The theme of Dai Zengjun’s exhibition this year in TodayArt Museum is Who Am I. But a glimpse of his work ”Naked man” will make us realize who is him, which act as a good evidence that Dai’s recent works about naked man are very familiar and  well-recognized within and out the circle.

When people first see Dai’s works, most of them will be always curious that he doesn’t pursue trend or fashion, not to speak of going with the stream. The major role in his pictures is not naked woman but a naked man who is not cool or handsome but a real man with white-skin looking plump and enthusiastically finding pleasure. White skin indicates that he is not a country man and stocky figure shows that his job is not very hard. So who on earth is that stocky and honest man with a pair of glass? It is not so much seeing his works as listening to his stories and jokes which are interesting and special for there are hidden secrets and baggage. Those seemed humorous pictures that win people’s smile were carefully elaborated by the artist. Actually it is a imagined “I” in the deep heart of the artist, say a white collar, a official, a professor, whoever but a guy with a rural complex, who is vividly represented in the free stage created by the artist. So what is that garden cherished by Dai, Adam’s Eden, Tao Yuanming’s lost paradise, or Monkey King’s Mount Huaguo? In my eye, these all are the garden he yearn for. Every picture of Dai seems like a wonderful segment of life in which the major role “naked man” has fewer chances to escape away from regulated society and stay in the rural nature. So he completely addict to nature. At this tine, “I” am a natural human being relaxing in nature and returning to nature. Natural human being have to return to society because for most of time he is a social human being. So when looking at Dai’s pictures, we feel ridiculous at this free and unconstraint man. Because when we enjoy the picture, we do not only see it in the view of nature, but also examine it with the social rules. The “I” in Dai’s pictures may be a modern Monkey King who is always restricted by Monk Tang after helping the weak. So only when he escapes from his pilgrimage way and back to his MountHuaguo, that he can becomes a real Monkey King. It is like a dream and a play which bitterness interweaved with happiness equally. This is called in the Orient, humor; in the Occident, tragedy, but they all mare art that human beings resort to show pleasure and pain during course of life. People yearn for freedom in nature and democracy and harmony in society. These all are unparalleled good hope of human beings. As a result, “Who Am I” matters nothing. Forgetting oneself is the real freedom and good thing.
- Yang Weimin

*image (left) 
Dai Zengjun 
Who am I, 2014
Oil on Canvas, 140x200cm
courtesy of the artist