After gaining a lot of experience in society and achieving many successes in the secular sense, Shi Haitao picked up his paintbrushes again in 2014 and became fully committed to artistic creation again, now it is 8 years that he has returned to art creations. Shi Haitao′s “desperate return” to the art field was not a rare occurrence. Many artists who have been living in seclusion for a long time and have accumulated a lot of talent began to emerge in the art world in various forms and have attracted a great deal of attention in recent years, which has become a phenomenon. Shi Haitao is one of the most prominent artists among them.
中间拥有了很多的社会经历，并取得很多世俗意义上的成功，2014年，石海涛重新拿起画笔，绝然地回归艺术创作，迄今为止，已经有8个年头。在最近几年的艺术界，石海涛的这份“绝然”并非只是个例，很多隐逸很久，厚积薄发的艺术家以各种形式出现在艺术界，并受到关注，这已经成为一种现象。石海涛是这种现象中非常突出的艺术家之一。
If compared with other artists who have been engaged in artistic creation, artists like Shi Haitao are different in two aspects: on the one hand, they have more profoundcomprehension in observation and experience of the field they have been engaged in over the past years, or in other words they have a deeper empathy for society; on the other hand, the social resources they have accumulated endow them with more capital and thus enable them to create art in a “purer”state.
与一直从事艺术创作的艺术家来讲，石海涛这类艺术家不同之处有两点：一是他们对以往所从事的领域有更深入的观察和体会，或者说它们对社会更深入的感同身受；二是他们所积累的社会资源，让他们拥有更多的资本，使他们能以更“纯粹”的状态进行艺术创作。
On the basis of these two, their observation perspectives and artistic methods have enabled them to avoid many of the existing creative abuses in the art field. They once looked at the art world as “bystanders,” but when they really entered this field, the previous “deep reefs and dangerous shoals” were actively avoided by them.
在这两者基础上，他们拥有的观察视角、艺术方法使他们避免了很多艺术界既有的创作流弊。此前他们作为“旁观者”审视着艺术界，此时当他们真正进入这个场域的时候，那些既往的“暗礁险滩”已经被他们所主动规避。
While observing Shi Haitao′s artistic creation over the past eight years, there are two aspects that deserve our attention. The first is his perception of the world based on his experience of theatrical and stage design—Truth becomes fiction when the fiction is true, which affects his painting environment; the other is his repainting of “celebrities” by stacking slices.
纵观石海涛这8年的艺术创作，有两个方面值得引起关注。一是他基于戏剧舞美经历对于世界的观感——假作真时真亦假，由此影响了他的画面氛围营造；二是他以切片层叠方式对“名人”的重绘。
- The Permeating Theatre
Shi Haitao has an experience of 14 years in stage design for theatre. In 1987, he was admitted to the Department of Stage Design, Central Academy of Drama. From 1990 through to 2000, he was mainly engaged in contemporary drama creation. He cooperated with directors such as Lin Zhaohua on stage plays and started Beijing Art Performing School and Haomao Troupe. All of these indicate that drama plays an important role in his life. Through Shi Haitao′s work, we can find that, “drama” for him constitutes a filter to examine the world, and the results of his observation are solidified into images through his paintbrushes.
一、剧场弥漫
石海涛有14年的戏剧舞美学习和工作经验，1987年，他考入中央戏剧学院舞美系，1990-2000年，主要从事当代戏剧创作，与林兆华等导演有多部舞台剧合作，并创办北京精艺演艺学校和好猫剧团。由此可见，戏剧在他的人生历程中扮演着重要角色。观看石海涛的作品可知，在石海涛那里，“戏剧”构成了他审视世界的一层滤镜，观察的结果经由他的画笔凝固为画面。
So what are the characteristics of this layer of “filter”? In my opinion, the characteristics are mainly reflected in several aspects: one is the sense of urgency and oppression of the image brought by the focusing method of the stage scene; the other is the pervasiveness of the theater atmosphere—historical and realistic events, drama plots, auditoriums are all included in it.
那么这层“滤镜”的特征是什么呢？在我看来，特征主要有几个方面：一是舞台镜头聚焦方式所带来的画面的紧促感和压迫感；二是剧场氛围的弥漫性——历史和现实事件、戏剧剧情、观众席都被纳入其中。
Shi Haitao deliberately shortens the distance between the characters and the audience in his paintings such as The Light Gradually Rises, Side Light, Modern Drama: My Poor Marat, The Amplification Equipment Was Broken, The Debut, The Rehearsal and so on. It is similar to that of Delacroix′s The Death of Sardanapalus, the audience is drawn into the image, changing from the position of “bystanders” and “examiners” to “witnesses” and “participants.”These scenes and events that have happened and are happening, either real or virtual, all disturb our experience and existing judgments. Shi Haitao does not intend to expose his position here. He just “shows them to you” through paintings, and tries to evoke your memory, encourage you to return to a global historical and realistic context, so as to examine your judgments, and then enable you to reflect on the “foundation” of your judgments—Nationalism, Liberalism, Social Formation, Value Upholding as well as World View.
在《灯光渐起》、《侧光》、《话剧：我可怜的马拉特》、《扩音器坏了》、《首演》、《彩排》等作品中，石海涛有意缩短了画中人物和观众的距离，类似德洛克洛瓦的《萨丹纳帕勒斯之死》，观众被拉入了画面之中，由“旁观者”、“审视者”变为“目睹者”、“参与者”。这些曾经发生和正在发生的，或现实或虚拟的场景和事件，无不搅动着我们的经历和既有的判断。石海涛在这里似乎并不想表态，他只是通过绘画“给你看”，唤起你的记忆，让你自己回到全球的历史和现实语境之中，从而审视你的判断，进而让你反思判断的“立基点”——民族主义、自由主义、社会形态、价值秉持乃至世界观。
As is known to all, the powers of various countries have changed one after another in recent years, as well as intensified competition, a raging epidemic, climatic changes, frequent disasters and other living examples. These all challenge the existing historical narrative and knowledge composition, thus many intellectuals and experts are looking for new value propositions and the effectiveness of theoretical explanations, and even this period is called “a major change unseen in a century.” Changes are eternal, as for Shi Haitao, he uses the focus of the stage scene to present these changes, not only for you to see, but also for you to feel and activate your physical and mental perception.
众所周知，近些年各国力量的此消彼长以及竞争加剧、疫情的肆虐、气候的异变、灾难的频发等活生生的事例，这些正在挑战既有的历史叙事和知识构成，很多知识分子、专家都在寻找新的价值定位以及理论阐释的有效性，乃至这段时期被称为“百年未有之大变局”。变化是永恒的，在石海涛这里，他借助舞台镜头聚焦的方式把这些变化呈现出来，不仅给你看，还让你来感受，激活你的身心感知。
What′s interesting is that Shi Haitao puts“watchers” right in front of you with another series of works themed on “audience” and “auditorium.”These audiences are also placed in the special lighting on the stage and become part of the drama. When confronting these works, the spectators of these paintings might find themselves also“playing in the game.”
有趣的是，石海涛另一批以“观众”、“观众席”为题材的作品又把“看剧人”呈现在你的面前。这些观众也处于特殊的舞台灯光之中，变得好像是戏剧的一部分。面对这些作品，绘画作品的观众发现自己也在“局中戏”。
Either you and I are not only the audience of the previous series of works, but we are also active or passive “participants.” Life is like a play, and play is like life—you and me can be transformed by the special stage lighting so we may become the initiators of the “butterfly effect” at this moment. In front of these small paintings, the unique tremor created by brushstrokes makes the atmosphere of these paintings look completely different from the first series of works. It seems to be full of understanding, forgiveness, and tenderness here, but at the same time it highlights violence, intensification of contradictions, and absurdity of the context.
你我并不仅是前一批作品的观众，而是或主动或被动的“参与者”。人生如戏，戏如人生——被特殊的舞台灯光所幻化的你我，此时都可能成为“蝴蝶效应”的发起者。在这些小型的绘画作品前，特有的笔触制造的震颤感使画面氛围的营造决然不同与第一批作品。这里似乎充满了理解、宽恕、温情，但同时凸显了所处语境的暴力肆虐、矛盾激化、荒诞不经。
- Stacking Slices
In the image era that we live in, images have long become a database of artistic creation. In such a context, what’s important for an artist is not to select the image, but to reflect his unique perspective in reading the image through the method of processing the image, that is to say, not to “reproduce the image” but to “decode the image”, and the method of “deciphering the image” forms the artist’s unique artistic expression, and further releases the information that is not well-known to others.
二、切片层叠
在我们身处的图像时代，图像早已成为艺术创作的资料库。在这样的语境下，艺术家重要的不是选取那个图像，而是通过处理图像的方法体现出自己阅读图像的特有视角，也就是说，不是“再现图像”，而是“破解图像”，而“破解图像”方式形成了艺术家特有的艺术语言，而从释放出图像所没有被人熟知的信息。
Regarding Shi Haitao′s creation, he adopts a unique way of “stacking slices.” Beings similar to the profiles of these familiar “celebrities,” the “contour”-style slices are superimposed on a flat surface during the painting process. There are two painting techniques adopted here, one is flat painting and the other is writing similar to Chinese calligraphy.
具体到石海涛这里，他采用了独特的“切片层叠”的方法。类似在这些我们耳熟能详的“名人”肖像侧面先进行“等高线”式的切片，再在绘画过程中，把这些切片层层叠加在一个平面上。在这里它采用了两种绘画技法，一种是平涂，一种类似中国书法的书写。
In his paintings, many historical figures, political dignitaries, cultural celebrities, fashionable females and classic images in art history are all represented in different forms. Most of these figures are single, but they all have the size of a leader portrait. Some of them have disappeared in the long river of history but still dominate our thoughts. Some of them still command a position in the current reality, but they are broken down and disintegrated in the images.In this process, spectators can get the profiles of them which are different from their previous visual experience.
在他的这些作品中，诸多历史人物、政坛要人、文化名人、时尚名媛以及美术史中的经典形象以不同以往的形式悉数到来。这些人物形象多是单体，但都有领袖像的尺寸，他们有些已经消失在历史的长河中却依旧左右着我们的思想，有些在当下现实中依然挥斥方遒，却在画面中被分解和模糊。在这样的处理中，观众看到了一个个不同以往视觉经验中的他们（她们）。
In contrast with it, Shi Haitao also aims his camera at the corpses of weak lives that had been crushed multiple times. These remains that he photographed at will on the highways are transformed into abstract patterns, as if they become his brushstrokes, the signifier of the language is infinitely floating, and the signified is already empty. When all of the above images are in the same exhibition hall, it reminds people of you, me, and him in the permeating theater, but there is still a magical spotlight focusing on Shi Haitao′s momentary attention, flash, exposure and magnification, which enables everyone who stands in front of the video to examine and communicate with each other.
与此形成对照的是，石海涛的摄像机却对准了被多重碾压的微弱生命尸体。这些他在公路上随意拍摄的生命残骸幻化为抽象图案，仿佛变成石海涛挥动的笔触，语言的能指无限的飘零，所指也早已空空如也。当它们与他们（她们）共处一个展厅的时候，又让人想到弥漫的剧场中的你我他，不过那里还有奇幻的聚光灯，这里只有石海涛一瞬间的关注、闪光、曝光和放大，与走到视频前你我他相互审视和交流。