克里斯多夫·库克近几年的作品给喜欢将艺术分门别类的西方理论家们出了个难题。这些被库克自称为“纸上石墨”或偶尔画在铝板上的石墨作品既与我们传统的油画概念有着不可忽视的联系，同时也与素描具有某种共性，因为石墨和纸，从来都是素描所最基本也最有特色的两大元素。那就让我们将库克的艺术形式综合得归为绘画这一形式吧。然而即使这样，他仍然是不够精确的。如果说绘画被归纳为通过画笔所进行的表达方式，那么库克的创作无论是在方法上或是目的上都算是相对另类的。
库克的这种石墨表现方式起源于他在９０年代中期的一次印度之旅。 在访问瓦拉纳西这座神圣的城市时，库克有一次在恒河边上随意得用手指玩弄着沙，无意中发现沙滩上留下的图案在阳光下闪烁着，并随着潮起潮落而改变着。这种身体与大地的接触所产生的美感给库克极大的冲击。他开始探索这种身体与大地的接触的过程本身所具有的意义，并尝试采用大自然的元素来做作品的材料，于是发明了这种石墨作画的方法。 库克的绘画过程常常存在着很大的偶然性。他在开始创作一件作品的时候，对于作品中的形象往往是没有具体的构图的。而是随着石墨与水的溶解物在画面上自动生成逐渐意识到自己想要表达的事物。这种作画的方式与超现实主义的创作理念相符，既，“让艺术家被自己在画面上所发现的东西而感到惊奇，并对其作出反应。”
对于库克的西方读者来说，他的黑白石墨更多的是对于统治了西方艺术审美几千年的一种叛逆。这种叛逆不仅仅表现在色彩效果上的一种颠覆，更多地包含了对于常态的一种挑战。库克的石墨作品材料往往是将石墨粉溶化在松节油，和松脂中，并在高密度的，厚实有光泽的纸张，或者是在铝板上作画。因此，作品总是带有一种工业化的金属质感，在压抑沉重与光彩闪烁之间来回摆动。有许多在纸上的作品，一眼看去就象是一张凝固在冲洗过程中的照片，照片上的内容在显影液盆里时有时无地显现着。然而库克的作品很少有直接参考真实的摄影画面的迹象。
或许与库克本人是一位诗人有关，他的作品偶尔会表现出一种诗的伤感和蒙胧感。比如在名为“回家”这件作品中，作品展示的是一个透过汽车挡风玻璃所看到的一个模糊的都市夜景。 或许是因为下着暴雨，画面中汽车的雨刮器似乎无力将挡风玻璃刷干净， 整个画面象是被溶解在液体当中。这种视觉效果给画面营造了一种电影的意境，让观者感觉自己似乎驾车迷失在一个陌生的城市中，遥望着远处灯火阑珊的办公楼，不知去向。作为一个都市人，这正反应了当代都市人的一种迷离的心态。
除去一种纯粹的抒情外，库克的艺术更多地涉及到对当下社会意识形态的关注和思考。在作品“方案”中，作者将观者的角度放置在高空，画面展示的是从空中看一个类似工业区的景象。画面的四周被石墨随意地涂鸦成团状，可以被看成是围绕在飞机四周的高空中的云层。如果更富有想像力一些，可能会觉得这是一个高倍望远镜快速从高空向地面目的地聚焦的效果。不禁让人联想到了那些被提供给某安全局的关于对方武力装备的卫星拍摄图。这种诗意的视觉效果与严肃的社会问题在画面上的并存是库克艺术创作的一大特色。另外，库克的作品也常常涉及到自然与生态的议题。例如在他的作品“浮动箱”和“连锁反应”中，微观世界内部活跃的运动被人类的审美所打扰。这些作品反应了艺术家对宏观世界与微观世界的一个独特认识。
抛开西方艺术史，从一个中国的审美角度来看，库克的这种独特的创作形式在视觉效果上似乎又与中国水墨有一丝的联系。尤其是作品中常常表现出来的那种画面的流动感，以及不同程度的灰色在这画面中的微妙关系，很容易让人作出这样的初步联系。 当然这并不是库克将要在中国办展览的原因。用一个较公正的国际化的眼光来看，库克的艺术是兼于几种文化和艺术表现形式之间的一个混合体，处于概念与描述之间，临界于 现实与超现实之间的。这种混合体可以在不同的文化语境，不同审美趣味之下产生不同的含义, 因为艺术本身就是没有国界的。对库克作品的中国式解读将证明了这一文化的流动性和多样性。
简而言之，处于概念与描述之间，临界于 现实与超现实之间，库克艺术作品中所表现出来的这种多重性和临界于几种艺术形态的模凌两可性，为他的艺术形式开创了一条前所未有的道路，也为探讨绘画这种被公认的传统艺术表现形式提出了一个发展可能性的探讨。
Painting into possibility - the graphite works of Christopher Cook
Christopher Cook's graphite works elude categorisation. They are labelled "graphite and oil on paper" or "graphite and oil on aluminium" and as we know, graphite and paper are fundamental and characteristic elements of drawing. Yet these works have many attributes of painting, such as brush marks, and oil. So, can we look upon Cook's works as a new hybrid form of painting/drawing? Even like this, the formulation is still inaccurate, for if we consider his method and motive, we find the images to be unusually unpredictable and inventive.
His process originates from a period of travel in India in the mid 1990s. On three occasions he stayed in Varanasi, Hinduism's holiest city, on the river Ganges. Cook made boat journies to the opposing shore of the river, and one day began to draw in the fine sand, inattentively. The patterns became beautiful as the sun's angle changed. Cook was moved by this simple interaction of human body and Indian earth. On returning to the UK, he began to seek for the meaning of this contact, introducing natural materials to his work, and eventually discovered his graphite method. There are often accidents in Cook's creative process - when he begins a piece of work, he has no composition in mind, but gradually becomes aware of the possibilities. This method corresponds somewhat to those of the Surrealist movement.
Cook's works are something of a rebellion against a western painting aesthetic. This revolt is not simply a rejection of colour and perspective, but also of decorum. Cook will often first dissolve graphite powder into resin, then use this solution to paint on thick glossy paper or large aluminium sheet. So the works gain industrial characteristics. Some works on paper seem very chemical in their quality - sometimes like a photograph stopped in the developing process, even though the images seldom give us the impression that his works refer to photos directly.
Perhaps because Cook is also a poet, his works occasionally express a poetic sense of obscurity. For instance, we find a dim night scene in homing, glimpsing the view through the windscreen of a car, as again in passing place. Many scenes are partly dissolved as if by rainfall, and this visionary marvel suggests a film tableau. It gives us a special feeling that we are losing ourselves in a strange city. We look into the skyscraper distance and don't know where to go, reflecting a familiar urban dislocation.
Cook's art often concerns contemporary ideology. In Resolution, our viewpoint is high in the sky, over an industrial district. There are random scrawl marks around this image - perhaps the cloud around a plane, but together it recalls satellite imaging of enemy weapons sites. The poetic vision and concern with serious social topics coexist. This is a particular characteristic of Cook's work, and they also relate to natural and ecological propositions, as in Flotation Tank or Chain Reaction, where the chaotic energies of microcosmic nature are disturbed by aesthetic intervention.
The liquidity of the graphites and the subtle tones of grey on different levels allow us to associate his works with traditional Chinese ink painting, though of course this is not the reason why Cook is exhibiting in China (he is also showing in New York and the UK at the same time). From an international viewpoint, Cook's work mixes both cultural reference and creative modes. It lies somewhere between the conceptual and the descriptive, between the super-real and the surreal, presenting multiple characteristics and ambiguous forms. These features open new imaginative pathways, and allow us to see how traditional methods may still be used to develop new possibilities for contemporary painting