隔壁老张吗？

了，然后……

必须跟着走，帮着拿东西，喊口号之类的。

不记得，是一个国产的牌子。

像带我的那一家人。

对人来说可能都是一样，情感是最重要的一块。

还是有组织的。

拧出来以后再也退不回去的那种。

这样的。你去见过他们吗？

嗯。

有组织，第二次我就不想去了。

退得回去，肯定没有用完，因为用一两次觉得不够好看，好像没有想的

见过。

尤其对年轻人来说。

你说是6, 4之前？

那么好。

你管他们叫什么？

是不是一直都这样啊？

之前。

什么颜色呢？

叫阿姨，阿姨已经去世了，她当时是老太太，他家有很多兄弟姐妹，他

你说我？

这样的，组织的那些人后来都被受处分了吗？

就是一种正红色。

们家性格都比较开朗，特别爱笑，我觉得有点像他们。

对，你会一直都这样吧。

就是校长，他后来哭着在全校做了检讨。

就是五星红旗的颜色？

你看到他流眼泪了？

对。

你觉得你这几十年中最在意的是什么事啊？

现在一般都看心理年龄，那你刚才问我的年龄，我觉得可以删掉。

反正他哽咽着做了报告。

那是不太好看。现在用化妆品吧？

在意的事情？

不用删掉，你可以再给心理年龄。

说什么？

当然。

对，比如财富、情感、事业。

你测过心理年龄吗？

就说自己觉悟还不行，作出了这种失职的事，组织大家去参与游行，没

用什么牌子的？

老在变。

不用测的，可以看出来，你心理年龄多大？

有想到什么什么之类的，有一些排比句。

什么牌子都有，也是经常换。

寿命、身体？

我觉得可能比较年轻，但是没有测过。怕太幼稚了。

后来放过了他？

有没有过敏的，一抹上就反应不得了，脸开始变了？

寿命和身体还没有想到。

幼稚怕什么。

我印象中没有什么问题。

我不是过敏的那种体质。

这方面的条件很好。

成熟是我比较希望的。

你受了刺激吗？

没有事？

没有想到。原来有一段时间在乎感情，有一段又在乎事业。

这说明心理年龄很低才会希望成熟。

没有。

对。

什么时候在乎感情，什么时候在乎事业？

那是多么糟糕的事情。

就跟你的画似的？

有口红以后就应该很在意感情吧。

这有什么糟糕的，这是事实。

你是北京人吗？

为什么跟我的画似的？

在意了多少年 ？

在新疆生的，六岁来北京。

你的画怎么涂都没有事。

有十几年，二十年？

你哥哥跟你差几岁？

在北京长大的？

嗯，有点皮实，比较好养。

那就在意到现在，十五岁加二十不就35岁了吗？

五岁半。

是。

从小就很好养吗？

不是永远排名第一，有时候在意。

他们是六十年代的？

为什么去了新疆呢？

从小就很好养。

你在意的情感里是什么呢？

对。

怎么说呢？比如说喜欢一个人希望一直和他在一起。但是后来觉得我

七十年代还有什么特征，除了情感上的。

我爸爸美院毕业，他是国画系的，分到了新疆。

我是年轻人。

画那个买买提去了？

比较木讷吗？

自己也不见得能做到这一步。

对老的也认同，对小的也认同吧。比如说现在老一辈人做的事，我们

他最有名的一张画是《毛主席接见新疆人民》。

小的时候吗？被取过类似的外号。小的时候不是家人带的，刚生出来

你会这样想？

尽量比较尊重他们。

很鲜艳的颜色？

没几天就送到别人家带。

对，你自己都做不到，你怎么要求别人？

比较属于通情达理。

14

15

对。对小的就觉得这样也挺好。所以有人说七十年代承前启后。

你什么时候开始画画的？记得吗？

多的一百层。我把一年的东西先一层一层的加，不管它有没有主题，

不可控制的。

是承前启后的一代，那就是三通。

你是说从小吗？

就这样加，加到最后一百层，之间会有一个70层的时候，有一个29层，

所以要么就是没有，安静，要么就是大放，大放以后只能说大放的不

三通？我觉得也许不是这样，有的人这么觉得。

有意识的画画，觉得自己喜欢上这个事了？

有一个11层，它们是完全不同的一张画。

好，但实际上能不能再回来还是一个问题。

对，可能是这样，因为七八十年代，刚好是个空白期，前面是那样的，

自己喜欢这个事了？

完全不同吗？

现在有人做机器人……

后面摸着石头过河，还没有摸着几块呢。

就有意识，主动的。

看起来完全不同。

那个有点难，因为把它体现成机械式沉淀，就没有意义了。一个小的

而且多变，一年一变。

那应该是附中以后喜欢上的。

我觉得你才开始这样画，中途还经过了长时间的往前走，或者是说往

点，比如你只做颜色这一点，就可以无限大了。要把它变为实用成果，

对。

你怎么会考附中呢？

后走？首先你选择了技术，通过数字来记录，那个痕迹本身是没有物

那没有必要，因为实用总是很笨拙的。

看什么人，有时能看出，他求知欲旺盛的时候是什么时代。我觉得我

考附中是父亲说你应该画画。

质的，其实是什么也没有，是一个虚拟的状态。

还会变得更落后。

们也许是属于一直变，每年都不确定。所以我要是找到一个稳定想自

就跟着画了？

就是一些数据。

今天咱们先说到这儿。

己投入进去的事业，花的时间会比别人长。因为觉得自己会变，又要

对。

对，它就是数据。数据里零和无限大是一样的。

好的。

变，一直在变。

有意识的喜欢上是上学以后？

零零零就是纯黑。

适应吗？

上学以后。

其实我觉得你才开始，这是一个深渊，你有这个感觉吗？

后来就慢慢适应了。要是一段时间没有什么变化，就觉得可能要准备

多久以后？

我有这个感觉，觉得好像跳到另外一个树林里，这片树林很大，可以

着又有什么大变化。

应该挺快的。因为中学有一个很好的图书馆，经常去后来就非常喜欢。

跳来跳去。

喜欢什么呢？

鸟儿都从没有见过？

喜欢你待的地方吗？

与艺术有关的都非常喜欢的，觉得这是一个很大的事，不是一个给人

对。

很喜欢。

画画插图，给人画画像，画画宣传画，就是我爸做的，不是这种事。

兴奋吗？

北京，中国？

知道这个事有多大，才喜欢的？

刚开始做的时候非常兴奋。一会儿你看到很大，一会儿看到很小，后

要说可以重新选的话，我才不喜欢这儿呢。

对，觉得这个事应该是一个很大的事。

来陷入一些制作的事可以思考，后来……

为什么呢？

我看你以前画过一些水墨一样的跟佛教有关，你不信佛教吧？

其实技术层面很冷静的。

怎么说呢？因为小时候在这儿的有感情的东西都被拆了，让我怀旧也

应该不算是信，有一段一直在考虑宗教是否是一个很有道理的，是否

对，你会考虑比较哪个更合适。有的时候有一刹那又特别兴奋，在这个

没法怀，比如小学、中学都没了，那些人也都找不着了。你要说新疆是

是可以让我有信心的，那个时候在找一个可相信的事情。

树林里，哇，站到很高的地方，这个树林又大了。

故乡呢？有可能，就觉得那像是一个很安稳的地方。

跟法轮功有关吗？

当你发现一个事情可以无限的延续下去，而且只需要给他一个很小的

但是6岁之前你应该不记得什么了吧？

没有。当时对佛教中佛像雕刻感兴趣，买了些书看，里面有一些安定

指令就能自动往前走，或者能在一个点上准确的汇合的时候，那是很

对，只是觉得日子过得慢一些。要是可以选其他地方，就是希望选一

的东西。

兴奋的。这是技术给人提供的最大的可能。

个鸟语花香，没有什么历史动乱的地方生活。

安定也是一个障，一个迷惑？

嗯，还有一个原因就是，有电脑像人的外挂脑这种说法，人会觉得自

更平静一些？

对。看起来像是很静，其实不然。

己变得很强大。 是。

更平静一些。 这里的时代是不太平静的。

现在这样画，这种方式，有两年时间？

也许最后发现是幻觉。

嗯。

差不多。

不完全是幻觉，因为它最终可以摧毁你。

对总书记最近说的不折腾怎么理解？

在想什么呢？

嗯，这个东西比我要冷酷，少缺点。

我想英文不折腾没法翻译，是不是因为他们不想说出来。

我就是想做一种适合我，更自由的画画方式。

你是不是本身也很冷酷？

今天报纸看的是吧？挺逗的，说翻译，记者招待会上，有一个人给国家

什么适合呢？

不知道。

主席的不折腾做了一个很长的解释，说这个话是太有创意了，太朴素

具体到我，我觉得我的思绪跳跃的太快了，比如传统画一张画，我要

少缺点，没有说完。

了，太简洁了，他说了很久，说了老半天，最后翻译没有办法翻译，就直

花挺长时间，我经常画到最后，已经完全没有兴趣了，完全不在里面

电脑吗？

接翻译了“不折腾”，全场哄然大笑，老外说什么意思？

了，就是心不在。我觉得我的注意力可以一次集中，很集中，但是很快

嗯。

他们可能想起“加油”的那个事，翻译怎么翻译呢， “不折腾”不再搞

又转移开。我得找这样一个东西来满足自己，或者消化掉我注意的东

少缺点，冷酷，然后贯彻意志，不完成不行，必须得完成。

运动什么的？

西。我觉得上网也是，同时打开很多页，再关掉。

有很多可以让人崇拜的地方。

可能意思是说别翻来复去的意思，但是呢，政府是最折腾的政府。

看着让你兴奋？

听起来越来越纳粹了。

我认识一个人给外国电视台工作，他说他们翻译讲话，翻译到最后一

一次接收很多。

还有什么要谈的事情吗？

句话，说我们预计到建国一百年的时候，2049 年的时候，实现现代

然后就走神？

谈一谈你看到的好玩的森林里的其它？

化，形成一个民主、美好、和谐的现代化国家。结果外文翻译过来以

我觉得这个事也是这样，从另外一方面深入下去。

那个是我要写的。我觉得这两个不应该太重合。

后，他们就说……

现在你进入了一个没有方法的方式，就是你摊开的比较松散的结构，

好。

这个我看到了，我看到的是在建党一百年的时候，2021年。

你无论从哪个方向，怎样进入都可以，反复突破都可以。因为它没有

人类最终已经创造出来了一个游戏，把人自己糊弄过去了，这个太让人

还有一个建国一百年，还有一个递进。他们翻译完了以后，老外理解

厚度。

着迷了，本身一切都可分析，一切都可以量化，分析和量化，演变和结

成，我们预计2049年才有一个民主。

嗯。

果，又会让人太吃惊了，甚至不愿相信。这是一个了不起的时代。人在

我想他们是这样。

实际上它的记录方式是不一样的，它的层次也是不一样的。

种种的困惑当中，忽然一下觉得特别清醒，清醒以后又会很茫然，因为

你说他们指谁？

有很多层。

你会出现无穷的结果和现象。

就是政府。政府觉得民主一定是对自己不利的事，要不然他不会说

在这个层如果你不拆开，会看不出来的，是吗？

对。你有很多可能。你自己都分析不过来。

的。你看过去谈民主，谈人权都像是说一个脏字似的，或者一个反动

嗯。

我觉得最初肯定是人觉得太沉闷跟不上趟才发现了这个游戏，一下子

词汇。

有多少层呢？

就玩大发了，和情感有点像，实际上是不可……

16

17

Ai Weiwei interviews Nie Mu Afternoon of December 31, 2008

by Ai Weiwei, Nie Mu Translator: Ben Armour, Philana Woo

Ai Weiwei: Let’s just have a random chat.

Nie Mu: OK. Do you read the newspaper daily?

Yes. Don’t you tend to read more online?

Yes, so these things are all important. You can basically choose one to read; the information essentially is all the same.

Apart from reading the news, what else do you do online?

I just check all the things one needs -- books, electronics, and anything else, for instance, life problems, essential products -- everything is available online.

Apart from these things, what else do you take pleasure in?

I take pleasure in quite a few things.

Have you chatted online before?

No, never.

Why not develop this?

I don’t know why, but for example, MSN, QQ, Kaixin, I am not registered with any of these. For example, other people initiate the chat, but I don’t want to be proactive.

Do you have QQ? I don’t have QQ. I once had an MSN account, but never used it.

Do you have a blog?

I once had a blog, but I can’t find it now. I originally thought of writing something interesting every day, and I persisted at it for a while, but then gave it up.

After a while, it’s no longer interesting.

Yes. What year were you born in?

1973.

You’re 36 years old?

Right, 36 years old. Next year is my cycle year. [Tr: The cycle year is in relation to the Chinese zodiac.]

Are you panicking?

No. People say that as you pass 30 you definitely start panicking.

I haven’t panicked even after turning 35 or 36.

Maybe you’ll start after next year.

Probably not. I panicked when I turned 30, but not after that.

How did you feel?

I felt I was growing old and still hadn’t developed things I took particular pleasure in. I hadn’t found the unique life I envisioned, and this wasn’t good. At that point I panicked. Moreover, when you hit 30, it seems that your life isn’t what you thought it would be when you were in your teens or twenties.

Do you feel a bit disappointed?

At the time I was relatively disheartened, like the feeling at 18.

What characterized it? Panic?

Right.

Fretfulness?

Fretfulness? Perhaps I was a bit anxious.

What were you anxious about?

I was a bit absentminded in everything I did. Nothing I thought about made sense. Other people felt good about things, but I just

wasn’t able to apply myself, my heart wasn’t in it.

You weren’t settled. How did you get through it?

I don’t know myself how I got through it.

Was it having your studio?

Having a studio is something I am very happy about.

Indeed, I feel it is a big thing for you.

Right, it is a big thing for me. The previous place was also my studio, but it just wasn’t right.

Somewhat unstable.

Because it was unstable; I often slept in the studio.

I have also had this experience. I once rented a studio; upon arriving at the studio, I wanted to go home. When I went home, I wanted to go to the studio. Nothing felt right.

It wasn’t practical.

It’s not easy finding a comfortable place. Only when you are in a comfortable situation can you even think of getting anything done. Right?

Right.

Without such a situation, it is really very difficult to work on anything.

Or perhaps an unsupervised situation, where everybody isn’t imposing demands; this time I am very relaxed.

When did and didn’t you have such demands?

Just before and after 30, it seemed I had demands, and so did other people. Afterwards, I felt that anything at all was OK. What is OK? I mean, when there are no absolute life requirements. For example, needing to have a job, career, home; none of these necessities have requirements.

Was your family very strict with you?

They were very strict when I was a child. In those days, every family had problems. Parents were harsher in those days.

Who was stricter?

They took turns being strict.

Took turns?

My father stopped being strict after my teens, but my mother had caught up by then.

They were good at switching shifts on the job.

Indeed.

Did this influence your personality?

Quite a bit.

In what ways were they strict?

They just weren’t pleased with me.

What weren’t they pleased with?

Everything was…

Well, they had their own issues, after all.

Anyway, it was things like my bad posture, the way I ate, spoke, and a lot of other things.

That isn’t really strictness, all parents want their children to sit up straight and keep their hands and feet in the proper place. If you stand, stand straight and if you sit, sit properly.

Yes. So looking back, I don’t think they were wrong. Though they did some very inappropriate things as well.

Are you resentful?

When I was a child, my mother told me that the best thing for a

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child was not to hold grudges, and I thought then that…

So you displayed a lack of resentment?

Right, then later, when I was in my twenties, I suddenly remembered everything, how when I was little they...

You’re the type who can pan back.

What do you mean by ‘pan back’?

It means that you feel no resentment for a time, but then it all gushes up?

Maybe. It might also be that when your age is about the same as their’s was, you start thinking: how could they have treated me that way?

Are there any memorable – nontraumatic – things?

Happy, nostalgic things?

Yes, your personal experiences? Did you attend an affiliated middle school [Tr.: in those days, there were no private (Br. ‘public’) schools in the PRC; thus those with the proper affiliations sent their children to higher-quality schools ‘affiliated’ with universities or other institutions, a practice that continues to the present day]?

Yes. What class were you in your affiliated middle school?

Class of 1988. The first year I started school June 4th happened [Tr: the date the Tian’anmen Square protests broke out in 1989].

Are you associated with June 4th?

If our art college [Tr: i.e. the specific school within her middle school] organized any June 4th activities, the entire middle school organized demonstrations – we had many demonstrations – and it was mandatory to help carry things, shout slogans, that kind of stuff.

They were organized.

They were organized; the second time, I didn’t want to go.

You’re saying this was before June 4th?

Before.

If this was the case, were the organizers punished afterwards?

Only the headmaster. Afterwards, he delivered a tearful self-criticism before the entire school.

You saw his tears flowing?

Well, he was choking back tears as he issued his rectification report.

What did he say?

Cultivating an individual consciousness is not okay [Tr: as opposed to the desired proletarian collective consciousness]; you do this kind of thing where you can lose your job, you organize everybody to participate in demonstrations, and you never think there could be these kinds of repercussions; he just uttered a few formal slogan couplets in repentance.

Was he later discharged?

As I recall, it wasn’t a big problem.

Were you traumatized?

No. Are you a Beijinger?

I was born in Xinjiang, and moved to Beijing when I was six years old.

You grew up in Beijing?

Yes. Why was your family in Xinjiang?

After my Dad graduated from art school, he joined the National Painting Bureau and was assigned to Xinjiang. He went there to paint a portrait for Maimaiti.

What was his breakthrough painting?

His most famous one was Chairman Mao Meets with the People of Xinjiang.

Is it a brightly-colored painting?

Yes. It depicts dozens of ethnic minorities seated together. Friends who

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saw it said it looked like Journey to the West.

He must have loved watching Journey to the West on TV as a child.

It was very funny.

People always appeared in costume [Tr: different ethnic minorities wore their traditional dress].

What a waste.

When I was little, I dressed up in ethnic minority costumes too, and I really liked dressing that way.

Do you like dressing up?

I quite liked it, but after a while I lost interest.

When did you first use lipstick?

When I was around 15?

How did it feel?

I wasn’t as good looking as I expected.

Did you look in the mirror?

Yes. Did you buy it or use a friend’s?

A relative gave it to me; I had no way of choosing the color, but I felt that, well, I finally had lipstick.

When did you start making yourself up? Was it at about the same time you became sexually aware?

Very close to that time.

At 15? Twenty years ago?

Yes. Do you remember the brand?

We need to edit this part out.

No, we can’t edit this. Do you remember the brand?

No, it was a domestic brand.

Was it the kind of lipstick you couldn’t retract once you twisted it up?

It was retractable. I definitely didn’t use it up though, because after I used it once or twice I thought that was pretty much enough. It wasn’t as nice as I expected.

What color was it?

It was a true red.

So it was a five-star flag color [Tr: the color of the background to the PRC flag].

Yes. Indeed not very attractive. Do you use cosmetics now?

Of course.

Which brand do you use?

Various brands. I switch frequently.

Do you have extreme allergic reactions? Does your face start to break out?

I do not have an allergic body type.

So no problems?

No. Similar to your paintings?

Why is it similar to my paintings?

With your painting, there’s never a problem regardless of how you paint them.

Yes, I’m quite low-maintenance and easy to care for.

Have you always been easy to care for?

Yes, ever since I was a child.

A little slow?

When I was a child? Yes, I’ve been called that. I wasn’t brought up by my family; I was sent to be raised by another family a few days after I was born.

Someone else’s house?

Until I was six.

In Xinjiang?

Yes. Was it your mother’s sister who raised you?

Not my aunt, a nanny.

Really? Were you really abandoned like that?

I don’t know. My father said breast-feeding wasn’t good.

Oh, you’d be blessed now if you’d had the Sanlu milk [Tr: ‘Three Deer’ brand, a reference to the recent international scandal over tainted Chinese dairy products, specifically that dairy company’s brand of baby formula that was adulterated with the melamine that engendered often-fatal kidney stones in infants; the company has since gone bankrupt and its chairman jailed].

Then I wouldn’t be alive now.

You would have a lot of kidney stones.

In retrospect, I was fine. Xinjiang milk is better.

So you grew up drinking milk [Tr: not common at the time; subsequent government campaigns to encourage milk consumption have significantly increased the stature of the young generation of Chinese; lactose intolerance is still common among the older generation].

Yes. Were you taller than others?

Taller than the average.

This is the advantage of drinking milk. Who do you take after?

I’m a bit like both parents.

Who more?

My round face is my mum’s and my features are my dad’s.

So the chess board is mum and the chess pieces are dad.

For example, my shallow eyes are like my dad’s.

What about your temperament?

My temperament is not much like either of theirs.

Is it like your neighbor Old Zhang’s?

I take after the family who brought me up I see. Have you been back to visit them?

Yes. How do you address them?

I called her Auntie; Auntie has already passed away. She was elderly at the time. There were a lot of siblings in her family and their spirits were always high, they loved to laugh a lot. I think my temperament somewhat resembles their’s.

What is the thing you cared most about throughout all these years?

The thing I cared about most?

Yes, for instance, wealth, affection, career.

It undergoes constant changes.

Longevity? Health?

I haven’t actually thought about longevity or health yet.

You are blessed in those areas.

I just haven’t thought about it. For a time I cared about affection, and then I cared about my career.

During which period did you care about affection and career?

I guess while applying lipstick, I started to care about affection.

How many years did this last for?

Several years, maybe 20?

So you’re still concerned about it –15 plus 20 is 35, right?

It wasn’t always my number one concern; it just bothered me from time to time.

What is it about affection that caught your attention?

How shall I put it? For example, I might like someone and want to be with him. But then I realize that I can’t take the next step.

That’s how you think?

Yes, how can you expect the other person to commit when you can’t do so yourself?

Is it a difficult thing to do?

Yes. So there is really no way you can concern yourself with it?

Everyone is self-serving. For example, if you are concerned with your own pain, you will always be preoccupied with it.

Being too self-serving is not good.

True, when you stand in other people’s shoes, you recognize extenuating circumstances; that’s how it is...

Dazed and confused.

In the end you’re not dazed and confused. Things will eventually turn out fine.

That’s it?

Yes. Do you mean presently?

Presently. And the best is not to be too extreme about anything; it’s better that way. Parting shouldn’t be too extreme either; and when you’re together, you shouldn’t be like sparks in a gunpowder factory.

Seems you’ve experienced the feeling of sparks in a gunpowder factory.

When I feel like sparks in a gunpowder factory or really happy, I feel rather turbulent. Breaking up also makes me feel turbulent. These extremes can make a person feel unsettled and anxious. It’s not a good feeling at all.

At least you know the negative aspects once you’ve experienced them.

Right, but if you actually encounter a similar situation, you might feel feverish and lose control all over again.

You’re constantly vacillating between fanning and extinguishing flames.

My flames are not that fierce.

So you are relatively calm?

Yes, and my attention often is diverted by other matters.

Such as?

Sometimes I become engrossed in other affairs. I become distracted and forget the things that worried me previously, and then...

It’s the same for most people, emotions tend to be the most important thing.

Yes. Especially for young people.

Is it always that way?

You mean with me?

Yes, have you always been this way?

I am a young person.

Nowadays we generally consider the mental age; you just asked me my age – I think you can edit that out.

There’s no need to edit it; you can just tell me your mental age.

Have you tested your mental age?

I don’t think it is necessary. It’s obvious. What is your mental age?

I think it is quite young, but I haven’t taken a test. I’m afraid the results might be too childish.

What’s wrong with being childish?

I prefer to be mature.

Your mental age must be very low if you desire maturity.

It’s a terrible thing.

What’s so bad about it? It’s the truth.

What is the age difference between you and your brothers?

Five and a half years.

They were born in the 1960s?

Yes. What were your traits in the 1970s, apart from those regarding affection?

I related to old and young people. For example, we tried our best to respect what the older generation accomplished.

It was a more sympathetic approach.

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Right. With the younger generation, we felt they were doing quite fine as well. So people say the 1970s generation was a link between past and future.

A generation linking past and future; that’s a three-way link [Tr: this is a pun on the three-way direct flights between mainland China and Taiwan].

Three-way link? I don’t think that’s the case, though some people do.

Yes, I think so. The 1970s and 1980s were a clean slate period. The past was what it was, and the future consisted of feeling rocks to find your way across the river, though only a few rocks had been touched.

Yes, and there were many changes; changes came with each year.

Right.

With some people, you can tell when their thirst for knowledge has peaked. Perhaps we are all bound to constant changes, and every year is indeterminate. So I want to find a stable career I can devote myself to. Perhaps I’ve taken longer than most people, because I can feel that I will change again, that I will continue to change and always change.

Are you accustomed to it?

I grew accustomed after a while. When there are no changes over a certain period, I feel the need to prepare for a major one.

Do you like where you live?

Very much.

China? Beijing?

If I could choose again, I wouldn’t live here.

Why? How shall I put it? All the things I was attached to as child have been demolished. I can’t even be nostalgic. For instance, my primary and secondary schools no longer exist and there is no means for me to reconnect with anyone. You can say Xinjiang is my hometown. Perhaps it is. I simply feel that it is a very stable place.

But you probably don’t remember much prior to the age of six.

Yes, but I think the days pass a bit slower there. I suppose if I could choose another place, I’d opt for a place where songbirds sing and flowers spring, a place to live without any historical baggage.

More tranquil?

More tranquil.

Here the times are not very tranquil indeed.

Yes. What is your understanding of the General Secretary’s recent announcement of ‘don’t zh téng (折腾) ? [Tr: More commonly known as the ‘three don’ts’. President Hu Jintao, speaking in his dual capacity as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party at a recent speech commemorating the 30th anniversary of the policy of reform and opening, exhorted: “Do not waver, do not slacken, do not zh téng”. The lattermost refers generally to forward motion accompanied by lateral regression and translates as ‘toss and turn’, ‘sway’, ‘flail about’, ‘sway back and forth’, ‘wriggle’, ‘wiggle’, ‘zigzag’ and numerous other possible variants, so the precise English meaning of President Hu’s words has triggered frenzied online debate.]

I do not think “do not zh téng ” can be translated into English.

Did you see it in today’s newspaper? Quite amusing; at a press conference, a guy delivered a lengthy interpretation of our chairman’s meaning. He said it was very creative, quite plain and extraordinarily succinct. He spoke at length, for a really long time. Afterwards, they attempted to translate his explanation and it turned out there was no way to even translate what he said, so it was directly translated as “don’t [zh téng ]”. The audience burst out laughing, while the foreigners all asked: What does it mean?

Maybe it reminds them of ‘ji yóu’ (加油) [Tr: the cheer for the Chi-

22

nese side during the Beijing Olympics that means ‘add gas/oil = ‘hit the gas’, i.e. ‘redouble your efforts/try harder’]. How can an interpreter translate this? Maybe don’t ‘zh téng ’ means refrain from engaging in any activities?

Maybe the meaning is ‘don’t go back and forth’; but our government does that more often than anyone else.

I know a guy who works for a foreign TV channel; he said their interpreter was translating, and when he got to the last line, he said: “Our planning envisages a hundred-year period to complete building the country, and thus 2049 [Tr: as calculated from the 1949 founding of the PRC], and realize modernization, create a democracy, excellence and a harmonious and modern nation”. But it was translated as...

I’ve already read that; it was for the hundred-year anniversary of the founding of the CCP, thus 2021.

It was another version for the anniversary of the founding the PRC, another step. From their translation, it was understood by foreigners that we could expect democracy only by 2049.

I think that is how they are.

Who are you referring to?

The government. The government believes democracy is definitely something that is not in its best interest, otherwise, there is no way [President Hu] would have said that. For instance, in the past, talk of democracy and human rights were obscenities, words relegated to a reactionary lexicon.

When did you start painting? Do you remember?

You mean from when I was a child?

Consciously painting and taking a liking to it.

When I liked it?

With consciousness and initiative.

It must have been after I started middle school that I really got into it.

Why did you choose to study in the school affiliated to the art college?

It was because my father said I should paint.

So you painted accordingly?

Yes. You began to consciously get into it after attending the school?

Yes. How long after?

It must have been quite soon afterwards because my middle school had a very good library. I started liking it a lot after I started frequenting the library.

What was it that you liked?

I liked anything relating to art. It felt like a big deal, unlike painting illustrations, portraits or propaganda like my dad – not that kind of thing at all.

You didn’t like it until you realized it was a big deal?

Yes, I felt that it should be a big deal.

I’ve noticed Buddhist themes in some of your ink paintings. You’re not Buddhist are you?

No. For a while, I pondered whether religion made any sense, whether it was something I could believe in. During that period I sought something to believe in.

Are you affiliated with Falun Gong ?

No. At the time, I was interested in Buddhist statuaries. I purchased books that contained many peaceful things.

Is stability also a hindrance, a puzzle?

Yes. It seems very serene, but it’s really otherwise.

You’ve been painting this way, in this style, for about two years?

More or less.

What is your thought process?

I just wanted to find a painting style that suited me, a freer one.

What suits you?

Personally, I felt that my thoughts were jumping around far too quickly. For example, to complete a traditional painting would take me ages. Often, by the time close to finishing it, I would lose all interest; my heart just wasn’t in it. I thought I could focus -- really focus -- but I am so easily distracted. I had to find something satisfying, something attractive. It’s the same with surfing the internet -- I open several pages at once, then close them all together.

Does such a method excite you?

I can take in a lot all at once.

But your attention is straying afterwards?

I think the same applies to this; it becomes more in-depth from another angle.

Currently you’re engaged in a method that has no rules. You’ve laid out a looser structure; regardless of direction and approach, repeated breakthroughs are possible because there is no depth.

Right.

Actually, there is a difference in the method of recording, as well as the layers.

There are many layers.

If would be indiscernible if you didn’t take it apart at this level, correct?

Yes. How many layers are there?

Over one hundred. I’ve added things layer by layer over the course of a year, regardless of whether each had a theme, so it has accumulated in that way. By the end, there exists a layer 70, layer 29, layer 11 – each possessing a completely discrete image.

Completely different?

They look completely different.

I think you have just started painting in this style. Along the way, you have journeyed forth, or perhaps ‘back’? First of all, you chose technology and used numbers as a means of recording. The traces are in and of themselves inherently immaterial. In fact, nothing at all exists; it is a virtual condition.

It’s just numbers.

Yes, it’s just numbers. In numbers, zero and infinity are approximately equal.

Zero-zero-zero is pure black.

In fact, I think you’ve only just begun; this is a deep well. Do you feel this way?

Yes. I feel like I’ve run into another forest, a vast forest, one in which I can run all over.

A forest unlike any birds have ever even encountered?

Yes. Are you excited?

When I first started, I was very excited. At one point you’re looking at something humongous, then at something minuscule. Once you become immersed in the thing you’re making, you deliberate, then...

Actually, the technological aspect is very calming.

Yes, you can consider which one is more suitable. There were times I felt a special excitement; from a high vantage point, this forest appeared even bigger.

The discovery of something that can continue limitlessly, and furthermore propel automatically with the slightest command or converge precisely at one point, is very exciting. This is the greatest possibility technology provides humankind.

Yes. There is also another reason: Some say a computer is like an external appendage of the human brain, thus imbuing a sense of empowerment to humans.

Yes. Maybe it will all turn out to be an illusion.

It is not a complete illusion because it can ultimately destroy you.

Yes. This thing is more callous but less flawed than me.

Are you also callous?

I don’t know.

Fewer flaws -- we didn’t finish talking about that.

You mean computers?

Yes. Fewer flaws, callous, then exercise will. Incomplete is unacceptable, completion is mandatory.

Those are many venerable traits.

It sounds exceedingly Nazi.

Is there anything else you want to talk about?

How about talking about the other things you’ve seen in your fun forest?

That I will write about. I don’t think there should be too much overlap.

Alright.

Ultimately, humankind has already created a self-deceptive game.

It is so fascinating, and can all be analyzed and quantified. But the analysis and quantification, in addition to evolution and conclusion would be too shocking to humans, too difficult to accept. This is an extraordinary era. People are in the midst of all kinds of perplexities; suddenly, everything becomes clear in the mind and, following this moment of clarity, everything grows dim and confused again, because you can materialize infinite results and phenomena.

Yes. You have greater possibilities. It is impossible to analyze.

Perhaps the game was originally discovered out of ennui and feeling dated. But all of a sudden we went too far, similarly with emotions, it is actually impossible to...

Impossible to control.

So it is either nothing and tranquility or a great release, after which you can say the release was not good, but whether or not you can return to the original is a problem.

People are making robots nowadays...

That is a little difficult, because it necessitates a physical transfiguration, which is not meaningful. A small node – for example, color – can enlarge infinitely. And if you want to turn it into a practical result, well, there’s no need, because practical applications are clumsy.

It will probably become even more outdated.

Let’s conclude here for today.

OK.

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作品 Works

雪，雪越下越大 2007, 1/2版, 150 x 266 cm; 2/2版, 253 x 450 cm, c-print

Snow, Falling Harder 2007, Ed. 1/2, 150 x 266 cm; Ed. 2/2, 253 x 450 cm, c-print

27

那个男孩 2007, 1/2版, 114 x 172 cm; 2/2版, 150 x 225 cm, c-print

The Boy 2007, Ed. 1/2, 114 x 172 cm; Ed. 2/2, 150 x 225 cm, c-print

29

人民 2007, 1/2版, 80 x 192 cm, 数码绘画; 2/2版, 120 x 288 cm, c-print

The People 2007, Ed. 1/2, 80 x 192 cm, digital painting; Ed. 2/2, 120 x 288 cm, c-print

31

分蛋糕 2007, 1/2版, 150 x 300 cm, 数码绘画; 2/2版, 300 x 600 cm, c-print

Sharing the Cake 2007, Ed. 1/2, 150 x 300 cm, digital painting; Ed. 2/2, 300 x 600 cm, c-print

33

为什么被空投到这里? 2007, 1/2版, 150 x 270 cm; 2/2版 300 x 540 cm, c-print

Why was I dropped here? 2007, Ed. 1/2, 150 x 270 cm; Ed. 2/2, 300 x 540 cm, c-print

35

逃马在吉 2008, 1版, 120 x 198 cm, 灯箱

Blessed are those who escape 2008, unicum, 120 x 198 cm, lightbox 37

向前往 2008, 1版, 103 x 172 cm, 灯箱

Forward 2008, unicum, 103 x 172 cm, lightbox 39

寻声在吉 2008, 1版, 103 x 172 cm, 灯箱

Blessed are those who seek their own voice 2008, unicum, 103 x 172 cm, lightbox 41

无墟在吉 2008, 1版, 82 x 172 cm, 数码绘画

Blessed are those indestructible places 2008, unicum, 82 x 172 cm, digital painting

43

一园青苔 2008, 1版, 120 x 172 cm, 数码绘画

Moss Yard 2008, unicum, 120 x 172 cm, digital painting

45

繁荣 2008, 1版, 117 x 76 cm, c-print

Boom 2008, unicum, 117 x 76 cm, c-print

47

少年皆夜鸣 2008, 1版, 112.5 x 90 cm, c-print

Noctiflorous Boy 2008, unicum, 112.5 x 90 cm, c-print

49

琥珀 2008, 1版, 117 x 147 cm, 灯箱

Amber 2008, unicum, 117 x 147 cm, lightbox

51

金刚石 2008, 1版, 120 x 147 cm, 数码绘画

Diamond 2008, unicum, 120 x 147 cm, digital painting

53

11 2008, 1版, 180 x 180 cm, 数码绘画

54

11 2008, unicum, 180 x 180 cm, digital painting

29 2008, 1版, 180 x 180 cm, 数码绘画

29 2008, unicum, 180 x 180 cm, digital painting

55

70 2008, 1版, 180 x 180 cm, c-print

56

70 2008, unicum, 180 x 180 cm, c-print

100 2008, 1版, 180 x 180 cm, 数码绘画

100 2008, unicum, 180 x 180 cm, digital painting

57

简历 Biography

1973

生于中国新疆

1996

毕业于中央美术学院版画系 现工作生活于中国北京

主要个展 2009

“聂幕——备忘录”，麦勒画廊 北京-卢森，中国，北京

2002

“佛的脚印下”，季节画廊，新加坡

1999

“白日梦”，SCHOENI画廊，中国，香港

主要联展 2008

“癫狂北京”，PKM画廊，中国，北京

2006

“江湖”，55画廊，中国，上海

2004

“她 /10位女性艺术家”，北京季节画廊，中国，北京 “中国前卫艺术”，VANESSA画廊，印尼，雅加达

2003

“城市的幻觉与感知”，季节画廊，新加坡 “中国当代”，55画廊，泰国，曼谷

2001

“亚洲下一代”，PASSAGE DE RETZ，法国，巴黎

1973

born in Xinjiang, China

1996

graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing lives and works in Beijing, China

Solo Exhibitions 2009

“Memoire”, Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing-Lucerne, Beijing, China

2002

“In the Footsteps of Buddha”, Art Seasons Gallery, Singapore

1999

“Spring Dream”, Schoeni Art Gallery, Hong Kong, China

Selected Group Exhibitions 2008

“Delirious Beijing”, PKM Gallery, Beijing, China

2006

“Chinese Herbal Vitamins”, Gallery 55, Shanghai, China

2004

“She/10 Female Artists Group Show”, China Art Seasons Gallery, Beijing, China “Chinese Avant-garde Art”, Vanessa Art House, Jakarta, Indonesia

2003

“Chinese Contemporary/Illusions & Perceptions of the City”, Art Seasons Gallery, Singapore “Chinese Contemporary Masters”, Gallery 55, Bangkok, Thailand

2001

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“Next Generation Art Contemporary D’Asie”, Passage de Retz, Paris, France

59

致谢 艾未未, 田霏宇, Christiane Leister, 何宛容, 乔加, 李松松, 麦勒画廊 北京－卢森

Acknowledgements Ai Weiwei, Philip Tinari, Christiane Leister, He Wanrong, Qiao Jia, Li Songsong, Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing-Lucerne

编辑：聂幕, 麦勒画廊 北京－卢森 文章：艾未未, 田霏宇 翻译：杜可柯（中文） , Ben Armour（英文） , Philana Woo（英文） 整理校对：聂幕（中文）, Philana Woo（英文） 设计：李建辉, 聂幕

© 2009 聂幕 印刷：中国, 北京

Edited by: Nie Mu and Galerie Urs Meile Beijing-Lucerne Texts: Ai Weiwei, Philip Tinari Translations: Du Keke (C), Ben Armour (E), Philana Woo (E) Copy Editors: Nie Mu (C), Philana Woo (E) Design: Li Jianhui, Nie Mu © 2009 by Nie Mu All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including but not limited to photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-3-9523342-1-8 Printed in China

本画册为聂幕个展“备忘录”而出版 2009年2月14日至4月5日展出于中国北京麦勒画廊 北京－卢森

Published on the occasion of Nie Mu’s solo exhibition “Memoire” at Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing-Lucerne, Beijing, China from February 14 to April 5, 2009