一直关心你的情况，知你仍在致力于现代艺术的思考和创作。你的方案很有意思，很机智，我想大概国内目前很少人在思考这些问题了。“衣服穿人”是个悖论，恰恰是现实和人类思维更是道德思维的一种悖论。原罪是思维的悖论，是东西方道德思维区别的分水岭，也可以是对人性认识的根本原则区别。
我想“骨灰盒系列”是件极好的作品。（摘自《高名潞的信》1993）
2. 我一直为刘向东的艺术理想和多年来默默勤奋工作所感动。向东是福建最早的前卫群体的参与者和组织者，于1985年初组织了“福建m现代艺术研究会”和《闽沪青年美展》等。在中国当代艺术创作中，刘向东可以说是少数最早能够娴熟地运用现成品作装置作品的艺术家之一。早在1985年他就开始创作此类作品,1989年参加了《中国现代艺术展》，展出了他的《哲学手稿》和“纽式系列”。1998年，刘向东参加了我组织的Inside Out的展览，展出了他的小型装置和观念艺术作品《艺术法庭——威尼斯双年展没有中国馆》（1994）。一个鸟笼子贴上了“艺术法庭——威尼斯双年展没有中国馆”和“艺术法庭”的标签。这可能是中国前卫艺术中最早对艺术“体制”化和后殖民现象提出质疑的艺术作品。刘向东多年来用身边随手拈来的生活用品创作了大量的小型观念艺术作品。这些作品在中国当下艺术已经全面被市场化和体制化的情境中具有特殊的意义。首先，这些作品是他对身边社会的变化有感而发的批判声音，不是个人感情的私密性表现。其次，这些作品不是为某个展览甚至都不是为展出而制作的，而大多是向东在基督教信仰和诗歌创作的同时，在电影理论研究与教学之余的即兴之作，只为表达自己对社会和文化的看法，不带任何功利目的。再次，这些作品自然地成为向东日常生活的一部分，是他对生活和社会的思考的日常记录。从当代艺术史的角度看，所有这些，其实都是西方1960 年代的早期观念艺术所追求过的，但是在后来又不得不在强大的体制面前放弃；同时也是1980年代的中国前卫艺术运动所追求的理想，即艺术是生活、社会和人文思想的物化结晶，而不是商业产品。就作品论作品不能说明刘向东的创作意义，关键是他能够安静地呆在远离“当代艺术中心”的边缘地区——泉州，创作这些似乎与时尚毫不相关的作品。作品的功能似乎更多的是与艺术家的日常思考对话，而不是和艺术机构、策划人及画商对话。这点又很像传统文人的超脱境界。我想，倘若有众多的象刘向东这样的“退修”型的艺术家，当代艺术的景观可能会是另一番样子。（摘自高名潞《21世纪的“业余”和“边缘”的叛逆意义》2005）
3.诗好，主要是“现行诗”十首好，比其他时间读过的好，比“病理诗”等都好，尤其10-○1○2○6几首好。要谈的是“手稿之四”：“关于纽式的含义”是我欣赏的定义，接下来的“现行”释义也符合逻辑。我认肯的是，纽式是事物表里的转折点，是各种关系的表现形式，“纽式艺术”永远处于艺术和艺术之外的各种关系的矛盾运动过程之中。“纽式”是有意味的，你实际已隐约捕捉到这个处于临界点或本身就隐藏在临界的幽灵。它好象是中国文化古老传统的另一种显现（传统文化讲两极，讲两极之关系，但还未涉及临界这块看去几乎处于思考真空的境地），但又具有西方现代思维的性质，即不把它当成虚无，而把它当成实在。我对此未及深入思考，但已感到这是一个可以徘徊于思维更可以显现为各种物态的诱发点。我希望你再深入一些，明确一些，主要是打通视觉造型的思路。我甚至感到“纽式”不是一种符号的灵巧运用，它只提供一种创作思维，表现为你把握自如创作的一种辩护。（摘自《范迪安的信》1988）
4.……在这一点上，又让人想到刘向东数年前的“衣服穿人”的奇想和作品的实现。自然，刘向东的命题似乎并不是这种“形式主义”或自律的“艺术本体”问题，而应该说是来自于一种对日常生活的荒谬感的发掘。但这里存在一些可比的地方：首先是一种面对日常生活物品或情景的机智和把“日常生活物品”转换成为艺术或超然的精神性载体的决定和策略；而更加直接的是，他们都发掘了极少被艺术家所注意的，却又最为普遍地存在于日常生活当中的衣服，使之成为他们各自的艺术理想观念的恰当的表达者。Wurm要表达的是一种对艺术的条件的新的可能的解释；刘向东要表达的是他对世界存在于关系或世界即关系（纽式）的命题的信奉。Wurm的作品并没有刘向东的那种荒谬：他只希望构造新的关系，而刘向东的关系的荒谬性则来自于他对人的生存状态的荒谬性的关注，他的根本意图不在于制造新关系，而在于揭示既存关系的价值和形式上的意义。关系即荒谬，人的处境是荒谬的——这表明了对一种关系或某一种信念，刘向东的批判性思维。这种联系和区别极为重要，它们透露着两位艺术家所处环境的不同，实际上所关心的问题的不同。把他们放在一起，我们可以看到，同一“表面”是如何同样有价值而内在含义又截然不同的。（摘自侯瀚如《ERWIN WURM 对刘向东 》1991）
5.福建画家刘向东送给我一件他的“作品”，一张复印的佰圆人民币，上面写着一行小字“纪念85运动十周年”。这确实是一个有着象征意义的行为，如果85运动代表了一种精神价值的话，这个行为就至少包含了两层含义：或者是对这种精神价值本身的调侃，或者只是陈述了一个事实。我认为后者的可能性更大，调侃是没有意义的，虽然它可以代表一种个人的观点，因为85运动从来就没有得到过全盘的肯定，对它的谩骂和诋毁从来就没有停止过，更何况无足轻重的调侃。
那么，刘向东陈述了一个什么样的事实呢？究意是精神转换成了商品，还是我们由一个精神的时代进入了一个商品（市场）的时代呢？他可能更关注的是前者，即在商品时代的条件下一种精神价值的失落，85运动的精神已不复在，当年那些叱咤风云的人物现在可能正以种种方式获得经济上的利益，当时为之奋斗的目标现在已变成一种商业行为。这种观点可能代表了一种残酷的现实，不仅是艺术品本身早已作为商品在迎合着港台和欧美商人的需要，而且即使是作为行为的前卫艺术也笼罩在金钱的阴影之下。（摘自易英《前卫话语与商业社会》1995）
The Saying of Celebrities
1,Though I haven`t done a carefully observation, I believe that there is an extending space. Existence and nothingness are the topic of natural philosophy and life philosophy. Your works are very detached, and full of philosophy, art, nature that makes them pure. There is always including the allusion of life.
(Excerpt from The Letter from Gao Minglu written in 1990)
I have been concerned about you from then on, and recognized that you are still concentrate on modern art. Your plan is very interesting, very tactful, may be few local artists can considering these problems currently. Though “clothes wear persons" is a antinomy, but as the morals thinking, the reality and the human thinking is very the worse antinomy. Sin is the antinomy for thinking, is the watershed between the east and the west morals thinking, and it is also the basic principle difference between the different opinions on the humanity.
I think the series of “Cinerary Box” is a really excellent work. (Excerpt from The Letter from Gao Minglu written in 1993)
2,I have been touched by Liu Xiangdong`s ideal and silent diligence on art. Xiangdong was the participant and organizer of the earliest vanguard group in Fujian. He organized the Fujian M Modern Art Organization and Fujian and Shanghai Young Artists Exhibition and such on in beginning of 1985.In the Chinese contemporary art creations, as early as 1985, Liu can be treated as one of the earliest artists whom can make ready-made device-setting works with unerring skill. He took part in Chinese Modern Art Exhibition in 1989, and then displayed his Philosophy Manuscript and Buttoning Formula work series. In 1998, he participated in Inside Out exhibition organized by me. On the exhibition, he displayed his micro-installation and concept work Art Court, There Has No Chinese Department in the Biannual Venice Exhibition (1994) which posted these words on a birdcage. Maybe it was the earliest vanguard work that queries the trend of art being system and post-colonized.
Liu Xiangdong has created a large number of micro-concept works by the daily life articles in the last years. These works have special meaning in the contemporary context which is completely an important part of the market and system.
First, all these works are his sound that criticizes the change happened around himself, but not the expression of his secret feelings. Second, all these works are made neither for any exhibition nor for displaying. Most of them are the improvisation at the spare time after movie theory researching, educating, and meanwhile, he believes in Christianity and is interested in writing poetry. He does these works only for expressing his opinions to the social; there is none utility in his work. Again, these works become one part of his daily life naturally, and record his daily life and daily thinking about the social. See from the contemporary art history, his work method had once been pursued by the concept art happened at earlier 1960 in western, and then been given up because of the force from the strong system. However, in 1980s, the method was chosen by Chinese vanguard art movement, and been treated as the ideal of art meat that art is the material quintessence of life, social, and humanism, but not goods. As far as the works themselves are concerned, it can not show the meaning of Liu`s work while he doing this keep silent in Quanzhou beyond the center of contemporary art, so his works seem to be not fashion at all. His works try to dialogue with his daily thinking, but not with the art setup, curator, and merchant. It is as unconventional as the traditional scholar. I think, if there are more artists as the same as Liu Xiangdong who is “withdrawing for striving”, there may be another scene of contemporary art.
(Excerpt from Gao Minglu The Rebellious Meaning of “Amateur” and “Border” written in 2005)
3, This ten poems in the collection of Current Poems are very nice, better then the poems I once read, and also better than the Clinical Poem. Now, I am going to talk about the No.4 Script. I appreciate the definition of “buttoning formula” when I had read his About the Implication of Buttoning Formula, and in this poem, he also does a logical explanation for “current”. I approve that “buttoning formula” is the hinge between outside and inside, and is the form of every relation`s expression, such as “buttoning formula art” is in the paradoxical movement happens between art and non-art forever. “Buttoning formula” is significant, because it likes a ghost being at the position of transition or hiding in the transition field. It likes another appearance of traditional Chinese culture which researches the bipolar relationship but has not referred to the transition field that never cares about thinking, but at the same time, it expressing the character of western modern thought, so we can treat it as reality but not nihility. Though I haven’t done a further thinking about it, I have already felt that it can bring out our thinking by many forms.
I hope you do a further thinking and open your idea on vision formatting. I even feel that “buttoning formula” is not the smart operation on symbol, but is the defence for your casual creation for it supporting you some inspiration.
(Excerpt from The Letter from Fan Di`an written in 1988)
4, ……on this view, it let me remember Liu`s strange idea of “clothes wear persons”. Of course, Liu`s proposition is not about “formalism” or “art-in-itself” but about the absurd daily life. Both of them are full of resource on changing the daily things are compared to be “clothes” to be art carriers and speakers of their art ideal. Wurm is going to explaining the possibility of the changing, and Liu is going to expressing his belief on “buttoning formula”. Wurm`s work is not as absurd as Liu`s, because he just want to building a new relation, but Liu want to explore the value and meaning of the relation. Liu thinks that relation is absurdness, which means that people live in absurdness, this is his critical logic and faith. The difference between the two artists is very important because it encloses the different circumstances and what they are thinking between them. Put the two men together, we can find that the same valued appearances do not mean the same implication.
(Excerpt from Hou Hanru ERWIN WURM FACING LIU XIANGDONG written in 1991)
5, Liu Xiagdong who is a painter from Fujian sent me a piece of his “work”: a piece of reproduced 100RMB on which written the words “Celebrate `85 New Wave 10 Anniversaries”. This action was really a symbol, if the `85 New Wave representing a ideological value, had at least two implications: perhaps scoffed the ideological itself, perhaps declared a fact. I approve the latter, because scoff is nonsense, though it can represent one personal viewpoint. Much less the little importance scoff, the abuse and slander to the `85 New Wave have never been stop, meanwhile, the `85 New Wave has never been total confirmed.
Then, what fact did Liu declare? Had the spirit changed into goods or had we entered a market age from spirit age? Maybe he followed interested in the former that spirit value had lost in the market age. The spirit of `85 New Wave had already vanished, meanwhile, those pioneers of the wave tried their best to gain the economic profit, the goal of the wave had been treated as a commercial action instead. Probable, this viewpoint show a cool reality that not only the art has become goods play to the merchant from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Europe and America, but also the vanguard art as a action has enveloped by money.
(Excerpt from Yi Ying Vanguard Utterance and Commercial Social written in 1995)
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