可以把陈希绘画作品的画面看作两层。最上面的一层毫无例外都是一层网，下面的一层才是世界。这些世界图景可能是一片模糊的色彩，可能是一个风景，也可能是一次自杀事件，或者变形金刚的拳法。有时候，世界中飘散着一些物体和图片的碎片。这个世界可以是真实的，也可以是虚拟的。所以这个世界不是问题的所在，或者说只是一个自在的世界。网才是一切，没有世界能够逃脱陈希的网。

网是陈希与世界的关联和障碍。所有观众与陈希一道被罩在网中，或者想象世界被罩在网中，或者只是间隔着一层网与世界对望。这层网看起来并不那么结实，似乎时时能够被一阵微风拂动，但无所不在，从未露出破绽。更有甚者，这层网成为了世界。网后仍是层层无尽的网，网变成了梦魇。这层网也可以是文字结成的，文字对世界的过滤也许更加有效，也更单调。不论隔着什么样的网看世界，都只是看，都与世界两不相干。

陈希的网，好像是一个关于传统绘画功能的寓言。隔着画面看世界，不论抽象与具像，都只是看，与隔着一层网没有多少区别。绘画的实践如果止步于看，也许就等同于止步于网。

2007年9月11日于北京

Halted Before The Net

By Shu Yang

We could try to understand Chen Xi’s works as being composed of two layers. The upper layers are, without exceptions, nets, while the lower layers are the world. Some of his descriptions of the world could be a blurry mass of color, or a landscape, or a suicidal event, or even the boxing art of the Transformer. Sometimes, little bits of unidentified items or fragments of an image floated randomly in his world. This world could be real, or virtual. There’s nothing wrong with such a free world. The real problem, however, lies in the net. No world, nothing, can break away from Chen Xi’s net.

The net is what stands between Chen Xi and the world. Like him, we are all trapped in the net, or that we all imagine that the world is trapped in a net, or we all look at the world through such a net. The net does not look very solid, its shape distorted constantly by a gentle breeze. However, it is ubiquitous and has never shown the smallest opening. Behind the net there are still hundreds and hundreds of nets. The net has become a nightmare. Sometimes this nightmare is made up of words. Words can play an even bigger role in filtering the world for us, to make it more monotonous. No matter through what kind of net we look at the world, we remain spectators alone. The world has nothing to do with us.

Chen Xi’s net also presents to us an interesting allegory of the traditional function of a painting. If we try to understand the world through a painting, be it abstract or concrete, we will always be lookers alone, which is not too different from looking through the net. If painting practice is limited to looking, it will be halted, just as we are halted before the net.