Essay

All Legends are about Human Love and Hatred

To Deng Wei

Zheng Wen

After experiencing the "Scar" or "Cynic" at the turn of the century, how should Chinese contemporary painting face a new future? If we say that the cynical laughter in the "Cynical Realism" since the '85 New Wave is driven by individual's resistance and catharsis to the collective age, then the paintings in the past decade have carried more individualized emotional expressions. The concept of "Bad Painting", which was first proposed by the curator Marcia Tucker in 1978, has gradually developed into one of the trends of contemporary Chinese painting in recent years. The emergence of the concept and program of "Bad Painting" in a broad sense seems to have accomplished and enriched the freedom of choice for individual expression. On the other hand, many specific works can't withstand meticulous scrutiny, and they often slip into the wave of representational and hollowing out.

How can we inject contemporary painting with the vitality of the times, regional characteristics, collective memory and touching power? Will the basic languages which have already existed for thousands of years in the art world, such as emotion, composition, color, brushstroke, trace and space, shrink into smaller islands or penetrate into larger areas in this art era of media explosion? Deng Wei's new work in recent years has opened a window, allowing us to glimpse the vast world of painting, as well as the imaginative freedom related to the reality and the inner mind, myths and legends, subconsciousness and unconsciousness, art and desire.

According to the curriculum vitae, Deng Wei has the characteristics of standard academic school. When he studied and worked among the most important and famous art colleges in China, he learned from the academic scholars and famous artists of realistic painting. From his serial figurative figures in early years, we can see his skillful techniques and keen sense of painting. He has excellent ability to handle and control the picture structure, whether it's the shaping of a single character's structure, the capture of the character's appearance, or the spatial layout of a group of figures. Among these figurative works, there is also a feature that is not easily noticeable, that is, the rhythm and state of his painting. Those seemingly light, accurate and generalized strokes and smears constitute the unique body shape of the character and represent his special temperament of painting. This kind of transition between "temperate" and "fast moving" shows a good artist's sense of propriety, and reveals the artist's enthusiasm and enjoyment in the work itself.

The works on exhibition represents his "painting expedition" to the more unknown painting field and inner world. He temporarily sets aside the depiction of real social scenes and concrete figures and moves toward more inner and subjective paintings. I saw these paintings in Wuhan at the beginning of April. They were mingled with world-famous sights and scenic spots, silent dislocations, changed cultural symbols, looming literary tastes, and passed-down folk legends. While the audiences don't know whether to laugh or cry and after they break into laughter, the works are made audiences thought-provoking. With his continuous creation of the past few years, Deng Wei realized a phased transition in his personal painting career. He temporarily bid farewell to the "realistic" perspective of real people, which brings him closer to the artist's spiritual reality and inner reality. This group of paintings is his smart answer to his own question. It's a spicy "ridicule" and "flirting" between him and the reality. And for the relationship between him and painting, it is "naughty" but sincerely continuous dialogue.

We can see the deliberately tampered "Madam White Snake" or "Jing Yang Gang", the originally "livable and sightseeing" small bridges, pagodas, houses and explosive blue light between the rocks, the absent-minded magpie which is tied up with a red line in the black background, the fascinating place formed with piles of unattended stone arrays, a small red sun in the landscapes, or the endless void of "profound scholar", etc. From the Western Paradise to Middle-earth, from mating dogs to the fruit of the summer, all legends are about human love and hatred, and all the scenes are about the disorderly world. Deng Wei even painted the repeated theme of "Journey to the West", but his new idea was to pull out the local features of the character's faces and props, such as the face of the White Horse and the rake of the Pigsy, forming a strange and humorous feature. This approach to alienating objects is like the silent performance of a black humor play. For example, the golden cudgel that crosses the diagonal of the picture becomes fragile and slender in the extrusion of the black background. The "artifact" separated from the specific use scene and actual function, just like the male pride and lonely penis, radiates a brilliant light of unparalleled loss.

And those stupid stones directly sketched or repeated painted with lines are not only occupied the picture space, but also about the afterimages of Chinese spiritual life and even collective discipline. Stones are the artful historical symbolism in Deng Wei's works, whether it's a cliff stone carving or a plaything in the palm. Stone is not only the emotional sustenance of Chinese old-fashioned literati and meditation worshippers. On the other hand, it is also a material carrier of the declaration and confession of the power. Deng Wei's "Shallot Greeting the Guests" puts a green Chinese onion which is gracefully stretched like an orchid on a stone. The original self-contained "spirit of pine and cypress" and its spiritual psychosexuality are replaced in a funny way, leaving only an appetizing daily condiment in hands of the woman who cooks. The stone that cuts off the tail of a white snake directly acts as a barbaric force of hypocrisy and morality that will never disappear. These stones are also some externalizations of the artist's inner world. They can be understood as symbols of conventions, institutions, restrictions and ethics. We can also take it as a kind of limitation and orthodoxy of the painting field itself. However, there are robbing holes amid the stones, suggesting the image of "the Peach Garden" appears in his picture with a glimpse of collective unconsciousness. This ultimately represents a good artist's demand and imagination for himself—a kind of slyness to escape from the barriers, a kind of retreat when faced with restrictions, a kind of folk love to continue flirting with this despicable world and a courage and pursuit of freedom.

In an event last year, Mr. Lv Peng asked my opinion about the current so-called "bad painting" upsurge. My answer is that the problem is not the "bad" of "bad paintings", but that many people and works engaged in this type of creation are not "bad" enough. In the broad sense, after the grand narrative of Chinese contemporary artistic rethought over the social politics after 1989,"bad paintings", as a creative method that sought breakthrough in both style and philosophy, has attracted a large number of creators. However, just like any type of movement that has been imitated and followed, what is essentially lacking in the "bad painting" trend in contemporary Chinese painting is the ability to discover the most absurdity of the inner mind and the surrounding circumstances, and the passion, reaction and wisdom against this absurdity. The current painting needs to be aware of not only the absurd situation of the contemporary people in the consumer society, but also the absurdity of painting itself in the structure of the art economy. The cleverest point and cutest place of an artist lie in his ability to eulogize and describe the existing stupidity with innocence and buoyant whistle, to reflect hypocrisy with frankness, to accompany the laughable with happiness, and to sing and dance around the naked king like the children in "The Emperor's New Clothes". The colorful fruits on the ground in Deng Wei's works are as thorough&light as the first smoke of cigarette after sex. However, when we look closely, we discover the broken fruits only describe the endless grief of a street vendor who is kicked by the city inspector.

The reason why painting still exists today is not to paint a picture "good" or "bad", but to reveal the artist's own personality image. In my opinion, the paintings of Francis Picabia are lovelier than that of many famous painters in the language and rhetoric he displays in painting. The improvisation of a clown with physical and mental unity is ten thousands times greater than the artificial rehearsal performed by famous actors. The power of art is not in the parody of the visible things, not the use of laughter to express joy, or tears to express sorrow-in Ozu Yasujiro's words, such actors are the monkeys in the zoo. Running in the opposite direction often leads to human emotional expression and artistic tension. Part of Deng Wei's creation, similar to Zhou Xingchi's performance in "A Chinese Odyssey", express deep anxiety and extreme worry with absurdity and laughter. Just like the edge of the stone, which hides half of the word "love", yet it's unable to say it in any case.

April 18, 2018 in Nanjing

Let Pains Shine Light on Us --an Interpretation on the Paintings of Deng Wei

Ji Shaofeng

For Deng Wei, canvas means the place where his memory lingers. It also means a comfortable location where his passionate is ignited, his dream, lived out, his reflection, let go and his freedom and hope, chased after. Deng Wei tries to accomplish self-redemption by art so as to cure society and rescue culture.

The visual images in the painting of Deng Wei allow viewer to sense the struggle and pains that he expressed on his canvas. Though what is shown by his visual images cannot be termed as the "beauty" that viewer expects, the images could be reality that viewer should sense, for example, boring youth, sex-selling girl, lonely & helpless old man and woman as well as the temper after violent demolition〜 and other numerous vulgar and morbid social phenomenon. Deng Wei uses his vivid visual narration to clarify the abrupt social change during civilization alteration, transformation and transition. What the social change brings about is not only the pains during the change of ideology but also, or even more, the pains in the deep structure of society during its transformation. What the pains lead to, besides suffering, anxiety and wound, should be something indignant, something stirring and awakening conscience. The pain resulting from the reflection on the lowest rung and margin of the society could be none other than a power pushing us forward and illuminating our path. Given this, it is quite safe to say that the visual narration of Deng Wei can be counted as his deep concern about the lowest rung of the society. As Deng Wei has just walked out ivory tower and into the society, what blows against him may be nothing but a social identity as a member of those marginalized. A simple social relationship cannot cause complicated reflection. The quite and elegant times in ivory tower has to be bygones. To the contrary, what Deng Wei is confronted with might be predicament during life, difficulties in his survival, strange environment & eyes and indifferent living atmosphere as well as sense of well being lost in the whole society plus the anxious living reality and experience, etc. These would inevitably be a lively lesson for Deng Wei who has stepped into the society shortly. What Deng Wei sees is not civilization but violence, not kindness but the loneliness and helplessness, not full and colorful life but lonely frustration. "Invisible〜yet visible" interweaving and miscellany full of antinomies make the reflection of Deng Wei filled with miscellany and diversity, especially the rebellious mood flooding in his visual image, which makes his paintings incline towards "bad painting". Deng Wei abandons the cool, charming and admiring academic skills and adopts the fight from the lowest rung of the society to challenge social conventions and reality. Despite the various language and miscellaneous & diversified semantic meaning in the fight of Deng Wei, his fight without doubt is such confident and precious. Only thorough and complete understanding about living situation can make it possible that visual weapons are used for thinking over, communicating and holding dialogue with the society. Deng Wei wishes to fight against social violence through the violence in his visual image; wishes to build up a substantial and full living situation through lies in his visual image; wishes to reflect something genuine, purest, prettiest, loftiest through secular visual image; wishes to reconstruct social order and structure through something unreliable and limitless hope in his visual image. The sincere and moving visual expression of Deng Wei offers viewer in-depth observation, in depth of his heart, for and passionate expression of this art youth who seemingly shallow literature.

It impresses people that the generation that Deng Wei belongs to embarks on the diminishing of divine power and its halo. The generation is not human being under big collectivism in broad sense, but small people or individual. Though Deng Wei is instructed by prestigious master, enjoys excellent education and solid shaping capability, he is indeed a realist and firmly believes that life is always and forever beyond art. He may not hope for great expectations, but look forward to reality and seeking for something real. If Deng Wei walks along this path, what waits ahead of him would be another visual image. As a realist who seems to seek reality and actuality and makes every effort to fulfill his "ego", Deng Wei focus on urban-rural fringe, a sensible, extremely fragile and frequently ignorable location. Since Deng Wei lives in urban-rural fringe for quite a long time, his living and survival experience are all about the location. Due to poverty, backwardness, violence and repeated death tragedy, the location grows to be grey zone. What's worse, the location is a place approaching to the abyss of pain. Though the abyss is often ignored, it is a realistic existence that should be noticed. It is actual experience we must face up to for a thousand times.As long as we pluck up the courage to confront these poverty, despair, fear, boredom, empty, frustration, even death, we can discover the persistence, sympathy, unyielding and hope deeply hidden in and shining through the rare, unnoticeable and absurd presentation in the mind of Deng Wei.

A piece of work from Deng Wei in the title of "I am Brilliant"(40≠50cm.2016) embodies his life philosophy and cultural attitude. What's more, the work reveals the kindness at the bottom of his heart. In his daily life, Wei Dong is person with graceful taste. We can tell his courage not to go with the tide. His work "I am Brilliant" is created to show clearly the relationship & fight between I and the society, self-esteem &self-dependence, and redemption & cure. The work is used by him to clear up his perplexity during trifle and secular daily life and reveal his indelible feelings deep inside him for current society as well as art & life.And what's behind such experience is the kindness and conscience deep in human nature.

Because of pains that we start to think over and maintain our kindness and consciences that shine light on our scars. As an individual, the talent of Deng Wei can be fully demonstrated only when he returns to his canvas. By using his canvas brimming with resentful and indignant tears, Deng Wei fuels his constrained passion and accuses inhumane violence and barbarism. What he expects is beautiful prospects. By contrast, what reality offers is only "lies" "rock in disorder" and "derelict garden" as well as capital-conniving hegemony and immoral behaviors. Once Bei Dao mentioned "at that time, we have dream. It may be about literature, love and a travel around the world. At present, what we can hear when we have a drink and clink glasses in the slient night, is only the sound of shattered dream. " No matter why Deng Wei shares such experience with older generation, the persistence in the image world of Deng Wei is not second to none, compared with the old generation. The illusion that Deng Wei spares no trouble to create stands out his free soul liberated from the desire for material. This is because of his belief: where there is dream, there is hope.

As discovered by viewer, Deng Wei will be the elite youth who can draw his own life with reality with its paintbrush in the future, though we might have no idea about those youth.

17:30, July 26th, 2016

Written in San Guan Palace, East Lake