Eyes enjoying loneliness in darkness by Zhao Li
It was in his personal art studio in Sichuan Fine Arts School of Chongqing in the year of 2005 that I first met Peng Jianzhong. At that time, his art studio was located on the second floor, which was of not quite large space and was already crammed with his works. All this showed that Peng Jianzhong was diligent and inexhaustible as an artist. Despite of the small space, yet this artist had still left a white wall specially for displaying his new works. This was the personal way of an introverted and quite artist to communicate his feelings to the outside world, which, however, turned out to be an effective way. That well accounted for the fact that I was moved at that time so that I recommended him to take part in an art collective exhibition, which was held in Guangzhou at the end of the same year.

Seen from the appearance, Peng Jianzhong’s paintings are the same as his character, which is introverted and quiet. His subject matter is not that kind of direct description of the society, and his picture is no willful publicizing of symbols, but rather like a picture of something immersed rising slowly from the bottom of a pool and finally emerging from the surface——slow, vague and drifty……, which corresponds to a certain of emotional struggle in the dim recess of human mind——variable, conscious and subconscious …….

Quite many of the works by Peng Jianzhong may generally give people a certain feeling of being placed into darkness because the colors and tones of his works are gloomy and depressing and the whole background of the pictures is made with the processed paint of nearly black color. Although some kind of depth of field is still maintained, which is limited and being controlled in its concrete embodiment, yet this depth of field has become a part which is able to develop itself independently by gaining limitless emotional hints. In fact, what Peng Jianzhong is trying to do is to play up purposefully the nameless anxiety with which the heart of people of the day is exactly permeated and as well as the deformed psychology which comes into being under the pressure as a result of this anxiety. Just as some philosopher from the western world says “the darkness in reality is not fearful and what is really formidable is that fact that the heart of people is surrounded with darkness.”

Peng Jianzhong finally made a decision to make use of the image of “children” to enforce the same purposeful manner of playing up the anxiety and the deformed psychology. Without doubt, “children” are the object with special meaning, with whose “naivety” all types of “pressure” may develop into unscrupulous invasion and with whose “smallness and weakness” any kind of “darkness” may be turned into doubtless helplessness. During the course of creation, what Peng Jianzhong has been trying to do is not only to establish the image of “children” and make constant enforcement, but also to turn the image little by little into certain kind of tension in the picture. The basis of this tension is the psychological salvation of “invasion” and “helplessness”, which, at the same time, is also the personal “salvation plan” of Peng Jianzhong as an artist.
Of course, Peng Jianzhong hopes to share and undertake this task of “salvation” with the viewers of his works through his works, and what’s more, hopes to make an attempt to develop the individual “salvation” ultimately into “hope project” which takes the salvation of human heart as its target. Peng Jianzhong makes use of the eyes of “children” to communicate his strong desire for “hope”. All the “children” in the pictures of his works have the usually big eyes, bigger than ordinary people. Even although we may find the prototypes of its image from the modern western art master——such as the works by Monk, an artist from Norway, most of which, however, simply embody the state of neuroticism or even mania and turn in the end into a expressing way to play up willfully personal feelings, yet Peng Jianzhong obviously does not only mean that. In addition, he consciously tries to keep personal feelings in his control and add narrative elements about the characters. While it is absorbing the organic nutrient from expressionism, his painting technique is not entirely restricted to expressionism and shows the degree of openness of his painting language.

In some of his latest works, Peng Jianzhong’s creation has made more progress and gained more change. One the one hand, “children” has the environment and background, which are specific to themselves. This is unlike the previous image, which is merely some kind of emergence from “darkness”. In this way, the works get their own “context” and offer the viewers more evidence to interpret his works, which leaves the picture all the more complex and rich. On the other hand, the image of “children” with closed eyes makes its appearance in the picture besides that of “children” with wide-opened eyes. This new image does not indicate that the communication channel between Peng Jianzhong and his viewers was stopped. One the contrary, it is endowed with the implication of some kind of “introspection”. Probably, Peng Jianzhong has switched from the previous hasty “salvation” to the deep exploration into the crisis situation of human beings themselves as well as inquiry into the meaning of “salvation” itself. The fact is that the “introspection” expression is more often than not of more penetrating force than the “direct” communication. In other words, when we stand before the paintings by Peng Jianzhong, we can not only feel the eyes of the “children” that try to escape from loneliness in darkness, but also can feel the eyes of Peng Jianzhong, which is able to enjoy loneliness in darkness.