If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less...
——John Donne Since long, I've been thinking about where Xu Qing would eventually end up to be . It would be the sea. Is there anywhere even more spacious if you want to find a place to stay alone? Let's recall one of his early series, The Mirror, which he did some two years ago. The round mirror not only duplicates the space around it, but makes it multiply rapidly as well. For me, this series of images is truly symbolic. These illusive and uncertain spaces are also denying the existence of the real Modern Life and Zeitgeist in which we are living by devouring them. Since then, his exile has become inevitable. Once the external environment, which has been altered by his innermost being, shatters into pieces, the only thing he could do is to run away from this mortal coil to find a new world. Unlike some other cynical young artists I know of who are not well compatible with the real world, Xu Qing happens not to be a misanthropist suffering from depression. That reminds me of Plotinus, the famous neoplatonist of Rome. Even though the spaciousness and inaccessibility in Xu Qing's pictures upset me from time to time, I find the sense of happiness which is quite beyond the sensory. I hardly know anything about his childhood, but it's not difficult to steal a glance by observing his actual life. No matter how badly injured he is by the evolution of the real world, the sense of happiness of such a man, who is now absorbed in the static daily life, can never be taken away. It could be just the other side of nihility. Neither does the photographer care much about whether it comes from his fascination of work, his personal life or his regional character in which he was brought up, nor does he mean to influence the audience by breaking the peace in their minds. What interests him more is to reveal the link between the bitter reality and the fabulous memories which is fading away. In this restraint lyricism, there is still a place for humanism. Regardless of the theme he is dealing with, Xu Qing never provokes or expels the human beings whom he is incompatible with. He just self-exiles and runs to the nihility peacefully. Plotinus based his philosophy on the Inspirations from God instead of researches on objects. The same can be said for Xu Qing. He is never fond of establishing an integral aesthetic system to guide his artistic practices. It could be offensive to his own opinion if I insists that through his pictures, he consciously discovers the indifference between human beings and the external world, as well as emphasizes the dualistic core of the existentialism. He has indicated that he is tired of thinking too much before the picture is taken. Despite the fact that he's an atheist, he entrusts this nihilist force with the right to decide what to capture on film. On the other hand, as an honest photographer, Xu Qing is never keen in fabricating any point of view. With the insistence on pure photographic language，he keeps his art away from some absurdly subjective performance art. Whilst most of us are enthusiastically engrossed in endoscopy, he touches the audience in his own way with a modesty like André Kertesz as well as the indifference to the ego. The continent winds into the still sea in all the nine images. The opposite shore could be seen dimly in the atmosphere. To Xu Qing and those who pay attention to him, the significance of this exhibition is not what he has done but where he would go after the sea. The last sentence before the verse of John Donne that I quoted at the beginning of the article says: No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. Maybe he will be back from his exile and the world which seems compact will finally become more vast. I am certain that Xu Qing would not be merged to the main streams no matter what apocalypse he derives from the sea. He will just be contented with the solitude. In this materialized world, only artists and works which are not easily consumed will leave a mark with the passage of time.

If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less...
——John Donne 如果泥土被大海冲走，欧罗巴总能留住。。。 ——约翰-多恩 我很久前就在想，许青最终会走向哪里？ 是大海。 如果你想找宽敞的地方独处，还有比大海更广袤深远的空间么？ 要认识许青的作品，也许需要从他两年前的''镜子''系列说起。那圆形的镜面不但复制了所处的空间，而且更变形扩张。对我来说，这组画面充满了象征意味，这些莫须有的，生造的空间似乎还在蔓延蚕食我们周遭的''现代生活''，否定它们的存在。从那个时候起，他的自我放逐就成为一种必然。主观世界对客观环境的改写一旦破灭，他唯有抽身从这个已经面目全非的钢筋水泥森林里突围而出，去寻找另一个世界。 与我认识的其他和现实世界兼容不良的年轻视觉艺术家不同，许青却不是个躁郁厌世的人。这让我想起古罗马的新柏拉图主义者普罗丁(Plotinus), 因为即使他的作品常常空旷得令人不安，我还是可以找到那种超越感官世界的幸福感。我对许青的童年一无所知，但观察他现在的生活，也可以对他的过去略窥一斑。无论现实世界的变迁给他带来怎样的创痛，一个对稳定的生活方式如此依赖的男人总是有这种根深蒂固的幸福感。这种感觉，也许是虚无的另一面。它到底来自于对工作的迷恋，个人生活抑或是地域性格，摄影者本人并不关心，也无意用自己的作品影响观者的思考或者打破观者的平和，他更有意识的是去唤醒生涩现状与美妙回忆之间看似消逝的关联。在这种清淡的抒情里，人文关怀仍然恰到好处地存在着。 无论他在表达什么题材，他都没有用镜头去挑衅或驱逐那些和他格格不入的人类，他顶多只是把自己放逐，然后轻松安静地走向虚无。普罗丁从不致力于认识客体，他通常以神的启示代替实践体验，去完成'' 哲学的自戕''。许青也是如此，他并没有热中于建立一个完整的审美体系去指导他的实践活动。如果我声称：''他的这组作品有意识地揭示了人与世界之间的疏离，触及了存在主义的二元论本质''，那一定和他的意见相去甚远。因为他自己都表示：拍的时候没有考虑那么多。哪怕他是个无神论者，他都把按动快门的手交给了某种虚无的力量，让它去决定让什么留在画面里。 从另一个角度而言，他是个诚实的摄影者，他并不杜撰观点，却始终保持了较纯粹的摄影语言，从而让他的实践活动远离了某种荒诞主观的行为艺术。当我们很多人热中于内窥，并用放大镜从自己的血液里验出种种成分的时候，他的作品里流露出来的科尔特斯(André Kertesz)式的朴实和对自我的淡漠也许更容易击中观者。 这九张照片中陆地无一例外地蜿蜒伸入静谧的海洋，彼岸隐约可现。所以对许青和关心他的人而言，这个展出的意义不在当下，而是：大海之后，他将去哪里？多恩的诗篇里的上文说: ''No man is an island, entire of itself; everyman is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.'' (没有人是孤岛，与世隔绝; 每个人都是一片大陆，一掊土地。) 也许他将从放逐中回归，那个时候，这个看似拥挤的世界也会变得宽广起来。 我也毫不怀疑，无论在海边得到什么样的启示，他仍然不会汇入任何潮流。他只会更加安于独处。在这个物化的现实世界中，也许只有那些不容易被迅速消费掉的作品和人才能最终留下痕迹。