礼物

银坎保&康靖的对话

银坎保（以下简称银）：aiyo空间力求有品质的展览，了解了你之前的创作，所以这次邀请你做个人项目，空间会尽力支持你完成作品。我们最大限度地尊重艺术家的创作理念，但也想通过沟通增进了解。这次展览的名字《礼物》是怎么考虑的？

康靖（以下简称康）：礼物这个词听着很美好，表达友好、爱什么的。其实这些物和赠予的行为都很复杂。

烽火戏诸侯，周幽王送了好大个礼物；希律王杀圣约翰头做礼物送莎乐美，曹操送空食盒给荀彧意思要他去死。好多关于礼物的变态故事。人很复杂，需求也很复杂。法国有个叫莫斯的人写了本书《礼物》，说在大洋洲和美洲一些土著，有一种仪式：参与者会当众毁掉自己珍贵的东西，把宝贝扔海里，烧房子，杀奴隶。很惨但他们乐此不疲。莫斯认为，在这种表面上非理性行为的背后，有一种带有巫术、宗教和精神力的东西，说是事物中的灵力。

展览现场泥浆飞溅，酒瓶炸裂大家很嗨颇有点这意思。

湿泥揉成泥球变干变硬，高速冲向厚稀泥里，爆开泥花，深陷其中，又吸水变湿软化与稀泥融为一体

就我个人来讲，现实中的问题很多？我也经常困惑，要面对，现在尽量争取点时间做自己想做的，作为送给自己的礼物。

银：怎么想着用弹弓打泥丸的，而且还是打一厚泥板。跟你以前作品有什么联系吗？

康：弹弓其实在古代属“六艺”里射这项技能，是一件高雅和正经的行为，但人不靠谱经常干出荒诞的事儿，这就有意思了。

我一天中会有状态不好的时间段，静不下心来，毛躁。我发现揉泥球能够随即进入平和的状态，想想问题或者发发呆，很舒服。等状态调整好了，开始做事。

现实方面，感觉到好多事是无解的状态。冲突双方会胶着僵持甚至相互吸收转化。湿泥揉成泥球变干变硬，高速冲向厚稀泥里，爆开泥花，深陷其中，又吸水变湿软化与稀泥融为一体。

以前做过捶打金属板的作品，就是这种剧烈冲突下的物态转化很吸引我。

银：展览现场也是一个能量场，大家的加入已经形成整体，aiyo空间成为一件物质的礼物，同时也是能量和概念里的礼物。大家可以带走意识里的礼物。你给大家的礼物其实很丰富。展览还在继续，应该还有新的可能和礼物的出现。接下来你如何推进你的展览？

康：其实整个展览由两部分组成，外间是aiyo空间常规展览空焊点会高温流淌所以等它凉了才能接着焊那个点，只好焊它旁边的点，顺着焊自然就出来这个型了

间，里面隔了一个算是仓储间，我请工人将铁架子焊在里面，支出一根钢管洞穿隔墙支撑泥板。展览现场大家在外面打弹弓射泥板，同时里面门缝里不时透出闪光，因为在里面工人师傅不停地用焊条在支撑铁架上焊一个造型，算是一体两面。我们之前没有规定什么造型，工人自己决定。我只是想焊接技术那么好的一个人，用他擅长的技术做一个他也没做过的东西出来，会不会是我们之间的一次互赠行为。后来，他焊的造型蛮好。问他为什么焊成这样，他说焊点会高温流淌所以等它凉了才能接着焊那个点，只好焊它旁边的点，顺着焊自然就出来这个型了。

另外，整个大泥盘中间部分是一个陶瓷花盆装的泥。现场谁打中谁可以带走，作为礼物，当然也可以留下。启动当天现场人太多，泥丸横飞，没法弄，接下来的展期时间可以单约来打。

 
Interview of Kang Jing by Yin Kanbao

Yin Kangbao (“Yin” for short hereafter): To present exhibitions of best quality is the motto of Aiyo Space. Having reviewed your previous artworks, we decided to invite you to curate this exhibition. We respect the artistic conceptions of artists to the greatest extent and will offer you our best support to complete your artworks for this exhibition. But before that we have to enhance our mutual understanding. First, why did you name this exhibition “Present”?

Kang Jing (“Kang” for short hereafter): Because the word “present” sounds beautiful, conveying friendship and love. As a matter of fact, the present itself and the behavior of giving presents are complicated.

There are many twisted stories about giving gifts in the history of both China and some western countries. Emperor Youwang of China’s Zhou Dynasty (1046-249 BC) ordered to light the beacon fires, an alarm of invasion of enemies, to trick the armies of his vassal states to come to defend the capital as a present to please his favorite concubine who seldom smiles. Cao Cao, emperor of State Wei during China’s Three Kingdoms Period (220-280) gave an empty food case to Xun Huo, one of his ministers, suggesting that the latter should commit suicide. King Herod killed John the Baptist and offered his head as a present to his daughter Salome. Human beings are complicated, so are their needs.

The Gift, a short book by the French sociologist Marcel Mauss, describes a tribe ritual of destroying treasures, such as throwing something valuable into the ocean, setting the house on fire, killing the slaves, in some aboriginal groups of Oceania and America. The people there enjoy such rituals although the scenes are cruel. Mauss believed that there was a spirituality, or something related to witchcraft, religion or spirit behind such rituals. The same understanding can be applied to my exhibition where visitors are high spirited although mud splashes and wine bottles crack in the scene.

As far as I am concerned, I feel confused sometimes because life is complicated. But still, I have to face it. What I want to do now is to create something based on my own will and offer them to myself as gifts.  

Yin: How did you come up with the idea of firing mud pellets with a slingshot against a thick mud wall? Is it connected to your previous works?

Kang: In fact, slingshotting belonged to archery, one of the six classical arts, in ancient China. It was an elegant activity in ancient times. It is just the later generations who turned it into a casual or even childish act.

Sometimes at work, I would feel restless and edgy. But I found that kneading mud balls helps to calm myself, allowing me to think or daze. I will resume my work after I gain a peaceful mood.

In real life, I feel that many issues have no solutions. The rivals of a conflict would usually refuse to give in at first, fall into stalemate, or even transform between each other in intense circumstances. It is the transformation between matters in intense conflicts that attracts me. The dried mud balls, when fired against and stuck in the mud walls, would be melted and turn into slurry again. I witnessed the same transformation before when I practiced forging metal boards.

Yin: With more and more visitors coming, the exhibition itself can be seen as an energy field. You’ve actually given visitors diverse gifts. Aiyo Space itself is a physical gift, meanwhile, it can be seen as an energy-wise and conceptual gift, which the visitors are able to bring home. The exhibition is still going on, and I believe we can expect more gifts. What’s your plan for the next phase of the exhibition?

Kang: The exhibition space is in fact composed of two parts, the regular display hall of Aiyo Space and the stockroom behind the hall. I asked an electric welder to build a steel scaffold in the stockroom, attached to which there is an extended steel pipe piercing the wall to back up the mud wall. Artistic creation is happening on both the two sides of the mud wall when visitors are slingshotting mud balls against the mud wall and meanwhile the welder is creating a piece of art with his welding technique. The welder had full control over the shape of his work. I saw this as a gift-exchanging act to allow a welder with such good technique to create something he had never done before totally based on his own ideas. The shape of the welded piece turned out to be quite satisfactory to me. When I asked why he chose such a shape, he explained that the steel on the welding spot would melt and flow due to the heat, so he had to work on one spot for a while, then move to the spot next to it and returned to the original one after it cooled. This is how the final shape camp up.

In the middle of the mud wall there is a ceramic vase. My original design was that whoever hit the vase can take it. But there were so many participants on the opening day that we could not decide who actually hit the vase. Those who are interested can make an appointment to slingshot alone in the following days of the exhibition.