Shen Jingdong's works have a direct and interesting attraction. In these works, most of the faces and characters' postures and postures seem familiar and innocent in this world of subtle changes. Looking out from the tempting colors and perfect surface with a sharp perspective, only when observing the scope and diversity of his works can more unsettling and contradictory meanings emerge. His early familiar elements - uniformed 'heroes' continue to appear in different scenes - interacting with Disney characters, mourning broken sculptures, being damaged, monochromatic, and occasionally being bandaged. These military roles seem to be related to the past of Shen Jingdong and China - now there are more roles of different ages and races. These new forms of sociability and friendliness seem to reflect the openness of Chinese culture, which is consistent with Shen Jingdong's life journey and experience - he regularly goes to New York to do exhibitions and has accumulated many fans.
His works are characterized by men and women in uniform, inevitably sparking people's curiosity about their roles and meanings, as well as common issues in the process of accepting Chinese culture. A Chinese mystery novel writer's advice, attempting to interpret political tendencies, has become an "ideological crutch" for Western critics. The Chinese art of "holding different political views" has always been highly valued by the West. Shen Jingdong is contradictory in this respect, although some works seem to respond to political emotions and problems.
The audience has noticed the flawless surface of his characters and their similarities with ceramics in his works - both like traditional Chinese funeral sculptures and shiny plastic related to mass production. In both cases, these characteristics can be interpreted as a wake-up call to 21st century China - facing the past and future. The hard and shiny surface reminds people of traditional glass, but there are also mass-produced plastics that are both attractive and far from people. The way they shift their gaze to create a sense of independence and autonomy, the character's "skin" is an alluring reflection. The gloss conveys a fragile feeling. The analogy with traditional Chinese ceramics, as well as the extensive production of ceramic figures for party leaders and revolutionary heroes, links them to their long history and the ambition of the infamous "Cultural Revolution". At the same time, they remind people of the cute/dark Dialectic of cartoon and cartoon characters.
Shen was born in 1965 and held his first solo exhibition as an artist in Beijing in 2006, when he was still serving in the military. He studied printmaking. From graduation to his 40s, he worked as a set designer and landscape painter, served in the army, and participated in some famous stage design work. In the late 1970s, he was only in his teens, which was a relatively open period, but his generation still had jobs to do after graduation. When Laushenberg held that significant exhibition in Beijing, he was still a student. He was one of a generation that experienced the optimistic sprouts of early liberalism, but he witnessed a period of repression and the "cynical realist response of the post-90s generation".
