By HAI Jie
I talked with ZHANG Wei frequently in recent days. One reason is his work was included in an exhibition curated by me. Another reason is we share a same WeChat group where he occasionally posted some news or stories.
Last year, he took quite some photos during his stay in Beijing. Even I played a few roles who I totally had no idea about whom they were in the tight costumes which almost took my breath away. Certainly, I had no idea either how he would use those pictures in his works and how he would process them.
I didn’t get any follow-up information after he was back to New York. Until the end of 2018, he sent me a couple of unfinished images of the Puppet Archive series. As always, the images are refined, absurd and creepy. Creepiness is a constant mood in his works, like the creepy sickness in his early work Temporary Performers, and the creepy, rigid eyes of the photoshoped politicians, stars and artists in his Artificial Theatre, resembling the ocular prostheses in hollow orbits, though flawlessly mosaiced together by him. This is exactly what he intends to show, and to differentiate his works from the historical records of the same subjects. And, this is what he intends to dissolve, the power, the figure and the composition of power.
Once in an essay, I talked about Wei’s Temporary Performers and Artificial Theatre. I believe that he has realized his dream of working while playing. Playing games is one of his most interested activities. His practice again justified that a person winning a large number of followers with his/her appeal and influence is actually someone made up by ordinary people at their own will. “In fact, the Bruce Lee we saw is not the actual Bruce Lee, but the one made from hundreds of people’s skins. In this way, Wei’s works clearly revealed the inner logic behind the contemporary consumerism: The stars are established by the great public. When we criticize a star, we are criticizing his/her fans’ community. The figures created by Wei are both real and virtual. The figures in front of us are re-made, the borrowed nose, transplanted eyes and implanted hair...In the vast ocean of images, anybody can make fake images into real ones via photoshop, as many historical images were forged. In this sense, Wei’s works are open, and demonstrating the repeated experiments in rebuilding the identities. Stars, as the most shining objects in consumption and production, and the ‘materials’ in the dissimilated process constitute the 2 major pillars in consumption. The stars grabbing the headlines every day share the same feature: They, ‘the spectacular representations of living human beings, project this general banality into images of possible roles. They embody the inaccessible results of social labor by dramatizing the by-products of that labor which are magically projected above it as its ultimate goals: Power and vacations -- the decisionmaking and consumption that are at the beginning and the end of process that is never questioned.’” (Guy Debord)
Exploring the art history and dissecting the reality are what Wei has been doing, and how he became popular among the audiences. His early works are seemingly outshined by his later ones (The Artificial Theatre), such as the earlier Boring Diaries, which put his careless and unguarded portraits taken when chatting or partying with friends (Drunk, slept naked, laughing, acted foolishly or even selfies in bathtub) together with certain scenarios. In an irrational manner, his works expressed a kind of reality-based tiresomeness and absurdity. It perfectly revealed the consistent attitude in his later works: Playfulness.
With his early works, Wei acted playfully to dilute the mental distress in real life, and to describe his own mentality in such a social context. In his Boring Diaries, Wei played the role of a trouble maker. Even in daily life, he is a hard-core game player, indulging in playing the virtual roles at nights. Thus he lives in 2 parallel spaces: The virtual world filled with hilarious violence and the real life with lost identity.
The reality is in his later works, he was exploring the issue of real identity in such a playful spirit.
The Artificial Theater is the work rose him to fame. By the name, the series seems to depict a puppet troupe. But in reality, it is the creator’s solo performance. Again, with the “skins” and “hairs” used in the Temporary Performers, he re-produced a series of stars. Even the individuals providing the components of the stars’ faces cannot identify which pieces in those figures are from them. Maybe what they could feel is somewhat the familiarity. It is their consumption habit that defines the stars’ range and form of activities. As a return, the stars entertain the public in the “theatrical” way. It is exactly the same as I couldn’t find a trace of me myself in his Puppet Archive.
With the artwork, Wei conveyed the logical metaphor of the “production - consumption - production” model, especially the “production - consumption” cycle of identity. With the metaphor, we can see that the weird portraits in the Artificial Theatre demonstrate some features of commodity, or we can feel the material, the post-modern silica gel. The material may easily remind us of plastic surgery or breast implant, or even rumor or scandal, the ingredients enabling the stars’ production. Those undergoing plastic surgeries are not to meet their own needs to be “good looking”, but to meet the public needs. Consequently, “good look” became a system under which everybody seeks for “conformance”. The same is the breast implant. Stars are still stars even with flat chests, but they must be a member of the big-breast group. Like the La Liberty Leading the People , they need to address the balance between the flesh and spirit for the great public.
Wei recovered the production and consumption mechanism with technology.
All in all, Wei has been constantly pushing forward his creations, with the earlier driving the later, and the later laying the foundation of the next narration. The Temporary Performers provided the subject matters for the Artificial Theatre, and the ordinary extras in the Artificial Theatre became stars later on. Though the Puppet Archive didn’t use any of the subject matter of the Artificial Theatre, it inherits the logic of the latter, empowering the stars to watch the puppets.
The new Puppet Archive series partially finished in 2020 has broken the narrow vision of art history, but fixed our eyes on the realistic world. The artist used some unusual materials sourced from the online historical literature, film screenshot, ancient paintings and classical documentary photos. In the form of a puppet troupe, he simulated the figures, events and behaviors, modified the real original prototypes, and destroyed the “rational” visual structures and historical logic. The rigidly-dressed authoritative figures are faced with some anatomical samples of puppets implanted with mechanical organ parts, and paying them with pretentiously serious observation, as if roaming in a puppet museum.
He located those puppets in some certain moments in the narrative files instead of the exhibition halls for those model portraits. In a sense, he has predicted the direction of the game in the very beginning when he set the game scenario (The Temporary Performers). He needs to proceed step by step, following the path that I would describe it as a “Russian doll” pattern. Being packed up one after another, they share the same center and axis.
The Puppet Archive has an even creepier mood, with not only the mechanical parts implanted in the broken bodies, but also the seemingly smiling but actually gloomy eyes of the onlookers, the eyes of the specimens in labs. In the photo of a horn blower surrounded by a group of people, he borrowed the visual structure of 2 pictures: One is a file record taken for the first robot exhibited in the Duetsches Museum on April 30, 1950, in which the “soldier” blows the horn with an automatic bellow; and another is a photo of Adolf Hitler and Paul Joseph Goebbels, the German Propaganda Minister during the war. Wei dissolved all the resources in his work with photoshop, and made them unrecognizable any more.
In our own world, this is the actual situation. The said political allegory is the montage of real life to some extent, like the interconnection between the pandemic and politics, the disease control, the mobility monitoring and the future intensive management.
Interview with ZHANG Wei
HAI Jie: What is in your mind when you started the Puppet Archive?
ZHANG Wei: I shot a number of figures for the creation of the Artificial Theatre. I collaged them and made up a puppet troupe in computer, including stars and political celebrities. I wanted to accommodate the body parts in some seemingly real but fake images, further dramatize them, and create a virtual empire in the Puppet Archive series.
HAI Jie: Did you prepare for that, and what preparations did you make?
ZHANG Wei: I prepared the materials for a couple of years by searching through the internet for historical literature, movie clips, ancient paintings and classical documentary photos. The Puppet Archive is very different from the earlier Artificial Theatre, and I needed to change the scenarios, the dynamic designs, the costumes, the props and the subject matters. After I went to New York in 2018, different races and museums enriched my portrait materials. The ancient, modern, domestic and foreign figures provided me with infinite resources.
HAI Jie: Is your work based on some specific stories? Could you please give us some examples?
ZHANG Wei: Some of my works dynamically combined certain reference images. Like the mechanical doll, I referred to a picture of a nurse examining a polio survivor in Seattle Children’s Hospital in 1950s, and adapted it into an exhibition site where the “Human Resource Dept.” was showing two generations of mechanical children. Some of my works recovered and modified some historical incidents. Like the soldier, I referred to a photo of blood donation in the Red Cross Center during the Korean War in 1951, and adapted it into a posed photo of leaders visiting the scrapped mechanical soldiers. Some combined different scenarios with photos taken later or virtual images. Like the skill demonstration, I pieced more than 3 photos together, and made them into Monroe’s smile embarrassed by her exaggerated replica.
HAI Jie: Compared with the previous Temporary Performers and Artificial Theatre, the new creation seems to tell some stories, why is that?
ZHANG Wei: In the Temporary Performers and Artificial Theatre, I started from exchanging faces, and gradually changed to collaging sense organs. The progressing technologies and diversified materials gave me more freedom in expression and depiction. I tried the settings with multiple figures, transformed, fabricated and reproduced the images familiar to us all, making them more absurd and dramatic.
HAI Jie: Why did you choose such a visual effect?
ZHANG Wei: I wanted to simulate the direct flashing effect of the black-and-white news photography. It enables a stronger sense of liveness, and minimize the artificially refined effect of artwork.
HAI Jie: From the single-image scenario to the multi-image scenario, did you have to spend more time? What was the most difficult part?
ZHANG Wei: Now I only take the local parts of subject matters, and put them into scenarios to create the dynamic interaction. In the beginning, this was as difficult as the figure making for the Artificial Theatre. But gradually it became much simpler after I grasped the tips, and took me much less time. Each time, I faced different problem. Sometimes, there was no material available. I would leave it in the hard disk and wait for the right materials; And sometimes I need to consider the context, identity and scenario again and again. Most of the time was spent on adapting and adjusting the original materials. The difficult part was the figures in the new works were not celebrities as in the previous works. More of them were virtual figures without any indication to their identities, so I needed to properly design their clothing and facial expressions.
HAI Jie: What main thread or logic are you based on in adapting the materials?
ZHANG Wei: In the beginning, I tried to make the original prototypes into high-resolution images, in order to find where I could start to adapt them. Later I manually mosaiced them and digitally synthesized them into collages. To make some ironic and playful images, I nonsensically adapted some original figures, stories and historical backgrounds.
HAI Jie: What did you change in the adaption?
ZHANG Wei: By montage, the virtual scenarios or figures were put together with images from different sources. Sometimes I needed to change the identity of the original figures, or the historical background and narrative structure.
HAI Jie: What meanings do you want to deliver?
ZHANG Wei: In the Puppet Archive, the puppet troupe was created to demonstrate the people, events and behaviors. The original models were changed, and the “rationality” behind them was overthrown. In a messy time and space, the fake literature was forged, and made into the fragment of a pseudo-history, i.e. a political allegory can be a symbol of future.
HAI Jie: It makes me feel that your works are progressively pushed forward, like the Russian dolls. The latter carries on the earlier.
ZHANG Wei: Yes, they are progressive. Each series was inspired by the previous work. The earliest Temporary Performers intended to depict the mental states of Chinese people by that time. The Artificial Theatre compressed hundreds of individual portraits together, and created a specific image symbol. The individual features were assimilated in the group and became unrecognizable. The Puppet Archive alogically elaborated and predicted the power and the people, the past and the present, and implanted the figures created in previous works into the hilarious craziness.
HAI Jie: Do you want to change the structure in your next series, or to further progress even more radically?
ZHANG Wei: I don’t know yet. Maybe I was trapped in my own methods. I cannot imagine what will my future works look like. What I can do is to proceed step by step.
采访/海杰
跟张巍最近沟通比较频繁，一方面是因为我策划的一个展览里有他的作品参展，另一个方面是我们都在一个微信小群，他会不定期的分享一些他听到的事。
他去年就趁着在北京待的一两个月时间，拍摄了大量的素材，我曾经也作为模特穿着紧的让人喘不过气来的制服扮演了一些我不知道是谁的人，当然，具体要用到他的作品里，我更不知道会被处理成什么样子。
回到纽约后，没有作品的后续消息，直到（2018）去年底，他才在某个深夜发来几张未完成的图像残稿给我看，那便是他的新作《人偶档案》，精致、荒诞，又有些令人恐惧，令人恐惧是他作品里常有的气息，比如早期的《临时演员》，那种病态令人恐惧，而《人工剧团》里，那些娱乐、政治艺术艺术史上的明星们虽然被他在ps里拼凑的很逼真，但眼神里透露出的僵硬，也一如既往的令人恐惧，像假眼被安装在暗淡的眼眶里。这是张巍有意要露出的破
我曾经在一篇文章里，写到张巍的《临时演员》和《人工剧团》，我认为张巍通过造人，既实现了玩游戏（玩游戏是他最大的乐趣）也可以做作品的愿望，也通过经历这样的流程，更加明晰了一个拥有大量粉丝，具有不俗号召力和影响力的人，如何由普通人的复数的意志拼凑而成。“事实上，他看到的李小龙，并不是真正的李小龙，而是由几百个人的皮肤凑成的貌似李小龙的人，这个举动使张巍的作品深谙当下消费主义的内在逻辑——明星就是大众来塑造的，我们批评一个明星的时候我们批评的是他背后构成支撑起他的群体。张巍造的这些人既是真实的，又是虚无的。我们面临这些图像的时候，每个人都是经过整容的，鼻子是组合的，眼睛是组合的，头发是植入的……在这个图像海洋中，任何人都可以通过PS达成一件事实，包括历史照片也有大量是造假的，从这个层面来讲，张巍的作品具有开放性。这是他关于身份重构的一次次实验， 明星，作为消费和生产中间最耀眼的一环，他们和异化程序里的‘物’构成了消费的两大支柱。这些媒体里整天报道的明星，具有共同的特征，他们 ‘作为一个活生生的人类存在的景观代表，……他们通过戏剧化表现的社会劳动成果的副产品，体现了常人难以达及的社会劳动的成果，这一社会劳动成果的副产品竟魔法般地将自己置于社会劳动成功之上，并作为它的最终目标：权力和休闲——决策和消费是这一永远不被置疑的过程的主要部分。’（居伊-德波语）”
深入艺术史练习与现实解剖，是艺术家张巍创作的主要面向，也是张巍为观众熟知的路径，而那些早期的作品似乎被后来的作品的光环（以《人工剧团》为主）掩埋，比如身边朋友闲聊和聚会时的不设防（醉酒、裸睡、大笑、扮丑甚至是浴缸里自拍）肖像与某个场景并置的方式的作品《无聊日记》，通过无厘头的方式来释放出一种基于现实的无聊和荒诞性。这恰恰揭示了其后来作品的一贯生产方式：游戏性。
张巍早期的作品，正是以这样的面貌来纾解对于现实生活的苦闷和处于这样的社会语境中自我的精神状况。在《无聊日记》里，张巍展示出自己作为一个麻烦制造者的角色，甚至在现实生活中，他也是一个游戏深度玩家，彻夜的虚拟角色扮演，往往会给他带来两重空间：虚拟世界里暴力的狂欢与现实世界里身份的迷失。
事实证明，他后来的作品正是借助于这种游戏精神来深挖现实层面的身份议题。
使他一举成名的作品就是这个负责“造人”的《人工剧团》系列，从名字上看，更像是一个玩偶戏的团体，但事实只是他一个人的狂欢与演绎。他通过再次启用《临时演员》的“皮肤”和“毛发”来构造一系列明星阵容。在明星的表情中，就连作为大众基础的个体，都未必能寻找到属于自己的身上的那部分到底在哪一块，甚至，他或许只能感受到某种熟悉，是他们的消费习惯划定了明星的活动范围和活动姿势，而反过来，明星又以“戏剧化”的方式使大众感到幸福。就如同我在他的新作《人偶档案》里很难找到我的踪影。
这也是张巍作品之于当下的“生产——消费——生产”模式的内在逻辑隐喻，尤其是关于身份的生产与消费循环。在这个隐喻中，我们能从《人工剧团》里看到那些明星怪异的肖像中释放出某种商品的特性，或者后现代硅胶的材料感。这容易使我们联想到整容、隆胸等行为，甚至是谣言、绯闻等构成的明星生产佐料。整容，不是整容者需要这种“好看”，而是大众需要，所以“好看”形成了体制，成了“顺从物”。隆胸也一样，平胸并不妨碍她们成为明星，但明星需要站在大胸的序列中，像《自由引导人民》那样，为大众解除灵与肉的平衡之困。
张巍正是通过这层技术的流程来还原这种生产和消费机制。
总体来看，张巍正是一层层递进，由前一个作品推动后一个，由后一个作品构成下一个的叙事基底。《临时演员》构成了《人工剧团》的素材，使得《人工剧团》从普通的临时演员变成了明星，而《人偶档案》，虽然没有直接使用《人工剧团》的素材，但从逻辑走向上来看，他赋予了那些明星们以行动的能力，让他们观看玩偶。.
这个在2020年完成了部分作品的系列新作《人偶档案》，跳出了艺术史的狭隘视野，将目光拉回到现实世界，当然，他在作品里调用了许多不常见的来自于网络搜索到的历史文献、电影截图、古代绘画、经典纪实摄影等素材。以玩偶团体的样式来模拟人、事件和行为，篡改原有的现实模型并摧毁其视觉结构和历史逻辑的“合理性”。这些着装死板又一丝不苟的权力性人物面对的似乎都是一些经过改造且内嵌了机械部件内脏的玩偶解剖样本，煞有介事的观摩，如同进入人偶的博物馆。
他脱离了为那些偶像设置的肖像的殿堂，而是进入具有叙事性的档案的瞬间。某种程度上，他从一开始的游戏设定（《临时演员》），就决定了游戏的走向，他必须一步步通关，我把他的作品创作路径成为“俄罗斯套娃式”路径，因为它们一个包裹一个，却拥有一个圆心和主线。
在《人偶档案》里，恐怖的气息愈发浓烈，不仅仅是那些残损的身体里植入的机器部件，而在于那些围观者看似微笑却极为阴森的眼神，那几乎是实验室里面对标本的眼神。在一张一群人围观一个吹喇叭的作品里，他借用了两张照片的视觉结构，一个来自于1950年4月30日的档案照片，是慕尼黑德意志博物馆展出的历史上第一台机器人。里面的“士兵”是用自动风箱吹喇叭的。而另一个来源于阿道夫·希特勒与德国战时宣传部长约瑟夫·戈培尔在一起的照片。只是在张巍这里，这些资源都被ps的高温和图层溶解在他的作品里，难以分辨。
而结合我们自身的状况来说，这情形未尝不是如此，所谓的政治寓言，某种程度上来说，就是现实的蒙太奇。比如疫情与政治的交错，监控病情和人员流动与未来密集管控的提前预演。
对话张巍：
海杰：《人偶档案》是基于什么想法开始创作的？
张巍：在《人工剧团》制作过程中我拍摄了很多的人物素材，用电脑拼贴的方式虚拟了一个类似玩偶的团体，有明星和政治人物等形象。在《人偶档案》系列里我想让这些身体零件寄寓在某一个看似真实的赝品图像里，更加夸大其戏剧成分，并通过这种制造来组成一个虚幻的帝国。
海杰：做了哪些准备工作？
张巍：准备了好几年的资料整理，从网络搜索历史文献、电影片段、古代绘画、经典纪实摄影等素材。《人偶档案》系列和之前的《人工剧团》有很大区别，需要场景、动态设计、服装、各种道具，人物素材也需要更新。2018年我到纽约工作，在纽约有各个种族的人来更新我单一的肖像素材库，也有很多博物馆，千奇百怪，古今中外，成了用之不尽的道具库。
海杰：这些作品都有其特定的故事原型吗？举几个例子。
张巍：一部分有图像动态组合的参考，如机器娃娃，我参照了一张上个世纪50年代美国西雅图儿童医院的护士在检查一名小儿麻痹症的幸存者。我将其改编成了由“人力部”展示的两个不同世代的机器儿童的现场。一部分有对历史事件图像的复原和改造，比如士兵这张，我参照了一张1951年在朝鲜战争红十字中心的献血的图片。我将其改编为宣传领导探望报废的机器士兵的现场摆拍。也有完全不同场景的组合与后期拍摄和虚构形象。如技能展示这张，我组合了三张以上的图片，将其改编成当梦露在博览会上看见自己无比夸张的复制品之后的尴尬微笑。
海杰：跟你之前的作品《临时演员》和《人工剧团》相比，新作似乎有了剧情，为什么？
张巍：之前的作品《临时演员》和《人工剧团》从对脸部互换到用无数五官的拼贴，从技术进步到素材多元帮助我推进更自由、更天马行空的表达起了很大的作用。我试图去尝试多人物场景设置，将熟知图像转化、编造、再生成。使作品更具有荒诞感和剧情化。
海杰：为什么选择这些视觉样式？
张巍：我想模拟黑白新闻摄影闪光灯直闪的效果，这样看上去更具有现场感，也能去除作品化的精致效果。
海杰：从之前制造一个人，到现在制造一个很多人的场景，在时间花费上区别大吗？难度在哪里？
张巍：现在我的素材都是局部拍摄的，我需要把他们放置在一个场景上组成一个互动的动态关系，跟之前刚开始《人工剧团》造人时的费劲程度一样，之后找到方法就简单很多，制作时间也相对缩短不少。每张图片遇到的问题都不一样，有的因为没有素材就先搁置在硬盘里，等有合适的素材在放上去；还有的需要反复推敲前后关系，人物身份，场景的合理性。主要时间花费在了原始资料的改编和调整上，难度在于新的作品中的人物不像之前作品里都是名人，更多的是虚构的普通人物，没有明确的指向性，比如服装、人物表情等都需要很好的把握。
海杰：你改造这些素材的时候，基于什么主线或者逻辑？
张巍：刚开始尝试阶段是通过原有的图像原型进行高像素复原，这个过程是为了找到一个改编的切入点，之后我用了类似手工拼贴的方法，运用数码拼接无缝合成，想制作出具有游戏性和反讽趣味的作品，对原有的人物形象以及剧情的和历史背景进行了无厘头式改造。
海杰：在改造的过程中，你做了哪些转化？
张巍：类似蒙太奇的方式，将一种虚构的场景或人物与来自不同来源的图像并置在作品里，也有对原有人物进行身份调整，打乱其历史背景和故事结构。
海杰：你想释放哪些意义？
张巍：《人偶档案》是由玩偶团体来模拟人、事件和行为，篡改原有的现实模型并摧毁“合理性”，在错乱时空中构成一种虚假的文献。使其成为一部伪历史的碎片，即政治寓言也是未来象征。
海杰：感觉你的作品都是递进，甚至像俄罗斯套娃一样的结构，后一个包裹前一个？
张巍：是递进的关系。每个系列都是受之前作品的启发。早期的《临时演员》主要想表达关于当下中国人的一种精神状态。《人工剧团》是将数百个个体肖像挤压在一起，形成了一个具体的符号化的图像，而个体的个人特征在这个集体的集合中被同化，由此而面目全非。《人偶档案》是对权力与人，历史与当下，做出一个非逻辑的阐述和预言，将之前作品构建出来的这些演员植入这场疯狂大戏之中。
海杰：那么当你遇到下一个系列的作品的时候，是否想过改变这种结构，还是你有更极端的推进？
张巍：还不清楚，我可能已经陷入自己设置的这个方法陷阱里了。我想象不到以后作品会是什么样，只有一步一步慢慢推进。