诗是黏稠之物，是我引用诗人丁成的一首诗的名字，因为 对于诗本身的描绘，我认为“黏稠之物”包含了我对诗的 所有想象。黏稠之物应该是有浓度，有黏性的，是内心杂 糅或是表面光滑的，是缓慢或是厚实的，是冲突或是柔软 的，应该是人体的分泌物，应该是灰色的，应该是半透明 的，应该是无法被握住的，也应该是不朽的。带着这些对 诗的想象，回到汤南南这次的作品创作之中，感觉到一种 被他人历史与个人命运相互裹挟着向后追溯并向前回荡的 情绪，如同海浪一般，带着一种咸湿的气息。
《青草青，青草黄》这件录像作品中，艺术家借用了屈原 的12疑冢完成了一次对历史与诗人的叹息。草不论青黄， 仅是青草一次表象生命的循环，青草周围，有屈原诗中的 杜若与桂舟次第开放，也有个人思悼在当下转译而成的塑 料之花。艺术家似乎想用更轻柔的语言表达一种更复杂的 情绪，历史中的诗冢被转译成艺术家在地情感的表达。我 们的观看也将跟随这种表达，游荡在“这里”或是“那里”。
《七阵微风吹来》这件作品彻底打破了我们对于微风的常 规计量，原来这个世界上不仅仅只有一阵微风。艺术家感 知了七阵微风之后，他认为诗人问了自己七个问题，却向 天问了九个问题。哪七个问题或者哪九个问题在观众这里 并不重要，而是九个问题减去七个问题的落差，在艺术家 的内心之中，诗人究竟是哪两个问题只能向天去问，而无 法问自己?画面中依旧是青草依依，我们的思绪荡漾在历 史的风声与个人的发问之中。
《重华三十六章》是艺术家长期的摄影创作，对同一场景 的循环播放，用摄影的即瞬感去拉开对时间的想象。此时 此地或彼时此地，时间纪录或是视觉记录构成了艺术家多 元的观看体验。
《投石问路》这件装置作品勾连着艺术家创作这件作品的 行走与体验的过程。在汤南南的描绘中，6 月——11 月中 许多个人情绪被合理安置在这件作品，各种情绪似乎毫无 关联，唯一的联系就是艺术家自己。投石仅仅是艺术家一 种将自己抛出的创作方式，具体将石头抛向哪里，问的是 哪条路，甚至到底有没有路我们无从得知。如果投石向土， 飞扬的是浮尘，如果投石向水，溅起的是涟漪，而涟漪或 是浮尘似乎也在暗示个体生命在时间中的暂居过程。在汤 南南《我的离开将会很久——屈原 12 疑冢特别项目》里， 我们能多次体会到艺术家站在诗人的身后，用一种诗性的 方式在倾诉自己的情感与作品。
许多年来，在汤南南的好奇中:“诗人对世界的提问为什 么总是直逼灵魂，对自己生命总是草草收场。”早夭似乎 也成为了天才的标签之一，而我所认为的早夭似乎与年龄 无关，我们面对真正的艺术与真正的诗歌时，艺术家与诗 人的肉身逝去与作品的流传相比一定是早夭的。而我们面 对当下的艺术与诗歌创作，许多人的作品活不过自己的肉 身，而只有少数人面对自己的作品可被享有生命的草草收 场。在和汤南南的交谈中得知他几乎不进行诗歌写作，在 当下的当代艺术创作中，很多艺术家也会将诗歌当成灵感， 却很少有艺术家将诗歌当成创作语言。而这种语言不是拿 来书写的语言，应该是一种可被植入在任何创作中的情绪 语言，而汤南南的作品正是这样的。
策展人 / 林书传
Poetry is Dense
"Poetry is Dense" is the name of a poem from the poet Ding Cheng. I quoted it because I think the word "dense" contains all my imagination of poetry. Dense things should be concentrated, sticky, blended inside or smooth on the surface, slowly flowing or thick, conflicting or soft. It should be human secretions, with the color of gray or translucent; it should be impossible to hold and it should be immortal. With all these imaginations of poetry to view Tang Nannan's work, I feel that I’m carried by others' history and personal destiny to trace back and forth like the waves, which are salty and moist.
In the video work Grass Green, Grass Yellow, the artist filmed Qu Yuan's 12 suspected graves to express the sigh for history and poet. Regardless of whether the grass is green or yellow, the color change of the grass reflects only the appearance of a life cycle. Around the grass, the beautiful flowers mentioned in Qu Yuan’s poems are blooming, accompanied by the plastic flowers which present the mourning of contemporary people. The artist seems to want to express a more complex emotion in a softer language, and thus translating the poet's graves into his own artistic expression. In this way, our watching will also follow this expression, wandering around "here" or "there".
There are Seven Breezes Blowing completely breaks our regular measurement of the breeze: there is more than a breeze in the world. After the artist perceived seven breezes, he believed that the poet had not only asked himself seven questions but asked the lord nine questions. The artist wonders which two questions make the poet can only ask the lord instead of himself? Just like the grass in the picture is gently swaying in the wind, our thoughts are swinging in the history and personal questions.
The 36 Chapters of Twin-Lens' Man is the artist's long- term photography project. By observing the same scene, he develops the imagination of time through the instantaneous sense of photography. Right here and now, or there and then, the time records or visual records constitute the artist's diverse viewing experience.
The installation work Like a Rolling Stone reveals the artist’s experience during the process of creating this work, as he placed many personal emotions in the period from June to November into this work. All of the emotions seem to be unrelated, and the only connection is the artist himself. Throwing stone is just a way for artists to question himself. However, where to throw the stone, what to ask, and whether there is an answer, we have no way of knowing. If the stone is thrown to the ground, the dust will be floating; if the stone is thrown to the water, the water will be rippled. Both the ripples and the floating dust seem to imply a short stay of individual life in time. In Tang Nannan’s Yet I Cannot Tarry Longer - Qu Yuan 12 Suspected Graves Project, we can often experience that the artist stands behind the poet and expresses his feelings in a poetic way.
For many years, Tang Nannan has been wondered: "Why do the poets always touch upon the soul when they question the world but end their life early." Premature death appears to be one of the labels of genius, but in my opinion, premature death seems to not related to age. Compared to the spreading time of true art and true poetry, the lifetime of the artist and the poet seems always shorter. While, nowadays many artworks and poems live shorter than their creators. In conversations with Tang Nannan, I realized that he hardly wrote poetry. In contemporary art creation, many artists use poetry as inspiration, but few artists use poetry as a language of creation. Instead of a language for writing, poetry is an emotional language that can be embedded in any creation, and that's exactly what Tang Nannan's works are.
Curator / Lin Shuchuan