当物体在外力的作用下不能位移时，或由于受到外部因素的干扰，它的形态将会发生扭转、变形。这种变化既能使其内部产生相互作用的引力，又能形成一种反作用力，以抵抗外力、外因的影响。而物体受力后所导致的内部构造的运动，随着空间点的方向、大小和连续性，物体的“应力”呈现出不同的分布和不确定的状态。这是在物理学中关于“应力”及“应力场”的基本定义。

　　根据“应力场”概念所引申出来的语义，宽泛地指涉于由个人、群体构成的社会，在生存现实的不同境遇中，产生出各种不同的感应现象;如果延伸到国际范围，目前难民离散、移民的限制令等等正在生发的诸多事件，直接涉及到国际政治的转向，并难以预料。而狭义于第四届美术文献展之中，则是借助于这一物理学的专有名词和定义作为主题，比附予作为艺术家的另类人生，如何利用多媒介材料和艺术语言的方式，转化他们对处境的思考、判断和立场、态度，以及应对、承受、适应于种种不同的变异、扭曲的程度。同时，在“应力场”作用下，提示出塑力、合力、变力和隐力之间所形成的多重制衡关系，潜隐出其中的某种状态，从而显示了艺术家个人创作的能量，以此抵达第四届美术文献展的一种“视觉应力场”。

　　或许这些只是世界局势和社会转型这个复杂方程式中的一个变数而已，就像“应力场”所寓意的一般，而实际上是象征和隐喻那些正在不断发生的个体与秩序、文明与冲突等等相关的社会问题。我们认为这是对以往惯常的艺术直接投射“现实”的可能性反思，具有艺术与现实复杂想象关系的重构尝试，以及对艺术表现的丰富性再认识。通过“应力场”所关注或折射现实生活的具体性，已并非是以往宏大叙事的直接展开，却是个人生存实在经验的检视、体察与反应。这种经验不是对现实的彻底反抗，而是同现实世界的辩证关系中的一种获得。我们希望通过邀请不同国家和地区的艺术家，针对来自于外界或内心的压力所导致的紧张、焦虑，甚至不安状况的现实依存，策划并构成一次具有现实针对性、专题性的当代艺术展览。是为策划这次展览的主要切入点和明确理由。

　　因此，与其说这是测度于社会学意义上的“应力场”所导致的种种改变，不如说是参展艺术家对“应力场”的认知与觉知，以及作为艺术家个体感应力的表达，抑或还有此次在湖北美术馆和美术文献艺术中心空间内，此时此地、身临其境的直接感受。

　　When anobject fails to absorb certain forces, either via exogenicaction or external interference, it will change or twist its shape. This change or twist generates interactional interior forces within the object, and a counter acting force to resist the impact of external forces or causes. There is an internal tectonic movement caused by the force on the object. According to the direction, size and continuity of spacepoint, the "stress" of the object shows different distributions and an uncertain state. This is the basic definitions of "stress" and"stress field" in physics.

　　The extended meaning of "stress field" broadly refers to the disparate reactions of individuals and groups to the different circumstances of their survival. If we view it from an international perspective, the many events taking place, such as the current refugee crisisand immigration restrictions, are all directly related to the rapid shifts in the international political environment, it's out comes difficult to predict. The 4th Documentary Exhibition of Fine Art borrows the themeof "stress field" from the physical and geographical term to express thealternative lives of artists; how they transform their thinking, judgments,positions, and attitudes with multimedia materials and artistic language, and, how they cope with, accept, and adapt to different change sand distortions. Also, under the action of "stress field", it shows the multiple checks and balances formed between the creative power, combinative power, shifting power and secret power, revealing a sort of state, so as to show the energy of an artist's individual creation and thus achieve a "visual stress field" within the exhibition.

　　Perhaps they are only variations in the complex equations of globalizationand social transformation, just as "Stress Field" implies. But in fact, they are symbols andmetaphors of the ongoing relevant social problems of individuals and order, civilization and conflicts. We think this is a reflection on the possibility of customary art's direct casting of "reality", a remodeling attempt with a complex imagining of the relationship between art and reality, aswell as a reconsideration of the richness of artistic expressions. The concreteness of real life that the "stress field" concerns itself with, or reflects, is not the previous direct spread of grand narrative, but the inspection, observation and response of individual survival experience.This experience is not a complete rebellion against reality, but a kind of acquisitionin the dialectical relationship with the real world. By inviting artists from different countries and regions, we hope to plan and form a realistic and the matic contemporary art exhibition which reflects some of the tensions andanxieties caused by pressures from the outward and inward worlds, and even the uneasiness caused by reality. This is the main focus and clear reason of this exhibition.

　　Therefore, instead of the evaluation of various changes caused by sociological "stress field", it is more about the exhibited artists' cognition of "stress field", and their expressions of principle forces as individual artists, and also, perhaps,  their immediate feelings when they are personally in the space of the Hubei Museum of Art, and the Fine Arts Literature Art Center.