The Image of Nothing - Painting with Reading Power
Peng Feng
Dean of the School of Art at Peking University
Curator of China Pavilion of the 54th Venice Biennale
The movie 'Mr. Nobody' tells us that for life, there is no difference in the ultimate meaning between what is real and what is imagined. When people without a surname look back on their lives, the real and imagined are intertwined, and no one can distinguish them. In this sense, for the construction of the meaning of life, fantasy and action are equally important.
Quanneng used his paintings to tell us the same truth. In the works of power, the real world, the world that reproduces reality, and the world of pure fantasy can be in the same space. The relationships between these worlds are not hierarchical, as Plato attempted to make us believe. They are completely equal, just like the world that appears in the memories of people without a surname.
Therefore, there is a certain reason why postmodern philosophers attach importance to language. When Richard Rorty emphasized that possessing a language means possessing a life; Create a language, create a life. This viewpoint sounds somewhat absurd. However, in the ultimate sense, it makes sense. When people look back on past events, the boundary between what happened and what didn't happen is blurry, and they are equal in memory.
It is in this sense that we can say that in the ultimate sense, the world of life is an image of nothing. The works of power show us his world and also tell us how he constructed his world. If we enter his paintings, we also enter his world; If we have his paintings, we also have his world. We can construct our own world through the painting of power, and even make the painting of power a part of our own world. As for whether we can become a part of the world of power painting, it depends on whether we can become objects without substance, stay in the memory of power, stay in people's memories.
