Xiao Lu: Impossible Dialogue

肖鲁： 语嘿

Xiao Lu’s art provokes a complex range of responses, including about what it means to be
an artist and a woman in China. Her work fearlessly expresses her desire to break through
societal norms and achieve transcendence. Through performance the artist has found her
voice.

肖鲁的艺术引发了一系列复杂的反应，其中包括在中国身为一名艺术家和女性的意义 。
她的作品无畏地表达了她想要突破社会规范并实现超越的愿望。通过行为表演，艺术
家找到了她的声音。

Xiao Lu has staged a powerful series of performance works in recent decades: a mock
wedding/funeral, asked members of the public ‘what is love?’, invited strangers to drink red
wine with her and become so intoxicated that she was taken to hospital, had her head
shaved, sought sperm donors, exposed her mature naked body in an act of purging, doused
herself with a bucket of ink and then water, and inflicted serious bodily harm on herself while
cutting her way out from within a tower of ice. While the artist makes careful preparations,
the final outcome of these events is not known. She welcomes unpredicted spontaneous
occurrences for where they may lead. She works with intuition and feeling and thrives on
nerve. Her work is informed by a raw, disruptive aesthetic that draws on deep emotions,
extreme action and chance.

近几十年来，肖鲁已登台表演了一系列有力度的作品：模拟婚礼/葬礼，向公众提问
“什么是爱情？”，邀请陌生人与她一起共饮红酒，醉生梦死到被人送到医院，剃光
了头发，寻找捐精者，在清洗行动中暴露她那成年人的裸体，给自己浇一桶墨，然后
又是一桶水，在冰塔内刀切出口时，给自己身体造成严重伤害。虽然艺术家做了精心
准备，这些事件最终都是的结局不明。她欢迎不可预知的自发事件顺其自然地发生。
她凭直觉和感觉工作，以精神紧张为乐。她的作品以一种原始的、破坏性的美学为基
础，这种美学吸收了深刻的情感，以及极端的行动和可能性。

When something extraordinary happens how can we know the truth of its happening? What
if an action appears to be the product of a particular zeitgeist and a narrative is created to
make sense of it, but in fact the action is motivated by highly personal impulses that run
counter to the given explanations and exceed interpretation; when action is chosen over
words? What happens when agency is usurped and the action becomes part of a larger,
even heroic narrative that has implications for the writing of history? What happens when the
country is China and the actor is female?

当一些非同寻常的事件发生时，我们怎能知道它发生的真相？如果一个行为似乎是一
个特定时代精神的产物，并创造了一种叙事来让它具有意义，那么实际上，这个行动
是由高度个人化的冲动推动的，这种冲动与既定的解释相违背，并超出了阐释的范围；
什么时候，选择的行动胜过言辞？当动力被剥夺，且行动成为更宏大的、甚至是英雄
叙事的一部分时，这会对历史书写产生什么影响？当这个国家是中国，而故事的主角
是女性时，又会发生什么？
Thirty years ago, on 5 February 1989, Xiao Lu fired a handgun into her art work Dialogue
《对话》in the China/Avant-Garde exhibition, an unprecedented survey of contemporary Chinese art
at Beijing’s National Art Gallery. At the time she was a recent art school graduate. Her installation
comprised two telephone booths - a novelty in China at the time - separated by a central plinth on top
of which was placed a red phone, the hand receiver dangling off the hook, with mirror glass behind.
Photographic images of a man and a woman, their backs to the viewer, could be seen inside the
booths. Xiao Lu’s two gunshots, generally referred to as the ‘Shooting incident 枪击事件’, caused
the temporary closure of the exhibition and resulted in the detention and interrogation of Xiao Lu and
male artist Tang Song, linking him to the action too . A statement explaining that the gunshots were
purely artistic in intent as jointly signed by Tang Song and Xiao Lu, linking Tang Song to the action.
The ‘Shooting incident’ led to Xiao Lu’s flight to Sydney in the aftermath of the student-led protests
at Tiananmen that were brutally suppressed by the Chinese military in June of that year. She was
eventually joined by Tang Song, who was by then her partner, and became an Australian citizen.

三十年前，1989 年 2 月 5 日，在中国现代艺术展中，肖鲁向自己的作品《对话》开了
枪，这是对北京中国美术馆在展的当代中国艺术前所未有的一次考验。当时，她刚从
艺术学院毕业。她的装置包括两个电话亭 —— 在当时的中国算是稀奇玩意儿 ——
中间由一个底座隔开，上面放着一个红色电话，手持话柄悬挂在钩子上，后面有一面
镜子。电话庭里可以看到一男一女的摄影图像，他们背对着观众。肖鲁的两声枪响，
一般被称为“枪击事件”，它导致展览被暂时关闭，肖鲁和男性艺术家唐宋结果也被
拘留审讯，这让唐宋与此有了关系。一份声明解释说道，由唐宋和肖鲁共同签署的枪
击出于纯粹的艺术意图，这又将唐宋与此行动联系在了一起。“枪击事件”使得肖鲁
在学生领导的天安门抗议活动结束后飞往悉尼，该抗议活动于当年 6 月遭到中国军方
的残酷镇压。她最终与当时的伴侣唐宋一起，成为了澳大利亚公民。

Over a decade later, back in Beijing and after separating from Tang Song, Xiao Lu finally
broke her silence and sought to recuperate Dialogue as all her own work, with the act of
shooting the gun an integral element of that installation. This assertion proved difficult for
many in the Beijing art world, including those who linked the shooting to Tang Song, and
attached larger artistic and socio-political meanings to the event. Xiao Lu insisted that the
work came out of complex personal emotions ultimately arising from a much earlier abusive
betrayal of trust. The work was about autobiography, unruly thoughts associated with unruly
actions, and violent retribution in the form of a gun shot at her own image as reflected in the
mirror of the installation. This interpretation came from a deep, dark, personal space that few
could have anticipated. It proved irreconcilable with the significance that had been claimed
for the work by others.

十多年后，肖鲁在与唐宋分开后回到北京，她终于打破了沉默，并试图将《对话》还
原为自己的作品，这包括她的枪击行为，那是该装置必不可少的一部分。对于北京艺
术界的许多人来说，尤其是那些已把枪击与唐宋捆绑在一起的人，这种说法很难被证
明，由此，事件被附加上更大的艺术与社会政治意义。肖鲁坚持认为，这件作品是出
于复杂的个人情绪，最终产生于早先招致谩骂的对信任的辜负。这件作品涉及自传，
与不可控的行为相关的不可控的思想，以及枪击形式的剧烈报复。她对着镜中自己的
投影射击。这种阐释来源于她深刻而幽暗的个人世界，少有人能预料得到。事实证明 ，
不同的人对于作品意义的不同看法，是完全不可调和的。

The drawn out Dialogue affair prompted leading Beijing-based female art critic Xu Hong to
support Xiao Lu’s belated effort to set the record straight regarding the work’s authorship,
citing qualitative differences in Xiao Lu’s and Tang Song’s approaches to art making, among
other factors. While Xu Hong questions the reasons for Xiao Lu’s earlier silence, criticising it
as ‘a kind of acquiescence’, she took aim at the persistent ‘dictatorship of ideology’ in
operation in the art world that devalued the expression of emotion in art. In her 2006 essay
on Xiao Lu and Dialogue, Xu Hong draws attention to the denigration of women’s creative
practice by men who wield power in art world discourse in China, ‘perpetuating the myth of
male greatness and female insignificance’.1

由《对话》牵引出的一系列事件，促使北京知名女性艺评家许虹对肖鲁那迟来的努力
表示支持，并直戳记录在案的署名权问题，还引用了肖鲁和唐宋艺术创作方法的质量
差异，及其它因素。虽然，许虹质疑肖鲁早先沉默的原因，批评它是“一种默许”，
但她瞄准艺术界长此以往的“意识形态专政”，它贬低了艺术中的情感表达。在她
2006 年的关于肖鲁和《对话》的文章中，徐虹提示大家要注意，中国艺术界中掌握话
语权的男性对女性创作实践的诋毁，“以继续从事男性伟大和女性渺小的神话制作”。

Xiao Lu: Impossible Dialogue 肖鲁：语嘿, timed to coincide with the thirtieth anniversary of the
China/ Avant-Garde Exhibition, provides an opportunity for audiences at 4A Centre for
Contemporary Asian Art to reflect on the art of Xiao Lu and her connection with Australia.
The exhibition is the result of collaboration between curators and artists in Australia and
China. The ground floor gallery features a photograph and video footage of Dialogue,
together with images of works by other artists included in the China/ Avant-Garde exhibition,
a striking installation by Wang Youshen (whose work was also included in the show) of
documentary photographs of the exhibition featuring rare images of Xiao Lu and Tang Song,
archival documentation relating to the show and ephemera from Xiao Lu and Tang Song’s
time in Australia. The first floor gallery displays a selection of key artworks and performance
stills by Xiao Lu together with videos of all of her major performance works. 4A is also
presenting a new performance art commission Tides, which is a response by Xiao Lu to her
thirty-year association with Australia and her eight-year period of residence in Sydney
(1989–1997), much of it spent living close to Bondi Beach. This exhibition provides an
important opportunity to acknowledge Xiao Lu’s close association with Sydney and the place
she occupies in both Chinese and Australian art history.

恰逢中国现代艺术展三十周年，我们为 4A 当代亚洲艺术中心的观众提供一个契机，让
大家反思肖鲁的艺术及其与澳大利亚的关系。展览是澳中两国的策展人与艺术家合力
完成的结果。画廊底层展示了《对话》的照片和录像片段，以及中国现代艺术展中其
他艺术家的作品图片。王友身（其作品也包括在展览中）引人注目的装置是对展览的
照片纪录，其中可以看到肖鲁和唐宋的罕见图像，以及有关肖鲁和唐宋在澳大利亚期
间的表演和限期物品的档案文献。画廊一楼展示了肖鲁的一系列主要作品，以及行为
表演与所有主要行为作品的录像。同时，4A 还推出一个全新的委托行为表演《弄潮》，
这是肖鲁对她与澳大利亚的三十年交集的回应，同时也回望她在悉尼居住了八年
（1989-1997）的日子，其中大部分时间都在靠近邦迪海滩的地方。本次展览提供了一
个重要的机缘，以致意肖鲁与悉尼的亲密联系，以及她在中澳艺术史上所占据的位置。

1 1 Xu Hong , “‘She’, ‘They’, ‘He’ – Reflections prompted by Xiao Lu’s Dialogue”, Huakan《画
刊》, January 2006, p.16. 1
《“她”－“他们”－“他”：从肖鲁《对话》引起的思考》载《画刊》2006，1 月，第 16
页。
Claire Roberts
Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Associate Professor of Art History, The
University of Melbourne
罗清奇，澳大利亚研究理事会前程学者，墨尔本大学艺术史副教授。

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Xiao Lu (born 1962, Hangzhou) works with performance and installation. She is a graduate
of the Subsidiary School of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing and Zhejiang Academy
of Fine Arts (China Academy of Art), Hangzhou. Her graduation work Dialogue was included
in the China/Avant-Garde exhibition in Beijing in 1989 and became famous after she fired a
gun at it, which led to her temporary arrest and an extended period of residence in Sydney.
Xiao Lu’s fictional memoir Dialogue 《 对 话 》 , published in Chinese and English in 2010,
exposed powerful forces affecting women artists in contemporary China. Xiao Lu’s work has
been included in important international exhibitions, most recently Performer and Participant,
Tate, London (2018) and Art and China After 1989: Theatre of the World, Guggenheim
Museum, New York (2017), and been collected by public and private institutions including
the Tate, London; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Taikang Insurance Group Art
Collection, Beijing; and White Rabbit Collection, Sydney. Xiao Lu lives and works in Beijing
and Australia.

肖鲁（1962 年生于杭州）从事行为表演和装置艺术。她毕业于北京的中央美术学院附属中学
和杭州的浙江美术学院（中国美术学院）。她的毕业作品《对话》在 1989 年北京的中国现代
艺术展览中展出，她在开枪成名后被临时拘捕，之后长期居住在悉尼。肖鲁的虚构回忆录《对
话》英译版于 2010 年发行，此书揭露了影响当代中国女性艺术家的一股强大力量。肖鲁的作
品已被选入重要的国际展览，近期包括：《表演者与参与者》，泰特，伦敦（ 2018 年）和
《1989 年之后的艺术与中国：世界剧场》，纽约古根海姆博物馆（2017 年）。其作品被公共
和私人机构收藏，包括：伦敦泰特美术馆；纽约现代艺术博物馆；北京泰康保险集团艺术收藏；
以及悉尼白兔收藏。肖鲁在北京和澳大利亚生活和工作。

Curators: Claire Roberts, Mikala Tai, Xu Hong.

Curatorial Assistant: Kelly Doley

PUBLIC PROGRAM

Art and Activism: Changing the Conversation

Sunday 20 January
12.00-1.00pm
Sydney Festival Director Wesley Enoch and Xiao Lu in conversation. Free, book at
4a.com.au

The China/Avant-Garde Exhibition 30 Years On

Friday 1 February
10.00am-5.00pm
Day-long international workshop. Free, book at 4a.com. au

Please Explain: Gender + Art in China

Saturday 2 February
2pm – 3.30pm
Panel discussion featuring Xiao Lu. Free, book at 4a.com.au

Congee Breakfast Tour

Saturday 9 February
10am – 12.30pm
A tour of Xiao Lu: Impossible Dialogue followed by a congee breakfast. $25, book at
4a.com.au
Public programs also taking place interstate: see 4a.com. au

Xiao Lu: Impossible Dialogue is produced and presented by 4A Centre for Contemporary
Asian Art. This exhibition and associated programming are supported by the Australian
Government through the Australia Council for the Arts and the Australia-China Council of the
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Australian Research Council (ARC) Future
Fellowship project led by Dr Claire Roberts ‘Reconfiguring the World: China. Art. Agency.
1900s to Now’ (FT140100743), and the Faculty of Arts, School of Culture and
Communication, The University of Melbourne.

LIST OF WORKS
Ground floor:
1. Xiao Lu
Dialogue《对话》
1989
C-type print on vinyl
documentation of installation, and performance: 11.10 am, 5 February 1989, China/Avant-
Garde exhibition, National Art Gallery, Beijing.
reproduced courtesy Wen Pulin Archive of Chinese Avant-Garde Art and the artist.
打印照片
装置与行为记录：1989 年 2 月 5 日，上午 11 点 10 分，中国现代艺术展，中国美术馆，北京
此为副本，致谢温普林中国前卫艺术档案与艺术家

2. Xiao Lu
Dialogue《对话》
1989
single channel video, 2:04 minutes
documentation of performance: 11.10 am, 5 February 1989, China/ Avant-Garde Exhibition,
National Art Gallery, Beijing
filmed by Wen Pulin. Courtesy Wen Pulin Archive of Chinese Avant- Garde Art and the artist.
单频录像，2 分 04 秒
装置与行为记录：1989 年 2 月 5 日，上午 11 点 10 分，中国现代艺术展，中国美术馆，北京
温普林拍摄，此为副本，致谢温普林中国前卫艺术档案与艺术家

3. China/Avant-Garde exhibition, set of 210 archival slides produced by Fine Arts Magazine,
1991. Courtesy Claire Roberts.
中国现代艺术展，由 Fine Arts Magazine 制作的 210 个档案幻灯片，1991 年。
致谢罗清奇

4. Wang Youshen
China/ Avant-Garde exhibition • Before and after the ‘Shooting Incident’, 《中国现代艺术展• 枪
击事件前后》
1989
25 digital prints, dimensions variable
courtesy Wang Youshen.
数字打印，尺寸可变
致谢王友身

5. China/Avant-Garde exhibition archival materials

courtesy Wang Youshen
中国现代艺术展档案资料
致谢王友身

6. Archival materials relating to Xiao Lu

courtesy Xiao Lu, Claire Roberts, Archibald McKenzie
See wall text and 4a.com.au for a full list of archival materials
关于肖鲁的档案资料
致谢肖鲁、罗清奇与戴文载

First floor:
1. Xiao Lu
15 Gunshots… From 1989 to 2003,《15 枪...从 1989 到 2003》
2003
15 digital prints, framed and then punctured by a bullet
100 x 45 x 15 cm, edition 12/15, printed 2018
photographs by Li Songsong. Courtesy the artist.
打印照片、外框、子弹穿透
100x45x15cm ，第 12 版（共 15 版），2018 年打印
摄影：李松松
致谢艺术家

2. Xiao Lu
Sperm《精子》
2006
C-type print, 120 x 160cm, edition 6/10, printed 2016
documentation of performance: 21-23 May 2006, Long March Project- Yan’an, Kangda
Hotel, Yan’an, China. Courtesy Long March Space and the artist.
打印照片，12x160cm，第 6 版（共 10 版），2016 年打印
行为表演记录：2006 年 5 月 21-23 日，中国延安抗大宾馆“长征计划”
致谢长征空间及艺术家

3. Xiao Lu
One《合一》
2015
C-type print, 120 x 80 cm, edition 1/10, printed 2017
documentation of performance: 5 September 2015, Live Action 10, Valand Academy,
University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
Photographs by Lin Qijian. Courtesy of the artist.
打印照片，120x80cm, 第 1 版（共 10 版），2017 年打印
行为表演记录：2015 年 9 月 5 日，瑞典哥德堡 VALAND 艺术学院
摄影：林启健
致谢艺术家

4. Xiao Lu
One《合一》
2015
single channel video, 3.10 minutes
documentation of performance: 5 September 2015, Live Action 10, Valand Academy,
University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
Filmed by Zhang Zhiqiang, edited by Xiao Lu. Courtesy the artist
单频录像，3 分 10 秒
行为表演记录：2015 年 9 月 5 日，瑞典哥德堡 VALAND 艺术学院
摄影：张志强
致谢艺术家

5. Xiao Lu
Polar《极地》
2016
C-type prints, 80 x 120 cm, editions 1/9 and 5/9, printed 2018
documentation of performance: 23 October 2016, Beijing Live 1, Danish Cultural Center, 798
Arts District, Beijing, China.
Photographs by Yi Zhilei. Courtesy the artist
打印照片，80 x 120 cm，第 1 版（共 9 版）与第 5 版（共 9 版），2018 年打印
行为表演记录：2016 年 10 月 23 日，北京 798 丹麦文化中心
摄影：依子蕾
致谢艺术家

6. Xiao Lu
Polar,《极地》
2016
single channel video, 4.43 minutes.
documentation of performance: 23 October 2016, Beijing Live 1, Danish Cultural Center,
798, Beijing, China.
Filmed by Zhang Zhiqiang and Li Kai, edited by Zhang Li and Xiao Lu courtesy the artist.
单频录像，4 分 43 秒
行为表演记录：2016 年 10 月 23 日，北京 798 丹麦艺术中心
摄像：张志强、李凯
编辑/剪辑：张立、肖鲁
致谢艺术家
7. Xiao Lu
Documentation of performance works: videos and still photographs (2009-2019):
行为表演作品记录：录像与照片（从 2009 年到 2019 年）
Sperm《精子》, 21-13 May 2006
What is Love? 《什么是爱？》, 11 October 2009
Drunk《醉》, 15 October 2009
Wedlock《婚》, 5 February 2009
Bald Girls 《秃头戈女》, 3 March 2012
Purge《清洗》, 31 May 2013
Skin Paper Room 《皮纸间》, 3 November 2013
Money laundering《洗钱》, 27-30 August 2015
People《人》, 19 March 2016
Suspension《悬冰》, 16 February 2017
Holy water《圣水》, 13 May 2017
Coil《纠》, 28 April 2018

8. Xiao Lu
Tides 《弄潮》
2019
performance ephemera from performance: Stanwell Park, Sydney, 18 January 2019.
commissioned by 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art for the exhibition Xiao Lu:
短暂表演：斯坦威尔公园，悉尼，2019 年 1 月 18 日
受 4A 当代亚洲艺术中心展览委托

Impossible Dialogue 肖鲁： 语嘿

Image front: Xiao Lu, One 《合一》, performance, 5 September 2015, Valand Academy,
University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Photograph by Lin Qijian, courtesy Xiao Lu.
封面图片：
肖鲁《合一》，行为表演，2015 年 9 月 5 日，瑞典哥德堡 VALAND 艺术学院
摄影：林启健
致谢艺术家

Xiao Lu: Impossible Dialogue 肖鲁: 语嘿

19 January - 24 March 2019
2019 年 1 月 19 日至 3 月 24 日