鲍传江
评论家、收藏家
自由撰稿人
本来到北京是干别人的活，于是电话里告诉周晚峰只有一个下午的时间交给他打发。就在那个下午刚坐下来看画，我马上意识到一个下午远远不够。
一别十年，周晚峰把陕北山水的原生态找了回来。一个原版的陕北，要花上很多时间去虔诚的感受。 这就是原版—满幅的大山，没完没了的苍苍莽莽，完全交代不清的树木之间的厚实关系堆积在画面，被改版了的陕北强化过的记忆面对周晚峰抑或他笔下原版的陕北让我有些措不及防，这些1958年“大跃进”之前再早至延安垦荒运动之前的陕北复原了。这时的陕北离范宽要近一些。
没法不说到范宽。充满了自然崇拜的范宽那时候有神灵护佑，一下子就走到大山深处。那些山比例不合，随时失重，走在范宽时代的大山里的人嚣张不得，行者或画者都不敢想象什么战天斗地。有敬畏之心让范宽的山水差不多在中国美术史上挂了头牌。也正是这种敬畏之心及人间伦常让中国文化艺术稳稳推进着。
后来无常了，无所畏惧了，老百姓说无常就是见鬼。
大约从黄宾虹之后人们对山水就率性了。山上的树一看就是一个集体上去栽种的，没有藤科蔓科、花鸟草虫的纠缠。很多山山水水在一种狂热情绪下被臆造了出来，更可怕的是一些赤色而且炽烈的裸露着的山，下面没水，上面没云，这样的山不但不能让人寄居，还会让人的心灵更加仓皇，你不能指望它供养烟云。
周晚峰笔下的原版陕北就不一样，在他很逼仄的画室连通的客厅里，他顺手操起一个电视遥控器充当麦克风，很生硬地扭摆着肢体唱起了那首全国人民都熟知的陕北民歌。这首先是抒发私情后来改成颂歌其间又换了主人公的经典民谣其实早就被陕北老乡返回原版一再张扬了。周晚峰每回陕北都能听到老乡声情俱老地唱着这首歌，这首歌现在由周晚峰唱出来，原汁原味，尽管转调时还有些支楞：“双扇扇门，单扇扇开，叫声哥哥你快进来，伸手解开裤腰带，呼儿咳呦……”还有什么比哥哥来了更让妹妹心旌摇荡的事呢？还有什么比妹妹心旌摇荡更能激活男人们的雄强呢？事情的发展是哥哥后来被屏蔽了，结果几十年也没有找到可以替代哥哥的东西。仅仅改写一首民歌表面上不太可怕，可怕的是很多关系接下来都被改写了，比如人和人之间的伦常，人和自然之间的和谐，人和一种超验力量的共谋……把这些关系都改写了就不好办了，因为很多关系是不可逆的。
实在地说，当时这首情歌里哥哥的隐去和后来那些没有烟云的山是有某种连带的。
改写和破坏都会让当事人充满了快感，这些人人心中都潜伏着的魔障，一旦出笼就不好收伏。从战天斗地到透支性使用自然资源一直有快感邀宠肉身。问题是这样的快乐不能泽及后人，坐在尽享曲线呵护的座椅上，有机器加工出来的凉风吹拂，本来可以让当代人暂时地很滋润，周晚峰也可能画些柔媚的卖相好的花鸟之类。好端端的周晚峰要找什么原点呢。
我原先了解的陕北主要源于先前的灌输和后来一种叫威风锣鼓之类的玩意，那么多的人很夸张的扭曲身体，更好笑的是电视工作者们往往在敲锣打鼓的庞大阵容后面加上满目黄塬作为背景。锣鼓一威风，不毛之地上黄尘滚滚。有这样的视觉经验打底，你走到哪里都知道沙尘暴是人造的。
在北京一个叫花家地的小区里，周晚峰展示着他作品中那些敲锣打鼓的人，这肯定不再是什么威风锣鼓了，我一下就能听到画面里充满了的哀鸣，这些人差不多都歇斯底里了，在周晚峰新近的画面里，只要有人的面孔就有着直接的悲凉。
就算周晚峰在这些人的身旁密植了那么多的树又能怎样。其实只有周晚峰才能在他自己经营的画面里大口吸氧。说穿了，周晚峰要在画面里先解决自己的问题，难以开解的冲突都密集地呈现着，这些冲突仓促的突围却又有可能鬼打墙一样在原地打转，最后才讲和了重新生产一种力量在画面的上端找到出口。一种快意顿时发生。周晚峰也是肉身承重，他感知到自己的前景伟岸，他还不能让自己憋死在冲突之中，他要把那些不合时宜的情绪搬运出来，最好的去处是在陕北原籍，在这个原版陕北里，周晚峰得到了安置。
听周晚峰讲话就不太对劲了，他废话多了一些，逻辑上也顾不过来，我打断了他几回话茬，事后一想，挺蛮横的。应该让他在画面以外缓解掉一些紧张，他老是自己对自己发射有点极端的情绪，挺伤人的。
肯定回不到范宽了，我只在绘画的颠覆性面前放松警觉，周晚峰至少用他颠覆性的画面让我又一次仰望范宽，而且让我亲近陕北，让我领略了这地方曾经有过的苍润，并感受到一种复杂无序、无力回天的紧张，正是从这个意义上讲，原版也很局部。
就这些已经很为难周晚峰了。
很局部的原版也足以引起我对周晚峰的强烈推重。
二○○五年七月在深圳莲花山下玉书房
An Original Northern Shensi: Perceiving Zhou Wanfeng's Paintings
By Bao Chuanjiang
After a separation of ten years, Zhou Wanfeng was able to entertain me with the original Northern Shensi that takes one a long time to relish. This is the original Northern Shensi—endless lush green mountains in Zhou Wanfeng’s paintings, I could not reconcile this original Northern Shensi with my intensified memories of the place. I had not been prepared for what I saw in the paintings since Zhou had restored the original Northern Shensi before the Great Leap Movement in 1950’s or even before the Wasteland Reclaiming Movement At that moment, the northern Shensi was closer to me than the one Fankuan had presented.
I have to mention Fankuan, whose age was dominated by warship for the nature and blessed by jinn, and whose paintings led me directly to the depth of the huge mountains. Though those mountains were proportionately enormous, any viewer of Fankuan’s paintings could not be arrogant so that anybody either the tourists or the painters dare not imagine anything aggressive. The awe for the nature has put Fankuan the best in the Chinese art history for his landscape paintings. It is this awe that has pushed the Chinese culture and arts steadily forward.
Later on, nothing was scary. Civilians regarded such kind of intrepidity as ghosts.
After Huang Binhong, people started to hold a straightforward view of landscape paintings. There were no plants like liana, colorful flowers and birds. A large amount of mountains and water had been created with high enthusiasm. Painters created more scary works, such as bare mountains without water beneath or clouds above. These mountains could not house people, but gave them more fright. You could not rely on them for life.
Quite different were the original Northern Shensi in Zhou Wanfeng’s paintings. In his living room, leading to his workroom, he took a TV remote controller as a microphone, twisting his stubborn waist, and sang a traditional Northern Shensi folk song—a song well-known all over China. This song had been composed originally as a love song, and later was revised into a classical carol，which was sung by Northern Shensi people all the time. Whenever Zhou Wanfeng visited Northern Shensi, he could hear the locals sing this song passionately. While Zhou Wanfeng singing this special song with original flavor, there were still something improper :“ Double doors I open one by one, my dear brother, please come in now...” This song had been revised, but the character Brother and the human harmony with the nature were no longer there.
To be honest, for the revision, the absent Brother from the song had something to do with the lifeless mountains of years later.
Both re-writing and destruction would bring pleasure the re-writers. With the rewriting, those demons hidden in people’s hearts would be released and difficult to vanquish once exceeding the bounds. From the wars waged against heaven and earth years’ ago to today’s excessive exploitation of natural resources, a sensation of pleasure has been winning the favor of mortal bodies. However, the matter was that such a kind of joy could not be presented to later generations; sitting on the chair with the bless of keeping graceful figure and enjoying the cool breeze from air-conditioners, it seems that people today are comfortable for the time being. Zhou Wanfeng also might have produced some kind of birds and flowers which were lovable and salable. Why does Zhou insist on seeking for the originial when everything is perfectly all right?
My earlier knowledge of Northern Shensi mainly stemmed from previous political indoctrinations and noisy, awe-inspiring gongs and drums. When beating them, large quantities of people were swaying their bodies jubilantly; and ridiculously, TV workers always shot the desolate loess plateau as the background behind the massive lineup. As the gongs and drums threw their weight, a great deal of loess dust billowed from the barren land. On the basis of such a type of visual experience, it was well known that sandstorm was man-made, no matter where you were.
In his home in a Beijing residential area named Huajiadi, Zhou revealed the persons who beat gongs and drums in his works. This was definitely not something about those awe-inspiring gongs and drums. I could immediately hear the full whine from his paintings; and these persons were almost hysterical. In Zhou’s recent works, so long as there were melancholy faces, there must be direct sadness and dreariness.
So what it would be even though Zhou had planted many trees beside these persons in his paintings? In fact, still only Zhou could inhale oxygen in the paintings he had painted. Frankly speaking, in the first place Zhou had to solve his own problems related to his works. The insurmountable conflicts might revolve like a ghost striking the walls, and finally, a compromise was reached to produce afresh a power in his paintings. A kind of comfort, in a split of time, came to him. Zhou Wanfeng, as an ordinary man, thought that he had a promising future, so he could not allow him depressed in the conflicts and he would release his feelings, which are not appropriate to the time. The best place for him to retire to is his native place — Northern Shensi—the true and original one.
Sensing his queer digressions, lacking logic, I cut in several times but I thought I had been rude to do so. I realized that he should be relieved from tensions he had when at work. It was really harmful that he always kept somewhat extreme moods.
I was sure that I could not go back to Fankuan, for I had relaxed myself in front of the paintings with their subversive power which at least allowed me looking up to Fankuan so that I could touch Northern Shensi, appreciate ups and downs of life there, and feel the irrevocable complicated disorder and tension. In this sense, the original Northern Shensi was only part of the remedy.
This much of Northern Shensi is too much for Zhou Wanfeng.
It is, however, just this part of Northern Shensi that has won my high praises.
Shenzhen
July 4th, 2005