The Application And Manifestaion Of Media Materials

The use of specific media has become a commonplace in the practice of contemporary art. "Media work" has got to stand as a form of artist language in contemporary context. During the about ten years in the development of Shanghai's contemporary art, media is widely used, especially after the first international biennale held in Shanghai in 1996, when in this field, as shown, for example, in mixed media painting, experimental wash drawing, installation, new media art, a handful of mature artists and works got recognized.The first chapter of this thesis, starting from the exploration of the value of media in art, focuses on the comprehensive decoding of the situation of media art practice in Shanghai during the last ten years, with reference to the connotation of media in contemporary context, concluding that the tendency and basic aesthetic features of media art in Shanghai are the construction of ideal fantasy and social function in terms of art proper, visual language and pure form, with the emphasis on self nourishment, linguistic construction, cultural attitude and value judgment.The second chapter brings forward the author's view about the value of mixed media art practice in Shanghai, based on its development since 2000 when Shanghai held its first international biennale, from the two aspects: one is the humanistic tendency of those works; the other is the involvement of the social identity and life experience of the artist.The third chapter is about the potential and possibilities of the media art practice in Shanghai in the contemporary context. It comes to the conclusion that in the specific milieu it confronts, the media art in Shanghai should transcend the textural language, and come to act as the extension of contemporary "conceptions" and traditional cultural code to be integrated in the communication of global art in its real sense while keeping to the self cultural identification of Shanghai artists.