World totality and historical utopia is now crumbling into ruins under the unscrupulous attack and invasion of physical "Desire Root"—culture dislocation and value division leads to a weak-minded and materialistic era where we inhabit and breed. When Wittgenstein "Language Game" disintegrates the barriers of philosophical metaphysics, desire has become the feast of cultural revelry; when Dreze validates desire as the true impetus of the world, one of the productivities, desire's formal symbol, has become new definition of existence in place of previous value coordinate. Besides, desire has become one potential, anxious, traumatic consciousness in the self-code system. Current existence is the bare one that one encodes one's desires with the purposes. The obviousness and indifference of mental trauma and collapse has never been seen before. However, the value of art criticism is continuously built and developed in the poor defeat, continuously questioning the existence of era and people in the era.

　　Perplexing the existence of people and questioning the spirit decay of times are surely reflected in both Lu Long' white-black woodblock printings and Zhang Gang oil paintings. In the works of two artists, desire, as the breakthrough point, cuts into in the frivolous, wicked, ironic and scoffed way….. In the works of Lu Long and Zhang Gang, desire is displayed, fulfilled and consumed in some scene from the starting point, and then is constructed as one form of times' falsehood, which not only underlines artist's sense based on the current existence and special appeal of art referring code, but also straightly discloses the nothingness, collapse and loss of spirit of the times and human value in the more levels. It is easy to see that two artists spontaneously use female body in their works. Lu Long chops and cuts with knife and ax to create a simple and imagist white or black body figure, such as engraving a complete and partial female nude in large white or black color. He also names his works with special meaning, such as Behind the Scenes, Represent, Release and etc. White or black female figure locate mostly in the picture's center, some even fulfill and transcend the picture.

　　Differing from Lu Long, female body in Zhang Gang's works is representational, sensual and sexual and plays the partial role in the whole picture, not in the center position in Lu Long's works, such as Taiping Rebellion 2016·04·20, Taiping Rebellion 2016·08·06 and etc. Apart from visional information in the picture, the subject ‘Taiping Rebellion'of Zhang Gang's paintings with deep meaning, tends to provoke deep thoughts as Lu Long's. Zhang Gang borrows one historical noun as his works subject. It is not only the explanation and supplement of his works. But more importantly, it serves as the absurdity, conflict and paradox of visual information expressed in the painting. In some sense, the subject becomes an essential part of the works. Although both artists express the same image symbol in different painting language, in the general perspective, with different references what they want to refer to is eventually the same: with the assistance of desire scene to analyze the dilemma of survival in the era. Two artists create a domain of desire game in different art language and expose the truth of existence in the formal paradox of desire.

Cross-the-line·Alienate: Emancipate in the white-black world

　　Lu Long majored ink painting during his studying in Chinese Central Academy of Fine Art (thereafter in short CAFA). Since leaving the university, he had employed ink and wash as the creation media for a long time. He even tried to paint in china instead, not only in Xuan paper. He wants to expand his art language boundary. Obviously, this white-black woodblock printing is the fruit of his crossing-the-line creation and reconsidering art language and media. This is also a profound reflection of what art is and what art can do, which makes Lu Long easily transfer from ink-and-wash humanist language context to questioning where the spirit of living generation exists, and meanwhile reset up his own coordinate in the art. The transference –artist language media leap—means an important turning point for Lu Long. Art language transference urges his art outlook change: to question human nature in the artist way, explore the value of life and ponder the boundary of freedom.

　　To explore human nature is to explore desire. What's more, the thinker must explore from his own existence situation. Because only from the essential perspective of his own existence is it possible for him to have the clear cognition of desire. The cognition is reflective and critical, which is the foundation to build up the new art coordinate. Lu Long is not only an artist, but also a teacher in CAFA, an art preacher in state system. No the unconventional attitude and personal independence, no acquirement of new art coordinate. Without discarding the past and seeking the future does one not make it at all. Freedom is the premise of art creation, that is, no free consciousness, no art creation.

　　Like many artists in China, Lu Long lives in the fences of depressed and disciplinary state system, in some circumstances that is the chains of mental freedom. However, he persists in seeking the art freedom. Spirit getting rid of the fetter is the key point for him to acquire freedom. The white-and-black woodblock printing is hereby the best demonstration of Lu Long to seek something new in the art. In the appearance of his small-size works, the transference and transformation of his language media can be easily seen, while behind his works it is bound to a spiritual interrogation of his own circumstances replacing pencil with knife. Engraving knife seems much sharper than brush. One's brush vigor can penetrate into the back of paper while one's engraving knife can cut through the obsolete mental wood panels. One cut-through in the canvas by Fontana, Italian artist broke the barriers in the western painting and ushered into a new thinking, a new concept, a new scene.

　　Lu Long's art language transference gap is limited, even we can say it is quite plain and ordinary. His transference from ink-and-wash to woodcuts, a more antique language expression is actually conservative, comparing with others' transference from painting to installation, behavior art or video field. However, Lu Long does not hasten to transfer to the modern or international media. Instead he begins with the plain and old woodcuts in a steady and well-ordered way. Woodcut is a total strange field for him as he studied ink-and-wash painting as the major. In the eye of academic woodblock prints artists, Lu Long is by all means a layman. Surprisingly, more than 300 woodblock prints are made out by this layman unscrupulously carving with knife, drawing with awl, chopping with axe. The first batch of his woodcuts practice is female body. Throughout history, female body is the main graphic representation in Eastern and Western traditional and modern painting or sculpture. For example, classic masterpiece Sleeping Venus by Giorgione, Spring by Ingres, the Veyron's Girl by Picasso, Down the Stairs of the Naked Girls by Duchamp, even in the contemporary painting, Gerhard Richter, German artist, also painted a piece of work about naked girls going downstairs, that is Richter borrowed from Duchamp's works.

　　Nowadays, female life class remains an important content in the basic training class in the academies or universities of fine arts, and also is the drawing subject of many artist and sculptors. All the traditional female body painting or sculpture leads to one eternal object: beauty, which demands artist or sculptor to display the body's figuring beauty in the works and display the works' art beauty. In general, the purpose is only limited to Duchamp's "retina pleasure". Female body in Lu Long refers to unconventional body aesthetics, as an ordinary representation in the traditional painting to unveil the artist's thoughts, or "consciousness". Therefore, "thoughts" become the key in Lu Long's works, as what Leavit, an American conceptual artist thinks: one thought is got before one piece of work is got, that means, one piece of work is good, which is based on a good thought. What Lu Long thinks directly represents in his works' name. The name of works is what the works refer to. In my humble opinion, this is the kernel of Lu Long's works.

　　Lu Long has finisheed more than 300 white-and-black woodblock prints till now, correspondingly it has more than 300 works' names, such as Red line, Collective Applause, Reward, Weapon in the Night, Lead-in, Cultivating the mass, Floating, Detour, Heresy….. 300 above names of works constitute Lu Long's art consciousness chain of thoughts. The logic of chain is the survival experience of his own circumstances, thought results of living value and dilemma of the times, just as what Lu Long writes in his art essay:"mockery, laughing, worry, irony, helplessness and etc. are only the skin of picture. However, behind the image incurred by all the emotions is a tragedy I am painting……" Besides the subject of female body, Lu Long's works involve in other subjects, such as Fame, Generous Hunter, Sign, will Harmony and etc., which is closely bonded with survival emergency of present generation. On the one hand, Lu Long discloses the existence situation of present generation in particular artist method. On the other hand, his art conception, through the woodblock print practice has been emancipated in the white-and-black world.

Complex · Playful · Absurd: Uncertain Survival

　　The spirit logic chains of art and culture avant-garde idealism in 1980's were broken in 1989 historical turmoil in China. Consumerism popularizing in 1990 leads in "material turning-around" of culture and art— according to the instruction of "What is actual is rational", the remaining idealism is turned into ashes and blown into the wind, and the "there" collapses into ruins. In the spirit ruins, what is only left and scattered is the rubbles of doing-nothing conception. Every attempt to promote and advance the art is unusually difficult in the heavy-loaded art history. It was like this in the past, so it remains today. However, the adventures in the art never stop, and it is committed to developing and advancing in the relay of young generation of artists.

　　Zhang Gang, one of the young 80's artists, was cast loose at an early age and travelled around to seek his art dream. As he started his art practice, cultural consumerism has already boomed and flourished in the era and profound silence prevails in the deserted spiritual and cultural ruins, just as cultural ruins confronting German artists after World War II. However, art revival must recover from the ruins and only the ruins could provide the continuous strength for art revival. Each era has its own art productive dimensions. The art value represents in the artists' creation of language pattern and represents the keen insight of the times, which is exactly the sensitivity of culture and spirit dilemma at that time.

　　In the postmodern multi-cultural scene, such conceptions like transplanting, reproduction, fragments, non-center and so on develop up a value dimension differing from tradition and modernism. The rule of traditional painting is to create a visual world by copy drawing in line with the reality. According to this rule, many tradition stickers, based on the misunderstanding of "art originates from life," think the value of art as a type of technique, an ability of imitation of nature. Art indeed originates from life, but what kind of life does art originate from on earth? If this question is not clarified, "art originates from life" in some sense is fallacious. Modern art is pushed into the stage by camera, which is a significant turning point in the western art history—what the artists want to paint alters from the external world to the internal world of artist himself, that is a self-discipline art world. Since the time of Cezanne, artists haven't referred to a realistic sample, haven't complied with external "visual reality". Instead they have abided by internal visual reality, or rather, art self-discipline. The development of art self-discipline accomplishes its historical mission at the peak of abstract expressionism.

　　The art development has always come from some kind of developing visual logic for a long time. Traditional art comes from a ready and defined visual logic that can be passed on by generations. Modern art comes from individualized creation aesthetic visual logic. However, the development of contemporary art comes from one particular culture scene logic, or rather, a conceptual logic. The kernel of notion logic is to interrogate the generation existence in critical perspective and to multi-construct the value of human existence. In contemporary art, artists refuse to rely on the realistic objects or obsolete art language as the traditional ones, and also refuse to base on the internal self-consciousness to create as the modern ones. Therefore, what contemporary artists think about and draw on mostly focuses on image, and hence image becomes the core resource of contemporary art. The innovative use of image belongs to Duchamp's "ready object" logic in conceptual perspective. In this field, the most representative artists include Andy Warhol, American Pop artist Andy Warhol, German artist Gerhard Richter, American artist Schally, conceptual artist Cindy Sherman and Prince, who use the photography as their creation media, and so on.

　　Thinking about and drawing on the image is the starting point of Zhang Gang's works. But Zhang Gang's notion of image is different from Gerhard Richter's. In Richter's works, images come from the permanent, certain, ready and material photos chosen carefully by Richter, which must comply with the previous and integrated value statement of artists. Differing from Richter, Zhang Gang is living in information-exploration Internet Digital era. Among the Generation X made by Internet internationalization, cosmic Internet images provide more creation resources for the new generation artists and inspire richer art imagination. Images in Internet era is digital ones. Its characteristic is complex, impermanent, material, virtual, fragmental and temporary. We even can say that Internet images are self-indulgent. To show the spreading is the essential feature of Internet images, which is totally different from photography in modernism time. In light of this, Internet images build up "the uncertain characteristic of image"……, which unlocks and promotes a re-deepening image era. The basic feature of contemporary existence in Internet era is flat, virtual, drifting, non-referring.

　　Art production is always closely related with the context where the artists situate. Zhang Gang's art thoughts and creative practice has deep roots in his own experience of wandering around as a youth and nurturing in Internet era. The series of Taiping Rebellion is created in his art language by reintegrating and transforming Internet images.

　　In Taiping Rebellion 2016·03·09, a hippopotami is surfacing from the water with a big bubble in its mouth. In the bubble there is a canton girl and a fish. On the fish back sits a curled-hair middle-aged nude woman. Fish and nude woman is the symbol of desire. The desire is growing and spreading under some restrains because of the hippo. The restrained desire struggles and flows in the surrealist creepy picture. In Taiping Rebellion 2016·05·31, a seductive and bashful girl sits on Budda Head surrounding with colorful flower and flying butterfly and parrots. Budda head is the symbol of belief while female body and flower imply the vulgar desire. All is downed and overwhelmed in the waves designed and edited by current artists—the fall of spiritual belief and vulgar desire. In Taiping Rebellion 2016·06·15, a naked girl decorating her hair with garland disrespectfully sits cross-legged on the top of marble pillar. It is all known that marble pillar symbolizes some power in the China history and current context and the power is the legal releasing channel of desire and the production machine of desire. Flower and naked girl symbolize the subject of the power and the existence sign of certain power in some degree.

　　In the chaotic, complex, playful and absurd Taiping Rebellion, Zhang Gang discloses current survival dilemma: "live in the meaningless world without any belief"(Weber). Kierkegaard, existentialism philosopher said: "belief is the peak of passion for human." When the passion disappear, the belief return to nothing, "deserving desire" controlled by realistic rules turns up as the sole existence reason for current generation. However, the kind of existence doesn't last for long. It is a temporary, uncertain survival existence. Only in the scene of uncertain existence does the artist have the chances to confirm his coordinate.

Liao Bangming

Beijing Songzhuang on March 20, 2017