藝術家的中文：生活工作於南京

今天藝術家的中文有可能是相當可怕的。因為，第一，藝術家無可救藥地崇洋，模倣洋人。第二，不自省就是藝術家的職責。

因此，你到處可以在藝術家簡歷中讀到這樣的句子：「某某某，。。。，現生活工作於南京。」

這啥意思？難道太多人生活在南京，卻工作在北京？還是怕人誤會這位既出畫冊又開展覽的藝術家有可能只生活在南京，而不工作？還是怕人誤會他只工作在南京，但不懂得生活？

其實這些根本都不用談，中文裡有這麼說的嗎：「我生活在北京」、「他工作在南京」？

這咋回事？這怪腔怪調，猜也猜得出，肯定不是中國藝術家的原創。你可以用 Google 或任何搜索引擎去搜一下 “lives and works in Berlin”（”生活和工作於柏林”) 這個字串，你會發現，這樣的句子全是出自，專門出自，洋人藝術家的簡歷。當然，在柏林既生活且同時工作的人不下數百萬，但就只有藝術家愛這麼說，那麼這是何道理？問題在哪兒？

你再搜尋中文的「生活工作於」或「生活和工作於」，也會發現，這些簡歷的主人，全是搞藝術的。豈不怪哉？

當然，你可以怪罪最早把這洋句子直譯成中文的外行翻譯。但把這種全錯的「譯文體」中文奉為洋派圭臬的又是誰？

可以想見，十年八年後，這樣的藝術家中文簡歷應已成為圈內標準範本：

「王少年。油畫家。1989 年出生於南京中國。目前生活和工作於北京。秋天 2007 年起學習與教授劉曉東於油畫系在中央美術學院…」

竟敢提品味

原因很多，但今天當然是沒人提品味這詞的藝術世界。

透過李如一的譯稿，才發現 Paul Graham 寫的這篇重要文章：”How Art Can Be Good“。這時代，藝術相對論是創作者和觀眾聽眾雙方的最佳保衛盾牌，沒幾個人敢戳藝術品味、藝術好壞這種議題，除了像過去 Clement Greenberg 之類的極少數（參見他那本刀光劍影的 Homemade Esthetics: Observations on Art and Taste, Oxford University Press, 1999）。

Paul Graham 文章基本是論證藝術其實能分好壞，品味也有高下。不少段落一箭中的，值得細讀。其中兩段我認為特別深切：

There are two main kinds of error that get in the way of seeing a work of art: biases you bring from your own circumstances, and tricks played by the artist. Tricks are straightforward to correct for. Merely being aware of them usually prevents them from working. For example, when I was ten I used to be very impressed by airbrushed lettering that looked like shiny metal. But once you study how it’s done, you see that it’s a pretty cheesy trick—one of the sort that relies on pushing a few visual buttons really hard to temporarily overwhelm the viewer. It’s like trying to convince someone by shouting at them.

The way not to be vulnerable to tricks is to explicitly seek out and catalog them. When you notice a whiff of dishonesty coming from some kind of art, stop and figure out what’s going on. When someone is obviously pandering to an audience that’s easily fooled, whether it’s someone making shiny stuff to impress ten year olds, or someone making conspicuously avant-garde stuff to impress would-be intellectuals, learn how they do it. Once you’ve seen enough examples of specific types of tricks, you start to become a connoisseur of trickery in general, just as professional magicians are.

What counts as a trick? Roughly, it’s something done with contempt for the audience. For example, the guys designing Ferraris in the 1950s were probably designing cars that they themselves admired. Whereas I suspect over at General Motors the marketing people are telling the designers, “Most people who buy SUVs do it to seem manly, not to drive off-road. So don’t worry about the suspension; just make that sucker as big and tough-looking as you can.”

他這裡提出要跨過的就是，除了你自己眼中帶有的偏見之外，藝術作品其實常只在耍許多障眼的「把戲」。而事實上我們心裡都有數，今日藝術僅存的，也只有一些為數極少的簡單「把戲」而已；背後呢，空無一物。

而如何才能視破這些把戲，真正掌握對藝術的品評呢，Paul Graham 以下的建議極其具體貼切：

I think with some effort you can make yourself nearly immune to tricks. It’s harder to escape the influence of your own circumstances, but you can at least move in that direction. The way to do it is to travel widely, in both time and space. If you go and see all the different kinds of things people like in other cultures, and learn about all the different things people have liked in the past, you’ll probably find it changes what you like. I doubt you could ever make yourself into a completely universal person, if only because you can only travel in one direction in time. But if you find a work of art that would appeal equally to your friends, to people in Nepal, and to the ancient Greeks, you’re probably onto something.

也就是多了解體會不同時間、不同空間的藝術。

越過假象，看穿本質。這跟超級紅星 Criss Angel 的障眼幻術一樣。觀眾，甘作傻瓜的除外，要練的就是怎麼看破它。

最近， Penn & Teller 的八方打假電視節目 Bullshit!（鬼扯淡！） 又開播了第五季度。不過實在看不下去，因為主題皆已重複，西洋世界的把戲已經沒得揭發了。但立即讓人想到的是，Penn & Teller 應該快快把這節目拉過來，焦點對準亞洲，對準 XX 國（請自填國名），多大一個騙人把戲滿天飛的精彩世界。節目排到二十季都拍不完。

你眼前幾乎可以看到 Penn & Teller Bullshit! 小組特別製作 Special Series: Art in XX Today! 精彩內容包括：當代藝術圈、年年雙年三年展、策展人專題、數字藝術、互動藝術、程序藝術、媒體藝術、裝置藝術、聲音藝術、聲音裝置藝術、互動程序身體裝置媒體藝術…

Text & Photography Copyright © 2006-2010   姚大鈞   Dajuin Yao.   All Rights Reserved.