搅一杯往事的下午茶

有一天的下午，我来到画室，打开电脑查看雷燕发过来的几张图片，是雷燕用迷彩布做的软雕塑，很有意思。一部电脑，一个相机，一台老式电话，一个茶壶，两个杯子……哦，这些元素似乎构成了一杯浓郁的下午的茶。我突然想起了作家董桥散文中的一句话：“下午的茶，是搅一杯往事,切一块乡愁,榨几滴希望的下午。”哦，雷燕总喜欢炮制一杯略带苦涩却又回味甘甜的“茶”来。雷燕不但自己茗“茶”，而且约上她的好朋友一起来分享，当然这“茶”是一种视觉的盛宴。

作版画、油画也作图片和装置的雷燕，游任有余的徜徉自己的艺术世界里，但并不是自娱，而是作为一种文化行为，其艺术传达出的理念总是让人们感动，让人感慨。比如雷燕的作品《冰冻》红色系列，一本红宝书，一副红袖章……向我们展示了曾经把红色作为时尚的文化身体的那个年代。雷燕的作品有很强的符号特征，冰与文物（红色的宝书、袖章等），所产生的符号学的意义，让每个经历过那个年代的人都难以释怀。雷燕试图打捞心底冰封的视觉记忆，有她自己的诉求与愿望：冰冻中的红色记忆，是一个有关信仰、思想与追求的红色身体的记忆。在这个变化莫测、物欲横留的时代，随着时间的慢慢的消融，是否能唤回红色身体的记忆？当记忆由时间（艺术的表述方式）与空间（艺术构成方式）固化为文化的身体，必须以质疑的眼光与手段去呵护它的存在。因为，追求欲望与淡化欲望的文化身体构成了历史发展的生物链。

雷燕的软雕塑迷彩系列从色系上讲应该是绿色，绿色充满生机但也平和温馨。如果说《冰冻》的红色系列是陈封已久的欲望的历史，那么迷彩系列作品的理念，将迷彩文化从新整合后的日常性的叙事，则是淡化欲望后的人性的回归。雷燕的迷彩系列有两个文化层面的意义。一，迷彩在军事上被定义为迷惑与伪装，在保护作战的人和物的同时，也掩饰战争的血腥。迷彩理念的转换与解构，是在还世界一个宁静与和平的宿愿。二，军人出身的雷燕已经离开了部队，但是心系着部队的岁月。迷彩花瓶的稚拙，老式电话的亲切，茶杯茶壶的温馨……寓言似的身份转换，伤感中的眷恋尽在迷彩系列的软雕塑中。

雷燕善于把个人的亲历转换为公共的记忆，在极为日常性的叙事中，总能找到现实与历史的交汇点。而她的敏感与智慧总让她与众不同，总让她去发现表达艺术理念的艺术介质。无论是“冰冻”红色系列，还是“迷彩”绿色系列，理性材料的感性的表达，凸显文化的内涵，彰显人文的意义。作为一个女艺术家，艺术的人文性的追求，让她始终保持着先锋艺术的姿态。雷燕早期的作品“假如”系列，记录了年青生命的丰碑是如何成为大地的肌理；记述了产业结构调整后废弃的厂房的萧疏与凄凉；记载了城市建设是以摧毁本土文化为代价的所谓繁荣的假说。特别是作品《假如他们是女人》，将女性的发式装饰在男性领袖人物身上细节的真实，使解构与建构为同一性的权利话语。雷燕的领袖文化身体，强烈的话语权的现实意义在于，让女性实现“躯体的最强者同时也就是这个空间的统治者”的政治宣言。雷燕通过自己的艺术实践建立起来的话语权，表明艺术身份是独立的，艺术视角是独特的，艺术的人文性是追求的终极目标。在流行文化铺天盖地泛滥成灾的时候，雷燕有“坐看云起时”的清醒与坦然，并以自己的艺术表述方式，成就自己的艺术事业。

已进入中年的雷燕，以她的才情和机敏为她带来了艺术的辉煌时期。董桥说中年是下午的茶，雷燕和她的艺术就是一杯香醇而又浓郁的、苦涩而又甘甜的下午茶。

文/佟玉洁
2007-10-24
西安美院

Memory

I have known Lei Yan for several decades, ever since the time we worked together in the Kunming Military Region in the 1970s. I still remember that we spent a lot of time preparing for the art exhibitions in the army then.

Lei Yan made a series of prints, titled “We Have Lei Feng Everywhere”. It has been cited by many forms of media and been very influential. I was new in the army at that time and I felt so fortunate to receive tremendous help from Lei Yan – she was such a good and experienced teacher. It is a great honor for me.

Lei Yan served in the army from as early as the age of 14. She worked in a military hospital, a school and later in a research institution - she has been a soldier, a nurse, a scholar and researcher and also a military officer in various places. Even though she has had a range of careers, Lei Yan had always been greatly interested in art and especially paintings, leading her to produce a lot of art work which has been seen in many military inter art exhibitions. Lei Yan and I have had numerous discussions about art ever since she graduated from the China Military Fine Art College. In 1994, Lei Yan and I were invited by the Military Political Department to work together for the media art work titled, “The Pictures of an Era”, from which I found that she was no longer a soldier who only liked painting but an artist who had her own ideas and views on art. Because of her experience in printmaking, Lei Yan was more interested in printed material and was able to do a fine job. In 2001, with the completion of her new Loft in Kunming, Lei Yan retired from the military where she had served for more than 30 years and set up a studio in her Loft. Since then, Lei Yan has had more opportunities to communicate with foreign artists, institutions and art studios. She has recently finished a series of good pictures and set works, in which I found the theme “Memory” to have become her main focus in art.

We can have memories of certain people, of certain things, of sadness and happiness, of the happenings in our daily life and also of the nightmares we face in our lives. Because of the different personalities and life experiences, the memories arising from different people can be a very special element. In her time as an artist, Lei Yan used her memories of military service to express a special history of her life in the army - a story of a certain group of soldiers, a reflection of our nation and also a short biography of that time. The personal experience based on a period of national history, in other words, the memory that was created from that particular period of national history, became the fountain of Lei Yan’s art work, where she focused more on a human being’s soul, imagination, history and the future that we look towards.

The theme of “Memory” in Lei Yan’s latest work is one of the most valuable series of art done by a person born in the 1950s. I wish Lei Yan’s personal exhibition to be a roaring success!

Zhigang Tang
Loft, Kunming, China
December 2nd 2006

An Archaeological Tour of Revolutionary Romanticism and the Metaphor of Camouflage

Before the interpretations of the two groups of recent works by Ms. Lei Yan - “Frozen Series” and “Camouflage Cloth-making”, we should know of two relevant background factors. One is that she has been a female soldier in the army for 30 years (1970-2001) and then joined the Kunming contemporary art community “Chuangku” to set up her own studio after retiring from army. Lei Yan has experienced the transformation from the traditional art practices on creation of military subjects into the use of pictures, equipment, videos and other media for the creation of contemporary art works, and each article and event could sufficiently constitute the main raw material for her current creation. Secondly, the retrospection and reflection on the Mao Zedong era (mainly during the last 1950s-1970s) by the Chinese contemporary artists have never ceased. In each period Mao and his era’s symbols and images will be appearing in these artists’ narrative methods, which not only is the historical fact of the” Passion Burning Years” that the artists can not shun away from during the time when belief was absent, but also a kind of inquiry about the future. After knowing about these backgrounds, we can proceed with the interpretations of the latest works by Lei Yan.

“Frozen Series”: An Archaeological Tour of Revolutionary Romanticism

Lei Yan’s “Frozen Series” have frozen some military articles and the typical items of the Mao era, such as sleeve emblems, leader badges, the Little Red Books, the Red Guards shoulder badges, military uniforms, red flags, and female soldiers’ photographs etc., which are photographed and can be seen dimly under the ice. By getting the typical symbols and items of the special years frozen and sealed, the artist is staring at the historical samples from a nebulous distance with a tinge of desolation, and arousing a reflection on that period of time.

As we can see, there are two clues in the “Frozen Series”, one is the “Frozen Reds”, which uses the typical items of Mao era and military articles as the narrating subjects that include sleeve emblems, leader badges, the Little Red Books, the Red Guards badges, military uniforms, red flags etc., they are not merely logos or decorations, but they also carry the spirit of that era. As a person who was filled with ideals and passions regarding the collective values under communism, each had to possess these materials and contents, which represent a miniature of the people’s political life in that period of time, and a miniature of the” Passion Burning Years”. They are also a miniature of Lei Yan’s 30 years of military life. However, since the factors of refraction, distance, and temperature, the items, which are put into the ice body by Lei Yan, display a much unacquainted historical texture and shape. The partial deforming and distortion, blurring and dimness, chilliness and out-of-touch feeling created by the isolation of the ice layer. They seem like keepsakes from a previous existence. The archaeological-like association of ideas inspired by the sealing under ice. All of these have built a sort of sadness for the time of revolutionary passions, and a reminiscence of the disappeared spirit and resplendency.

The other is “Frozen Youth”, whose narrative subjects are female soldiers’ photographs including personal portraits, busts. Some are Lei Yan herself, but most of them are her comrades in the army. These girls of youthful spirit, each with tenderness, some seem a little depressed, some only being lost, and some with a poise that is typical during that period of time with a bag on shoulder or a machine gun in hands, head high and standing erectly with a passionate face under the willows. Among these photographs are several of military groups, and in these the pure eyes are filled with the young girls’ ideals and longings, smiling with tenderness and without the slightest hesitation for the future which is the typical expression of revolutionary romanticism. However, all of these various expressions and spirit states, with the addition of the classic poise, have been frozen into the cold ice layer and forced to drop in temperature, cold as well as out-of-touch, the high enthusiasm and innocent ideals are suddenly disappearing far away in the cold ice, which is just like a group of archaeological samples from the Mao era displayed ifor all to see.

Most of the above mentioned frozen objects, which were collected during Lei Yan’s military career, are well preserved. To most of us, these items and photographs are merely conceptualized image memories of a certain period, but those specific faces and temperature, are more like the family belongings in some box underneath grandmother’s bed, which are kept by mother for her daughter. When these objects and photographs are seen through the frozen ice, they have been endowed with new concepts, which are the memory of the public images and history of a female soldier, her private memory and feelings, and the reminiscence of ultimate issues such as faith to the land, spirits and resplendency.

If political pop art is “using the shock waves made by the western consumption culture in China, and turning the ’sacred politics’ of the Mao era into a popular and ironic political idea” as suggested by Li Xianting, and with current political pop art walking down a dead end via commercial obsequiousness, then artists, including Lei Yan, are going back to the starting point for art and soul by using a personal and poetic narrate of the Mao era. Let the real impression be explained via personal language instead of following the established groups style, it is a response which surpasses current political pop art.

“Camouflage Cloth-making”: The Metaphors Related to Camouflage

If the “Frozen Series” is the reminiscence and sadness of the long gone Mao era and its spirit and resplendency, then the “Camouflage Cloth-making” is the specific intervention in the current daily situation. Just like before, Lei Yan keeps on using the military goods as subjects, which are very familiar to a person who has 30 years of military service. However, the use of military goods in this series is different from that in the “Frozen Series”. The military goods in the “Frozen Series” belong to the section of borrowing, directly getting the existing goods embedded into ice to make them bring about the changes of concept, context and visual texture, but the “Camouflage Cloth-making” is the conversion and extension of military camouflage uniforms and patterns.

In this series Lei Yan uses camouflage fabric to make some hand-sewn items and scenes, items such as: camera, computer, teapot, vase, cup, tray, telephone, high heels, five-pointed star etc., which are daily mundane items. Setting up the items’ basic outline shape, the sewed items have more plasticity and flexibility. This series of work cross the boundaries between handicraft and sculpture. What is more, the symbolic features owned by the camouflage patterns themselves, give the remodeled daily goods the feeling of being covered by the camouflage with aggression and delusion.

In one group, the metaphor relating to camouflage is more obvious. Lei Yan has sewn with camouflage material into an ordinary family scene: a square table, a bench, a vase, two blurring persons in the picture frame and a crouching dog. The other one is the scene of a dressing table. These two scenes are modeled like reliefs, which simply present any day in our ordinary life without any dramatic moment. Persons, goods and scenes are covered by camouflage, mixing into the background, and therefore they are endowed with the meaning and metaphor of camouflage itself, the edges of people, goods and scenes are disrupted and guided by the camouflage patterns and become indistinguishable, characterless and without personality. So a metaphor related to camouflage, related to women’s identity, family and self-pity, can start. How should women live out their own unique vitality in the trivia of various household affairs? How should women be more visible in society? This is the metaphor and reflection of “Camouflage Cloth-making” by Lei Yan.

As a strong symbol of the military patterns, camouflage has been absorbed into the conceptual art of the female artist, Lei Yan. She would never have had such a profound reflection if she hadn’t had her own deep experience of the military. It is precisely because of this experience that we can see the double metaphors generated from the modeled objects disappearing into the camouflage, in addition to the interference and thawing from external forces. It also points at the internal crisis of the modeled object: a person may be defensive of their own identity, but to some extent they also face the risk of assimilation, of losing their personality and unique vitality. Maybe this is Lei Yan’s thinking in this exhibition. However, as a female artist, Lei Yan has not been assimilated; on the contrary, she has gained the unique vision and creativity. During a conversation with Lei Yan she said: “wherever we are, we should leave a window for our soul, facing the most real place of the heart to talk with your own soul and hold onto the innocence and passion found there.” And with her experience of the years of revolutionary enthusiasm and the attention to other people’s needs during her military career, not only does this become the source material and concept of her art, but it also expands her life experience. She does not rest on the complexities of this material and the hand-sewing but creates a deeper experience.

Written by Luo Fei(TCG Nordica Gallery Curator)
Translated by Liu Weiqiang

About Lei Yan’s Solso Exhibition

Lei Yan’s solo exhibition 2007

Lei Yan’s Solo exhibition 2007:Frozen Series and Camouflage Cloth-making

Exhibition duration:9 November-22 November,2007
Openning:9 November,8:00pm(Friday)
Curator:Luo Fei

For the first Solo Exhibition in the newly renovated TCG Nordica gallery, we proudly present the recent art works from Leiyan, one of our old friend, loft female artist.

Leiyan was born in 1950s, she cultivated a special life experiences in the army for 30 years. As a sensitive and exuberant creativity female artist. Rigid military life formed tension with her personality , naturally this period constructed the special resources and thoughts of art creation. There are army stuffs often appearing in her arts over and over again,as the uniforms, the badge, te Red star, even some events of histories. Interesting is that she got inspiration from army stuffs and history stories. But, meanwhile she didn’t stop pace from these Materials, Conversely, she prestige all of these stories, to recall the privacy and romantic Feelings and more broad daily emotions.

After she left the army, she trys to use new creation language in her arts. From Traditional Prints, oil painting, Transition to photos, videos, installations and handcrafts. She is not only a generalist in art styles and forms, but also in the topics that her focus on. Included: process of Urbanization, female identity, and throughout leiyan’s works from the early army career.

The exhibition will show Leiyan’s recent art works, it is also related to about her army career. the one group, she took photos about the fozen army stuffs in the ice, the other one is the conceptual works of handcrafts. it will be the surprise from her. All of these army stuffs, history events, and handcrafts, like as the treasures stored in somewhere of grandmother’s box under her bed. We can feel a female artist how to thoughtfulness from private to public.

—writer:Luo Fei,translator:Liu Jun

Related articles:
An Archaeological Tour of Revolutionary Romanticism and the Metaphor of Camouflage written by Luo Fei
Memorywritten by Tang Zhigang

Exhibition Openning:

Frozen Red Series

Frozen Youth Series

Frozen Red

That was a memory of red, a memory of hotness and also a memory of youth.

In China, everyone who has ever lived in that time would be impressed by the frozen red. That was an age, an age had been frozen — for everyone, there could be only one faith, one idea and one dream — as pure as ice, and also as white as ice. The life though seemed to be simplified and repressed, everyone could have a stable life everyday. Since each one, living in that time, had one faith and one objective, and therefore the red then became hallowed.

However, when I watched the red under the ice, such a strange feeling, like a star far from the earth could not be reached, had rush into my mind. I’m not sure that was the illusion from the ice, or the result from a past age, but a feeling just told me, the red has left us, had left our life, had left the unfathomable age…… All I have seen was the lack of faith, was the disappearance of trueness, was the lost and confusion of soul. How fast the time flies! The world has been more and more untraceable – someone has lost his ethic in the face of money, someone has dropped his honor in the face of fame, and also someone has abandoned his dream in the face of power – the red was leaving us.

The frozen red, which would be better to consider as the protection to the past, as the thinking to dream and faith more than just frost to that time. I have a brief, we could review the past through the ice, and we also could seek for the red we ever had through the ice, because the red remain its brightness in my heart, because the age needs red!

Lei Yan
August 22, 2006

Camouflage Cloth-making