Page 59 - Contenporary Ink Chinese Painting Nov 27 2017 Hong Kong

Horse • Free Run is an exquisitely rendered masterpiece by Xu Lei that dramatises
movement frozen in time with an almost cinematic aesthetic and an eerie beauty.
Painted in 2014, it captures a galloping white steed, whose rump is tattooed with
a blue-and-white floral pattern like those on Ming and Qing porcelain, charging
forward and disappearing into the heavily curtained stage. The superimposed
images of the animal in motion are mesmerising: the horse’s limps overlap, repeated
for a total six times, as if an uncanny afterimage that lingers on the retina as the
eye travels across the composition from left to right. For Xu Lei, what appeals is
“an illusion of an illusory evocation” – in Horse • Free Run, this is suggested by Xu’s
refined, meticulous gongbi technique and deft reworking of motifs from the histories
of art that create the theatrical suspension of disbelief, transforming the assemblage
of the running horse into a perfect visual riddle.

A master manipulator of the seen and the unseen, Xu Lei invites the viewer to
participate in the mise en abyme in his pictorial scene. The seemingly implausible
dreamscape, washed in enigmatic hues of blue, is grounded in a profusion of
influences. ‘Each person,’ writes Xu, ‘is actually rearranging his [or her] own art
history.’ One can trace the image of the running horse to a myriad of imageries that
came before: from the form of the iconic Night-Shining White, portrait of a charger of
Emperor Xuanzong by Han Gan (ca. 706-783), to the chronophotography of horses
in motion by 19th century photographers such as Étienne-Jules Marey (1830-1904)
and Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904). Despite the strong visual link between
superimposed images of the horse by Xu Lei and the stop-motion photography, the
artist further points to a reference literary in nature: a white horse leaping through
a crevice signifies the passing of time. In rearranging and appropriating his own
histories, memories, and rhetoric and illusions, perhaps Xu Lei summons not one but
many spectres – endowing the painting with a sense of mystery that lies beyond its
beautiful facade.

《馬．逸》創作於 2014 年，徐累以綿密俊秀的筆法去描繪動態的白馬，極具視覺
張力及戲劇性的場景猶如定格的電影畫面，凝固了白馬兀自奔跑的瞬間，呈現詭
秘深幽的誘人幻境。畫面中的駿馬疾馳飛奔向前，而馬股上來歷不明的神秘青花
圖案彷如刺青或烙印，與馬身一樣逐漸消失於重重帷幔遮掩的舞臺上。《馬．逸》
構圖懾人心魄之處莫過於白馬交替、重複、交錯的四肢。馬的形象在畫面空間上
反復出現前後共六次，好似在不同時間捕捉的影象因重複曝光而合成於同一張照
片上，為觀者帶來殘留影般的恍惚錯覺。對徐累而言，他畫中 “一個幻景的幻境”
藉助優雅而精準的工筆表達，藝術史中命題的解構重組，令觀者暫時擱置懷疑、
難以置信的心態，置身於他精心部署可進可退的幻境。

徐累是視覺藝術中的魔術師，能巧妙地在觀者眼前處理可見與不可見的景象，在畫
面上佈設種種謎題。在《馬．逸》中深淺不同的藍色層層渲染出天馬行空的夢境中，
亦可以窺見徐累受不同地域、時期藝術啟發的影子。正如徐累曾說，“每個人的
創作實際上就是在整理自己的藝術史。” 徐累畫中馬的形象，可見唐代韓幹（約
706-783）筆下唐玄宗坐騎照夜白四蹄騰驤的造型，亦可見十九世紀早期攝影師埃
德沃德．邁布里奇（1830-1904）和艾蒂安 - 朱爾·馬雷（1830-1904）拍攝運動
中的馬的影子。在中國文賦傳統中，白駒過隙更象徵了時間的飛逝。通過重新整
理歷史、記憶、修辭及幻影，徐累賦予作品一種超越畫作精緻迷人表象之外的神
秘感，留下了跌宕跳動的詭秘意象與悖論的迷題。

Eadweard Muybridge, Horse in Motion, c. 1878, Library Étienne-Jules Marey, White Horse Running, 1886
艾蒂安 - 朱爾·馬雷，《奔跑的白馬》，1886 年
of Congress
埃德沃德．邁布里奇，《運動中的馬》，約 1878 年，
美國國會圖書館