90年代是一個重要的轉型期，由雕塑向雕塑-物品的轉換改變了2000年代中國雕塑的面貌，也改變了傳統(tǒng)雕塑的概念。雕塑形態(tài)的多樣性不僅是雕塑自身語言的發(fā)展，也為反映現實和切入當代文化提供了可能性。90年代還有一個重要現象是公共雕塑的大規(guī)模發(fā)展，這和中國經濟的高速發(fā)展有關，一方面是城市建設的需要，另一方面是資金的大量投入。公共雕塑本身沒有提供更有創(chuàng)造性的雕塑語言，除了傳統(tǒng)的紀念性樣式就是樣式化的抽象。但公共藝術給當代雕塑的最大啟示是雕塑的空間性，像“環(huán)境”、“偶發(fā)”、“行為”、“裝置”等新的語匯進入雕塑領域，極大地擴充了雕塑的概念，也使雕塑從室內走到戶外，與現實事物相融合，普通觀眾的直接參與。雕塑不再被視為獨立的架上物品，而是與更廣泛的社會生活相聯系，更普通的、世俗的、低級的或日常生活的材料進入雕塑，這些材料所從屬的社會關系也在城市、環(huán)境、社會和政治等各個層面回應到藝術之中。雕塑不再是工作室的產物，也不是展出于固定的空間和長期置放的地點，而是在歷史的遺址、城市的街道、象征制度的場所，甚至私人的生活空間，其互動的含義不言而喻。

從現實主義雕塑和學院派傳統(tǒng)演變而來的具象雕塑，在當代雕塑中的作用也是中國當代雕塑的特色。具象雕塑在形態(tài)上傾向于“圖像雕塑”、“商品雕塑”，反映了消費文化的強大影響，也反映了人在消費社會或當代社會的精神困境。與此相適應的是具象雕塑與裝置、環(huán)境，甚至影像的結合，在技術上則是學院的傳統(tǒng)訓練和商業(yè)圖像的結合。在關于雕塑的邊界日益引發(fā)爭議的今天，具象雕塑無疑是對這種爭議的牽制，但在當代藝術中最具創(chuàng)造力和功能性的雕塑究竟會怎樣繼續(xù)擴充它的邊界，從它的歷史來看，似乎很難想象。

The Expanding Boundary

Yi Ying

China had experienced earthshaking changes since the policy of reformation and opening implemented 30 years ago and so had the Chinese sculpture art if we look back on its developing process.

In the beginning, the changes were not obvious. The Cultural Revolution did great damage to the sculpture traditions in New China. The main task for the sculptures in the initial stage of the new period is to restore the realism tradition. The essence of realism is to reflect the reality as it is, however, the reality is experienced and comprehend by subjects and different subjects have different reality experiences and comprehensions, which is the diversity of realism when reflected on sculpture. The diversities of realism include the various choices of subject matters, dealings of forms and the mutations of themes. Although the leader subject matter and the images of workers, peasants and soldiers still make a great proportion, there is a growing increase of non-politic subject mattes, which are more suitable for the dealings of images and expressions of beauty. The sculpture had taken a modern change since the early periods of 80s, which is directly resulted from the reform and opening up to the outside world policy. The western modern art was brought in and the artists sought after the emancipation of minds, freedom of creation, laid stress on self-expression and abandoned the traditional patterns. The earliest sculptures that embodied the modern characteristics, like the realism sculptures, were created by a group of old artists. The initial trend can be called primitivism. Different from the rustic realism in painting, the primitivism in sculpture possesses an obvious formalism characteristic and the sources of the form are mainly from the country and originality. The forms derived from the people, folk customs and local cultures not only found the lost human nature but also expressed the innocent and original beauty, which are exactly the things that got lost in the arts for politics’ sake era. The concept of primitivism come from the western modern art, but the resources of form are rooted in the land of China, which seems like an implication that the China’s contemporary sculpture had been developing among the relations of reform and opening and the Chinese way throughout the whole process.