Gulistan Art 古丽·斯坦

Yang Tiansun

Graceful and gentle, a girl of water with a faint smile, such is the impression that people have of Gulistan’s appearance. However, one can find tenacity and persistence in her eyes. Contradicting beauties harmoniously exist in her while opposing talents are appeased with her elegance. She is full of passion towards life and art, which is revealed in the artist’s elegance of bearing. Such passion even overshadows her figure. The vagueness with profound depth in her paintings can also be found in Gulistan. She possesses a mysterious air. All are transparent when draws close to her and removes the gauze over her soul. Still the enigma is always there. Gulistan is a noble fairy, dancing and walking through her memory and time.

It is stunning how Gulistan imagines space time, makes aftertastes of her dreams and pursues freedom for her mind. Paintings, music, dance and words are the purest expression for her thought. She devotes all her passion in her career. Every observation, quest, struggle and pursuit are all made with fierce emotion. Gulistan’s waving emotion is like a drop of holy moonlight, snow white and motionless, running through the darkness, pouring down and finally reaching the soul silently. Gulistan reveals her deep feeling through painting. As simple as the lines, a profound artistic conception is sketched. As light as the elegant colors, lost thought gains strength. Behind the emotionless expression hides the longing to embrace all that she loves and yearns for. We are unconsciously gripped, attracted and infected by her ravishing paintings. The carefully guarded inner world starts to open until all the old memories are recalled. Familiar figures, past episodes, feelings, all rush out without suppression. With appearances, voices and whispers recalled and strength, essence and soul awakened, we are intoxicated in the boundless temporal space. When the light spirit is ushered to the crossing point of recalling and longing, one feels warm and moved. Such is the passion, pleasure and wisdom that Gulistan brings to us. A magic is pervasive in the misty air, softly floating.

Appreciating Gulistan’s paintings and words is like a meaningful journey in which we move back to the past, re-experiencing the vicissitudes of life, traversing the earthly reality—a spiritual journey to clear away the dirt and lead us to light.

2006 in Shanghai

—Translated by Guo Jian

杨天孙

温婉的气质、恬淡的笑容，像江南的水一般柔美的女子，眼神却透着无比的坚定与执著。这就是Gulistan古丽斯坦。所有相背的美感，都在她的身上得以融合；所有相对的锋芒，都在她的娴雅中得以平息。用这样的话来形容她，真是一点都不为过。一张张清丽的黑白影象中，古丽的神情与姿态是那样的高雅而出尘，从她的气息中，仿佛能望见所有对生命与艺术的挚爱。这股炽热的性情几乎让人淡忘了她的轮廓。一如她的画，朦胧中透着深意，空灵中闪着悠远。这些相悖而又水乳交融的一切，令古丽透着一股神秘。接近她，撩起心灵入口处的薄纱，而后发觉，一切清澈无比，却始终都是一个谜。她是一个高贵的精灵，旋舞于记忆之门，穿行于时光之河。

让人震撼的是古丽对时空的想象、对梦的抚摸以及对心灵自由的追寻。绘画、音乐、舞蹈和文字，都是她内心思索的最纯粹表达。先掏空自己，再纵身投入。所有的观察、探索、思考、挣扎、追随，都是猛烈的、澎湃的。而古丽的灵动心绪，却是那道穿过暗涌的神圣月光，皎洁而安宁，张扬地投射下来，再以静谧的姿态流淌进灵魂。古丽的画作就始终流露着这样一种深邃的情绪。看似闲淡的几笔，勾勒出的是深远的意境；看似素雅的色彩，渲染的是思索时的迷茫幻想；看似平静的表达，背后潜藏的是对所爱所想的拥抱姿态。如此引人入胜的所感所思，让我们的视线情不自禁地被抓取、被吸引、被感染、被锁住。内心刻意紧关的阀门就这样松了又松，直到记忆全然铺展在我们面前。一些身影、一些片段、一些感觉被肆无忌惮而又赤裸裸地拉到了我们的眼前。面容、嗓音、耳语，糊了又糊；力量、本质、灵魂，醒了又醒，我们陶醉于漫无边际的时空之中。当精神之光被引领到记忆与憧憬交叉的路口，感动就在心中温暖地摇晃起来。这是古丽带给我们的激情、愉悦和智慧，更多的温雅和神秘弥散在雾一样的空气里，轻柔地飘浮。

欣赏古丽的画和文字，是一段富有寓意的路途，是时光流转的路途，是记忆闪回的路途，是生命起伏的路途，是穿越人间世俗的路途，也是一条静默而深邃的精神路途。这路途，在庞杂繁芜的世界中，清除尘垢，最终趋向光。

2006年上海

My Impression of Gulistan

He Yan

A hand, a violin, an open book, a dim head portrait, an archaic gown—traces of memories, put against light-yellow dappled grounding, gradually become objects for her meditation.

Symbols and episodes flash in Gulistan’s mind. What, therefore, does she want to express with them? The fact is that all arts are to deliver the artists’ emotion. As for painting, it is probably the way for the artist to grip and prolong the moment when she is inspired and passionate.

An oil painter and poet, Gulistan desires to vividly show her inner world to the public through her various arts.

Gulistan is passionate about music. She has fallen in love with many masters of classical music, such as Haydn and Bach. The unruliness in Jazz is also fascinating to her. All these accord with her nature. Her paintings are tinged with classical elegance and modesty. However, she achieves this with inspirations at will. Lightness and simplicity are sensed in all of Gulistan’s paintings—in The Essence of Memory this is especially the case, in which a dreamy air and exotic feelings permeate.

Born in Xinjiang, a beautiful place at the foot of Tianshan Mountain where dance and music flourish, Gulistan was imbued with a forthright and uninhibited nature. The innate intelligence and beauty within her makes one feel that she is like a well-nourished flower favored by the Creator.

The talents of such an artist are inborn. Gulistan herself is the masterpiece of nature. Sensitive to inner and outer beauty, she is commissioned to express and release such beauty.

In reading her poems, one can feel Gulistan’s cherished dreams, a free soul and persistent pursuit of beauty; while appreciating her paintings, one feels calm. All are so peaceful that the soundless music in the artist’s heart can be heard.

The pursuit of art is endless. The noblest character of artists is but their sincerity to art. Gulistan believes that good art requires a long time, wisdom and passion. I believe that she will devote her whole life to search for the beauty of art and soul. Since style is temporal, the artist will be happy forever with creation.

2006 in Shanghai

—Translated by Guo Jian

何艳

一只手，一把琴，一本掀开的书，一个隐约的头像，一件古代的宽袍……记忆中的印象，落在斑驳的淡黄底色上，再逐渐下沉下沉，直至进入冥想的境界。

借助这些头脑中瞬间闪过的符号与片断，她究竟要表达些什么呢？所有艺术都是情感的外化，绘画就是为了抓住和延长那瞬时的灵感与激情吧！

古丽创作绘画作品，同时还写诗，渴望用不同的艺术形式来更丰满、更立体、更充分地表达自己内心的东西。

她酷爱音乐。既钟情于海顿、巴赫等古典音乐大师，同时又迷恋爵士乐的自由不羁。这些都符合她的天性。在她的画里，既有优雅、质朴的古典韵味，又富含即兴创作的灵感和随意。整体看来，古丽的绘画作品，尤其是”记忆的性质”一组，给人感觉是异常的轻盈、清淡，洋溢着朦胧的梦幻气息以及隐隐约约的异国情怀。

出生在天山脚下美丽的新疆，古丽生的血液里就流淌着少数民族自由奔放的因子。在那片孕育舞蹈音乐和壮美自然的土地上，古丽好比一朵备受造物主恩宠的鲜花，她女性天生的灵气与美感得以完好保存和尽情生长。

艺术家是天生的。古丽本身即是大自然艺术化的杰作。她自己敏感于这种外在与内在的美，因此天生的使命就是努力表达和释放这些美。

读古丽的诗，感受得到她内心的梦幻，灵魂的自由，及对美执著的追求；看她的画，心变得很静很静，静得仿佛能听见画家作画时流淌在她心底的音乐。

追求艺术永无止境，艺术家最可贵的品质就是内心的真诚。古丽说，好的艺术需要时间的沉淀，需要情智的积累。我相信，她将穷一生探索艺术与灵魂的美。风格并不重要，任何风格都是暂时的，能创作才永远快乐。

2006年上海

Yanxue

A fairy roaming in colors, an enchantress able to cast her spell with a painting brush, an artist loyal to her own soul, she is Gulistan. The moment you open her album of paintings, you will be infected by the art, immediately feeling unable to resist the force which is sending you to a magic land.

Unlike so many money-driven artists, Gulistan paints with the most primitive passion, which floats throughout all her works. One can feel a deep spring of life from her paintings, in which no taint of the superficialness of the age is to be found.

I always feel that it is far from enough to just stay at the surface of Gulistan’s paintings. These paintings are endowed with a drop of light, which leads you to the road to the wonderland of soul. But to reach the serene land, you must feel with your soul. Serenity is a feature of her paintings; so is animation. It seems that in her two series Haydn’s Piano and Guli’s Chair and About Time lives a powerful and unconstrained imp, who will take you past the boundary of time and space. With her, you gallop in space time, soaring in the realm of brilliant art, meanwhile feeling the air of freedom on the canvases.

Appreciating her paintings is like attending a rare banquet of life. Indulging in the purity, the elegance, the poetic land and dreamy air, you are in a surging mood, as is the artist. With her works, you can get a chance to talk with anyone and get to know the world from a new perspective.

The one that impressed me most deeply is her painting The Essence of Nature. After regarding the painting, I asked myself: What on earth is the essence of nature? Is it the sculpted time, or those sad or happy symbols in a solitary corner, or the fragmented coming and going of life? Right at this moment, looking at her paintings, I am picking up pieces of interweaving memories. The vestige of life is thus printed. Countless rivers of memories stream past the paintings. It is so moving that I feel myself embraced by an unspoken beauty, filled with marvelous hopes.

Finally, I want to say that such is Gulistan, an elegant but delicate, plain but brilliant artist.

2005 in Beijing

—Translated by Guo Jian

严雪

她，一个游走于色彩中的精灵，一个会用画笔施咒的魔女，一个忠于自己灵魂的画家。翻开她的画册你会当即感到一种奇妙的力量排山倒海地袭来，这种无可匹敌的艺术感染力会将你领入一个神奇的世界。

在现今这个浮华的时代，她的作品却没有过多地沾染浮躁之气，不像有些在名利的夹缝中忘记了自己创作初衷的画家，她的作品处处流露着她对绘画的那份最原始的热情，从她的画中你甚至可以感受到一种生命的律动。

我时常觉得她的画光用眼睛看是远远不够的，她的画中仿佛总有一道光，指引着你去找寻那条通往心灵深处的道路，也唯有真正用心灵去品味方能到达这一专属于心灵的仙境，一片心灵的宁静之地。她的画中有静的一面，亦有动的一面。在她的《海顿的钢琴与古丽的椅子》和《有关时间的作品》系列作品中，仿佛住着一个天马行空的顽童，她将带着你穿越时空的界限，在时间的灰烬中驰骋，带你飞上艺术瑰丽的云端，去呼吸沉淀在画布上的自由的气息。

总觉得坠入她画中世界的这段时间，就像是赴了一场弥足珍贵的生命盛宴。她的画空灵而纯净，笔触飘逸而柔和，既富有诗意又有些谜幻，徜徉其中，使你的心不自觉的就会跟着她的画笔一起澎湃。她的画更像是一种媒介，在画中你可以和任何人对话，你可以从一个全新的视角重新认识这个世界。

她的《记忆的性质》，应该算是给我留下最深印象的一个系列作品了。看过后，我也不禁问自己，到底记忆的性质是什么呢？是被雕刻的时间，还是驻足在角落里的那些或悲伤或快乐的符号，亦或是生命中那些残破而斑驳的过往。此刻，看着她的画，散落的记忆在这一刻凝聚，一个个记忆中的画面也在我的脑海中相互碰撞着，交织着，留下的是一道道生命的痕迹。无数条记忆的河流流过这些画，感动也在这一刻蔓延开来，感觉好像被一种无法言语的美丽包裹着，心中充满童话般美妙的希望。

最后，我要说的是，她就是Gulistan古丽斯坦，一个如她的画一样素雅中不失精致、平淡里突显卓越的女画家。

2005年北京

Gulistan on Music

Besides painting, music is another important part of my life. I indulge myself in many types of music, with Jazz and classical music being my favorites. The latter is the “core” of my inner world. Bach has always been in my favor. Later on, Jacques Loussier played an indispensable role in my career.

Jacques Loussier is a French Jazz pianist. Born in 1934, he received formal education in classical music. In contemporary times, he was the first who played the works of Bach and Debussy in a Jazz style, which makes the “encounter” of classical music and Jazz music possible. Jacques Loussier’s trio playing Bach live from St. Thomas’s Church in Leipzig is my favorite. To Jacques Loussier, who is free in playing classical music and Jazz, there is no difference between the two types of music. It is a coincidence that Jacques Loussier played Bach’s music in a Jazz style in St. Thomas’s Church, where Bach had been the chief inspector of music hundreds of years earlier. It can be viewed as the encounter between Bach, the father of music, and Jacques Loussier, the modern Jazz master. It is said that Jacques Loussier sets free Bach’s notes. As for me, I live with Jacques Loussier’s fast-rhythmic notes. With the notes I sleep, I feel, I compose music. All these bring me to ecstasy. It seems that I was dancing with the eidolons in the universe, sunlight dazzling, music so pure. Such a feeling gives me inspiration for my painting.

Playing Jazz on impulse makes the music perfect. Jazz music is influenced by various types of music, such as classical music, march music, Gospel songs, labor songs, Ragtime, Blues and pop music. Bach’s music has been the source for many Jazz players in each period of Jazz’s development, among whom Jacques Loussier made the best use of it. I hope that Jacques Loussier will take me higher and higher. Being guided by the soul of the pure music, I find a serene nook in the crowded world, where I see more beauty and light. I am absorbed by his fast-rhythmic and powerful notes.

I was told once that listening to Jazz is like feeling an old sofa to recall the old days. I think it is not nostalgia but the judging of one’s whole life. “Long is history, there is no gap between you and it. You can even feel it with your heart, remove the shadow over it. The music played in the old days is reheard…”

Jazz plays a very important role in America. It is an art created collectively. Art is targeted to present something unseen. It enables us to know ourselves in an easy way, for with it, artists express their own emotion, make themselves heard. In addition, art requires more besides individual feelings. It is in constant change, twirling and moving in time and space, seeking light and the meaning behind “plot”. Some “true meaning” and “the world of life” are searched for. Different people have different feelings while listening to Jazz. To me, what I feel most in it is “freedom”. I love freedom and the air over fresh earth.

Listening to Jazz enables us to know individual experiences, from which we see ourselves. When you learn stories about Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington and Billy Holiday, you will believe that Jazz music is a form of celebrating life, human life, and the process of life. It is about sadness and happiness, white and black, man and woman, Old Africa and Old Europe. With freedom as its theme, Jazz is a way to release human feelings. It is a process of creation itself. Creation is a pleasure. With its nature and its mysterious soul, we are solaced. Though man is fettered by time and space, the soul can take off, striving for “time over time”.

Ralph Arison holds that we cannot truly understand Jazz unless we pay attention to the things that run through our life.

At the beginning of the Twenties, Chicago was the center of Jazz music. Louis Armstrong revised the style of Jazz after he joined the Large Jazz Ensemble. Bandsmen gained opportunity to perform individually to show their talents. From the Thirties to Forties, Jazz was in its mature period, which boasted a number of great Jazz musicians, such as Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw and Count Basie.

In the Thirties, swing bands functioned mainly as public dance bands. Jazz was dancing music for most of its history. Swing Jazz might be the most popular type of Jazz music. Accompanying it were a few outstanding bands, such as those led by Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington and Fletcher Henderson.

Louis Armstrong, born on August 4th, 1901 in New Orleans, is an important figure in the history of Jazz music. He is the most preeminent trumpet player, being the first important solo player. He is regarded as God’s gift for the world. Energetic as ever, he made it clear that in the future, Jazz would be improvised music played with rich imagination and passion. “He is Bach and Dante in American music. He combined all in the past to show the road for the development of Jazz,” said Gary Giddins, a famous Jazz critic. His “shouting” in improvised performance was followed, even by Ella Fitzgerald. Another figure worth mentioning is Duke Ellington, the most important composer and conductor in the history of Jazz music. A prolific musician, Ellington also composed for film and musical opera.

Ella Fitzgerald, Billy Holiday and Sarah Vaughan, the queens of Jazz, are my beloveds. “Their voices possess a magic power, able to make my soul fly… The voices form a series of notes, hovering around me. The feelings are unspeakable with paintings and words. You have to feel their voices, searching for the melody of your soul together with them.” The melody of their songs helps me feel the “breathing of my soul”. One can feel the heartbeat in their voices.

I am traveling in the world of painting and music. Tranquil is classical music while free is Jazz. I wish my liberated soul can be freer and freer. Inspiration is aroused by the warmth that I feel while listening to music.

Music is a form of life. All artists strive to pursue the state that is achieved in music. Compared with painting, music is much more intangible. The ardor in me about dancing permeates through my life. Painting is vestige through precipitation. Music, making me thrilled, can only be discussed in music terms. It is only with music that a soul can reach heaven in a second on some special occasion. My inspiration comes from Jazz, such as Bach’s music, my spiritual guide, and Ravel’s piano solos which polish my inspiration. Such feelings help me find the true reason to paint and thus finish the painting smoothly. In the process, fluid feelings are embodied by visible paintings while transient time turns into eternity. Driving by feelings in life, I immerse myself in painting.

—Gulistan
(Translated by Guo Jian)

音乐是除了绘画在我生命中很重要的一部分，我喜欢的音乐类型有很多，一直以来，音乐滋养着我的心，其中爵士乐和古典音乐是我的最爱，古典音乐是我内心的“元音”，因为我忠爱Bach,后来我找到了Jacques Loussier.

Jacques Loussier 是法国爵士钢琴家1934年出生于法国，接受过正统的古典音乐洗礼，他是当代以爵士乐来弹奏 Bach作品的创始人，他以爵士风格弹奏Bach，德彪西等人的名曲，是当代一位专注于古典爵士的钢琴家， 他使得古典音乐的灵魂在爵士乐的脉搏中获得生命力的音乐家， 我最喜欢他在2004年“爵士Bach2004年莱比锡托马斯大教堂现场三重奏，Jacques Loussier Trio Play Bach Live from St. Thomas’s Church, Leipzig. Jacques Loussier 能在古典和爵士之间自由驰骋，对他来说音乐的界限已不复存在。Bach曾经作过莱比锡托马斯大教堂的音乐总监，几百年后的今天在同一个地点有 Jacques Loussier 用另外一种风格去演奏他的音乐。可以说音乐之父Bach遇到了现代爵士Jacques Loussier, 有人说他解放了Bach的音符，我在他急促跳跃的音符中入睡，感觉，构思，喜悦。好像天地间大气的精灵与我共舞飞翔，阳光变的那么的眩目，音乐是那么的纯粹，我的绘画找到了被照亮的线索。

爵士乐是非常强调即兴演奏的音乐，爵士乐受到古典音乐，进行曲，福音歌曲，劳动号子，Ragtime, 布鲁斯及流行音乐的影响，在爵士乐的发展史上，可以发现各时期都有爵士演奏家以Bach音乐为素材来发挥，而Jacques Loussier 达到了顶峰， 一个自由的灵魂所释放出来的气息，与心灵共舞之后的“自由状态”在感动，感性后沉淀下出现的“自由状态”我希望我心灵的自由随着Jacques Loussier 能走的更远， 音乐圣洁的灵魂指引着我的心，让我在喧哗的世界中找到了“安静。”看到了更多的“美丽” 更多的“明亮”把我带进他的音乐，他那急促有力的音符熔化着我的内心。

有人曾经说过：“听爵士乐的感觉就像在抚摸一张老沙发。”我认为 这种心境不是简单的怀旧感，而是对生命历程的审视， 历史悠久，但你和它之间没有距离，你可以用你的内心触摸它，让它变的更加清晰，失去记忆的音乐会向你的心灵内移…

爵士乐在美国占有很重要的地位，爵士乐就是一群人一起来创造了一种艺术。艺术并不是呈现可见的东西，而是把不可见的东西呈现出来，它可以通过一种轻松的方式让我们来了解我们自己，它表达的就是个人的情感，给音乐家自由和力量让他们发出自己的声音，但是要求更多的个人以外的东西积累，它总是处于改变之中，他旋转着，移动着，在时间和空间中运动着，寻找着被照亮的的线索，寻找“情节”背后的蕴涵，在寻找和我们自己的生命息息相关的某种“真谛”“生命的世界”， 每个人听爵士的感受是不同的，我本人感受更多的是“自由”，我爱自由和新鲜土地上的空气。

在爵士乐中你会观察到“经历”你会从这些事情中看到自己，当你去了解到Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, Billy Holiday 的生命故事，你就知道爵士乐庆祝着生命，人类的生命，生命的过程，悲伤和快乐之间，白人和黑人之间，男人和女人之间，老非洲人和老欧洲人之间，爵士乐是关于自由的，他是一种释放的方法，是创作过程的体现。 创作是一种愉悦，它喷发出来支撑着我们的心灵深处，展示着它的面容，它的内在本质，和它神秘的灵魂。人类逃不出时间和空间的限制，但是心灵可以放飞，去寻找“时间之外的时间”。

“有谁又真正懂得爵士呢？，除非我们去花心思在很多事情上我们才会明白，这些事情贯穿着我们的人生。”拉尔夫.阿里尚曾经说。

二十年代初芝加哥是爵士乐的中心，当Louis Armstrong加入了Fletcher Henderson 大爵士乐队时改变了爵士乐的表现方法，并开启了乐手独奏的大门，每一个乐手都在找自我表现的可能。三四十年代，爵士乐处于它的成熟期，涌现出一大批优秀的爵士乐中的重要人物： Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, Count Basie 等等。

三十年代摇摆乐队的重要的功能就是为大众提供跳舞的音乐，爵士乐历史上大多数时候都可以用来伴舞的，在爵士乐中，摇摆乐Swing可能是最欢迎的一种风格，同时这个时期产生了几支非常出色的大乐队，Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Fletcher Henderson 领导的大乐队都是当时最为出色的一些摇摆乐队。

在爵士乐史上 Louis Armstrong是重要的人物，1901年8月4号 生于新奥尔良，是爵士史上最杰出的小号手，是第一个重要的独奏家，有人说他是上帝赐予我们的礼物，他带着情感和信息以及爵士乐，带着他那释放不尽的能量来到这个世界，是为爵士乐指出一个具有高度想象力和饱满热情的即兴演奏的未来的人物。著名评论家Gary Giddins说：“他是美国音乐界的 巴赫， 他是美国音乐界的 但丁， 他是美国音乐界的莎士比亚，他是集合着，他将以前发生的所有事结合起来，然后展示了未来的走向”。他还开创出在即兴演奏中“喊叫”唱法，这在以后成了包括Ella Fitzgerald效仿的对象。另外一个不的不提的人是Duke Ellington,是爵士乐史上最重要的作曲者及指挥，他的一生创作了大量的作品，他也为电影舞台音乐剧作曲。

Ella Fitzgerald, Billy Holiday 和Sarah Vaughan是我忠爱的爵士歌手，被称为爵士乐坛三大天后，她们的声音像具有神奇魔力的磁铁，能让我的心灵放飞…并列在一起形成“音符系列。”环绕着我，我被包容其中，我想用绘画和言语都是无法能表达我的感受的，你需要把你自己放进她们的声音中，去寻找自己灵魂的旋律，跟随她们一起去旅行…在她们的音乐旋律中我能深切的感受到“心灵的呼吸”，在她们的声音中能感到“心跳”。

我游移于绘画，音乐之间，我描绘着那不知疲倦的音乐的心，我在古典音乐中找到了安静，我在爵士乐中找到了自由，我希望心灵的自由能走的更远，音乐温暖着我的心，敏感的琴旋温暖的弹拨着，灵感一片金黄。

音乐的属性是生命 ，关于音乐，所有的艺术都在不断地向着音乐的境界努力，它比绘画更加的难以捉摸。舞蹈的激情是流畅的，这种激情在我的生命中流淌，绘画是留下来得物质，在洗涤和沉淀之后。音乐能震撼我的心灵，音乐只能用音乐的术语来讨论，音乐有它的独特效力，它在某种特定的环境下可以在极其短暂的时间把一个人的灵魂送上天堂。爵士乐是我即兴灵感的来源，巴赫音乐圣洁的灵魂是我的精神路线，拉威尔的钢琴独奏是我灵感的海波变得明亮，我把这些感受采集起来，来完成我的绘画作品，绘画找到了那被照亮的线索-绘画的美丽理由。流动变为凝滞，短暂变为永恒的同时，是一种时间的形态转化为空间的形态，记忆的体验和沉淀领我进入—进入—就形成了画面的氛围。

–古丽斯坦

The Soul Can Take Off—Gulistan talks about painting

by Gong Yunbiao

1

The title of this article is borrowed from a sentence in Gulistan’s poem, “The Shape of My Psyche.” In it, she wrote:

Humans cannot escape from the flower of transmigration
Woven by time and void.
But the soul can take off
Something about time
Something about void
About the void inside the soul of a human
Stay along side by side to construct “a series of musical notes”
Thus initiate the intensive quest of “existence”

That may be true: Art can only transfer the note to the people who are touched by art. Time and space exist and create meanings only for the soul of passion. To Gulistan, paintings and art is a medium to fly her soul.

In Gulistan’s paintings, everything seems disassembled and reassembled with her hand—ray, light and shade, hue, lines, images and composition seem to have no beginnings and endings, only belonging to the soul of time and space which spreads and expands and flies continuously.

2

Descartes said, “I think therefore I am.”

The world is made up of two distinct existences—spiritual and material. People are the subjects who can experience. The world, except the people themselves, is formed by what they observe. Thus, everyone has his own world, and thousands of people have thousands of worlds.

Gulistan has her own world—an elegant world. Excluding everything that is not elegant, the elegant world is the only one left for her.

Succeeding Descartes’ thought, Husserl wrote a book Phenomenology. In his book, he said, “because of my inner thinking about the object, the thought from me comes out, and the objects present different features for the different action put to it. If you could feel it, the object has the feeling; if you are imaginative, the object has the imaginary thought; if you are happy, the object is happy too; if you have the feeling of willingness, the object reveals the same thing.”

Gulistan is in the state being elegant all the time. What she has is elegant.

Having the possession of elegance is a huge fortune for her. If we borrow Descartes’ famous sentence, we can put it like this: Gulistan’s painting is elegant because it is Gulistan’s.

3

The essence of art comes back to the things that eyes can reach which reflects the subject and object of the vision. The essence of art reflects the true world, but this factuality is not the reoccurrence of the object but the expression of the subjects: not stressing the people who live but the world that people inhabit; and the worlds refer to the one that people experience in their mind and the other one outside which exists independently from people’s psychological world.

Gulistan, with the concerned look to life, observes, approaches, catches and discovers the essence of conscious world that inner world can experience. In her works “Transient Silence · Lighted sea”, “The Sun Above the Attic”, “Owls to the Far Away Music”, the piano and high-heeled shoes in “The Feature of Memory” and the body in “The Lost Memory” do not only express what she experiences inside but also the observations she gets from outside. This is the production in which she depicts “the existence” to show the development of time and the spirit of the storage after she refines and creates the meaning from the source material.

There is a sentence that people like to quote from the analysis of Heidegger to Van Gogh’s “Farmer’s Shoes”, namely, “After the existence hidden being lighted, the light which is a beautiful thing has been incorporated into the works. Beauty is a medium and by which the truth is revealed.”

4

Gulistan’s paintings have rhymes.

Reading her paintings is like reading a small poem with meter and rhyme that also contains lots of parallel structures; a poem is filled with pause and transition, and level and oblique. People can read them aloud with rhyme and tone. Her paintings present different shapes, like a harmony and polyphony of a series of notes and rhymes. They push the audience to read them again and again.

In Gulistan’s paintings, there is a violin standing alone, a small open and yellow book, two closed windows, and several people looking emotionless. When all these jump into your eyes, they form into a small poem, just like what Akhmatova wrote:

The clock on the table tells the coming of evening
A blank page is difficult to hold
Sponge tree sends out mild fragrance
A flamingo flies high in the moonlight
Tomorrow seems to have braids
I plait it into the moonlight
I am not blue again, looking outside from the window
At the sea, and sand mound

Poem needs imagination, so does art; but only when art is conveyed into the soul, can imagination be produced.

Wells used to comment on Cézanne: “Cézanne—imagination is the only realism in art. Only in this way can artistic works escape from the copy of nature and become an artistic form.” Cézanne summed up the source of artistic creation into: “We live in the center of the poems.”

Gulistan makes herself live in such a center of life.

5

“The Essence of Memory” is one of the series of works that Gulistan has created in recent years.

People’s consciousness sometimes sleeps in our thinking bank. Although it awaits us to wake it up, it is the only way to recognize Nature. To recover the memory may not be very direct and distinct, but it comes up in a vague inspiration. Obscurity is not a bad thing. Isn’t it a poem itself? It is a beauty, isn’t it?

Gulistan puts obscurity into the poem and experiences the essence of memory. Thus, obscurity is not only a vague thing but full of rich meanings. When I read the painting, I associate it sometimes with dominoes, evoking my imagination and new experience. But is an obscure image what a painter aims to express or avoids to express? Is obscurity the essence of memory or the maze designed for a definite purpose? All the puzzles arouse you to experience, imagine and analyze them again and again.

6

Last August I went to a gallery and saw Gulistan’s paintings on the wall: “The Note of Ground”, “The Music in the Air”, “The Call of the Beauty”, “Oriental Wandering”, and “Grey Scenery · Blues”.

I asked myself: Who are the paintings drawn for?

Perhaps nobody ever asked Gulistan such a question; neither did I.

But in my view, she doesn’t draw for herself or for others, but just does it naturally.

She must know someone will come to see her paintings, but even if she knows it, she may not do it for them. She draws continuously without stopping, not caring who comes or whether people come to see her paintings at all.

Durer said “Art is hidden in Nature”, which refers not only to the Natural world but to the commonality of the world. Nature in one sense refers to spring flowers and autumn moon, summer sun and winter snow; in another sense, it refers to the state in which one does things out of will. Painting can be done naturally following one’s sense. Painting is to painters a normal way of life. Life is a natural and artistic form which can be felt: The true feeling is a natural thing, and natural things can give people a sense of true feeling. Why bother with the question as to whom one paints for?

Bian Zhilin, a modern poet, wrote a small poem entitled “A Piece of Passage”:

You appreciate the scenery on the bridge
Someone looks at you from the buildings
Bright moon decorates your windows
You decorate the dream of others.

Someone takes you who enjoys the scenery as a piece of scenery; that bright moon that decorates your windows becomes a picture to decorate the dreams of others. Everything seems very natural. The role can be exchanged but you are still yourself. Just follow your way of doing things, without caring how others think.

7

The color on the painting is usually the subjective factor that painters express.

Yellow is Gulistan’s favorite color.

There is a question whether Gulistan is influenced by her supervisor, Shangyang, or whether she likes to change the style; apply yellow color and keep it until today. Shangyang used to say: “I choose yellow for its simplicity. The reason for the choice is, to some degree, that simplicity is much higher in quality than a complicated thing.”

I deeply agree with what Shangyang said. However, I can read more surreal secrets and dreams into Gulistan’s yellow color. This is the color she uses to isolate herself from the real world, turning to a subjective world of imagery which indicates the growth of life in a sense.

What is the color of the soul? Gulistan gives the answer as yellow. With the movement of her brushes, she produces more convincing pictures of space, one after another, which are full of animate dreams that wait for people to reveal them.

Someone asked Balthus: “Why do you paint?”

Balthus answered: “I paint as a prayer, because I am a Christian.”

That man asked again: “What is in the eyes of Christians?”

Balthus answered: “Still painting.”

If someone were to ask Gulistan the same question, I believe, her answer must be the same.

—Translated by Guo Jian

龚云表

1

文章的题目就借自Gulistan古丽斯坦的一首诗。诗题《心象》。诗中她写道：

人类逃不出
时间和空间所编织的轮回之花
但是心灵可以放飞
关于时间，关于空间
关于人类的心灵空间
并列在一起形成“音符系列”
然后进行对“存在”的追问
…………

或许就是这样。艺术只对能够在心弦上引起震颤的人传递出音符。时间和空间只为心灵而“存在”，也只因心灵产生意义。于是，对于Gulistan古丽斯坦，绘画，艺术，便只是她心灵的一次又一次的放飞。

在Gulistan古丽斯坦的绘画里，仿佛一切都被分解，而又经她的手被重新组合——光线、明暗、色彩、线条、形象、构图……所有这些似乎都无所谓起始，也无所谓结束，只有属于心灵的时间和空间，在连续不断地流淌和扩展，在不停地放飞。

2

笛卡儿说：“我思故我在。”

世界由两种不同的实体构成——心灵和物质。人是经验的主体。人所在的世界除了自身之外，都是由他自己所观察的物质对象所构成。每个人都有他自己的世界。一千个人有一千个世界。

Gulistan古丽斯坦也有她自己的世界。她的世界是一个优雅的世界。她把一切“不雅”都摒弃在目光之外，剩下的便全是“优雅”。

继承笛卡尔衣钵的胡塞尔写了一部《现象学》。他在书中说：“内在于‘我思’的一种目光朝向客体，此目光从自我中不断涌流，依据不同的行为而具有不同的性质。如果你正在知觉，它是知觉的目光；如果你在虚构，它就是虚构的目光；如果你处于喜欢的情绪中，它就是喜欢的目光；如果你只有意愿，它就是意愿的目光，等等。”

Gulistan古丽斯坦始终让自己处在优雅的情状之中。于是，她所具有的，自然就是优雅的目光。

“优雅”，是Gulistan古丽斯坦所拥有的最大一笔财富。套用笛卡儿那句名言的格式，便是：“Gulistan古丽斯坦画，故优雅在。”

3

艺术的本质，是回到目光所及之处。即回到视觉主体和视觉对象，回到自然的本质，而视觉的焦点则始终指向现实世界的真实性。这种真实性，不是客体的再现，而是主观的表现；不但是“在者”，而且是“存在”。它是一个被内心体验过的世界，同时又确是一个实实在在的外部世界。

Gulistan古丽斯坦用一种对生命的注视方式，去接近、捕捉和发现被内心体验到的纯意识世界中最本质的所在。她的《瞬间宁静·被照亮的海》、《阁楼上的太阳》、《远送音乐的猫头鹰》、《记忆的性质》中的钢琴和高跟鞋、《丢失的记忆》中的人体……无一不是她内心体验和“视觉所及”的体现方式理解的物象。这是一种对物象的“存在方式”的摹写，这种“存在方式”，既有时间的接续，又有精神的蕴藏，更经过她心灵的过滤和提炼。

海德格尔对于凡高的油画《农鞋》的本体论分析中有一段常常被人们引用的文字，不妨让我再来引用一次——因为它对Gulistan古丽斯坦同样适用。海德格尔说：“自我藏匿的存在被照亮，这类光把它的光芒融进作品。被融进作品的光芒就是美的事物。美是一种方式，在其中，真理作为揭示产生了。”

4

Gulistan古丽斯坦的画是押韵的。

看Gulistan古丽斯坦的画，直如在读一首首骈俪排偶、顿挫平仄的小诗，朗朗上口，能够读出节奏和音韵。她的画，形态各异，却分明都是用一串串音符和韵脚构成的和声的复调，使和谐成为可能。它们在观者心中产生回声，激起人们反复吟诵的欲望。

在Gulistan古丽斯坦的画面上，那一把孤独地竖立着的凡陀林，一本打开着的纸页泛黄的小书，两扇被轻轻掩映的窗棂，几个闭着眼睛表情木然的脸庞……这一切都毫无阻隔地映入你的眼帘，但又不仅仅是这一切。悠然间，它们便会在你的心头组合成一首优雅的小诗，如同阿赫马托娃用她特有的纤细敏感的情思写出的诗句：

桌子上挂着晚间的时钟
空白的一页已难以挽回
金合欢发出尼斯的温馨
月色中一只火鸟在高飞
仿佛明天需要绣上辫子
我把发绺紧紧编入夜色
我不再抑郁，凭着窗俯视
大海，眺望着沙质的土坡
…………

诗歌需要想象。艺术同样需要想象。而只有把艺术交给心灵才会产生想象。威尔斯曾这样谈到塞尚：“塞尚——艺术中唯一的现实主义是想象。只有这样，作品才能逃脱对自然的抄袭而成为一种创造。”也因此，塞尚将艺术创作的出发点概括为：“我们生活在一种有形诗歌的核心。”

Gulistan古丽斯坦就始终让自己生活在这样的核心之中。

5

《记忆的性质》是Gulistan古丽斯坦近几年创作的几个系列作品中的一个。

人的意识往往沉睡在记忆的思维库里，尽管有些时候它的甦醒需要人们自身的提炼和引发，但它却是我们认知自然的必然途径。有时或许对于记忆的体验并不是那么直观清晰，有时又会以一种朦胧的灵感形式出现。但是朦胧又有什么不好？朦胧的本身不就是诗？！不就是美？！

Gulistan古丽斯坦将朦胧纳入画面，体验记忆的性质。这种朦胧并不是暧昧，而是耐人寻味的丰富。当我试着让目光进入画面，便发现这种朦胧的意象瞬间变成了我联想的 “多米诺骨牌”，它调动了我的想象，引发了我的体验。但是，这种朦胧的意象，究竟是画面所要表达的，抑或是对“表达”本身的掩饰和回避？究竟是记忆的性质原本就该是朦胧的意象，抑或是有意设置的“迷宫”，不由你不调动你的体验和想象，对它作出一次又一次不同的解读？

由此，我又注意到了Gulistan古丽斯坦在画面上留下的那一片片“空白”。

这些“空白”，为我们提供的依然是一种想象的体验。只是这是一种“别样的体验”。哲学家们将其称为“超验”。正是这种“超验”，让物象的不完善变得完善，不清晰变得清晰。我们看到的是“空白”，又抑或不是无限的可能？！需要的，只是观者对于自身思维意识和想象力的发挥。

6

去年8月的一天，我走进展厅。墙上挂着Gulistan古丽斯坦的绘画作品：《大地的音符》、《空气中的音乐》、《呼唤美丽》、《东方漫游》、《灰紫色的风景·忧郁》……

我心里忽然生出一个问题：这些画为谁而画？

也许从来没有人这样问过Gulistan古丽斯坦。我也并没有真的这样问她。

但我想，这些画，既不是为她自己而画，也不是为别人而画——画是自然涌现的。

Gulistan古丽斯坦当然知道会有人来看她的画。可是，知道有人看，未必就是有意画给别人看。她画画，不停地画画。既然画了，就不在乎别人看。当然，也不在乎别人不看。

丢勒说：“艺术深藏在自然中。”这里所说的“自然”，是“大自然”，也是“如其本然”。是“大自然”的春花秋月，夏日冬雪；也是“如其本然”的自然而然，从心所欲。既然画是“自然涌现”的，那么画画必然成为画家的一种自然的生活方式。而生活既是自然的，又是艺术的，那么便能体味到：真实的才是自然的，自然的才是真切的。又何必在乎自己到底是在为谁画画呢？

现代派诗人卞之琳有一首名为《断章》的小诗：

你站在桥上看风景
看风景人在楼上看你
明月装饰了你的窗子
你装饰了别人的梦

看风景的人被别人当风景看你，明月装饰了你的窗子成为了一幅画，也能连同你和你的窗子一起去装饰别人的梦。一切都是自然而然。角色可以互换，也可以倒置，但是你还是你。无关乎别人，只要顺其自然就好。

7

出现在画面上的色彩，通常只是作为画家心中的一个主观因素而呈显的。

Gulistan古丽斯坦喜欢黄色调。

不知是否受她导师尚扬的影响。尚扬的风格多变，但对黄色调的偏爱却保持至今。尚扬自己也说过：“我很看重用长长光波打动人感官的黄色。于是，我采用了这种较为单纯的黄色调。我偏爱单纯的表现，在某种意义上，单纯比复杂品位更高。”

我深以为然。但是我更在Gulistan古丽斯坦的黄色调中看到了一种超现实的神秘和梦幻。这是她疏离现实世界，转向主观意象，以一种象征性的表述方式喻示生命成长的心灵色彩。

什么是心灵的色彩？Gulistan古丽斯坦有自己的回答。她选择了黄色调，并且随着她笔端的移动作出了令人信服的表达，营造出一个又一个充满生命力的梦幻的神妙的空间，等待着人们去揭开一层又一层面纱。

8

曾经有人问巴尔蒂斯：“你为什么要画画？”

巴尔蒂斯答道：“我的绘画是一种祈祷，因为我是一个信徒。”

那人又问：“那么，祈祷者的视觉表现是什么？”

巴尔蒂斯又答道：“仍然是绘画。”

如果有人同样问Gulistan古丽斯坦，那么我相信，她一定也是这样回答。

—2007年立春于上海