Truth and Hope of Fragments ——unscramble Wang Wang Wang’s works Brief Encounter

Generally speaking, after some image of upper stratum became invisible, people expect for the image of the lower stratum that broke loose to be extended abundantly. It is so called that the special images are closer to the fact than the common images. Is it really the fact? After human refusing to admit the God, what kind of status do they obtain? They not become more humanizing or obtain more extension, but left only cracked images and wither humanity. It appears as nihility in spirit, depression in will, and decadence in emotion. These are fragment effect. People, existing as life, should be regarded as a whole. So what makes it an entirety? The characteristic of life creation is to propagate everything from a being from the upper stratum, and in the end remains centering this being. If this center is lost, human then usurps this sovereign status, becoming the dummy image. The character occurs from this entirety is not common or special images, but a kind of fragment. No one can make 10,000 leafs with no repetition, but life can. It is because life contains the most abundant connotation and extension, but without maintain of life, human could only be parts of the fragments, having no ability to combine the fragment humanity.

The art of piecing together is portraiture of this personality. Among plenty of fragmented impressions, art may only left artistic attitude, but no art, since art is lively, but artistic attitude, being people’s perspective, could presents illusive diversity. Being one of the most famous Chinese graphic designers, Wang Wang Wang produced large amount of materialized labels, certain experience of the status under heavy stress created by material, makes it more profound than any other ones to understand how material invading us after losing the center of faith. His serial design Brief Encounter uses the structure of splicing, letting us see the basic relationship between today’s human and faith. But I want to say that the penetrable perspective is profited from his becoming a real living Christian. The God bestow upon him the sunshine, making him to see the scene of human beings, that is the various subtle situations between human and God among the fragments. After the status of entirety no longer exists, we can still see our truth though the way of fragments, which is absolutely the surprising discovery of Wang Wang Wang. Because there are many people trying, including Habermas who attempted to find that united entirety, and build a lost image from the upper stratum. We can’t help to ask that what the principle of this entirety is. Chinese cultural theologists also hope to build up a cultural theology system in order to explain contemporary. In fact, this is the same to imagining of Babel. I can understand Wang Wang Wang’s perspective, from a fragmented reality, in a way of poster, to describe our distance from God.

Road is his first impression. On the road, we can’t see the real visage of faith through a normal perspective, but only recognizing from the angle of rear view mirror. In fact, it is just the situation: human’s veto to the existence of God can’t make God disappear, but only make human itself absent, which meant that human should bear the sequence. In the future of human beings, the lack of guide makes them lose directions. In spite that human being admit or not, the experiences of darkness are occupying their center, absorbing all the things related to hope. On the road of abandon by human beings, we can see the shadow of the Saver, but he is behind us. This is an important metaphor. We can see that the runner is physically strong, but like David who shows the completeness of human, but he runs in the opposite direction to that of God. The appearance of David is a sign, after which humans began usurping the position of God, and it is also the beginning of the course of people’s fragmentization. Contravention became the unique character of modern people.

Wang Wang Wang describes a incommodious passage, indicating our plight. All the experiences of brief encounter are the symbols of the worst plight of human. What is this plight? In front of us, the faith that our eyes could not see seems to be no longer exist, but in the center of darkness, there is nothing else except larger darkness. From the categories of philosophy, culture, literature, art and society, people can’t explain everything anymore. Since the lack of reason, people can only make a sound, but can’t have a real talk. The function of words to describe the fact of existing no longer exists, and human plunges into emptiness. This is the reality of modern art which break through the boundary of art. Among many behavior art, we could only see the weak artistic attitude, but no passion, imagination, creation or the impression of faith, even being more indifferent to nature day by day. Why is this? it is because humans quit totally from the perspective that the Creator endowed with him, never again could they see the real scenery inside life. This is a blind Hutong, certain diagnostic of the exhaustion of creativity and the ability to experience.
Wang Wang Wang uses a direct image deduction to show his experience, not an abstract explanation, but the essence of posters. None of the obscure pictures could be enough to suggest the serious reality, because after human lost the supply of sacred life, all the existing things has only the outside left without the inside. In the Bible, all things described by God has both verity and appearance, however, those described by humans are only appearance without verity. This is the essence of symbolization. This is the central plight in culture of the modern people. When all the humanity characters gradually disappear, people are gradually loosing the brilliance of human, becoming an empty existing. In divinity school, we see a group of people studying theology, which seems that humans are trying to seek for the lost faith. And this could explain that after the farewell of the route of thoughts originated from Athens and the route of faith originated from Jerusalem at the fork of Renaissance and the Religious Reform, the former failure experience brought humans into a blind plight, and the later has always been existed as a guide, never leaves. This is actually the truth. But when humans are studying theology, Jesus is lowering his head, praying. This is an interesting impression. Humans could still establish a colossal system under the name of theology, while God praying. The only truth is originated from the throne, so truth would neither appear in the culture of human, nor in the theology of human, but being life bestowed on the soul of human in the life transport between human and God.
In the times of information explosion, Satan’s work is not how to show darkness itself. We should pay attention to his predecessor: the son of brightness. The character of the starting work of Satan is not opposing but puzzling. Wang Wang Wang produced an image. Among abundant of materialized impressions, certain overstocked things are not the main symbol, and what we should pay more attention to is Wang Wang Wang’s choice of a environment like stock market, which is an important symbol. In the Bible, we see that God says that do not love the world or anything in the world, does not mean we don’t love the world including human and nature which is created by God. This “world” refers to the area marked by “mammon” controlled by Satan, which is a influence sphere confronting to heaven. The character of the world is mammon worship, that’s why Satan has the right and ability to promise the splendor of the whole world to Jesus in test. ?The world’s second character is using large amount of information to hotchpotch the truth, not in the teeth of the truth. If we see from the perspective of human, we could hardly recognize what is truth and what is only human’s guess or even the trick of Satan from various cultures or even philosophy and theology. And then, there is only one character left, which is the truth from God has always been through the way of enlightenment, characterized by light, from up to down, having nothing to do human beings.

Wang Wang Wang gives us a description of the fragmented situation of human beings led by split. We could not regain an entirety. Perhaps one day, we could see another description by Wang Wang Wang, which is full of the scenery of the brilliance of humanity. He will give up the present method, and showing scenery with everything settled. The present illness is led by human’s culture, and couldn’t be settled in the cultural way. This is like leaving the earth, carrying one self’s hair. God dealt the Babel with differing people’s accents, and now we suffer from this mess. The differing of accents is a fragmented situation. Doctors use all kinds of humane way to cure, but only lead to the fragmentization of fragments. This is because of human’s essence of doubt after degeneration, which is also an important gift by the knowledge tree, as doubt is used to separate an entire thing, making clear what is the truth. However, this right is not in human’s hand as human would bear the result of endless fragmentization if he usurps this position, since he doesn’t have the right to name as God. This means human doesn’t have the right to name and then get what he names. In all that He names, oneness has been established. He is common image and special image; He is the upper, and the lower; He is life itself, and the extension of life. The only cure is from this Creator. And all of hope is here. He says to us that you are somebody, you would be called somebody. And then we are cured. When people are rescuing with hurry-crurry, this great Saver may beside us, near at hand. We could see him when we turn around.