邓箭今——易　英

 

易　英

 

一个艺术家画了某些私密性的题材，如果这些作品在公共场合展出，就会引起一些争议，最多的指责是不雅观或不道德。这些指责似乎是为公众代言，实则是出自自身内心的某种恐惧。艺术中有很多不能言说的东西，言说出来就成了表征。邓箭今的画可以是一种表征，他言说了不能言说的东西。不能言说包括两个方面，一个是不便言说，由于某种顾忌或禁忌，说出来怕别人接受不了，也可能触犯“道德底线”，受到卫道士们的诘难。另一个不能言说是自己没有意识到的东西，说出来了自己还不知道。事实上，这两种不能言说都存在于邓箭今的艺术中。

在邓箭今的早期作品中，经常出现他自己的形象，这个压抑的漂泊的形象与超现实的空间结合在一起，是他的精神世界的真实写照。邓箭今没有受过专门的油画训练，这使得他在创作上有某种程度的自由。自由也意味着某种程度的真实，他不会去想怎么符合某些教条与规则，而是以真实和自由获得打动人的力量。在那时的画中，他塑造了一个被压抑的形象，痛苦的表情、扭曲的身体、荒诞的透视和虚幻的空间，这个形象虽然来自他本人，但更多地是个人内心的发掘。那个形象在紧张地向外注视，也就是有一个同样注视着他的他者，那是一个使他恐惧的他者，是在他的生命历程中压制和困扰着他的他者。在有些作品中，还会出现

都市的背景，这其实是很重要的暗示，都市作为他的生存环境，对他的精神状况有着决定性的影响。那个时候，正是90年代初期，中国社会正在发生重大的变化，都市化进程随着经济的快速发展对人的生活产生影响，新生代的艺术家对这种变化也做出了深刻的反映。不过，新生代艺术家主要是用现实主义手法如实地记录现实，邓箭今则是注重心理的描写和表现。按照现代主义的传统分类，邓箭今应该是超现实主义的类型。超现实主义意味着主体的自我审视，客体通过主体的精神性暗示出来。在邓箭今的早期作品中，其精神性并不完全体现在超现实的形式，主体的意志是客体反映的镜像，那种痛苦与紧张，性的压抑与爱的向往，一切客体造成的结果，都是通过自我的形象表现出来。这个特点，使邓箭今一开始就在新生代独树一帜。另一方面，这种状况的形成与他不按规矩出牌很有关系。无论从哪个角度来看，邓箭今的油画都谈不上正统，从陶艺转向油画是出于内在的需要，这种需要被他对油画的偏爱所掩盖。在他的画中，看不到任何规范的油画语言，而内心述说的冲动总是在这种不规范中涌现出来，形成他独特的表现形式。我们很难把他归类到写实的、表现的，甚至是超现实的；那种无深度的虚无的空间，无体积的平面化的形象，似乎都不需要过多的油画技巧，而且没有技巧的包袱，更适合于他的自由的表达。在谈到自己的创作时，邓箭今谈得多的是形式。他的形式包括两个方面，一个是形式的独创性，他在骨子里是瞧不起那套学院派的油画规则，那种无生命无精神性的油画语言只是属于历史，无法表现今天的生活，今天的需要新的表达方式。其二是形式作为个人的表达，在当代的生活与现实中，个人遭遇的经验，他的观察与体验，他的情境与思考，都以他自己的方式表达出来。这样也涉及到了题材。本来在他的作品中题材是不重要的，自我的形象加上形式的处理，就是他的题材。不过，那个焦虑的自我在某种意义上也是脱离了主体的客体（题材），即客体的人格化。主体被一分为二，一个是审视着客体的主体，一个是被客体镜像和被另一主体审视的主体。因此，邓箭今的作品从来不是自我表现的，客体总是存在着，但是以他自己的方式存在的，这样也形成他独特的形式。

在哲学意义上说，主体的分裂往往是思想与身体的分裂，主体作为能思的实体观照无思想的生命。不受思想支配的生命就是欲望的身体，被思想所鄙视。2000年前后，邓箭今的作品掀开了客体的面纱，自我隐退，那个镜像自我的客体浮现出来。在这一批作品中，自我的形象没有了，超现实的虚无空间也没有了，代之以景观的或客体的形象，但这种形象是隐喻与象征的，而非特定的人物形象。90年代波普化的大潮终于对邓箭今产生了影响，晦涩的颜色被明亮鲜艳的颜色所代替，这种颜色不是自然的颜色，更不是传统油画所追求的色调，它来自于当代生活的空间，亦即图像与景观的视觉空间。但是，这种新的形式在邓箭今那儿应该不是直接来自他的视觉经验，而是艺术潮流的影响。也就是说，90年代风行的波普画风的影响。从90年代初开始，中国经济的迅速发展，市场经济取代计划经济，社会生活发生深刻变化，权力与金钱、暴富与赤贫、欲望与现实所导致的各种现象充斥于生活。邓箭今开始关注这些现象，并想探索造成这些现象的原因。这个时期的作品是《有关目击者的梦境记录系列》（1998-2001）。大多数新生代画家都走向了纯粹客体的表现，从语言形态到客观场景，在商业化的驱使下，这些表现又很快演变为符号化的模式。邓箭今注意到了这种变化，他从幽暗的心理空间出来，自我被置于公共的象征性空间，但这个象征性的客体只是自我的存在条件，自我被挪出历史的境遇，从现代转变到后现代，但还有一半留存在历史。这是什么意思，可以通过画面来解读。《梦境记录系列》的画面主要有两个部分，即两个没有面目的人物，男人和女人，男人西装革履，女人几近裸体。两个人物都握有一支手枪，或相互对峙，或相互亲热。两个人物都近似梦中的景象，弄不清真实的身份，行为也十分怪异。与他前面的作品不同，以前在梦中漂浮的人物，可以明确地辨识出自我，但空间是虚幻的。因此，在那儿有一种绝对的主体性，形象与形式都再现了自我的精神世界。在《梦境记录系列》，自我被抽象了，被分裂为两个模糊的形象。也就是说，作品中的两个人物是一个人，是表象与本质、欲望与理智、头脑与身体的分裂。实际上，画面上还有第三个部分，就是画面的颜色，画中的人物是用各种单纯的颜色来代表的，有些背景也是用的纯色，颜色的运用是有象征性的，这种单纯的不协调的颜色可以说是景观颜色的象征，即由商业、消费、大众文化等构成的景观社会的视觉环境。景观的颜色是自我分裂的基础，它代表了物质利益的诱惑作为欲望的来源，将人格分裂为欲望的冲突与传统人格的坚守。男人代表理性与传统，女人代表欲望与身体，各自手中的枪则是冲突的标志。这种冲突不是绝对的，有时是相互对抗，有时是相互结合，如同欲望的诱惑与达成。在这里女性的形象具有双重性，她既是欲望的对象和象征，也是从男人或自我中分离出来的感性部分。但是，男人的形象并不代表思想和道德，而是在欲望的诱惑下走向堕落的深渊。欲望的表象有内在的因素，也有外部的因素。作为外部的因素，色彩的设计与某些符号的设定是重要的暗示，即景观社会的表象，物质利益至上，理性丧失原则，思想流于贫乏，精神堕入空虚。内在的因素则是以性来代表的，具体体现在两性之间的关系上。尽管如此，性并非指具体的性的行为与对象，而是潜意识的欲望冲动。因为画家在标题上指明了“目击者的梦境记录”，即，日有所思，梦有所想，目击者可以理解为艺术家本人，日常生活中的观察与体验在梦中折射出来，梦境不是对现实的复制，而是经过潜意识的歪曲与变形，而潜意识的深层则是性的冲突。孤立地考察梦境，只是个人生活的变形的写照，但目击者的对象则规定了潜意识的对象不是个人的性的压抑，而是客体的反映。我们不清楚的是，邓箭今是把自己作为“目击者”，真实地记录自己的梦境，还是对一种风格与样式的挪用，即超现实主义样式的当代翻版。如果是后者，邓箭今还实现了形式的突破，在观照现实的基础上，以一种超现实的象征反映社会的深刻变化，在这种方式中，也包括艺术家本人的深刻体验。

《目击者的梦境记录》实现了超现实的形式转换，转换的要害是景观社会的视觉经验与社会现象。由于邓箭今以前的作品是在传统的超现实风格中，反映的也是80年代的生存经验，这种转换犹为显得重要。同时，转换也为他提供了新的形式，但形式不是样式化的，而是具有现实与精神的内涵。主体的分裂是在客体作用下的对象化，这种对象化在《目击者的梦境记录》中以异性的身体体现出来，而《夕阳为什么让我们如此美丽》则让身体独立出来，梦境成为现实，主体与客体分离，主体成为观看者，客体成为再现。按照邓箭今自己的说法，无论是前者还是后者，都是为了反映对现实的思考，是对青春、性、暴力、欲望等引发的社会现象的模糊的表现。实际上，邓箭今考虑得更多的还是艺术的本体，现实是形式得以实现的诱发剂。对于邓箭今来说，现实是模糊而抽象的，尽管所有社会事实是具体的，但他的目的不是直观地反映现实。在《夕阳为什么让我们如此美丽》中，人物也不是具体的，似乎是某种现象的暗示而非事实的表述。身体不再是从主体分离的客体的象征，而是直接作为主体的对象，裸体的异性暗示了她们作为欲望的载体，图像化的色彩是消费社会的象征，“美丽”是针对性的消费而言，“夕阳”则是堕落的喻意。也就是说，在当今社会性别已堕落为消费的对象，只要有钱，一切都可以买卖。印象派画家马奈的《奥林比亚》最先表现了社会的这一事实，性成为公开的合法的商品，侧卧在床上的“奥林比亚”目视着她的客户，旁边的女仆正接过客人送来的鲜花，“奥林比亚”之美正是等待客人消费的商品。在邓箭今的画中，这种关系被虚化了，它不是现实场景的反映，而是形式与内容的互动，形式的实验甚于内容的表达。90年代以来形成的波普画风在多大程度上对邓箭今发生影响，从这些画面中可以看出。波普艺术以消费社会为背景，在中国这个有限的消费社会，波普艺术体现得并不纯粹，邓箭今对于波普的借用也是如此，在背景的处理上有明显的波普化图像化的特征，这既可视为潮流的影响，也可视为画面的需要。更为重要的是，图像化也包含了艺术家本人的视觉经验，对他本人而言，即从乡土经验向都市经验的转化。应该指出的是，邓箭今的图像化是非常隐晦的，也就是说，他不是对图像的直接挪用，直接反映自然而制作的图像可以称为元图像，而不论这个图像的功能是什么。波普艺术往往是对元图像的直接挪用，即图像的再现，或者说是再现的再现。元图像的梯次再现在中国是很独特的现象，原因在于中国绘画的写实传统，邓箭今也不例外，人物与背景就是这种关系的体现，但两者都打上了他自己的印记，既非样式化地挪用图像，也非写实传统的简单重复。他的人物按照自己的传统来变形，并不协调于背景（的颜色），这不仅暗示了人与景观的异化，也形成他自己的独特的形式。

《再见和不眠夜》是《夕阳为什么让我们如此美丽》的延续，这种延续不是指形式，而是指主客体的关系，无论是超现实还是图像化都在这种延续中隐退，从无意识的主客体分裂到客体化的暗示，纯粹的客体终于浮出水面，这在邓箭今是一个很大的转变。《再见和不眠夜》使人感到震惊的是对色情的赤裸表现。在以前的画中，主体总是显现于画面，尽管主体不是以明确的身份出现，但在梦境与幻觉中的形象暗示了主体的在场。在《再见和不眠夜》中，主体被彻底地分离出来，他成为现场的观者，不过，这个观者与作者的双重身份迫使真正的观者服从于作者的意志。对于任何观者来说，《再见和不眠夜》的题材是自明的，《目击者的梦境记录》和《夕阳为什么让我们如此美丽》由梦境与幻觉成为现实，其象征的意义还在于隐秘的色情成为公开的交易。作为作者的观者也是隐秘的在场。与前面的作品相比较，《再见和不眠夜》有两个显著的特点，一个是强烈的现场感，作者一反以前模糊和抽象的形象，画中的人物形象似能清晰地辨析，如果说以前的人物是从主体分离出来的象征，现在的人物则是作者直观的对象。人物之间的关系构成色情的场景，甚至那些男人的形象都可以理解为低俗的暴发户。其二是风格的变化，以前的人物表现讲究体积与塑造，这可能反映了邓箭今在潜意识中对专业身份的追求，随着艺术的波普化与图像化，这种追求已不必要，或者说他的成就已不取决于这种身份，于是形象的自我追寻变成形式上的自我表现。风格的变化并不完全是形式的意义，因为在形式的表现中有强烈的个人印记，这种印记标志着个人的在场。《再见和不眠夜》中的人物大多直视着画面的正前方，也就是直视着现场的观者。这个观者也就是作者本人，他是作为事件的目击者和记录者，但是也正是这种在场破坏了色情的逻辑，使作品回归象征。这不是说事实的不真实，而是并非具体的事件。题材对于形式有着创造性的意义，尤其在邓箭今的画中，题材是现实的，然而又不是真实的再现。画中的人物有符号化的特征，形象、服饰、发型等，这些都暗示了事件的整体性，一个整体的堕落。物质主义社会中的社会的分裂、贫富的分化、道德的崩溃被浓缩在他的画中。曾经在他的心灵中挣扎的自我、分裂的人格被彻底地对象化了。但是我相信，邓箭今不是在执行社会批判的职能，他仍然是在他的个人世界里面，从他创作的初始，他就把自我放在中心的位置，这个自我总是在外部的压力下徘徊、困惑和抗争，压力可能来自生存的环境、艺术的内部或社会的生活，但从来不在他的作品中直接地显现。但他必定要走出自我的世界，寻找压力的根源，其中重要的原因是“外面的世界太精彩”，在自我表现的语言行将枯竭的时候，生活本身更新了自我。曾经作为客体镜像的自我成为客体的窥视者，色情、堕落、金钱与性的交易，这些在繁华下隐秘的社会毒瘤被他揭示出来，使观众也站到了窥视的位置。

邓箭今仍然在经历一个精神的历程，现实震撼了他的心灵深处，他以自己的方式表达出来，我们也感到了震撼。

 

                                                            2008

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An artist paints some privacy themes. If these works are displayed in public places, some controversies will arise, most about the accusation of immorality of offensive to eyes. It seems that these accusations are speaking for the public, but actually, they are from some kind of fear in inner heart. There are many unsayable things in art. Saying will become tokens. Deng Jianjin’s painting can be taken as a token. He is speaking many unsayable things. The unsayable includes two aspects: one is inconvenient to say because of some scruple or taboo, and the fear of the others’ unacceptability or the committing of “moral line” as well as the accusation from the apologists.  The other one unsayable is something hasn’t be realized by oneself. It is still unknown by oneself even if it is spoken out. In fact, both of these two unsayable ones exist in Deng Jianjin’s art.

       In Deng Jianjin’s early works, his own images always emerge. This pent-up and drifting image together with the surreal space is the real reflection of his spiritual world. Deng Jianjin never takes the professional training of oil painting, which gives some degree of freedom on his creation.  Freedom also means some degree of truth. He doesn’t think of how to meet these rules and dogmas, but accesses the power to touch others by truth and freedom. In the paintings at that time, he created a pent-up image with painful expression, twisted body, absurd perspective and virtual space. Although this image comes from him, it’s more about the exploration of the inner heart. This image is nervously watching outwards, which means there is another one watching him as well. This is the one making him fear; the one suppresses and disturbs him in his life. In some works, the emergence of the urban background is an important hint. City as his living environment has the decisive impact on his spiritual state. At that time, the early 1990s, Chinese society is undergoing the huge changes; the process of urbanization along with the rapid development of economics influences the people’s lives. The artists of the new generation make profound reflections to this change. However, the artists of new generation record reality mainly by realistic ways, while Deng Jianjin emphasizes on the psychological description and expression. According to the traditional classification of modernism, Deng Jianjin should belong to the type of surrealism. Surrealism implies the self-examination of subject and the object suggested by the spirit of subject. In Deng Jianjin’s early works, his spirit is not totally reflected in the surreal form. The subjective will is the mirror of the objective reflection. The pain and tension, the sexual oppression and the longing for love, and all of the results caused by objects are expressed by self-image. This characteristic makes Deng Jianjin unique from the beginning in the new generation. On the other hand, the formation of the state is much related to his actions violating rules. To any point of view, Deng Jianjin’s oil paintings are not orthodox. The conversion from pottery to oil painting is for the internal need. This need is covered by his preference to oil painting. In his paintings, we can see no standard language of oil painting. The inner impulse of teller is always emerging in the irregularity, forming his unique form of expression. It is difficult to classify him to realism, expressionism even surrealism; the space of non-depth and emptiness, and the plane image without cubage does not need too many skills of oil painting and don’t carry the burden of technique, which is more suitable to his free expression. When talking of his own creation, Deng Jianjin is mostly frequently talking about form. His forms include two aspects. One is the formal originality. He deeply looks down the set of academic rules of oil painting. The dead and unspiritual language of oil painting only belongs to history and cannot describe today’s life which asks for new expressive ways. The second is that the form as the personal expression. In the contemporary life and reality, his personal experience, his observation and experience, as well as his situation and thinking, are expressed in his own way. This also relates to the theme.  Originally, the themes are not important in his works. Self-image in addition to the treatment of form is his subject. However, to some extend, the anxious self is the object (theme) departing away from the subject, which is the personification of object. The subject is divided into two: one is the subject watching the object; the other is the subject being watched by objective mirror and another subject.  Therefore, Deng Jianjin’s works are never self-expressive; the object always exists but exists in its own way, which also creates it unique form.

       To the philosophical sense, the split of subject is always the split of thinking and body. Subject as the thinking entity reflect the life without thinking. The life without the dominance of thinking is the body of desire, which is disdained by thinking. Around 2000, Deng Jianjin’s works lift the veil of object. The self retired and the mirror-object of self emerges. In this set of works, the self-image disappeared and the surreal empty space disappeared. They are replaced by landscape or objective images, but these images are of symbol and metaphor, rather than particular figures. In the 1990s, the trend of Pop art finally had an impact on Deng Jianjin. The obscure colors are replaced by bright colors which are neither the natural colors nor the tone pursued by traditional oil painting. They come from the space of contemporary life that is the visual space of icons and landscapes. However, for Deng Jianjin, this new form should not be directly from his visual experience but the impact of art trend. In other words, it’s the impact of the pop art fashionable in the 1990s. Since the early 1990s, China’s economy has rapidly developed. The market economy has replaced the planned economy. There are profound changes have happened in the social life. The various phenomena derived from power and money, wealth and poverty, and desire and reality fill in lives. Deng Jianjin began to concern these phenomena and wanted to explore the reasons of these phenomena. His typical work of this period is the series Dream Records about Witness (1998-2001). Most of the artists of the new generation came to the expressions of pure objects, from language modal to objective scenes.。Under the drive of commercialization, these expressions soon turned into symbolic models. Deng Jianjin noted these changes. He departed from the dark psychology. The self is located in the public symbolic space, but the symbolic object is the condition of self-existence. The situation of the self’s being removed from history is changed from the modern to the postmodern, but there’s a half retained in history. What does it mean? It can be interpreted through the screens. In Dream Records Series, the screens mostly have two parts, namely, two figures without faces, men and women, the men in suits and the almost naked women. Both of them are holding a pistol, confronting with each other or affecting each other. The two figures are of dream-like scene, unclear of their identities, with weird acts, and different with his previous works. In his previous works, the subjects of the figures floating in dreams can be recognized, but the space is illusive. Thus, there is an absolute subjectivity. Both of form and image reproduce the spiritual world of the self. In Dream Records Series, the self is abstracted and split into two fuzzy images. In other words, the two figures in the works are oneness. It’s the split of appearance and nature, desire and reason, and mind and body. In fact, there exists the third part on the screen: the colors. The figures in the screen are represented by a variety of solid colors. Some backgrounds also use solid colors. The solid and unharmonious colors can be taken as the visual environment of the society of spectacle constituted by business, consumer, and public culture and so on. The color of landscape is the basis of self-split.  It represents the material profits as the origin of desire. The personality is split into the conflict of desire and the firmly standing by the traditional character. Men represent reason and tradition; women represent desire and body. The pistol in each hand is the symbol of conflict. The conflict is not absolute. Sometimes they are confronting with each other, and sometimes they are combining with each other, like the temptation and achievement of desire. Here the female image has duality. She is both the object and symbol of desire and the sensitive part separated from man or self. However, the male image doesn’t represent thinking and morality, but it falls into the abyss of degeneration under the temptation of desire. The appearance of desire has internal factors as well as external factors. As the external factors, the design of color and the set of some symbols are the important implications, namely, the appearance of the society of spectacle, the material interests above everything else, the loss of reason, the poorness of thinking, the spirit falling into vainness. The internal factors are represented by sex and concretely embodied in the intersexual relationship. However, sex doe not refer to the concrete sexual action and object, but the impulse of subconscious desire. As the painter indicates in the title “the dream records of witness”, as the saying “the night dreams reflect the daytime thinking”, so the witness can be understood as the artist himself. The observation and experience of daily life are reflected in dreams. Dream is not the copy of reality, but distorted and deformed by sub-consciousness whose nature is the sexual conflict. If we explore dreams alone, they are just the distorted reflections of personal life, but the object of witness stipulates the object of sub-consciousness is not the personal sexual oppression, but the reflection of object. We are not clear whether Deng Jianjin is taken himself as “witness” truly recording his dreams or it’s a embezzlement of style, namely, the contemporary copy of the surrealistic model. If it’s the latter, Deng Jianjin realized the breakthrough of form, on the basis of observing reality reflect the profound changes of society by surreal symbol. This way also includes the profound experience of the artist himself.

 

The Dream Records of Witness achieves the formal conversion to surrealism. The key of the conversion is visual experience and social phenomena of the society of spectacle. Because the previous works of Deng Jianjin are of the traditional surreal style, reflecting the survival experience of the 1980s, the conversion seems very important. At the same time, the conversation also provides him the new form which is not formalistic but with the spiritual and realistic connotation. The split of subject is the objectification influenced by object. In The Dream Records of Witness, this objectification is embodied in the body of the opposite sex. In Why Does Sunset Make Us So Beautiful, body is allowed to be independent, dream becomes reality, subject is separated from object, subject becomes observer and object becomes reproduction. According to Deng Jianjin’s interpretation, whether the former or the latter is to reflect the thinking of reality, and the fuzzy expression of the social phenomena caused by youth, sex, violence, desire and so on. In fact, the most consideration of Deng Jianjin is the ontology of art. The reality is the inducing agent of the realization of form. For Deng Jianjin, the reality is vague and abstract. Although all of the social facts are concrete, his goal is not to directly reflect the reality. In Why Does Sunset Make Us So Beautiful, the figures are not specific. They seem like the implication of some phenomena rather than the statements of facts. Body is no longer the symbol of object separated from subject, but directly the target of subject. The naked women imply that they are the carrier of desire. The colors constituting images are the symbol of consumer society. “Beauty” is aimed at the sexual consumer; “sunset” is the metaphor of degeneration. In other words, gender has been degenerated into an object of consumption in today’s society. Everything can be sold for money. Impressionist painter Manet’s Olympia firstly demonstrates this social fact. Sex becomes the public legitimate goods. Olympia is side-lying in bed watching her client; the maid alongside is taking over the flowers the guest brought. The beauty of “Olympia” is the goods waiting for the guest to consume. In Deng Jianjin’s paintings, this relationship is virtualized. It is no longer the reflection of real scenes, but the interaction between form and content. The experiment of form is more than the expression of content. How far the Pop style since the 1990s impacts on Deng Jianjin can be seen from these screens. Pop art takes the consumer society as the background. In China, the limited consumer society, pop art is not purely reflected. Deng Jianjin’s use of pop art is also like that. The treatment of background obviously has the characteristic of the pop icon, which can be taken as the influence of the trend and the requirement of the screen. More importantly, the icon also includes the personal visual experience of the artist. For him, it is the conversion from rustic experience to urban experience. It should be noted that Deng Jianjin’s icons are very obscure. In other words, his use is not the direct embezzlement of icons. The images directly reflecting nature can be known as primary image regardless of the function of the image. Pop art is always the direct embezzlement of primary image, namely, the reproduction of image or the reproduction of reproduction. The echelon reproduction of primary image is very unique phenomenon in China due to the realistic tradition of Chinese painting. Deng Jianjin is not an exception. Figure-background is the embodiment of this relationship, but  both of them are marked with his own imprint. It is neither the formal embezzlement of image nor the simple repeat of non-realistic tradition. His figures are deformed according to his own tradition, incoordinate with the (color of) background. It not only implies the alienation of people and landscape, but also forms his own unique form.

 

Farewell and Sleepless Night is the continuation of Why Does Sunset Make Us So Beautiful. This continuation is not referring to the form but to the relation of subject and object. Either surrealism or pictorialization is retreating from this continuation. From the unconscious split of subject and object to the hint of objectification, the pure object finally surfaced. This is a significant change of Deng Jianjin. Farewell and Sleepless Night astonishes the audiences by the naked expression of pornography. In his previous works, subjectivity is always appeared in screen. Although the subject is not present as a clear identity, the images in dream and illusion imply the presence of the subject. In Farewell and Sleepless Night, the subject is thoroughly separated and becomes the observer of the scene. However, the dual role as audience and author forces the real audience obey the will of the author. For any audience, the theme of Farewell and Sleepless Night is self-evident. The Dream Records of Witness and Why Does Sunset Make Us So Beautiful are composed by dream and illusion. Their symbolic significances lie in the private eroticism as open trading. The audience as author is also of hidden presence. Compared to his previous works, Farewell and Sleepless Night has two specific characteristics; one is strong sense of scene. The author is opposite to the previous fuzzy and abstract images. The figures in the image can be recognized clearly. If we say the previous figures are the symbols separated from the subject, then the current figures are the objects of the author’s direct perception. The relationship between figures constitutes the pornographic scenes; even the male images can be understood as the vulgar upstarts. The second is the change of his style. The previous figures just pay attention to size and shape, which might reflects Deng Jianjin’s pursuit of professional identity in his sub-consciousness. Along with the art trend of pop and pictorialization, this pursuit is not necessary, or his achievement no longer depends on this identity, so the pursuit of self-image turned into the self-expression of form. The change of style is not entirely of the formal significance, because in the formal expression there’s strong personal imprint. This imprint signifies the personal presence. Most of the figures in Farewell and Sleepless Night are looking steadily at the front of the screen, namely, the present audiences. This audience is the author himself. He is the witness and recorder of the event, but just this presence destroys the logic of eroticism and makes the work return to symbol. It doesn’t mean the event is not true, but means it’s not specific event. Theme has creative significances to form. Especially in Deng Jianjin’s paintings, the themes are neither real nor the reproduction of reality. The figures in the paintings have the characteristics of symbols. Shape, costumes and hair styles imply the integrity of the event-a degeneration as a whole. The social division, the division between the rich and the poor, and the moral collapse in the material society are concentrated in his paintings. The struggling self once in his heart and the split personality are thoroughly objectified. But I believe Deng Jianjin is not implementing the function of social criticism. He remains in his own world. Since the beginning of his creation, he has been self-centered. The self is always wandering, confused and resistant under the pressure of the outside world. The pressure may come from the living environment, the inner of art or the social life, but it is never directly expressed in his works. However, he has to come out of his own world to find the origin of pressure. One of the major reasons is “the outside world is too splendid”. When the language of self-expression is going to be dried up, the life renews itself. The self once as the objective mirror becomes the voyeur of object. He revealed the social malignant tumors hidden in prosperity, eroticism, degeneration, money and sexual trades, made the audiences stand in the position of peep.

 

Deng Jianjin is still going through a spiritual journey. The reality has shocked his deep soul. He expresses it in his own way, which also shocks us.

 

2008