Sun Xun 孙逊 (pronounced soon shoon)
Born in Fuxin, China around 1980 and growing up in a period immediately following the Chinese Cultural Revolution or the Great Leap Forward. Sun Xun studied printmaking at the China Academy of Fine Arts, and founded Pi animation studio in 2006. He has held many solo exhibitions around the world, not just limiting himself in the east. H e had exhibited his artwork at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and even at Basel. He currently lives and works in Beijing, China were he works on art that blurs the lines between drawing, painting, installation and animation. He uses a wide array of materials like woodcuts, paint, traditional Chinese ink and charcoal drawings which are combined to create expressionistic pieces. Sun Xun's work reflects his obsession with history because when he grew up he learned two different history's in China: the one presented in school with official accounts and the truths that happened in the 1960s and 70s. His father told him these truths about how his grandmother was marched in a public square and harassed for having a upper-class background. This lingering effect continues to have a impact on his work, which often explores the ideas of culture, memory and politics. Sun's work discusses the concepts of past versus present, personal versus political in symbolic and surrealist ways.
The Time Vivarium- November 11, 2014
Acrylic on paper
Currently located at the Sean Kelly Gallery in New York
Sun Xun's gets inspired from political cartoons, biology books and instruction manuals. He took calligraphy and ink-and-brush painting classes while training at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, he graduated in 2005. Initially he experienced a huge culture shock as he navigated the differences between a rural and urban area. He works with mix media often and has even produced some 3D films by using books, newspaper and other documentary material to serve as a highlight of the passages history.
Magician Party and Dead Crow-2013
Sun created this work during his three month residency at the ShanghArt Beijing Space, and exhibited it from April 30 to May 8 of 2013. The entrance to the show featured calligraphy-filled folded manuscripts, a model zeppelin, dragon, locomotive, and huge hanging skeleton. This exhibition resembles a warehouse full of props for a movie company that existed before CGI. The huge skeleton filled the space with an ominous sense of construction while the statues of celestial phoenixes and soaring dragons positioned throughout the exhibition, as well as crow and carp images which helped develop the narrative. The characters and relationships somewhat resemble a puppet show that reflects Sun's own expressed narrative and fantasy. Another crucial part of the exhibition were the animations Sun created, for the first time using red-blue 3D technology, he built a custom-made stage on which he projected a montage of 3D images of his characters acting out a spectacular, captivating story and footage documenting his residency. And then surrounding the place with murals and installations with themes that provide visual clues that offered partial understanding of the story.
