写给当代女艺术家近作邀请展
文/谢海
这次题为当代女艺术家近作邀请展从某种意义上说是大 杂烩般的展览，作者是各路神仙。
之所以把她们聚集在一起显然别有用心：一、在以吸引眼球为能事的当下，女性艺术家显然要比男性艺术家更具备杀伤力；二、这些作者和当代艺术生态的最新发展互为表里，比如这些年美术院校的扩招中女学生比男学生多得多，比如执掌艺术机构的女性越来越多，等等。当然，邀请这些女性艺术家还有一个重要的原因在于：她们大多是我这个忝为艺术总监的朋友，要知道一个定性为全国的展览只有20天的筹备时间，当中还要过年，还要出书，还要前期宣传，不是仗着朋友，硬性摊派，屈打成招，哪有今天展览的事。有一点要说明的是，这个展览就是一个“朋友会”般的展览，不象很多展览多多少少总要有一个明确或者模糊的学术指向性，我更怕这个展览被别人套上“女权主义”之类的帽子，我不仅到现在没弄懂这个词，而且很讨厌“权”这个字。
古代中国的女孩子必做针织洒扫之类的女红，尤其是足不出闺房的大小姐们一针一线写下了他们在闺房内的娇媚和寄托了她们对闺房之外的向往。今天我们所看到的小女子不绣花，她们玩起了艺术，而且“玩大了”——她们生活在各个不同的城市各自用着不同的手法表现着他们对艺术的理解和看法。
这里的她们用艺术表现饮食男女、山山水水和花花草草、表现种种烦恼、种种幻想和种种遭遇，东拉西扯，乱七八糟。她们的作品中很少有大道理、没有阴阳老庄，也没有含沙射影和借古喻今的意思，她们画一个人就是一个人，一座山就是一座山，一朵花就是一朵花，因为她们爱他们（她们）或者它们，她们笔下只有愿望，很少具备引申意义的德性。所以，她们笔下带有女性特有的真水无香，很干净、很光洁。
我这样说，并不是说女性的艺术创作对思想和哲理的深入探究乏可圈点，而是说作为一种性别的分野，女性的艺术家有着她们性别的优势，她们可能更多的愿意关注她们想关注的东西，至于金钱、名利、天下，让那些愿意关注的人关注去吧！
为什么我们的艺术要承载那么多的负重？为什么我们的艺术非要“载道”？我们可以拒绝某种传统，但事实上我们无法拒绝人类的历史和文化，因为你不管是用直觉的、感性的方式来创作的艺术家其实是都生活在历史的一个节点之上的，所以，当代女性艺术家的创作不仅仅是性别自由度的扩展问题，同时意义还在于文化多向度选择中，艺术在薪火相传中的姿态是多元的。
显然，这里所有的艺术家和她们的艺术创作有力地证明了这一点。
茫茫人海中，我们经常和这些女人擦肩而过而无法一睹芳容，现在我们有了这个展览，可以让我们解读一个年轻的女人、一个成熟的女人、一个美丽的女人、一个才气横溢的女人、一个爱打扮的女人、一个素面朝天的女人。她们是一群有趣的女人，因为她们热爱艺术。巴尔扎克在《高老头》中写道，爱情给凄楚的眼睛注入生命，给苍白的面颊抹上红润。我想，艺术赐予女人就有这样动人的力量，让她们因为艺术而更加美丽！
是为序。
2007年2月22日于淮安
（原本这篇序言是我请一位很有才气的小师妹写的，可惜她太忙了。只能由我代劳，有道是一个成功的女人背后有一群热心的男人帮忙，不知道她成功之后会不会记得我。——谢海又及）
True Water has no Flavor (Introduction）
To Modern Female Artists Works Exhibition
By Xie Hai
To some extent, the Modern Female Artists Fine Arts Exhibition will display diverse styles of works by different artists.
The intentions to invite them are:
Female artists will attract more attention than male artists.
These artists and the modern artistic organism are intertwined. More girls are admitted into fine arts colleges and universities than boys, meanwhile more women artists are in charge of artistic organizations. Most important, they are my good friends. And only 20 days is for the preparation of this national exhibition, with the Chinese traditional Spring Festival, book publishing and pre-PR in between, the exhibition is really hard to accomplish. Thus, it is a ‘Friend-Gathering’ exhibition, not like many others with definite or ambiguous academic implications.
I do not like this exhibition to be branded with ‘Feminism’, which, until now, I have not comprehended.
Before, traditional Chinese girls would do the knitting and embroidery. Especially those girls of rich families manifested their idealism with these knitting and embroidery. Nowadays, they undergo the ARTS, and they make it—they express their understanding and viewpoints of arts with diverse methods.
Theirs arts illustrate human needs, desires, the nature, sorrows, fancies and encountering. In their works, there are almost no complicated theories, philosophy, implication and metaphors. They just paint one true man, one natural mountain, or one lovely flower. They really love them, for in their colors, they only embrace expectations, without the moral implications. Thus, they have the true female purity,as clear and smooth as water.
I do not mean to imply that their creation has no mental and philosophical content. Accurately speaking, female artists have their peculiar sexual advantages, by which they will focus more on what they really like, not to mention wealth, fame or the world.
Why are arts bound to be so overloaded? Why are they supposed to be integrated with moral principles? We can decline one tradition, but we cannot reverse the human history and culture. Even your intuitive and sensitive methods and the works are based on historical foundation. Contemporary female artists’ creation is the extension of gender, meanwhile, its value lies in the attitudinal diversity of art transferring in multi-dimension of culture. Their works are evidence.
Before this exhibition, we usually do not have the opportunity to see them in life. In this exhibition, we can appreciate a young lady, a mature lady, a pretty woman, a talented lady, a cosmetics-crazy woman, a simple-faced woman, etc. They are interesting, because they love ARTS. Love will inflow life into the disappointed eyes and make the face scarlet. ARTs can fulfill this to make them more gorgeous!
Huai An February 22,2007
