AN INTERNATIONAL POETRY JOURNAL IN ENGLISH & CHINESE
“Nothing Scares Salt” & Other Images
Painted Papercut Art © Liang Liang
Liang Liang (Pang Xiaoliang), painter, papercut artist, and independent animation director, was born autumn 1985 in Yingkou, a north China port city where the Liao River enters the Bohai (Yellow Sea). At 15 she entered Beijing’s Central Academy of Fine Arts Middle School, after which she graduated from the Beijing Film Academy Animation School. Her work, both papercut and animation, has appeared in numerous exhibitions and galleries in Beijing, Shenzhen, and Los Angeles. She lives in Beijing, where she co-founded the visual art workshop Ji Guang Pian Yu, in reference to the mythical Chinese creature “Auspicious Light”.
良亮人，本名龐曉亮，畫家，剪紙藝人，獨立動畫導演。1985年秋生於遼河入海口小城營口，十五歲求學在北京，今生活於此地有十五載。畢業於中央美術學院附中綜合繪畫系、北京電影學院動畫藝術系。2010年成立視覺藝術工作室「吉光片羽」。
良亮人剪繪及動畫作品近年來在中國北京、深圳、美國洛杉磯等多地參展。
2013年在北京MAS空間辦剪紙個展「滿室MAS·萬聖萬象」。
2014年在北京拙茶室辦剪紙個展「拙子·良辰」。
2015年在北京三色藝辰藝術空間辦剪紙個展「小圓滿」。
Artist’s Statement
My sense of papercut art is that the scissors walk in measured steps, the paper answering as it opens, each engaged in the violence. The act of cutting parts what’s softly offered.
As to the means, one is metal, one fiber. The former are male, with the force of creative destruction; the latter female, its essence equilibrium. However sharp the scissors, however fine the paper, each needs the other to release new shapes, new ideas. This consoles me as I orchestrate such violence on the paper. Before the cut paper is assembled and glued to form the composition, it seems lacerated. But when transfigured as an image that also carries paint, its former silence is broken.
Papercutting traditionally nurtures a process of discovery, guiding artist and viewer on the path from seeing to feeling. For me, making papercut art also leads to a sharper sense of self, a kind of magic loop that also turns outward to others. Its light, humble gestures convey a certain weight.
When asked what use is my art, I sometimes say both positive and negative forces are bearable. Just as some papers can withstand only a spoonful of water, others may hold a bowlful without bursting. I consider how paper is made—the plant fibers broken down, soaked deep, then raised and spread in the sun to dry. Such is an artist’s life—broken down, sunk to one’s inmost depths. But with trust in some sort of fate, the greater motion of the universe fishes you up, stands you in sunlight, forges you solid and strong. It’s then you gain another shape, another life to make new art, or be made into art yourself. That is to say, art rescues.
良亮人藝述
對剪紙創作的體會可以概括成這四句打油詩：「剪刀行數學步伐，紙張回應他詩歌，她和他，一起受折磨。剪紙，暴力奪取，溫柔給予。」就構成「剪刀」和「紙張」這兩件事物的材質來講，一金，一木。 剪刀是陽性的前行，具有破壞力創造力；紙張是陰性的承受，具有圓融性。再好的剪刀和紙張，你不去用，它們之間沒有交互，隱匿的生靈得不到攪動，新的洞見難以誕生。生活中我以尋求某種安慰的心態借用剪刀對紙張施暴，在作品粘貼前，紙張滿目瘡痍，紙張在成為一幅繪畫載體的概念裡被解放了，一種沉寂已久的藝術形式隨之重生——剪紙。
剪紙的歷史蒙養著刀下紙上的「視覺先知」，這古老而質樸的藝術引導他人經由觀看之路踏上體悟之道，由理解他者到理解自身。
我想在這個隱匿的內在大循環中，我的剪紙藝術已經被賦予了使命——潛藏「蝴蝶效應」之重，同時承受微不足道之輕。
常有人問我「你做藝術有什麼用？」
偶爾我回答：「在生活裡無論是正面的影響，還是負面的影響，都是可以承受的，就像我接觸過的紙張。各種各樣的紙張，有些可以承受一勺清水，有些就能承受一碗的清水還不會破。紙張在製作的過程中，本身就是植物的軀體被打散了，沉到水底，再把軀體撈上來，展在太陽下曬著。因此我以為藝術家的生活也是這樣，生活把你打散了，你沉到水底，沉到自己的谷底。然而你相信，相信總有一個命運，總有一個宇宙運行著的大設計會把你撈起來，讓你在太陽下暴曬，舒展、升溫、夯實。然後你又會是一個形狀，又是一個可以去做或被做下一輪藝術的生命。」
偶爾我回答：「藝術可以救命。」
