前言
金律希 | WATERGATE GALLERY 总监
希望和死亡永远在同一点上相会。所有这一切都让你最终只能回到自己的内心, 自己的梦里, 回到给你重生希望的过去所经历的一切。因为周围的黑暗, 你内心里的光亮会在条件反射下被无限的放大。—— 摘自潘德海访谈录
暗淡的时代一直都存在。潘德海在那个一切都被压抑的黑暗岁月, 为了找到新的光芒而努力, 寻求着生命的终究答案。他一直没有停止对存在的意义和生命价值的探索。他是一位通过内在的力量, 用艺术的沟通方式、抽象的笔迹表现生命内在性的艺术家。某种意义上我们可以说他不仅仅是个艺术家, 也是个善于用自我的独特的视觉语言连接观众、世界和艺术家内在世界的哲学家。
“跟随潮流的艺术只会被流走”潘德海一直注重艺术上的本质性变化, 没有跟随潮流。很长一段时间他以生命和人为主题, 那些象征着生命本质的小圆颗粒跟艺术家对故乡宽阔的玉米地记忆而产生的对生命本身思考紧密相连。从凝聚的圆形到胖胖的人的形态, 他一直在不停地构筑艺术家自己独特的视觉形象世界。那些过着充实生活的人们, 在潘德海的作品中表现为精神饱满的“胖子”, 借此来思考“存在”本身的意义是什么。
此次展览展出的潘德海新作都市系列, 依然生动形象地反映了现实生活的种种迹象和反映。那些不同形象的劳动者、军人, 都是我们日常生活中可以看到的, 这些俨然是中国社会变化带来的中国人的心理上的视觉呈现。在历史的演变中, 这些看似渺小的个体在创造着生命奇迹和我们可以看到的大城市, 潘德海的作品中反映的正是这样一个缩影。他用亮丽的色调来描绘大都市的生活, 给观众呈现出一种希望和愉快感。他作品中的人并没有去过多的奢望未来的世界, 只是在思考我们存在于这个社会的理由, 启发我们思考“存在”的意义。
了解中国历史的人都知道, 潘德海年轻的时候, 正是那一代青年人看不到希望的时候, 对“世界本质”的追问成了一代人的思考所在, 而对西方哲学的学习, 是潘德海那个年代的人寻找苦恼的一个途径。文化大革命的混乱, 飞速发展的中国经济, 很多中国艺术家对中国的体制在视觉上进行了呈现和批判, 但潘德海却一直坚持通过对生命本质的思考来观看他看到的世界。现在世界经济危机, 让很多人感到不安, 但是我们仍然坚持矫健的步伐来经历每一天的生活。在世界剧烈变化中为寻求希望而彷徨的艺术家潘德海, 他的作品中那些愉快的人们似乎在给我们一种安慰。
在这样的时期, 我们期望WATERGATE GALLERY今年最后的展览——“潘德海第一次韩国个展”给观众带来欣然面对生活的新动力。
Forward
Yulhee Kim | WATERGATE GALLERY Director
Hope and death always meet. Everything takes us back to our hearts, dreams, or past experiences to give us hope because we are surrounded by darkness, making the light in our hearts reach the infinity in reaction to it. –Pan Dehai -
The age of darkness was always there. Pan Dehai traveled around in search of new light and the ultimate answer to his questions on life when everyone was suppressed, in darkness, and lack of hope. Furthermore, he continued his exploration of the meaning of existence and value of life. Pan Dehai is an artist who uses his inherent power, artistic communications, and abstract forms to express the intrinsic characters of life, and he is also a philosopher who questioned whether he could link the audience and the world to his intrinsic world using his unique visual language.
“Trendy art just flows like that,” as Pan Dehai said, he has paid attention to essential changes to avoid trend. Pan Dehai has examined life and people for a long time. Small, rounded particles, representing the essence of life, were related to the depth of life from his memory of endless corn fields in his hometown. The coagulated forms of rounds soon transformed into the image of fat people and built his original world of image. His artworks, the products his visual exploration of the significance of life and existence, express his spiritual affluence through the obedient fat people that diligently engage in everyday life.
The new Urban Series show complete reality. The pieces depicting changes which the Chinese society is going through seem to depict us; various figures of laborers, soldiers, and ordinary people in Pan Dehai’s paintings represent our daily life. The Urban Series are like miniature representations of the metropolis, which have been built by the history of life, and ourselves in daily activities. Urban life in these paintings is expressed by bright colors and positively entertaining with hope. Pan Dehai’s paintings change the perspectives of viewers and encourage people to re-contemplate the reason of their existence and how to be original.
Pan Dehai has gained profound knowledge on western philosophy when he was enduring the time of darkness. He deeply immersed in philosophy to comprehend the world and stood by his faith that examining the essence of life would lead to his comprehension of the world, whereas other artists criticized the shock of chaotic cultural reformation and the nihility of rapid economic growth of China.
Today, we are facing the global economic slump and are living in angst and instability. Nevertheless, we are still pedaling to survive our day-to-day life. The answers of an artist who has sought a new light in the transition of times would be able to console everyone that is still in search of the meaning of existence amid the shock of enormous societal changes. Hoping for the world to enter a new era beyond today’s chaos, I wish that Pan Dehai’s first solo show in Korea which will be the last exhibition in 2008 for the Watergate Gallery can be a warm ray of light to explore the meaning of existence in our life.
【编辑：霍春常】
