Zhang Xiaoli China, b. 1989
Notes on Painting the Yuntai Mountain 画云台山记 , 2025
Ink and color on paper, handscroll 水墨设色纸本, 手卷
This work begins with Notes on Painting the Yuntai Mountain , a fourth-century text attributed to Gu Kaizhi, where landscape is not depicted but written. Mountains rise, rocks gather, and...
This work begins with Notes on Painting the Yuntai Mountain , a fourth-century text attributed to Gu Kaizhi, where landscape is not depicted but written. Mountains rise, rocks gather, and figures take their place through a sequence of instructions—a script for the formation of space .
Zhang Xiaoli translates this linear narration into the unfolding structure of a handscroll. The image opens gradually, guiding the viewer, like a traveller, through a landscape in motion. Forms are not observed but called forth from language, while mineral pigments follow the text’s prescriptions, as if the painting were being carried out rather than composed.
Within the exhibition’s theatrical framework, the work moves between script and scene. The landscape does not settle into a fixed image, but remains in the act of becoming—each passage a continuation, each viewing a quiet rehearsal.
这件作品始于一段文字。在相传为顾恺之所作的《画云台山记》中,山水并非被描绘,而是被书写:山势起伏,岩石聚散,人物依次出现,如同世界在语言中被逐步铺展 。
张小黎将这一线性的叙述转化为可行走的空间。与过往艺术家或艺术史研究者常以大幅画面统摄全局不同,张小黎选择手卷徐徐展开,是因为她认为这种形式更贴合文字阅读中线性、次第发生的时空体验,让画面如同阅读一般,在时间与空间之间同时展开又收束。观者以“旅者”的身份进入其间,行走于若即若离的山峦之间——形象仿佛在生成,又仿佛正在消散。这里的山水不源于观看,而是由语言召唤而来;设色亦随文本而行,使绘画更像一次执行,而非构思。
置于展览的“剧场”之中,这件作品游移于“脚本”与“场景”之间。它并不指向一个完成的图像,而是一段持续生成的过程——在显现与流转之间,悄然延续。
Zhang Xiaoli translates this linear narration into the unfolding structure of a handscroll. The image opens gradually, guiding the viewer, like a traveller, through a landscape in motion. Forms are not observed but called forth from language, while mineral pigments follow the text’s prescriptions, as if the painting were being carried out rather than composed.
Within the exhibition’s theatrical framework, the work moves between script and scene. The landscape does not settle into a fixed image, but remains in the act of becoming—each passage a continuation, each viewing a quiet rehearsal.
这件作品始于一段文字。在相传为顾恺之所作的《画云台山记》中,山水并非被描绘,而是被书写:山势起伏,岩石聚散,人物依次出现,如同世界在语言中被逐步铺展 。
张小黎将这一线性的叙述转化为可行走的空间。与过往艺术家或艺术史研究者常以大幅画面统摄全局不同,张小黎选择手卷徐徐展开,是因为她认为这种形式更贴合文字阅读中线性、次第发生的时空体验,让画面如同阅读一般,在时间与空间之间同时展开又收束。观者以“旅者”的身份进入其间,行走于若即若离的山峦之间——形象仿佛在生成,又仿佛正在消散。这里的山水不源于观看,而是由语言召唤而来;设色亦随文本而行,使绘画更像一次执行,而非构思。
置于展览的“剧场”之中,这件作品游移于“脚本”与“场景”之间。它并不指向一个完成的图像,而是一段持续生成的过程——在显现与流转之间,悄然延续。
