一次邂逅的际遇与青年才俊沈朝方其作其人相会，在观赏了他创作的新媒体Video艺术《芒种》作品系列之后，大致上说，沈朝方的这些作品给我的直觉体味便是繁丽华彩之下的焦虑与幻灭，给人带来的是一种视听的美餐之后的感叹与沉思。
古往今来，在具有强烈的主体意识及生命意识的文艺作品中，繁丽与幻灭的纠葛和矛盾，几乎无不作为一切感人悲剧的永恒的情愫。春花、秋月、浮云、流水似乎总在阐释着人的永恒的理想与终归于消逝的矛盾和无奈。但也许正是这千古的生命之欲与自然之律的悖论，才得以让人们去更好地正视每个生命在每时每刻的存在意义与价值。实际上，现当代艺术所扮演的一个重要角色或使命，就是以其特殊的演绎或置换的手法去时时撞击业已沉醉于物质化和实利化社会中的灵魂，以期释义、警示和抚慰众生。沈朝方的《芒种》系列的灵感和内涵，恰恰来自于有感同代青年人在工具理性盛行、生存竞争严酷以及青春狂想与现实境遇相悖的情境，有感于繁丽极致的梦境与惶惶无法安神的躁动和无奈。荣誉、财富、情爱及永恒的梦想却与现时的失落促就了沉重的迷茫。由此而在瑰丽的花丛、奇丽的飞鸟、靡丽的水烟、美丽的佳人的背后隐现出孤独、冷漠、迷茫和寂灭。予理想和美好以幻灭，是一切悲剧的手法和归宿，它固然残酷，但却可道出事物的定律并更加唤起人们对于理想和美好事物的追逐与珍惜。
自上世纪20年代西方“达达艺术”问世以及60年代“波普艺术”流行以来，艺术已经大大超出和颠覆了它旧有的概念及涵义。艺术早已从诉诸以感官的审美及文学性情节的表述，迈向诉诸于哲性的观念思维和关乎众生的社会文化领域。尤其在上世纪后半叶现代科技飞速发展的后工业社会及网络社会之中，被奉为经典和高雅的古典艺术及学院派艺术被理解为只是艺术史过程的一种存在，传统的艺术概念及其价值观念和旧有的表现手法不再作为评判艺术问题的绝对标准;架上艺术和传统的影像艺术经验已汇入了新媒体实验的宽广之路，这无疑为新时代艺术的语言方式、交流方式和观念形态提供了崭新的舞台，为当代更多的人接触艺术、享受和参与艺术品评提供了更大的可能。我们在观赏沈朝芳的作品时便可亲身体悟到摄影、数码摄像、装置、服饰、行为和观念的交织与共谋所带来的全新体验。他对特定主题与情境的表现，在视听和心理效应上是传统的绘画、摄影或雕塑等形式所无法替代和企及的。可贵的是沈朝方的新媒体作品并非仅仅执著于感官效果的追求，而在于贯穿作品之中的观念意识，使得其作品具有内在的精神性和思辨性。
我在对作品和作者的约略相会中感到，沈朝方是位认真、热情、敏感且细腻的青年，犹如他作品的认真、敏感和细腻，他的个人气质、情感自然而真实的流露在其中。他在作品中对于形象、道具、场景及色调的选择方面，也存在着艺术语汇与语义表达之间的某些差距和遗憾，但以有限的制作条件和经验去尝试这样一个重在综合手法与心理表现的新媒体创作，已使他和观众有了许多收获。他的创作意向和综合表现能力的来源也与他从服装设计到影像谋划的专业经历有关，更重要的是他不想仅仅做一个艺术家，而同时也是一位关注精神生活和社会生活的思想者和真诚的探索者。我想，他多年的研读、思考和创作活动定会在他的艺术历程中持续发挥作用。我们有望沈朝方在今后为公众奉献更多的新作。
翁剑青 北京大学艺术学院教授，美术理论家
于2009年3月20日
Floweriness and Disillusion
--Impression of Shen Chaofang’s work “Grain in ear”
I encountered once the bright young artist Shen Chaofang and his works. After looking at his new media art-the video work“Grain in ear”, my general impression and intuition was that it lurked anxiety and disillusion behind the floweriness, which affected me deeply and made me lose myself in thought after such a veritable audio-visual feast.
Throughout the ages, the entanglement and contradiction of floweriness and disillusion as the eternal moving and tragic emotions almost exist in all artistic works with strong subject and life consciousness. Spring flowers, the autumn moon, clouds and the running water seem always to interpret the hopeless contradiction between the eternal ideal and the fact that everything will finally die out. However, maybe it is just the paradox between the eternal desire of life and the rule of the nature that makes people face up to the significance and value of all beings better. In reality, one of the important roles or missions of the contemporary art must play or accomplish is to strike constantly the souls indulging in the materialization and materialism of the social to interpret for the people, warn and soothe the people. The inspiration and meaning of Shen Chaofang’s “Grain in ear”are just based on his feeling about the world, where means rational prevails, struggle for existence is harsh, the whim of youth collides with the reality and the gorgeous dream mingles with disquieted confusion and hopelessness. That the glory, fortune, love and the eternal ideal entangle the realistic disappointment results in the leaden disillusionment. So loneness, apathy, confusion and dead silence peer from behind the resplendent flowers, the fantastic birds, the flamboyant smoke on the surface of water and the beauties. To endow the ideal and nicety with disillusion is skill and end-result for all tragedies. It is indeed harsh. However, it tells the law of things and awakens the people to pursue and cherish the things of ideal and beauty.
Art has gone beyond and overturned much its old concept and meaning since the dada art has come out in the 1920s and the pop art has prevailed in the early 1960s. It turned long ago from the expression of sensual aesthetic activity and the literary plot into the show of philosophic thinking and the social culture concerning lives being. Especially in the second half of last century when modern technology developed by leaps and bounds in the post-industrial and network society the classical, highest classic art and academic art were just seen as an existence in the history of art. The traditional concept of art and its values were no longer the absolute standards to the judgment of art. The easel and traditional image art have flowed into the broad river of plentiful new media experimental art, which makes it much more possible that more people can touch, enjoy, and taste the art in the contemporary era. We will gain new experience in mixing and synthesizing the photography, digital image pick-up, device, costume, performance and idea, when we view and admire Shen Chaofang’s works. The audio-visual and mental effects of his expression of the particular subject and situation cannot be replaced or achieved by the traditional painting, photography or sculpture. It is valuable that there are not only sensual effects but also idea and sense running through Shen Chaofang’s works, which makes his works be spiritual and dialectical.
Through the rough meeting with Shen Chaofang and his works I feel that he is a youth of staidness, passion, subtle and refined sensibility, just like what are represented in his works. His personal quality and emotion fall naturally and truly from his works. Though it is a pity that there are some gaps between his artistic language and semantic expression in the choice of image, property, scene and hue, the creator as well as the viewers has had a lot to gain from the new media creation, that focuses on comprehensive skills and mental expression with the limited condition and experience. Shen Chaofang’s creation intention and ability in comprehensive expression have something to do with the majors from costume design to image art in which he has specialized. The more important is that Shen Chaofang is trying not only to be an artist but also a sincere seeker and a thinker who is concerned about mental and social life. In my opinion his learning, thinking and creation of many years will certainly continually play an important role in his artistic experience. It is believed that Shen Chaofang will contribute to the people more new works.
Weng Jianqing (Professor of the Art School of Beijing University, the famous art theorist, critic, the curator of Beijing International Art Biennale)
March 20th, 2009
【编辑：张瑜】
