As Gaston Bachelard wrote in his Poetry of Dream,

　　For the dreamer of wording, language itself can somewhat imagine. To reach the deepest of the imagination, the words should be left with some time for dreaming. Therefore, when reflecting on Valery’s words, people have already been led onto the self-liberating way from the teleology of sentence. Thus, for the dreamer of wording, some words are actually "shells from the lingual ocean." When hearing some words, the dreamers, just like a child who heard the ocean from the shell, have heard the voice of a world of imagination.

　　Shen Ye is good at depicting an easily accessible dreamland, which is not a vision and never further from the reality than the life. She is creating a space—a space in which we can consider, feel and combine ourselves’and other’s world, but not only her and her world, while the space is always presented as a puzzle by her with her own thinking, characteristics and brushwork. Shen Ye’s works I first saw are"Dreamland"series and The Desire to Write. This is a space of imagination passivating human thinking and consciousness, a relatively integral but private space, which was arranged into the painting in suspension and under exposure. The non-complicated scene created a quieter power, in which heavy thinking was seemingly being deposited. If there is such kind of paintings closest to human’s true inside, they should belong to the category. So, when I had got to get out of the space, I invited them to the‘Root of Cloud ’: 2011 Chengdu Biennale—Special Invitation Exhibition."Why this dream world is easily accessible? Why it can be easily got rid of? Because everything in the paintings is familiar to us all. Although when being recognized and identified, we would easily get into the wrong way--"we took it for granted that we had known, as soon as we learned the reason."We thought that we had reached the destination, but she kept giving up unnecessary and conventional visual angles all the way. Her curious but confused state was frank and direct. Maybe that is why I am always willing to pay attention to her confusions, they are true and relatively pure.

　　However, Shen Ye impressed me with some contrasts: light in weight but heavy in thinking, calm outside but passionate inside, confusion with the unwillingness to stop searching and firmness, persistence revealed from the eyes and eyebrows, together with the natural familiarity and indistinguishable estrangement…All these pleased me instead, because they reminded me of what Roge Fuller had said, where there are corresponding and interrelated strengths, impulsion or meanings, tensile forces exist there. Shen Ye created an atmosphere with something mutually repulsive but attractive, which was not difficult to understand based on the consistency between her works and herself, or the close correlation between the two (this is very valuable). Here I only want to say something about On the Way in my heart and the Dreamland in her painting.

　　Dreamland

　　Usually we got into the dreamland with eyes closed, but Shen Ye was always looking at her dreams with eyes widely opened. She was rather feeling her dreams but not feeling the life, what fascinating and confusing her…waiting to be revealed by her are not necessarily realities, maybe unfamiliarized reality, or dream. But she, like a poet, was depicting what she "saw." She was not seeking for release or liberation from the reality with dream, but changing the reality into a dream.

　　If there is consciousness in the dream, that is a kind of weak and unintentional consciousness. Contrarily, the figures, objects, landscapes and events depicted in the paintings mostly share a kind of "mental direction," those material characters which may change one’s mental activities guide the viewers into the dream. The weak and unintentional consciousness can be regarded as a kind of intentional behavior (or "intentional dream"). This is a kind of dream with clear intention, as Derrida believed when talking about the "pre-expressed" intension, which is a kind of meaning to be subsequently upgraded into meaning and expression, although not thoroughly recognized by the teller sometimes. Because intention is rather something integrated with her physical response at times, but not the activity in her mind. Something in her is seemingly falling into sleep, but something else is awakening.

　　The dream depicted is a kind of special and complex image, e.g. it is a meaning inside at first place, before it is expressed from outside. So even it exists in one’s mind forever, it can still go out of oneself in another outside. It can exist in two places at the same time, not just as the true dream, only existing in oneself. Such images are quite different in many ways: It fully demonstrates what Sartre said, "Image is a kind of activity," but cannot be restored, because the other half exists elsewhere. What we saw is only the form of dream. But with such a form, what else do we need? It is enough, even too much. Dream is always being extended at this moment, but the creation usually includes countless combination, repetition, diversion and deviation of now-times…So, we can start from any "now-time," this is also a reason why Shen Ye’s works continuously enable easy access and comprehension.

　　On the Way

　　There are two kinds of destinations in the visible and invisible world; one is known since you have physically experienced and witnessed, and the other one is unknown since you have never personally reached in and learned about. The former can be repeatedly seen not in imagination, but in memory. Just like a small toy in your pocket, it can be picked out any time to get rid of the estrangement with touch and feeling it. While the latter only exists in your imagination, remaining as something existing in many possible forms, which can be recalled, or reshaped, or doubted, or missed, or met fortunately. Maybe it is a kind of destination, only cannot be confirmed and identified. No matter what kind of destination, they often share one common characteristics: It never ends upon arrival. Although it exists as the final point of numerous travels and trips, it can never be definitely confirmed.

　　Compared with the sunny days, I would rather prefer the rich and ever-changing light and color of the sky over the West Lake before rain. When the sunlight becomes less strong, many details turn to be independent, appear in an ambiguous manner like the trail of water penetrating through the paper. Just like in Shen Ye’s paintings, the medium of paper and water are less dense than oil-based materials, so there are gaps, cracks, trails and things which cannot be retained or freely let them go. In Shen Ye’s oil paintings, there are more or less something which have not been depicted, and something which have come without intention but persisted to stay. As Bacon said, "In painting, we always stick to many customs and conventions, we can never get rid of too much…"Those customs or conventions in our works maybe become our artistic characteristics, but some may reduce the painter’s belief in destination, the confidence on she/he has already arrived at the destination, so as to prevent her/his consciousness from linking to the essence. During the painting time, the consciousness becomes most active, keeping devouring unknowns, furthering and deepening the painter. At those moments, the only safety measure is belief, the willingness to get rid of some customs and conventions, as well as the belief in things never appeared in your life and mind.

　　From start to finish a painting is a mysterious process. Even the painter him/herself can hardly know when to start and when can finish. Shen Ye, to my feeling, is still on the way, feeling and experiencing the complicated and ever-changing process with a lonely heart. The journey from starting point to destination is so long that sometimes the traveler wants to take a stop as the destination, but sometimes the destination is just locating next to the starting point. But the stories on the way can only be told by the traveler who has taken the first step to the journey. The more customs you have refused on the way, the more you can learn from the unknowns. Whether painting or enjoying, the mysterious process will be forgotten. Maybe you still vaguely remember something on the way, your origin, or an unintentional glimpse, but no details can be remembered anymore, for a mysterious process needs no detail.

　　The space and depth of dream we can reach are related to the time of dream. Shen Ye’s works enable the former and strive to realize the latter. Indeed, why will we refuse useful guidance if it can lead you into? The primitiveness of the world requires us to feel, to touch, but not only to learn or to memorize with some basic principles. In this regard, wording can give us more than the content.

　　At the night of Feb. 15th, 2012