Shi Haitao had a period of intense experience in theater when he was young. Then he left the stage. However, for him, his life after that is more dramatic than before. Now, he has begun to withdraw from this highly dramatic stage of life and live in his seclusive studio in the suburbs of Beijing. However, he once again enters the ups and downs of the world of drama in histranquil studio as he begins to rehearse dramas on the canvas this time.

 

石海涛年轻的时候有过一段高强度的戏剧经验。后来他离开了舞台。不过，对他来说，离开舞台后的生活比戏剧更具有戏剧性。现在，他开始退出了这个高度戏剧化的生活舞台，隐身于北京郊区的画室中。不过，他在安静的画室里再次进入到跌宕起伏的戏剧中，这次，他是以画布的方式进入戏剧，他在画布上开始排演戏剧。

 

Of course, this is also a rehearsal of life as drama on the canvas. For Shi Haitao, life is completely dramatic. He has rich experience, and he understands these individual experiential events from the perspective of drama. However, he does not directly move these specific events onto his canvas. He avoids any personal experience, instead he turns to scenes that seemed unrelated to himself. These scenes are so far away from him that they did not even take place in the same country. Though Shi Haitao still believes that his paintings are closely related to his personal experience. Then how do we understand the relationship between these remote scenes and his specific personal experience? Shi Haitao reflected on his personal experience and the events he encountered, but he believes that his personal experience is not a special case, and it is nothing more than a concrete expression of general human experience. He has encountered many events and many characters, but these share some generalized characteristics. They repeated it over and over again, and they appeared with similar faces. They appeared to be different individuals, although they did not seem to be related to him (with no distant or close relations), Shi Haitao still finds that they all showed similar features. Therefore, he elevates his personal experience to a collective experience, a group experience. With the expansion of his vision and the increase of his experience, he has even raised his individual experience to human experience. If this is the case, he would not even limit such universal experience to a group, a nationality or even a country, as he would universalize his experience. This is why the content of his work looks so far away from him but it also seems to be so close to him. These distant stories (most of the faces shown seem to be foreigners) are not difficult for him to understand. In other words, these distant stories are also his own stories, and the experience embodied in them also stems from his own experience. This is why he brings these distant stories into his work.

 

当然，这也是人生戏剧在画布上的排演。对石海涛而言，生活是不折不扣的戏剧生活。石海涛经历了很多事件，他从戏剧的角度去理解这些个人化的经验事件。不过，他不是将这些具体的事件直接搬到他的画布上来。他在画面上回避了任何私人的经验。相反，他转向了看起来与己无关的场景。这些场景离他非常遥远，甚至不是在同一个国度。但是，石海涛还是认为他的画跟他的个人经验仍旧密切相关。那么，我们如何理解画面上这些遥远场景和他具体的个人经验的关系呢？石海涛对自己的个人经验和遭遇到的事件做了反思。但是，他相信他的个人经验并非特例，个人经验无非是一般人性经验的一个具体化表达。他遭遇了众多的事件和众多的人物，但是，这些事件和人物存在着某些普遍化的特征。他们一遍遍地重复，他们以相似的面孔出现。他们看起来是不同的个体。他们虽然看起来和他没什么关联（远近亲疏的关联），但是，石海涛还是发现，他们都表现出类似的特征。因此，他将个人经验上升为一个集体经验，一个群体经验。随着他的视野的扩大和经验的增多，他甚至将他的个人经验上升到人性经验。如果是这样的话，他甚至不会将这样的普遍经验限定在一个群体一个民族甚至一个国家内，他将他的经验普世化了。这也就是为什么他的画面内容看上去距离他无比遥远但又是无比切近的原因。这些遥远的故事（大多数显示的外国人的面孔）对于他来说并不难以理解，或者说，这些遥远的故事也是他自身的故事，这些遥远的故事所体现出的经验也是他自身的经验。这就是他将这些遥远的故事带入到自己作品中来的原因。

 

But what kind of experience is it? Shi Haitao′s paintings are mostly around scenes of confrontation, conflicts, battles and violence. Helmets, guns, shields, stones, soldiers, policemen and protesters become the protagonists of the paintings. These battles and ritualized scenes are perfused by violence, and everyone is in a state of tension: either they are protesting, or the opposite are suppressing the protest; either it is the roar of individual passion, or on the contrary it is a high restraint in the collective; it is either attacking or defending, escaping or chasing; it is this kind of tense scene that makes the picture strongly dramatic. He also deliberately dramatizes these scenes: many pictures were drawn based on realistic photos, but Shi Haitao has recreated and processed them with various space and light: he sometimes adjusts the light source of these pictures to make some scenes brighter so as to make other scenes darker; just like the stage lighting which is constantly changing to cause the changes on stage; sometimes a large number of characters repeatedly fill the picture, making the picture dense so that the expressive power is strengthened and the tension in the picture is increased; sometimes the faces of the characters in the image are hidden, and sometimes the characters in the pictures all stand with their back to the audience, so that these pictures have a hidden mysterious power. He also directly draws various extraordinary real/performance scenes, which penetrate the boundary between reality and performance, asthey resemble both a stage performance and a reality scene. In other words, realistic scenes are full of theater performances everywhere: people perform in the water, perform when the stage machinery fails, or they prepare for the performance before going on stage; all of these integrate reality with drama. In other words, the boundary between the real scene and the dramatic scene has been broken up.

 

但这是什么样的经验呢？石海涛的画作大都是对抗，冲突，战斗和暴力的场景。头盔，枪支，盾牌，石头，军人，警察和抗议者成为绘画的主角。这些战斗和仪式化场景被暴力所灌注，每个人都处在紧张的状态：要么正在抗议，要么是相反的正在镇压抗议；要么是个人激情的嘶吼，要么是相反的在集体中的高度克制；要么是在攻击要么是在防守，要么是在逃逸要么是在追逐；正是这种紧张的场景让画面具有强烈的戏剧性。他也有意地将这些场景进行戏剧化处理：许多画面是根据真实照片绘制的，但是，石海涛对它们进行了空间和光的改写和处理：他有时候调节了这些画面的光源，让某些场景更加明亮从而让另一些场景更加晦暗；就像舞台灯光在不停地变化从而引起舞台的变化一样；有时候让大量的人物重复地塞满了画面，让画面变得密集从而让力得以强化进而增加画面的戏剧效应；有时候将画面人物的面孔隐去有时候让画面的人物全部背对着观众，从而让这些画面有一种隐秘的力量。他也直接画了各种非凡的现实/演出场景，这些场景穿透了现实和演出之间的界线，它既像是舞台演出也像是现实场景。或者说，现实场景无处不是戏剧表演：人们在水中演出，在舞台机器失效的情况下演出，在登台之前的准备演出；所有这些都将现实和戏剧一体化了。或者说，现实场景和戏剧场景的界线被拆散了。

 

Actually, Shi Haitao uses various methods to make these scenes full of dramatic intensity: he prefers to draw dense crowds, individuals feel safe in the group and the crowd, where the individual draws strength from the group, and the strength of the individual is amplified in the group, whether it is the amplification of evil or the amplification of violence. Here we see the dialectical relationship between the individual and the collective. The collective allows the individual to stimulate his potential, while the actualization of potential is expressed in the form of body posture. The figures in Shi Haitao′s paintings all retain a special posture, and he puts them at the top of their passion. The pictures are full of unknown individuals, all of which emittheir passionate gestures at a particular moment or in a certain historical moment. These gestures are sometimes coded, with a fixed format which are restrained and repetitive, and they are ritualized gestures; sometimes they are purely angry gestures, with power bursting out, which makes the image more violent, deepens the intensity of the violence while making the conflicts more radical and confrontation become ubiquitous. It seems that passion, violence and confrontation permeated the whole picture. The image is always in a state of fierce confrontation, or a state of preparing for confrontation, or a state of gathering strength to show confrontation.

 

事实上，石海涛用各种方法让这些画面场景富有戏剧性强度：他偏爱画密集的人群，个体在集体和人群中感到安全，个体在这里会从集体中吸取力量，个体的力量会在集体中放大，无论是恶的放大还是暴力的放大。我们在此看到了个体和集体的辩证关系。集体让个体激发起了他的潜能。而潜能的现实化则以身体的姿态形式表现出来。石海涛的画面人物都保有一种特殊的姿态，他让他们处在激情的顶端。画面上都是无名的个体，都在某个历史时刻某个特殊的瞬间爆发了自己的激情姿态。这些姿态，有时候是编码的，是有固定格式的，是束缚的和重复的，是仪式化的姿态；有时候是纯粹的愤怒的姿态，是力的爆发的姿态。这姿态让画面更加充满暴力，让暴力的强度不断地深化，让冲突变得更加激进，让对抗无处不在。似乎激情，暴力和对抗弥漫了整个画面。画面总是处在激烈的对抗状态，或者是准备对抗的状态，或者是聚集力量展示对抗的状态。

 

Why is he obsessed with such a confrontation? If such a confrontation is dramatized and expressed on stage, why is it a confrontational stage drama? If these distant confrontational scenes seem to have nothing to do with Shi Haitao are actually extensions or magnifications of his individual experience, then aren’t these confrontations and  the subjects of Shi’s experience? He has experienced many events, but these specific events themselves did not emerge in his paintings, instead the nature and intensity of the events appeared in his paintings. He abandoned his personal experience, he rather wanted to reflect on his experience from a larger scope. It can be said that Shi Haitao is a Hobbesist. His experience made him a Hobbesian believer: the relationship between people is the relationship between wolves, and the relationship between men is the relationship of war. However, this is not only true of the relationship between people, but also the relationship between the collectives, and the relationship between the states. He transforms his personal experience into the experience of the macro historical facts in his paintings, just like a Hobbesist transforms into a believer in Carl Schmitt’s theories. An individual is constantly in an eternal struggle, and so is a country. Everything is in eternal conflicts and wars. Everyone is the enemy of himself, and every force is confronted by another force. If the world is a theater, then this is also an eternal theater of war.

 

为什么执着于这样的对抗？如果说这样的对抗是戏剧化和舞台化的话，为什么是一个对抗的舞台戏剧？如果说，这些遥远的看上去和石海涛无关的对抗场景是石海涛个人经验的扩写或者放大的话，那么，这些对抗和冲突不就是石海涛的经验主题吗？石海涛经历了很多事件，但这些具体的事件本身没有在他的绘画中涌现，而是事件的性质和强度在他的画面中出现。他抛弃了个人的经历，他想从更大的范围内来反思他的经验。可以说，石海涛是个霍布斯主义者。他的经验使得他成为霍布斯信徒：人和人的关系就是狼和狼的关系，人和人的关系就是战争关系。但是，不仅仅是人和人的关系如此，集体和集体的关系也是如此，国家和国家的关系也是如此。他将自己的个体经验转化为画面中的大的历史事实的经验，就仿佛是一个霍布斯主义者转化为卡尔斯密特主义者。个人处在永恒的斗争中，国家也处在永恒的斗争中。一切都是处在永恒的冲突和战争中。每个人都是每个人的敌人，每个力量都遭遇每个力量的对抗。如果说世界是一个剧场的话，那么这也是一个永恒的战争剧场。

 

If these conflicting characters, these violent machine-like characters, become the protagonists of this world theater, then, what about the audience watching the play? Shi Haitao also paints the theater itself and the audience in the theater. There are various types of spectators: there are audiences who are watching the play, there are audiences who are leaving, and there are audiences who enter; there are single audience sitting alone in the theater, there are crowded audiences in the theater, and some occupy a part of the theater. There are spectators with blurry faces and clear faces, spectators sitting sideways and with their back to the screen, calm spectators and turbulent spectators. Shi Haitao did not paint these audiences as individuals, but he also integrates these individual audiences into a group, so that they are swallowed by the group and displayed as a configuration in the group. They have different faces but their share common feelings. They are different individuals but they are also like similar machine accessories. They are watching a play in a confined, dark space. They are attracted to the stage, they are the audience, in this sense, they are outside the drama; but for Shi Haitao, they are also actors. Shi Haitao painted the auditorium like a big stage. This auditorium and the entire theater are also shrouded in diversified mysterious and ambiguous lights. Shi Haitao deals with the entire theater space very carefully. This space is sometimes empty and presents an audience alone; sometimes it is extremely crowded and all the audience squeeze or even obscure all the space; sometimes a group of the audience occupy a space segment. These spectators are illuminated in a dark viewing space, just as actors are illuminated by carefully designed lights on the stage. However, these audiences do not have clear faces, but rather vague outlines. They also have a special body posture, which has an ambiguous conversation with the space. This body and the entire theater space are painted in dreamy colors. It seems to come from a distant and vague memory, so it is more like an unreal illusion. Actually, all of this in the auditorium is like a dramatic scene on the stage. At this moment, the auditorium seems to have become a stage. In a sense, these audiences are more like actors on stage. If we say that he has worked hard to separate the boundary between the theater scene and the realistic scene, he has also worked hard to separate the boundary between the audience and the actors. They are acting like people watching a play. In other words, their performance appears in the image of the audience. As for the audience in front of the painting, they exist as the objects to be seen. They are also actors that the audience is watching. In this sense, these audiences are the protagonists of the drama. In other words, they are both outside and inside the drama. If the auditorium is cleverly rewritten as a stage, they are the audience behaving like actors. This is like the Abbas’ movie Shirin (2008), a group of moviegoers become the protagonists of the movie, and the screen itself is absent.

 

如果说这些冲突的人物，这些暴力机器式的人物，成为这世界剧场的主角的话，那么，那些看戏的观众呢？石海涛同样也画了剧场本身，画了剧场的观众。有各种类型的观众：有正在看戏的观众，有散场的观众，有入场的观众；有单个的孤零零在剧场中的观众，有密密麻麻将剧院塞满的观众；有占据了剧院局部的几排观众。有面目模糊也有面目清晰的观众，有侧身也有背对画面的观众，有平静的观众也有骚动的观众。石海涛既将这些观众作为个体画了出来，也将这些个体的观众融入到一个集体之中从而被集体吞噬并作为集体中的一个配置而展现出来。他们有不同的面孔但是有共同的感觉。他们是不同的个体但也是一个类似的机器配件。他们在看，在一个密闭的空间中，在一个黑暗的空间中看戏。他们被舞台吸引，他们是观众，在这个意义上，他们处在戏剧之外；但是，对于石海涛来说，他们也是演员。石海涛将观众席画得像一个大舞台。这个观众席，这整个剧院，也被各种神秘而暧昧的灯光所笼罩，石海涛非常细心地处理这整个剧院空间，这个空间有时候空旷，将一个观众孤独地呈现；有时候相反地异常拥挤，让所有的观众挤占甚至遮蔽了所有的空间；有时候让一群观众占据了一个空间片段。这些观众在一个黑的观看空间中被照亮，就像演员在舞台上被精心设计的灯光所照亮一样。但是，这些观众不呈现清晰的面孔，而是显现模糊的轮廓，他们也有一种特殊的身体姿态，这身体姿态和空间有一种暧昧的谈话。这身体连同整个剧院空间被涂绘成梦幻色彩，它像是来自一个遥远而模糊的记忆，因此它更像是一个不真实的幻觉。实际上，观众席上的所有这一切就如同舞台上的一个戏剧场景一样。此刻，观众席位似乎变成了舞台。这些看戏的观众在某种意义上就像是舞台上的演员一样。如果说，他努力地将戏剧场景和现实场景的界线拆散了，他也努力地将将观众和演员的界线拆散了。他们以看戏的方式在演戏。或者说，他们的表演是以观众的形象出现的。而对于画面前的观众而言，他们就是作为被看的对象而存在的。他们也是画面观众正在观看的演员。在这个意义上，这些观众内在于戏剧，是戏剧的主角。也就是说，他们既像是在戏剧之外也像是在戏剧之内。如果说，观众席被巧妙地改写成舞台的话，他们则是作为演员的观众。这就像阿巴斯的电影《希林公主》那样，一群看电影的人成为电影的主角，而银幕本身则是缺席的。

 

Shi Haitao draws dramas in life and life in dramas, the audience on the stage and the stage filled by the audience, and he also paints actors similar to Marilyn Monroe. He blurred their bodies and faces in his highly fuzzy paintings. He seemed to disintegrate them slowly, but also seemed to give them a hazy halo. Only by careful analysis can their faces be recognized. Why does he use this blurry method to record and inscribe these celebrities? Perhaps these stars are mysterious to the audience. They always show up in mysterious ways, and they are always covered with a halo. Their lives are always exposed infinitely on the one hand, but on the other hand, the more they are exposed, the more mysterious are their lives. The infinite exposure of their lives has made this life itself become dramatic. Instead, their stage images or screen images become their normal images. For celebrities, people cannot distinguish between their stage images and life images. Their realistic images cannot be recognized, or they do not have any real images. Their existence is an imaginary image, a flickering image, an image that needs to be carefully identified but is still vague in the end. A real character becomes a fictional one. In other words, for actors, the boundaries between real images and dramatic images, real life and dramatic life have also fallen apart.

 

石海涛画了生活中的戏剧和戏剧中的生活，画了舞台上的观众和观众填充的舞台，他还画了类似于玛丽莲梦露这样的演员。他把他们高度虚化，模糊了他们的身体和面孔。他既像是对他们进行缓缓地分解，也像是给他们赋予一层朦胧的光晕。只有仔细地辨析才能看出他们的面孔。他为什么要用这种虚化的方式来记录和铭刻这些明星？或许这些明星对观众而言是神秘的，他们总是以神秘的方式现身，他们总是被罩着一层光晕。他们的生活总是一方面被无限地曝光，但另一方面他们越是被曝光，他们的生活反而越是显得神秘。他们的生活因为被无限地曝光反而让这种生活本身变得戏剧化了。他们的舞台形象或者银幕形象反而成为他们的正常生活形象。对于明星而言，人们分不清他们的舞台形象和生活形象。人们看不透他们的真实形象，或者说，他们没有真实形象，他们的存在就是一个虚的形象，一个闪烁的形象，一个需要仔细辨认但最终还是模模糊糊的形象。真实的人物变成了一个虚构的人物。或者说，对于演员而言，真实形象和戏剧形象，真实生活和戏剧生活的界线也分崩离析了。

 

In this regard, Shi Haitao′s work has three levels of dramatic characteristics: let life be full of drama; let the audience become actors; let actors become fictions. It is precisely in this way that he has also destroyed three kinds of boundaries: the boundary between life scenes and theater scenes; the boundary between audience and actors, auditorium and stage; the boundary between the actor’s dramatic life and real life. Here, drama dominates life. More precisely speaking, dramas full of conflicts dominate, immerse and permeate the whole life.

 

就此，石海涛的作品有三重戏剧性：让生活充满戏剧性；让观众成为演员；让演员成为虚构。正是这样，他也拆毁了三种界线:生活场景和戏剧场景的界线；观众和演员，观众席和舞台的界线；演员的戏剧生活和真实生活的界线。在这里，戏剧统治了生活，更准确地说，冲突的戏剧统治、浸入和弥漫了整个生活。