Wang Yishu’s photographs permeates a cautiously ambiguous atmosphere, derived from reality yet simultaneously divorced from reality; independently established yet integrated as an entirety. The tone of Yishu’s photographs is neither pretentious nor exaggerated; its form reflects the subject matter and is also an appropriately subtle representation. All these paved way for his core narrative: possibilities of human physique and mind – possible identity, possible relations, possible circumstances, possible motion, possible vestiges, possible transformation, possible plight, possible conclusion, destined possibilities.
王轶庶的照片弥漫着一种谨慎的暧昧气息，既来自于现实，又游离于现实；既单独成立，又整体积聚。其照片的色彩感，并不夸张矫饰，是拍摄对象的形态体现，也是不易察觉而恰如其分的表征。所有这些都通往他的叙述核心：人在身体和精神上的可能——可能的身份、可能的关系、可能的状况、可能的动作、可能的痕迹、可能的变化、可能的处境、可能的结局、可能的命运。
This air of intrigue originates from Yishu’s profound knowledge in photography, “Our lives are encircled by at least two worlds, perhaps even more. We are familiar with the world that orbits according to the laws of the world, regulated by social relations; the other world is on the contrary, unnamed and obscure, which shows up in a flash of light and slips away unnoticed. I may be dependent on the former, but it is uninteresting and unable to quench my inquisitive thirst. In photography, I am mostly absorbed in the latter.”
如此耐人寻味的气息，源于王轶庶对摄影的深刻认识：“我们的生活周边至少有两个世界，或者更多。一个是我们所熟知的，按照世界法则运转的，人之常情什么的；另一个则是说不清道不明的，闪一下让你看，不注意就溜过去了。第一个世界的东西我虽然依赖它，但没什么兴趣，不解渴。在摄影里，我主要是对第二个世界感兴趣。”
Most photographers are still caught in the mindset where photographs are expression of clarity and lucidity. This is partly associated with the nature of photography, but largely due to people’s notion of photography. To most people, photographs are images of what they have envisioned or expect. But clearly, Yishu is dissatisfied with that depth of understanding. Rather than articulating on behalf of his pictures, he lets them speak for themselves.
大多数摄影师还停留在照片必然也必须说得清、道得明的阶段，这和摄影的一部分属性有关，更主要是和人们对摄影的认识程度有关，人们看到的照片，往往是希望看到的照片。但显然，王轶庶并不满足于此。他让照片自己说话，而不是由他来为照片代言。
Yishu’s photos are unable to be differentiated nor apprehended by our unconscious habits that are guided with deliberation; rather it is a reversal of position. It is not that we see them, but rather, they capture us. Debris like photographs that enable us to feel huge. It is not about ownership of them while we enclose them in our vision, but that we are resided within them, like the face of nature that was swiftly exposed for once, like the mysterious mirage, like sleepwalking in a dream; they are unable to be read in the manner of most photos that usually entail some form of social clues, antecedents restrict our interpretation of situations, which remains as a possibility to be complete. Yishu’s photos are not girdled with elements of “things” that are commonly present in most photographers’ work. “Things” that exist in piecemeal or in the whence and whither of “things”. This is photography that is truly depictive of temporal and spatial elements. Permeated yet disintegrated by time and space, thereby worn away. His photos are “solitary” or “one-off”. Hence, escaping from the domination of time and space. Perhaps, viewers have always felt the urge to unravel his images, to extend it, by for example positing it in a scenario of a summer afternoon with thunderstorms or sunshine, what happens before that, what happens after that, who was involved at what point and what were they doing? But in Yishu’s mind, he is clearly aware of the subject, the cause and that they will not whittle amidst suspicion and speculation that have emerged spontaneously. All these suspicion and speculation contradict its intuitive facade; this is just a single performance, and a possibility. It is incomplete.
王轶庶的照片不会经由我们习惯的有意识无意识的引导就可辨析出它、捕捉到它，而是宾主异位，不是我们看见它，是我们被它抓住，碎片般的照片，同时也让我们感觉巨大，甚至不是它在我们眼里为我们所拥有，而像我们置身于它里面，像大自然面貌曾奇异地闪露一角或者一次，像一个神秘的海市蜃楼形象，像一次梦游之境；它并无阅读一般照片多少总有的社会线索，有着来历因此也就对其情形有着限定，是可望完成的。他的照片没有摄影通常呈现的“事情”模样，事情的一截截存在，或事情的来龙去脉，才是立足时间和空间的摄影，也才会被时间和空间所穿透、所分解从而消耗磨损。而他这些照片只是“一个”或“一次”，由此逸出时间和空间的统治。观众阅读照片，也许总是想把它打开来、延展开来，比如说置放到某个夏天下午，有雷雨或有阳光，之前怎样之后怎样，还有谁谁在场然后谁又做了什么云云，但王轶庶心中清楚，它才是起因，才是主体，它不融化于因它才会有的狐疑和猜测之中，这些狐疑、猜测和它表面的直观形成有意思的对比，这只是它的一次演出，它的可能。它不被完成。
Yishu’s photographic world resembles a retreat to a place far-removed, pausing somewhere in the distant. At times, it moves to the point where it is only visible from the corner of one’s eyes, when one attempts to stare directly at it, it hides under the back of one’s eyes. But at times where it remains motionless, it becomes clearly visible. Like a still portrait with its details peculiarly amplified. Therefore, photographs featured in this exhibition are neither purely analogous nor mechanical. Rather, they are penetrative, intuitive and realistic, so they naturally aggregate as a substantive metaphor; the metaphor stretches as far as your capacity in deciphering it.
王轶庶照片里的世界仿佛退到了远处，怔在了远处某个地方，有时它好像仍会移动地只存留在人的眼角余光里，你想正视它时它就躲入你的眼睛背后，但有时它也会清晰地完全不动不移，像一幅静物画似的，还莫名其妙地强调细节。这当然不纯粹是平行的、机械的陈列，它更加渗透，而且它还是直观的、写实的，所以它也自自然然就成为了丰硕的隐喻，你有能力看多远是多远的隐喻。
姜纬 Jiang Wei
2016
