R.A.S —— Feng Shan

R.A.S

Surfacing Press
Artist：Feng Shan
 
R.A.S is an artist’s book that grew out of Perhaps Some Verses, a series of works on paper created by the artist Feng Shan during her artist residency in Paris.
 
For Shan, whose practice has long been grounded in close observation of everyday life, the experience of working in an unfamiliar city intensified this approach. What had previously taken the form of private, inward expression gradually shifted into something closer to an engaged, almost fieldwork-like experience. Over the course of three months, Feng Shan wandered through the city on foot, carefully gathering what appeared before her eyes, beneath her hands, and under her steps—fragments of streets, objects, markings, and overlooked details.
 
Unlike her academic training as a sculptor, drawing for Shan functions more like a form of diary writing. During these aimless walks, she became intrigued by the painted markings left by road construction and maintenance crews—notations written in French she herself could not understand, and often in technical abbreviations unfamiliar even to local Parisians. Appearing alongside puddles, fallen leaves, and the textures of the street, they made walking itself begin to feel like reading a poem.
 
Twelve drawings are sequenced into a poem. Reappearing throughout its verses is “R.A.S”, an administrative term meaning “no report required.” How does one read a poem that cannot be deciphered? No report is required. The answer rests on the cover, becoming the title of this book.

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《R.A.S》源自艺术家冯山在巴黎艺术驻留期间创作的纸上绘画系列“Perhaps Some Verses”。在三个月的时间里，冯山在城市中游走，细致地采集出现在她眼前、手边与脚下的细节。“我觉得这些痕迹其实是有情绪的，就像整个城市的外观是通过人们的行走、游行、旅行，通过时间的磨损，自然地共同地创造出来的。”
 
在这些漫无目的的行走途中，她逐渐被道路施工与维修人员留在柏油路面上的标记所吸引——那些用她并不理解的语言书写、甚至连不少本地人也难以辨认的法语词汇，它们与街头的水洼、落叶以及巴黎路面的肌理一同出现，使得行走本身变得像是阅读一首诗歌。
 
十二幅绘画被编排为一首长诗，诗行中反复出现的缩写 R.A.S，原本是一个工程术语，意为“无需报告”。一首无法辨认的诗应当如何阅读？读者无需报告。答案落在封面之上，成为这本书的标题。