Luo Yiping

The rational logic with a philosophic temperament is the essential feature of the works of Zuo Zhengyao.  it has been reflected in the artistic style of this artist. as a member of the artist group in hebei during the new Trend Period, Zuo dares to experiment and innovate. he has waded in philosophy, religion, mathematic, culture, life and all kinds of fields since 1950s. The media he has used includes ink, products, clay, and installation. Mr. Peng De once commented Zuo’s works as follows: “Zuo’s works always make an impression. But at the same time they seem to leave some room for extracting. The extract has nothing to do with complicated manipulation in detail.  it refers to a repeated extraction and purification in material, deep meditation in content and long-time measure for expression.” But Zuo made a breakthrough by consciously applying a pattern of ink painting to unfold the questions of exploring the female issues in his works “Woman Grey no.1”, “Woman red no. 1” and “Woman Full Color” during 2009 and 2011. in these works the artist puts “the female” into a game playing between individual and community, social space and history space. Through the personalized stroke the philosophic thinking is unveiled. The pictures are breathtaking, the stroke is ingenious, the reveal of the female issue gains a depth, and the critique to the society and culture is full of skill. 

The leading position of the symbolic pattern of “female” in the works could be seen as we watch Zuo’s works from different periods: from the pragmatism of women in “Green apple, ripe apple-Zuang Zi, lao Zi, and Wife” in the early days, the stylization and symbolization in “an  image Expression of a Dual unity”, the female pattern in “Dig the hole Deep”, “The road leads to the City” and “1.3 acres”, to the neurotic depiction of the female in “The spiritual home of simone de Beauvoir”, the artist explains the living situation of the women in various social spaces step by step. his personal concerns to the female are so obvious. Every life that has discriminative property in species is of viewers. on one hand Zuo clarifies his stand in works: jump out of the inertial thinking of male orientation, tell the people with paintings that the struggle for freedom and identity of the women comes from the self-aware individual and that they need to pass the rules of the society and the social ideology. Therefore an appeal for salvation and revolution can be found. on the other hand he applies an indifferent collectivity to present the truth. in his works we could clear feel that: the women under an institutionalized society are neither special nor various. They become a definable and controllable object. Then they encounter a confusion of spiritual value and meaning of life.  

The smartest part is that Zuo candidly or even consciously unveils the contradiction in the pictures and then makes a balance for both sides. When some problems could not be solved, the most effective way is an honest presentation. The artist realizes that the solution requires a long process. in the history of human, the matriarchal society comes before the patriarchy, but the patriarchy pushes the female into the bottom and fringe of a society. Base on the historic situation, the feminist made its voice to slam the patriarchy, hoping to overturn the men-lead order. Then the female-lead world that has once lost its history and culture could return. They hoped to demolish the biological differences between the two sexes and led the world to a new era of the female. But such a privative ideology makes no profit to the solution of the problem. The future of history and culture of the human need both men and women. just as what i have said at the beginning, the series of “the female” from Zuo has detected the key of the problem. The story of the paintings does not stay at the surface but deep into the internal contradiction of feminist. his personalized pattern of ink painting helps the people to face the existence of such problems.
     
Feminism appears first in the words of some literature writers in the 19th century. Till 1960s it has become a hottopic and nowadays a lot of critics and artists still discuss and research it. in my opinion, both the feminist and works for feminism focus not just the superficial questions of the female. as the marginal population, the women are treated by the world as second-class. This has made all the problems surround them more distinct. in Zuo’s works the reflection of the female issues is usually mingled with imperialism, colonialism, identity, right for speak and even urban culture and consumer culture that relate to social and cultural problems. Through this the irrationality of the inner structure of society is uncovered. and Zuo tries to find a legal way to improve the situation.