京劇的魅力

A Russian-Irish artist's photographs of Peking Opera give a contemporary voice to the ancient art form. Cecily Liu reports in London.

Varvara Shavrova believed she was looking at one of the most beautiful women she'd ever seen. But she was wrong.

Not about the beautiful part. About the woman part.

The Russian-Irish artist and curator was stunned when Chinese friends told her the female Peking Opera character onstage at the teahouse near the Forbidden City was actually a man.

"I said 'No'. And they said 'Yes'. And I said 'No' - and still couldn't believe it," she recalls.

But that wasn't all that captivated her about the show.

"I loved the costumes, the makeup, the movements and how it can be formulaic in its own language," Shavrova says.

"You can compare it to contemporary art."

This initial fascination prompted the Russian-Irish artist and curator to research Peking Opera's history, understand the actors' lives and document their preparations and performances in her London exhibition The Opera.

Peking Opera was initially an exclusively male pursuit, with female characters played by male actors since Emperor Qianlong (1711-1799) had banned all female performers in 1772.

Although the ban was lifted in 1912, the tradition of males playing female roles continues.

This requires actors to put on layers of makeup and costumes, and heavy headdresses, which Shavrova says are almost like "helmets".

She photographed actors getting dressed, in sets of eight, to show the gradual transformation.

For example, the first picture of a series features a man without any makeup. The next few show the man applying layers of heavy makeup and putting on a head cloth to cover his hair, followed by an elaborate headdress with beautiful decorations. In the last few photographs, the character's femininity emerges.

The final shot shows what appears to be a woman with long hair, delicate facial features and a soft gaze.

The exhibition also displays a large-scale projection of a 17-minute film demonstrating Chinese opera and two plasma screens showing five-minute time-lapse videos.

The exhibition was originally commissioned by and shown at the Espacio Cultural El Tanque in 2011 - an old oil depot on the Spanish island Tenerife. It was shown in 2012 at the Ballina Arts Center in Ireland and this year at the Patrick Heide Contemporary Art gallery in London.

The first Peking Opera actor Shavrova met was Liu Zheng. He introduced Shavrova to others.

"I became friends with these people," Shavrova says.

"We went out to dinner together and socialized."

She came to realize the financial difficulties they face as the genre's popularity declines.

"They're doing lots of work for very little money," she says.

"They have the fan groups and followers on blogs, but a lot fewer compared to big pop stars. But they don't do it for the money. They're doing something entirely beautiful and they love what they do."

She once asked Liu to dress her up as the female role in The Drunken Concubine, which tells a story of the famous Yang Yuhuan, a concubine to Emperor Minghuang in Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907). Liu's mother helped Shavrova dress up. It took two hours.

When it was done, Shavrova stood up and felt dizzy.

"Literally, I couldn't move. And these actors, on top of all this, they have to sing and dance, and they have to do a sword dance. It's really tough," she says.

But while contemporary performances have stolen the stage from Peking Opera, Shavrova believes the genre is modern, rather than archaic.

"I thought of it as being modern on an intuitive level," she says.

"It is like contemporary art, which you wouldn't understand unless you put time into understanding what the artist means. It was very charming and very beautiful."

She also believes it operates according to its own rules.

"It has nothing to do with this life," she says.

Shavrova worries this performance art will die out if its popularity further declines and if the Chinese government doesn't sufficiently support it.

She points out a lot of the country's architectural heritage, such as Beijing's hutong, have largely vanished. If such performances as Peking Opera disappear, too, Chinese culture might be reduced to food and festivals.

Shavrova believes the solution may be to promote among youth, such as in schools.

"They have to understand that the actors are young and dynamic people, and not just some sort of old-fashioned boring people who have learned the lines by heart and are meaningless," she says.

Shavrova was born and educated in Moscow. She moved to London in 1989 and shared her studio time between London and Ireland for the next 15 years, before moving to China in 2005.

At the time, Shavrova's Irish engineer husband was working on a few architecture projects in China, so the couple relocated to China with their two children. Shavrova immersed herself in local life and the art community.

"I was really inspired by 798, the art district in Beijing. I was offered a studio, and I met some Chinese and international artists. And I felt it was a really dynamic place where I can make new projects," she says.

One of her exhibitions in China is Untouched, which compares Beijing with rural Ireland, showing old houses, walls, windows and the people in black-and-white images. Another is Borders, which shows the Russian-Chinese border. The show was inspired by her journey into China.

Shavrova examines everyday Beijing life in Windows on the Hutong, which shows different activities that reflect the ordinary lives of inhabitants through windows. In this exhibition, she also recorded sounds of people chatting away in the rooms to be played alongside the installation.

Her fascination with hutong is seen through the minute details in her photographs, such as window frames, writings on windows, curtains and fish tanks that display fish sold in restaurants. Shavrova did extensive research and interviewed local people. She also made a film about them.

London-based art dealer, curator and gallery owner James Birch says The Opera is "absolutely great".

"I like the idea of the before-and-after situation," he says.

Birch has only seen Peking Opera images in books but never in an art exhibition.

Birch says the show will also generate more international awareness about Chinese culture.

"Many people don't know about Peking Opera, so it's good to make people aware," he says.

Betty Yao, director of the London-based exhibition management firm Credential International Arts Management, also believes The Opera bridges China and the West.

"As overseas Chinese, we all feel proud of what Peking Opera represents," she says.

"But we have little opportunity to know more about it. We always think this is an art form for old people. What is fascinating for me is to see an artist representing a very modern contemporary angle to look at something that is a loved art form - it's her ability to create that bridge and bring in traditional art forms through creativity and reach the younger people of today."瓦爾瓦拉·沙嫵若是一位俄裔愛爾蘭人。她是一名攝影藝術家，她的作品《京劇》系列給這一古老藝術增添了現代的光輝，中國日報記者Cecily Liu倫敦報道。

沙嫵若起初認爲站在臺上的表演者是一位貌美如玉的女性。可惜，她想錯了，不是因爲演員不漂亮，而是因爲演員是位帥小夥。

在故宮附近的一家茶館裏，當一位中國朋友向這位藝術家兼展覽策劃人介紹道臺上的京劇演員是爲小夥子的時候，她驚呆了。沙嫵若回憶說：“當時我說不可能，朋友說確實是，我堅持說不可能，因爲實在是太難以置信了。”

當然吸引她的不僅僅只有這些，她說自己非常喜歡京劇的服飾、演員的妝容和舞臺動作令她着迷，簡直無法用語言來形容，這完全可以與現代藝術相媲美。

和京劇的初次邂逅讓沙嫵若對京劇充滿興趣，她決定探尋京劇的歷史，用相機瞭解和記錄演員的生活，拍攝他們臺前幕後的點點滴滴，並將作品在倫敦展出，展覽主題爲——京劇。

乾隆皇帝（1711-1799）於1772年下令女性不得作爲京劇演員，自此，京劇藝術便成爲男人的專利，所有女性角色均由男性扮演。儘管1912年，這一禁令廢止，這一傳統依舊流傳至今。演員們需要身着華麗服飾，頭戴沉重發飾，濃妝豔抹，登臺表演，在沙嫵若眼中繁瑣的髮飾就像頭盔一般。

沙嫵若拍攝了演員的化妝過程，一共用了8張圖片展示，將每一個步驟都清晰呈現。比如，第一張照片就是一個男演員的素顏照，接下來幾張拍攝了演員上妝，穿上華麗演出服，帶上華美髮飾的全過程。之後幾張的照片中，一個貌美的女子慢慢呈現在觀衆眼前。最後的一張照片，你就能看到一個長髮飄逸，妝容精緻，眼神含情脈脈的女子。展廳中播放着一段17分鐘的影片介紹京劇，另有兩塊等離子電視上展示了5分鐘的微速拍攝視頻。

這場展覽先是於2011年應邀在西班牙特內里費島藝術展覽館展出，這裏原來是一個廢舊的油料庫，2012年作品在愛爾蘭巴利納藝術中心展出，今年它們在倫敦Patrick Heide當代藝術中心與世人見面。

沙嫵若遇到的第一位京劇導演是劉錚，也是他帶領着沙嫵若走近這一行當。沙嫵若說：“我和演員們都成了朋友，我們經常一起吃飯、聚會。”

這位藝術家意識到，隨着這門藝術的關注者越來越少，京劇這個行業也面臨着經濟危機。她說：“幹這一行付出多，回報少。在博客中，你可以看到他們有粉絲團，有追隨者，但是這遠不敵那些流行巨星。但是他們從事這份工作並不是僅僅爲錢，更是執着於他們熱愛的事業，創造藝術之美。”

沙嫵若曾讓劉錚把她裝扮成《貴妃醉酒》中的楊貴妃，這是唐代（公元618—907年）唐明皇的最寵愛的妃子。劉錚的母親用了兩個小時完成了沙嫵若的願望。化妝之後，沙嫵若站起來，頓時感到頭暈目眩，她說：“說實話，當時我幾乎不能走，難以想見那些演員在臺上歌唱舞蹈如此艱辛，況且他們還得舞劍。”

儘管京劇藝術似乎漸漸淡出舞臺，但沙嫵若相信這門現代藝術而非古老陳舊，她說直覺告訴她京劇很現代。“京劇就像當代藝術一般，只有你花時間去理解藝術家的思想才能瞭解一個作品。每一件作品都是那樣精緻美麗，充滿魔力。”她認爲京劇有着自己的內在發展規律，不受外界干擾。

沙嫵若擔心如果中國政府不大力支持京劇事業，這門藝術會隨着愛好者的減少而消亡。她指出，許多城市文化遺產正在大量消失，比如北京胡同。如果京劇遭受同樣噩運，中國人的精神生活就太貧乏了。

沙嫵若認爲解決這問題要從小抓起，特別是在校園。她說：“孩子們要理解這些演員都是富有朝氣的年輕人，而不是那些因循守舊的臺詞背誦器。”

沙嫵若在莫斯科出生和上學，1989年來到倫敦，在2005年來到中國之前，她在倫敦和愛爾蘭兩地的工作室奔波。她的丈夫是愛爾蘭人，是一名工程師，那時在中國做一些工程項目。所以，夫妻倆就決定帶着兩個孩子來中國生活。沙嫵若覺得自己深深地融入了當地的生活和藝術社區，她說，“我在北京的798藝術區，經營着一個工作室，我在那裏會見我的中外友人。在那裏我總能感到靈感迸發，創意思想被激發。”

沙嫵若在中國的一個展覽名爲“逝”，用黑白照片對比北京和愛爾蘭的鄉村，展現了老房子、屋牆、窗戶和人。另一個展覽名爲邊境，拍攝了中俄邊境，靈感來源於一次中國旅行。

沙嫵若通過衚衕文化記錄北京的生活，各種各樣的活動反映了普通市民的生活。她還錄製了人們聊天的聲音，在展廳中播放，讓人身臨其境。攝影作品的微小細節反映了她對北京胡同文化的喜愛，比如窗框、窗花、窗簾和大魚缸，大魚缸就是餐館裏用來展示鮮魚的那種缸。沙嫵若對衚衕文化做了細緻的研究，採訪了許多本地市民，還爲此拍攝了電影。

詹姆斯·伯奇是此次展覽的投資商，同時他也是一位策展人，擁有自己的畫廊。他以前都是通過書上圖片瞭解京劇，這是第一在藝術展上接觸它。伯奇說：“京劇系列攝影非常棒，我喜歡藝術家的構想，展現了京劇表演者上臺前到上臺後的全過程。我想，這次展覽應該會吸引更多國際目光來關注中國文化。許多人不瞭解京劇，讓人們意識到它的存在很有必要。”

姚小姐是此次倫敦展覽策劃公司的經理，她一樣認爲此次攝影展架起了中西方文化的橋樑。她說：“作爲身居海外的中國人，我們爲京劇這一國粹感到驕傲。但是，我們很少有機會仔細瞭解它，一直以來把它當作是老年人關注的藝術形式。不過，讓我倍感興奮的是，一位藝術家從現當代的角度來看待它，她架起了文化的橋樑，帶給傳統文化新的創造力，讓京劇離年輕人更近。”