Tan Tian: Beyond the Ways of “For”, “Against”, and “Abstain”
Author: Juliette Ho
Tan Tian’s third solo exhibition, “(Billboard, Manifesto, Joke)” is already six years away from his last solo exhibition, “Welcome” (2016). Therefore, one may find it strange to see the artist intentionally blocking the entrance of this show with his 2013 piece, Feel Better After Throw Up No.5: this work, created in the peak years of China’s economic growth, was meant to bring up discourses on the accelerated economic development or the path of modernization, yet is apparently no longer a concern for the society today. This decade-old piece is relevant to neither the global provocation to the Cold War landscape nor the increase in the weight of political discourse within China. Yet, at the thought of the artist’s solemn use of it, we must temporarily suspend its meaning and try to regard it as a gesture of expression.
Indeed. In the press release of this exhibition, “attracting attention provocatively”, “making a point solemnly”, and “obscuring [the] intention humorously” came to unfold the three axes, “billboard”, “manifesto”, and “joke”. The trio attempts to resist the fashion of expression under the for-against-abstain framework, which also marks the origin of this show – arguments around the competition between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party as well as the divisive language mode adopted in such arguments, which all took place while Tan Tian was getting his graduate degree in Hunter College, New York.
This fight between the Democrats and the Republicans is merely a symptom of the disease. Either to maintain globalization and the political correctness of cross-regional equal co-operation, or to amplify the splitting, profit-chasing, and fragmented reality hidden inside the cracks of the global narrative? One must take this single-choice question seriously. This question is gradually further simplified to a quarrel of right or wrong, in endless repetition of wordings and faces. Even though the given Yes or the No options fail to generalize all the various positions, at the instant of these floating, acentric, specific forms joining the discussion, the differences are immediately shaded, thus each will have to pick a side between the Yes and the No. Abstention looks like a compromising option but in fact, silently invalidates all the stands beyond the Y/N.
Feel Better After Throw Up No.5, therefore, becomes an expression different from the quarrel of right or wrong. It is simultaneously a billboard, a manifesto, and a joke. The same applies to the second series, Aesop can’t Fables (2018), and the third series, 202230020010/1 (2022). Tan Tian’s Aesop can’t Fables is a series of short fables that features the animal kingdom to project human actions and their ethics, modeling the characterization in the Aesop Fables. The Lion’s Kingly Righteousness is one pseudo-fable in the form of a relatively straightforward dialogue from this series. Tan Tian’s designed dialogue goes:
The rabbit continues: “If each opinion can be taken more equally, we will see thoughts from different species on the same subject. That would be such a wonderful thing.”
The lion interrupts: “I just realized that if this is true, we won’t be able to do anything practically!”
So, what’s done are the conflicts breaking out everywhere, the weak and the strong getting segregated in where they belong? The oppression, manipulation, production, and injustice? The speaking up, protesting, negotiating, then using violence? The world will continue to operate anciently – so that’s the reasoning behind the declaration of invalidity of the Habermas’ proposal after non-western groups entered the field (but is such declaration even valid)? Anyhow, many attempts happened. Yet the world is again left black and white, and your silence is more than welcomed.
The political arguments that later became the origin of this exhibition may have shown a clue way back in All the Reasons that Make Me Hate Political Power, a series created when Tan Tian was in Hunter College between 2018 and 2019. Among all the “reasons” presented, one would find mocks of those works by modern and contemporary artists such as Édouard Manet, Hans Haacke, Pedro Cabrita Reis, and Félix González-Torres. So, should this sentence be complete this way instead – art is all the reason that makes ME hate political power? We would never know, but it’s not so important. In the same way, the artist eloquently weaponizes “attracting attention provocatively”, “making a point solemnly”, and “obscuring [the] intention humorously”, art is naturally instrumentalized to break certain deadlocks. But it is not the specific appearance of the act of breaking that matters; what matters is that the act of breaking is made possible by the art in ITS appearance: either as a fact or otherwise imagined inside the artist’s head. All situations following the Covid pandemic – no matter political, economic, or military – tell us: do not expect the art’s capacity to do anything concrete.
It is worth mentioning that these three works were made over the span of nearly 10 years, evenly dividing the decade into two 5-year halves, occupying the beginning, the middle, and the end. They were completely different: in the stage and life condition each was created in, as well as in media and form; however, the three achieved a certain consistency in creative language, through their shared emphasis on the diversity of expressions. Before Tan Tian went to the US, he was probably most known for his project: How I Become a Contemporary Artist, anatomy of contemporary art in his gamely, sarcastic tone, first shown at the artist’s debut solo exhibition, “Jump to the Second Solo Show” (White Space Beijing, 2015). By retrieving and collecting the works and methodologies of famous western contemporary artists, Tan made a series of quoting exercises, which targets the hit elements in the artmaking among contemporary artists, and further highlighted the pattern for producing professional artists through a role-play form. However, this thread of responding to the matters in the art system is no longer found in “(Billboard, Manifesto, Joke)”. Such cease might be a result of the artist’s expanding personal world, which has let in more and more social topics; not to overlook the elephant in the room – this post-covid era itself – that none of the contemporary artists can ignore, also releases its impact. Upon a shifting, debris-covered ground, Tan Tian presents three works from 2013, 2018, and 2022, and tries to express the coherent traits of his own artistic subjectivity.
Such coherence has been disturbed quite often though. The disturbance is not necessarily for the artist’s subjectivity but aimed at the social context of his art at this moment. Therefore, while we acknowledge his individual traits, we must also sense the dissonance between such personal traits and the larger art environment today. For example, when the audience, having taken a tour around all those galleries and institutions big or small in 798, having looked at too many painting shows already, enters the SPURS Gallery to find another decently planned group show of paintings on the first floor, and follows the space to the stairs at the corner, then goes up to the second floor to run into Tan Tian’s solo show, they will sense a rather distinguishable sting. You’d say this kind of sting used to be more common before 2020. But at this post-pandemic moment, with the economy falling, public opinions more conservative, and turbulence of war threatening from remote, this sting in a tiny gallery space on the second floor is surprising.
谭天，支持、反对和弃权的方式之外
文 / Juliette Ho
谭天的第三次个展“（广告牌，宣言，笑话）”与上一次个展“欢迎光临”（2016）已经相距六年。也因此，当他把13年创作的作品《吐出来就好了No.5》堵在此次展览的入口处时，令人不免觉得陌生：这件在中国经济发展高峰期时创作的作品，它所带出的有关加速的经济建设或现代化道路的话语群显然已经不再符合今日的社会关切。无论是全球范围内对冷战格局的挑衅，还是中国内部对政治话语权重的增加，这件十年前的作品都已不合时宜，而想到艺术家的郑重使用，则不得不暂时悬置其意义，并试图将其看作一种表达的姿态。
确实如此。在展览新闻稿中，“招摇地吸引注意”、“郑重地表达观点”、“用幽默模糊意图”成为对坐标轴“广告牌”、“宣言”和“笑话”的展开说明。这三者试图反抗以支持、反对和弃权为结构的表达方式，也就是作为展览缘起的、发生在谭天就读于纽约亨特学院研究生阶段的有关民主党与共和党的争辩，和争辩所必然采用的分裂语态。
民主党与共和党之争自然只是病症的表征。到底是维持全球化和各区域平等合作的政治正确，还是放大那些潜藏在全球化叙事缝隙中的分裂、逐利和各自为政，似乎成为一个严肃的选择题。这个选择题在以无数种语词和面貌的重复中，被愈加简化为是非之辩。明明与是非选项不完全重合的众多立场，在加入谈论的刹那，那些游移的、离心的、具体的形态就随即被遮蔽，而不得不在是与非中站队。弃权看似妥协，却是以沉默的形式使得是非之外的立场无法生效。
于是《吐出来就好了No.5》就变成一种有别于是非之辩的表达方式，它是广告牌、是宣言，也是笑话。展览的第二组作品《伊索没办法寓言》(2018) 与第三组作品《202230020010/1》(2022) 也是同样。谭天《伊索没办法寓言》是一组寓言短篇，仿照伊索寓言中的人物设定，通过动物世界来影射人的行动及其伦理。《狮子的王道》是其中一则伪寓言。以一种相对直白的对话体，谭天设置了一组对话：
兔子继续说：“每个观点都可以被同等对待，我们可以看到不同物种对同一个事物的多种看法，这是件多么美好的事情啊。”
狮子突然打断说：“我才意识到如果真的是这样的话，我们什么事情都干不了了。”
于是才又纷争四起，弱者和强者重新被划归到自身的阵营，压迫、控制、生产、不公？发声、抗议、协商、暴力？世界依旧以古老的方式运转着，哈贝马斯提案在非西方群体进入后被宣判为无效（但这种宣判本身是否还算数）？总而言之，在多种尝试后，又只剩下黑白分明的世界了。不过当然非常欢迎你沉默。
作为展览缘起的政治争论也许早已出现在谭天2018-19年在亨特学院创作的《所有使我讨厌政治权力的理由》系列中。在这许许多多被呈现出的“理由”中，马奈、汉斯·哈克、雷斯 (Pedro Cabrita Reis) 、冈萨雷斯 (Félix González-Torres) 等现当代艺术家的作品以戏仿的面貌重现。所以这个句子是否要被这样完成？艺术是所有使“我”讨厌政治权力的理由？不得而知，却也不甚重要。就像是“招摇地吸引注意”、“郑重地表达观点”、“用幽默模糊意图”是艺术家振振有词的武器一样，艺术十分自然被用来打破某种僵局，而它的真实面貌却不甚重要，重要的是打破这一行为以艺术的面貌成为可能：无论是真实如此了，还是在艺术家的颅内想象中如此。新冠流行病引发的所有局面——政治的、经济的、军事的，都在告诉我们：别期待艺术真的能做什么。
值得一提的是三件作品的跨度几乎拉满了十年，并且以五年为期平分式地占据了这十年的端点和中心点。三件作品自然创作于完全不同的阶段和生命状态，其所使用的媒介和形式也完全不同，但却通过对多样表达形态的强调而获得某种创作语言上的连贯性。谭天在去美国前，最为大家所知的大概是《如何成为当代艺术家》这一项目，它在艺术家的首展《第二个个展》（空白空间，2015）上亮相，以游戏和嘲讽的口吻解剖了当代艺术。通过检索和收集西方知名当代艺术家的作品和创作方法，谭天创作了一系列对当代艺术家创作元素的引用练习，并通过行为扮演的方式进一步强化了职业艺术家的形成公式。但这种回应艺术系统问题的创作思路在展览“（广告牌，宣言，笑话）”中已经不见。这大约是因为艺术家个人世界的扩大，社会问题开始越来越多地进入艺术家的世界，此外，后疫情时代已经成为任何一位当代艺术家都无法视而不见的房中大象。在这样变动杂乱的地基之上，谭天通过呈现2013、2018和2022年的三次创作，试图表达他作为艺术家主体的某种气质的连续性。
但这种连续性实在是受到不少干扰。这类干扰并非对于艺术家主体而言，而是针对他的艺术此时所身处的社会语境，因此在承认艺术家的个体气质时，我们不得不感受到这类气质和创作与今日艺术大环境之间的调性不一致。比如当观众在798大大小小的画廊和机构参观过量的绘画展览后，在穿过马刺一楼布置得体的绘画群展、继而顺道拐上二楼进入谭天的展厅时，会明显觉察到谭天的刺感。这种刺感在2020年之前还算是常见，只是在经济下行、舆论保守、远方战火威胁的后疫情当下，画廊二楼小间的刺感让人意外。