瓷  ＊  姿  ＊  思——马军的“哲学瓷典”

 

 文：胡赳赳

 

首先我想定义一种新的“瓷学”概念，这个概念的灵感来自于我观看马军造瓷的方式，他在思与姿之间寻求一种契合内心变化的表达方式。如果说之前他的作品是做加法以“扬”的话，他的最新作品则是以做减法而“弃”。这像极了某种“简法”或“减法”的精密考量，当世界的秩序以增量的方式和大数据的膨胀正在攫取新的“熵增”时，他似乎在重建某种内心的的秩序，这个秩序回到了“太初有道”的叙事方式，他融会了更多具有形而上意味的思考，这种思考模型的建立深入地建模在他的作品形态中，成为东方式的意会与象征之物。

 

马军的“瓷学”也因此具有了哲人之姿，你甚至称之为“马军瓷”也不为过。他抽象出来了极端凝炼的几何形体，也抽象出来了极端耀眼的颜色。与此同时，他的烧制过程因为体量之大和至简，也充满了各种变数和对难度系数的实验及把控。他从宣纸、书籍、沙子这些文化与自然之物那里找到“抽象的尺度”——这种建立于瓷之上的抽象不仅表明了物与物之间的连接关系，也通过复杂的技术难度来进行他标志性的“简明哲学瓷典”的构造。

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五个连成长条的《心经》有着金色的外壳，然而却是“无字天书”，这从他的《瓷·书》系列延伸出来的杰作，将瓷、金属感、纸、书与抹去的文字合而为一，表达其“空寂虚无”的、隐遁于宗教的颂经行为。在这里，空与色、有与无、顿与渐都得到了有效的抽离。

 

而在《山水》中，他将揉皱的宣纸摊开建模，形成巨大的瓷板山水，这种表现大自然山水皴法的高空俯视的即视感，有一览众山小的上帝视角。其局部微妙的肌理形态也表明了制作上的难度和技术上的出众。或许也是在近两三年近乎放逐与沉淀的作品埋头打造中，他修理了自我意识的某些触角，使得作品的气质以其自我生成的状态呈现。

 

《格物》这件作品也充满了“简明哲学瓷典”的气质，他将传统的四尺宣进行反复对折，使纸张表面被一个个正方形分割，然后拉伸出来一个效果，他保留了皱折的痕迹，并用烧制大型瓷板的方式烧制出来，其中呈现的“裂痕”也自然留存。这依然是一件单纯作品的样貌，而烧制的难度却因为体量不言而喻。“格物”可见王阳明之谓：“物者，事也，凡意之所发必有其事，意所在之事谓之物。格者，正也，正其不正以归于正之谓也。正其不正者，去恶之谓也。归於正者，为善之谓也。夫是之谓格。”

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另外一件可见“自然”与“心性”的作品是《寂》，在一个貌似宇宙整体的金色圆盘中，布满了星球式的尘埃——他撒上了沙子。烧制过程中自然出现的放射状裂隙，作者予以精心修复和填补，与观者的镜照形成某种错愕和变形感。状如闪电或根系的裂隙，成为哲学上对形而上的深思。

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这或许是马军的“哲学瓷典”的某种动人之处，他有意识地抽离了制瓷的各种功能性和艺术性选择，强化了“玄学”的出口，也深具“不假外求”的自省气质。在一种对马军的瓷学的建构过程中，他思考着近乎本质的命题：何谓瓷，何谓瓷的功用，何谓瓷的本体。不仅如此，我们也看到，艺术家对哲学的追问，闪念着瓷的哲学之姿。这种姿态回馈着对瓷的“元叙事”，也让瓷染上了“道体”的思载。

 

无论是瓷的“元叙事”还是对“元瓷”的建构，“马军的瓷学”迎来了一个新的突破口，他不再醉心于细节和拟态，也不再将古今的调和和戏仿作为理念，而是更深切地体会到“文化自信”的生命驱动，这个驱动力也是“元动力”，使他获得了精神上的安顿与表达上的自由。

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ＣＩ    ＺＩ    ＳＩ

Porcelain * Posture * Pondering

 

— Ma Jun’s “Philosophy of Porcelain Making”

 

By: Hu Jiujiu

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First of all, I would like to define a new concept of "porcelainology" inspired by the way Ma Jun makes porcelain. He seeks a way of expression that fits in the inner changes between pondering and posture. If his previous works were like "mathematical addition" that demonstrated what he thought in a high profile, then his latest works can be better analogized to subtraction that abandons what is unnecessary. Such change is a sign of the careful consideration of "simplification" or "subtraction". When the world order is grabbing "entropy increase" through the incremental explosion of big data, Ma Jun seems to reverse the trend by rebuilding some inner order that returns to the narrative method of "In the beginning was the Word". Ma inserts more in-depth metaphysical thinking to the form of his works, which marks the oriental perception and symbol.

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Therefore, Ma Jun's "porcelainology" is so philosophical that it can even create a style peculiar to Ma Jun himself. He abstracts the extremely concise geometry and the dazzling colors, while the process of firing, due to the colossal volume and extreme simplicity, confronts various uncertainties that require the experiment and control of the degree of difficulty. Among a string of cultural and natural objects, such as rice paper, books and sand, Ma finds the "yardstick of abstraction". This porcelain-based abstraction not only shows the connection between objects, but also constructs Ma's symbolic "philosophy of plain porcelain making" through technical complexity.

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The Heart Sutra, one of Ma’s impressive works, is composed of five consecutive golden strips, but it is also a "book without words". Extending from Porcelain· Book, Ma’s serial work, this masterpiece blends porcelain, sense of metal, paper and books with erased words to express a carefree mentality that retreats from the real world and resorts to religion. In this work, what is essential is well separated from what is superficial. So is what is existent and what is not, and what is static and what is dynamic.

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In Ma’s another work Landscape, he unfolds the crumpled rice paper in which he adopts the texturing methods to create natural landscape from a bird’s eye view, as if viewers were the God overlooking the small mountains. The local delicate texture of this work testifies to the tremendous difficulty and technical excellence in fabrication. Ma Jun has buried himself in work creation over the past years when he may elevate his understanding of art to a new height, thanks to the abundant experience accumulated in these works. Hence his work presents itself in a state of self-generation.

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Gewu (study of what is objective) is another work of Ma that fully embodies his "philosophy of plain porcelain making". By folding the traditional four-foot rice paper repeatedly, Ma divides the paper surface into squares with the creases remaining. Then he fabricates this work with the way of firing large-scale porcelain plates, so that the "cracks" can naturally find themselves on this work. It seems that this is what a simple work looks like, but the difficulty of firing is self-evident because of the large volume. According to Wang Yangming who proposed the concept of “Gewu”, “Things are objective. An intention must be the result of a thing, and what such intention rests on is something objective. The study of things is to right a wrong, so that what is right remains and what is wrong vanishes. To be right is to be good. This is how we study things.”

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Another work of Ma revealing the "nature" and "disposition" is Silence, in which planet-like dust, the sand sprinkled by Ma, is scattered in a golden disk that resembles the universe. The process of firing leads to the inevitable radial cracks but they are carefully restored by the author, the deformation of which startles the viewers. The lightning- or root-like cracks invite the philosophical pondering on metaphysics.

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Perhaps this is the touching part of Ma Jun's "Philosophy of Porcelain Making". He intentionally deprives the porcelain making of various options for functionality and artistry, while he enhances the outlet of "metaphysics", and reflects the self-introspection “with no need to seek external strength”.

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While constructing his philosophy of porcelain making, Ma is considering propositions that nearly probe into the essence: What is porcelain? What are the functions of porcelain? What is the ontology of porcelain? Besides, we can see that the questioning of philosophy by artists is a mirror of the philosophical posture of porcelain, which, in turn, nourishes the "meta-narration" of porcelain, and endows the porcelain with the "word-style" thinking.

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Irrespective of the "meta-narration" of porcelain or the construction of "meta-porcelain", Ma Jun's "Philosophy of Porcelain Making" has broken a new path. Instead of indulging in details and mimicry, or prioritizing the reconciliation and parody between the past and the present, he has a deeper understanding of a driving force fueled by "cultural self-confidence". Such driving force is a "meta-driving force" that grants Ma access to inner peace and freedom of expression.