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Yubing Guo:
"I'm Not Sure if the Cattle Can Easily Adapt to Diesel"
BLUEPRINT Exhibition Review
In early June, at the beginning of midsummer, an exhibition titled "Blueprint" by the artist Jiang Jiang opened at the Baopu Art Space in Kaili, the capital of southeastern Guizhou. This exhibition explores the dissonance and interweaving between cultural loss and technological advancement.
The air is always filled with moisture, and the windows of the exhibition hall reveal the grey walls of the courtyard. Green moss spots the bricks, and banana trees along with unidentified climbing plants fill the black window frames. The atmosphere is stuffy, humid, and low-pressure, with leaky pipes, cool beer, and a faintly restless mood. The subtropical monsoon climate evokes a sense of nostalgia that is hard to distinguish between reality and illusion.
Entering the newly painted exhibition space, the curator Ran Zhou's introduction guides the audience into a blue-and-white-toned art space. Through the artist's perspective, viewers are invited to focus on and interpret the dialectical dialogue between cultural heritage and contemporary technology.
If you start by looking at the exhibition information page and focus on the piece titled "Intro," you'll see that it uses chicken wire to enclose a wall dividing two spaces, covering the wall corners and guiding the viewer's gaze to the other side. This cleverly integrates the two rooms. PVC plastic pipes embedded in the wall are connected by stainless steel knobs and chains. The wire mesh and faucet seem to correspond with the original architectural structure exposed outside the exhibition hall, albeit without the naturally growing green moss outside. Industrial products, being cheap and ubiquitous, are sensitively detached from their practical life scenes by the artist and transformed into the first interwoven "woven product" in the exhibition. A series of photographic works on the same wall, titled "Weave," features bamboo baskets and wickerwork as still lifes, meticulously printed on German Hahnemühle paper. The local climate inevitably causes the paper to warp and wrinkle, prompting reflections on the locality.
Intro 引子Weave 编织
Upon entering the exhibition hall, a series of stitched indigo-dyed works titled "Blueprint" catches the eye. Four framed fabric pieces are horizontally arranged on the wall, each depicting a sewing machine pattern dyed in varying shades of blue. Two of the pieces are mirror images of the other two, leading viewers to speculate on the artist's process. The red thread from the machine stitching is retained on the fabric surface, creating blueprints of sewing machines in indigo, cobalt, and ink blue. The self-referential and pun-like nature of these pieces is quite intriguing.
In the center space is the installation "Intervention," which combines a century-old loom with a modern small electric household sewing machine (marked with the red characters "FEIYUE China Feiyue"). The wooden structure bears the marks of time, the plastic casing has yellowed, and the addition of a capacitive screen and dynamic video creates the illusion that the installation is still functioning. Since the era of mechanical reproduction, the "aura" of traditional art has faded, and the pace of technological iteration is unstoppable. Decades and centuries turn into relics, and generations pass into history.
干涉 InterventionBlueprint 蓝图
In contrast, the exhibition's only dynamic video piece, "Choosing the Right Road," showcases the daily operations of a modern pattern-making sewing factory. Each time a new embroidery pattern is created, workers on the production line manually measure it, repeatedly bowing and kneeling before the large machines. The artist meticulously records the workers' bodily movements while deliberately omitting the machine embroidery scenes—the massive machines become the object of daily reverence, beyond the grasp of individual humans.
When technology surpasses the human scale and machines replace idols, does the quest for individual value seem increasingly futile? The installation "How to Find Peace" might offer a possible consolation. An old carved wooden table is filled with handwoven bamboo baskets containing piles of grains. This scene instantly evokes an instinctive response—reaching into the grain piles. The texture of rice is solid and cool, soybeans are sparse and prickly, and mixed grains with lotus seeds offer varying tactile surprises. This brings a shared collective memory, a pure instinctive reaction, and a tangible bodily memory. In the late capitalist society described by Fredric Jameson, where the vast and intricate social system feels distant, individuals must use "cognitive mapping" to bridge the gap between personal concrete experiences and the macro world, maintaining subjectivity in a positive way. The heaps of rice evoke an impulse in a simple yet effective manner, breaking down barriers between individuals. The moment we collectively reach into the rice, our cognitive maps of the world converge, creating a microcosm of a short-lived utopia.
How to Find Peace 如何获得平静Choosing the Right Road 选择正确的路
Reflecting on traditional dyeing techniques, "Switch" is a series of wall-mounted works with the artist's handmade indigo-dyed cloth at the bottom layer, overlaid with cyanotype images. The humid and warm climate of Guizhou provides an ideal environment for the growth of herbs and indigo plants, anchoring the ancient dyeing craft. Here, women harvest indigo, ferment it in vats, and dye the cloth dozens of times, transforming the earth's energy into a deep and tranquil blue—a tradition spanning millennia. The artist ingeniously employs cyanotype, a photosensitive imaging technique, over the indigo dye, creating a parallel comparison that simultaneously calls upon the sun and the earth of southeastern Guizhou.
Cave 山洞Switch 开关
The sound interactive installation "Cave" features a soft structure hand-sewn by the artist from unbleached cotton fabric, exuding a warm and comfortable feel. Soft whispers and murmurs emanate from within this soft body. Following the sound, viewers find it comes from within the structure. Various holes emit sound, and listening closely, one can hear a familiar yet strange language, though its meaning remains elusive. The exhibition label reveals it is a Christian story narrated in the language of the Gejia people. The ancient voice samples, through foreign faith, cross centuries, repeating endlessly, hypnotically dissolving time. The ancient tones and lost language record whose grand history and whose forgotten past.
Complementing "Cave" is the installation "Jesus Can Heal Your Soul," with hanging ecru fabric forming a series of three "poems." Machine-sewn text, neat and dense, is formed by processing the Gejia language audio into English text through AI, resulting in these enigmatic phrases. A glance over the text draws attention to several misaligned keywords:
pythonCopy codeLondon, Los Angeles, Germany;
Luxury stretch limousine, polka dots,
TV, telephone, pager, brand new CD;
Sushi, chocolate, serotonin;
CIA, Google
...
The Gejia people have lived in the remote mountains of southwest China, with a population of just over 50,000. The early Gejia voice, processed and interpreted by AI, is overlaid with a nostalgic filter of global capitalism: world economic centers, luxury industrial products, mixed-era electronics, intelligence, technology, and Eastern delicacies. Behind this is an astronomical amount of parameters, with AI as an emotionless technological tool, plainly presenting the discourse system of the power center, unceremoniously overwriting the remaining fragments of "marginal" culture...
Standing in the exhibition hall, contemplating, the humid climate of Kaili envelops the body, leaving nowhere to hide.
Jiang Jiang's work exudes a restrained calmness, yet doesn't shy away from genuine sincerity, navigating between the absurdity of the world and profound personal experiences. It leads the audience into an art space that is both familiar and strange, nostalgic and contemporary, guiding them towards the vastness of logic and order, or the small pond in front of their childhood home.
The tangible Kaili before me makes me find myself repeatedly reading the poems co-created by Jiang Jiang, the Gejia predecessors, and AI:
I’m not sure if the cattle can easily adapt to diesel."
"我不确定牛是否能轻易适应柴油机”
I am also unsure, but I know we can give it a try.
Jesus Can Heal Your Soul 神能治愈你的灵魂（detail) Jesus Can Heal Your Soul
（细节）神能治愈你的灵魂
国瑜冰：
“
我不确定牛是否能轻易适应柴油机”
——《蓝图》展评
六月仲夏伊始，黔东南首府凯里，艺术家姜姜题为“蓝图”的个展在抱朴空间开幕，探索着文化失落与技术进步之间的错位与交织。
空气中总是水汽袅袅，展厅的几扇窗户透出灰蒙蒙的院墙，绿色苔藓斑驳了砖石，芭蕉伴着叫不上名字的爬藤植物，填充着黑色的窗框。闷热，潮湿，低气压，拧不紧的水管，凉涔涔的啤酒，隐隐躁动的心绪，亚热带的湿润季风气侯唤起怀旧情绪，说不清其中有几分真假。
进入崭新粉刷的展览空间，策展人周然的导言将观众引入蓝白色调的艺术空间，一起透过艺术家的视角，尝试关注并解读文化遗产与当代技术的博弈式对话。
如果你首先看了展览信息页，将目光落到角落里的《引子》，作品使用鸡笼铁网包裹住区隔两个空间的墙壁，覆盖墙体转角，引导着视线延伸到另一侧的空间，巧妙地将两个房间融合起来。埋在墙体里的PVC塑胶水管，通过铁链与水龙头的不锈钢旋钮相连。铁网、龙头，似乎在与展厅外墙暴露出来的原有建筑结构相照应，只是少了室外自然生长的绿苔。工业品造价低廉，随处可见，艺术家敏锐地将其从生活实用场景剥离，化为展览中的第一件经纬交错的“编织品”。同在一个墙面的系列摄影作品《编织》选取竹篮和藤编作为静物，精印在德国生产的哈内姆勒艺术用纸上，在本地气候的影响下难免受潮而变得凹凸不平，由此而展开关于在地性的思考。
步入展厅，题为《蓝图》的一系列线缝蓝染作品映入眼帘。四件装裱布品在墙面空间水平排布，四个画面中是相同的缝纫机图案，浸染了不尽相同的蓝；其中两幅是另两幅的水平翻转，不禁引人细细推测艺术家所采用的工艺方式。机器缝纫出的红线被保留在布面，缝纫机缝纫出缝纫机的蓝图，加以蓝染而得靛蓝的钴蓝的墨蓝的机械蓝图，其中的自我指涉与双关，颇耐人寻味。
占据中心空间的是装置作品《干涉》，上百年历史的织布机与电动小型家用缝纫机（上有红字标记出“FEIYUE 中国飞跃”）形成穿越时空的组合，木头结构布满岁月痕迹，塑料壳子已经泛黄，而电容屏和动态视频的加入使整个装置给人以仍在运转的错觉。机械复制时代以来，传统艺术的“光晕”已然消逝，技术迭代的步伐势不可挡，十年，百年，渐渐都成为遗迹，代代都成为过去。
与之对应地，展览中唯一一件动态影像作品《选择正确的道路》展现了时下打版缝纫工厂的日常工作。每一次刺绣图案的开版，生产线上的工人伏在大型机器上进行着手工测量，俯首跪拜的动作不断重复，不停循环。艺术家仔细记录下工人的身体动作，而有意隐去机器刺绣的画面——体积庞大的机器成为每日跪拜的对象，人类个体早已无法观其全貌。
当技术超越人类尺度，机器取代偶像，千千万万的螺丝钉各安其位，渺小个体的价值追问是否愈显苍白无力？装置《如何获得平静》或许给出了一种可能的慰藉。古老的雕花木头桌子上摆满手工编织的竹篮，篮子里是成堆的五谷杂粮。这样的场景瞬间唤起了我们本能般的反应——将手插入谷物堆，大米的触感扎实而清凉，黄豆稀疏又硌手，混着莲子的杂粮手感不一，带来难以预料的小小惊喜。共通的集体记忆，纯粹的直觉反应，切实的身体记忆。如果说我们身处詹明信所说的晚期资本主义社会里，广大而芜杂的社会系统遥不可感，个体则要通过“认知绘图”来连接个人具体经验和宏观世界之间的鸿沟，这也是维持主体性的一种积极方式。成堆的大米以一种极其简单而有效的方式唤起冲动，强力地打通了个体与个体之间的壁垒。不约而同将手插进大米的那一刻，我们对世界的认知地图有了明晰的路径交汇，一代微观而短效的大同理想国在此完成。
回观传统染布工艺，《开关》是一组墙面装裱作品，底部一层是艺术家手作的蓝染布，衬着表层的蓝晒摄影影像。贵州气候湿润温暖，为草药和蓝染植物的生长提供了理想环境，古老的蓝染的工艺也在此扎根。这里的女性采收蓝草，开缸发酵，数十次浸染，将大地孕育的能量幻化为深邃静谧的蓝，转眼千百年。艺术家别出心裁地选择了感光成像的蓝晒技术，叠加于蓝染，两种技法形成并列对比关系，分别调用了黔东南的太阳与土地。
声音互动装置《山洞》的绵软结构由艺术家手工缝制，棉布透出未经漂白的米黄色调，颇有温暖舒适之感。低声呢喃，絮絮耳语，寻着声音找寻，发现正是来自这绵软团块的身体内部。分布各处的孔洞传来声音，凑上去细细聆听，竭力辨认这熟悉而又陌生的语音，却也辨不出所以然。直到看到展签上的答案，这是用亻革家语言讲述的基督故事，古老的声音标本透过源于异国的信仰跨世而来，重复不断，周而复始，催眠般消解了时间。古老的音调，失落的语言，记录的是属于谁的宏大历史，失掉的是属于谁的往事云烟。
与《山洞》互为补足的是题为《神能治愈你的灵魂》的装置，米白的布幔错落悬挂，织物顺着自然重力形成曲线，落地呈上三段“诗歌”，机器缝纫出的字句，工整而稠密。艺术家将亻革家语言的音频进行英文语音识别，再通过人工智能进行文字的梳理，形成了这些迷蒙的语句。目光扫过三段文本，被其中几类充满错置感的关键词吸引了注意力：
伦敦、洛杉矶、德国;
豪华加长轿车，波尔卡圆点，
电视，电话，传呼机，全新的CD；
寿司，巧克力，血清素；
中情局、谷歌
……
亻革家人世代居住在外人难以到达的西南深山，根据现在的数据，人口仅五万余。早年的亻革家语音在人工智能的处理与诠释下也覆上了一层怀旧的全球资本主义滤镜：世界经济中心城市，奢华的工业品，时代混杂的电子设备，情报，科技，东方美食。背后是天文数字级别的参数量，人工智能作为没有情感倾向的科技工具，将权力中心的话语体系明白地展现在眼前，不由分说地覆写掉了“边缘”文化仅剩的信息残片……
驻足展厅，静思冥想，凯里湿润的气候包裹着身体，无处可藏。
姜姜的创作透着点到即止的冷静克制，却也不避体己的天真诚挚，周游于世界的荒诞与个体的深刻经验之间，引领观众进入一个既熟悉又陌生、既怀旧又当代的艺术空间，带领观者飘向逻辑与规律的万里远方，抑或回忆里家门口的小水塘。眼前的凯里是如此具体，我发现自己在反复阅读姜姜和亻革家前辈以及人工智能共同创作的诗句：
“I’m not sure if the cattle can easily adapt to diesel.”
“我不确定牛是否能轻易适应柴油机”
我也不确定，但我知道我们可以一试。