七重紗的錦瑟華章

文/夏可君

儲楚《璀璨的星，風中之竹》（2021年）。Bright Stars, Bamboos in Wind, a work by Chu Chu (2021).

書法在當代的書寫，能夠走多遠？在保持筆墨的日常課作功夫后，書法又該如何接納整個世界？答案應該是全方位的接納與改造，從視覺本身進行重新建構。

對于如此徹底重建有著持久探索的，是浙江的佳士得特約藝術家儲楚。她從小在作為雕塑藝術家的父親的指導下學習，從設計到油畫，從攝影到書法，師承書法家王冬齡先生，以最為豐富與詩意的想象力，不斷地拓展書法書寫的可能性，讓我們看到了書法在當代的非凡之美與可容納的開放性，并且形成了自己的獨特藝術語法。

儲楚的書寫藝術，二十年來，以其虔誠與嚴謹的創(chuàng)作態(tài)度，從行走的風景到節(jié)令的書寫，再到文化的記憶，直到都市的風景，最終都疊印在這錦瑟華章中，形成了七重紗的疊印之美，有助于我們去反思在這樣一個技術時代，人性與自然是如何重建感應的。

對于儲楚藝術的觀看方式，首先來自日常生活，來自對自然的拍攝與觀看欣賞。很多人或許都沒有注意到，文字書法來自自然，只有重新回到自然，以自然為本，面對鮮活的自然景色，重新體會自然的美感，才能在慢慢地體會時光與時令的自然變化中感受到書法的獨有韻味。

儲楚開始拍攝自然景色，以自然景色為基底，開始書寫，這是一次大膽的改造，不再僅僅是宣紙的空白，而是讓空白的宣紙回到自然，宣紙本身也是來自自然草木，空白本來就是自然的敞開性與接納性的暗示，因此，重構繪畫的基底，這也是讓繪畫與書寫同源、讓自然成為重寫開始的創(chuàng)新探索。

這是第一層底色，是書寫的第一層紗，是來自自然給予的景色之美，并且付諸藝術家的攝影底本。

其次，則是一個女性對于時裝與時尚的敏感。喜歡讀書與攝影的儲楚，經常會凝視那些貼有照片的櫥窗，端詳或是書店或是商店櫥窗上的各種投影。日光似乎就是一個攝影師，會把室內的時尚衣裝與自然植物、各種照片，連同窗外的樹枝一起都重疊起來。普通人看來或許只是匆匆一瞥，但在藝術家這里，卻讓這樣的日常疊印變成了驚鴻一瞥的作品。此疊印的視覺效果，就構成了儲楚藝術的第二重紗，是把自然景色與人造景觀加以重疊，增加了底本的厚度。比如她拍攝了紐約曼哈頓著名的第5 大道的時尚櫥窗，借用鮑勃 · 迪倫的文字，選出一些照片，加以拼接、去色等制作方式，復制三張后再去色，每一幅都單獨調整到一種微亮的效果。

這樣，我們就看到了更為微妙的第三重紗，即當儲楚用熒光彩色的亞克力在膠片上再次書寫，就形成了文字與色彩疊加，有著明暗變化的“繪畫”，這是集合了攝影、書法、上色、拼接等各種藝術手法的復合藝術，文字在可讀與可視之間被呈現，空間被切割，但又具有疊印的色彩幻象。

此第三重紗已經非常復雜了，因為它綜合了書法與攝影，并且強化了繪畫性，書法與繪畫的同源性，并非僅僅是書寫行為本身，而是一種整體化視覺氛圍的感知，是一種現代性的整體氣氛的藝術表達。

我們繼續(xù)去凝視第四重紗吧。這是顏色的疊加，盡管我們已經看到了水墨與攝影的重疊，看到了熒光色的書寫，但是，就顏色而言，儲楚還有著另一種對中國色的獨特感知，這是把棕色隸書與金色行書疊印，把書法的文字與古老的色彩以當代疊印的方式加以組合，重構了文化歷史的深度記憶，讓當代的觀念攝影與書寫行為具有了詩意的深度。

儲楚《白蘭花—煙迷柳岸》。White Orchid — Misty Bank of Willows, a work by Chu Chu.

《春天十日》這個2019 年的作品，以一日一春來感懷時間的匆匆，以彩色書法與水墨樹枝相互疊加，以水墨、絹本、數碼打印，以疊印的影像方式形成古典和現代媒介交錯的視覺感，讓自然與心靈、時光與感受、詩意與制作達到了完美的合一。

最近的新作，則更為豐富。比如《四季華章 · 金色沉思》中，文字與色彩，讓書寫與繪畫獲得了另一種華麗的肌膚。

而第五重紗則來自藝術家再度進入了都市生活。畢竟現代性的生活是城市、自然與人文的共生，擁有西湖的杭州本身就是這樣的一座城市。其實中國式書寫，從來都不僅僅是在紙面上書寫、在石碑上銘刻，乃是在天地之間書寫，是以天空大地為時空，以自然煙雨為元素，在世界之中書寫，是世界的書寫與書寫的世界，其格局從來都是無比的碩大與無機的開放，只是書法藝術容易被局限在斗方之間罷了。而儲楚的書法觀念接納了大都市，她以城市為背景，借用水霧與煙雨的朦朧感為襯托，形成人為建筑與自然景色相互疊印，而書法文字，就如同無盡的細雨，仿佛是唐詩與宋詞，從高處，從詩意的高空，以一種從未消失的詩意維度，緩緩落下，其詩意之美又得到了擴展和深化。

而第六重的紗則更具有概念性。儲楚以代碼進行創(chuàng)作，把科技與藝術結合，把自然景色與女性的粉色少女心融入到冰冷的數碼中，開拓了文字的廣度，讓冰冷的代碼也被賦予彩墨的生動美感，展示了書寫行為的跨界開放性。

而最為美妙的第七重紗，則是儲楚藝術的哲學。《璀璨的星》是體現其藝術哲學的代表系列，柳絲婀娜，鶯語婉轉，都被藝術家疊印在文字之間，這個系列在藝術家看來，象征著萬物的發(fā)聲，把象征光的書寫充分給予萬物，表達了情感的愛撫。

七重紗折疊的都是光，都是光影與山間的游戲褶子：這光是自然之光影，是攝影之明暗技術，是視覺之黑白，是色彩之變化，等等，一層又一層，一重又一重，都來自愛之光，對于世界之愛的凝視目光。這是心靈的目光，才可能在多重的折疊中，在世界璀璨的變幻中，在幻化的美妙中，在粉黛波影中，還保持著心神的凝定與自由的呼吸。儲楚的藝術并非僅僅是對于書法的當代開拓，乃是對于中國文化與自然的深度感應，比如對于節(jié)氣的反復觀察，重建人性與自然的感知關聯(lián)，這在一個技術虛擬時代顯得尤為重要。

如此多維空間的美感，織就七重紗的奇妙編織：一重紗是煙雨詩意，一重紗是光影婆娑，一重紗是無意夢囈，一重紗是燦爛星光，一重紗是婀娜婉轉，一重紗是色彩歌詠，一重紗是愛意光芒永不止息的層層涌動。

Seven-Layer Veil in Contemporary Calligraphy

By Xia Kejun

儲楚《越過春天的翅膀》。Over the Wings of Spring, a work by Chu Chu.

How far can contemporary calligraphy go? How could calligraphy embrace the whole world, beyond everyday brush and ink for calligraphers? The answer should be an all-encompassing acceptance and transformation, a reconstruction from vision itself.

An artist who has a long-lasting quest for such a radical reconstruction is Chu Chu, a native of Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. As a child, she studied under the guidance of her sculptor father, from design oil painting, photography to calligraphy. She also became the disciple of calligrapher Wang Dongling, and has constantly expanded the possibilities of calligraphy and writing with the richest and most poetic imagination, showing us the extraordinary beauty and openness of calligraphy in contemporary times. On top of that, she has developed her own unique artistic vision.

Over the past 20 years, Chu’s writing art, with her devotion and rigorous creative attitude, has ranged from such subjects as walking scenes, four seasons, cultural memories, to urban landscapes. All of them overlap and complement each other like a magnificent seven-layer veil, through which we could reflect on how humanity and nature are once again connected in such a technological era.

Thefirst way to view Chu’s art is based on daily life, on the photographing and viewing of nature. It may have been neglected by many that calligraphy comes from nature. Only by going back to nature, re-experiencing its vivid beauty can we gradually savor the uniqueness of calligraphy in the changing of time.

Chu began to photograph these natural scenes as her basis for writing. It is a bold transformation, not just about the blank rice paper, but about returning the blank rice paper to nature. The rice paper itself is also made of the grass and trees, and its blankness is originally a hint of openness and receptivity of nature. Therefore,reconstructing the base for painting means the same thing for painting and writing: allowing nature as the beginning of rewriting.

This is thefirst layer: the beautiful natural landscape, which is weaved into the artist’s photographic basis.

Secondly, it is about a woman’s sensitivity to fashion and style. Chu loves reading and photography, and she often gazes at the windows with photos, or the projections on the windows of bookstores. The daylight seems to be a photographer, overlaying the indoor fashionable clothes with plants and various photos,together with the tree branches outside the window. An ordinary person may just give a quick glance at the window, yet an artist could make a stunning work out of it.

The visual effect of overlay constitutes the second layer of Chu’s art: the overlapping of natural and artificial landscapes,which adds thickness to thefilm. For example, she photographed the fashion windows of the famous 5th Avenue in Manhattan,New York, borrowing Bob Dylan’s words, selecting some photos,and, by stitching, decoloring and other techniques, giving each photo a slightly bright effect.

In this way, we see a more subtle third layer. That is, when Chu uses fluorescent colored acrylic to write again on thefilm, it forms a “painting” with superimposed words and colors, with light and dark changes. This third veil is already very complex, because it synthesizes calligraphy and photography and reinforces the features of painting.

Let us proceed to the fourth layer. Beside the overlap of ink and photography and fluorescent colors in writing, Chu has another unique perception of Chinese colors. It is the overprinting of clerical script in brown and semi-cursive script in gold, the combination of calligraphy and ancient colors in a contemporary overprint, the reconstruction of the profound memory of cultural history and the poetic depth given to conceptual photography and writing.

, a work of Chu’s created in 2019, depicts days in spring to re flect the rush of time. There is colorful calligraphy and ink-colored tree branches superimposed on each other, painted on silk scrolls and rendered by digital superimposition to form a visual sense of classical and modern art intertwined.

Her recent works are even richer, such as the words and colors in, which give writing and painting another kind of gorgeous skin.

儲楚《粉黛渡影》。Pink Shadows, a work by Chu Chu.

Thefifth layer comes from the artist’s re-entry into urban life.After all, modern life is a symbiosis of city, nature and humanity;and the Chinese style of writing, in fact, is not only to write on paper or stone tablets but to write on the whole wide world. Chu’s concept of calligraphy, on the other hand, embraces metropolis culture: she uses the city as a backdrop, and borrows the haze of water mist, smoke and rain as accompaniment, forming an overlay of natural and artificial landscapes. Meanwhile the calligraphy element falls from high above like endless rain, adding an expanded poetic beauty to the whole picture.

The sixth layer is more conceptual, as Chu puts codes in her creation. By combining technology and art, she allows the lifeless codes to be endowed with the vivid beauty of colored ink,demonstrating a cross-border openness of writing.

The most wonderful seventh layer is the philosophy of Chu’s art. “Bright Star” is a representative series that embodies her artistic philosophy, with silky willows and birds warbling all superimposed between the words. This series, in the artist’s view, represents the speech of all things, which are lighted by words and caressed by emotions.

The seven-layer veil is all about light, which jumps playfully between brightness and darkness. It is the light and shadow of nature, the light and dark technique of photography, the black and white of vision, and the change of colors ... From the loving gaze at the world, they pile layer after layer peacefully and freely,regardless of radiant changes of the world.

Chu’s art is not merely a contemporary exploration of calligraphy, but a deeper sense of Chinese culture and nature,such as the repeated observation of 24 Chinese solar terms,and the reconstruction of the perceived connection between humanity and nature. This is particularly important in an era of technological virtualization.

Such multi-dimensional space fabricates its wonder into the seven-layer veil of Chu’s art: the first is about poetic, the second is about light and shadow,the third about dream, the fourth about brilliant starlight, thefifth about grace, the sixth about color,and the last is about never-ending love.