Sun Xun, Magician's Lie (2005), Video, single channel, 4 min., 14 sec.
Sun Xun, Heroes No Longer No.12 (2008), Animated film drawing, Charcoal on paper with frame, 212 x 121 cm.
Sun Xun, Requiem (2007), Video, single channel, 7 min., 21 sec.
Sun Xun, Mythos (2006), Video, single channel in two parts, 12 min., 36 sec. |
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Shanghart Gallery
H-Space
50 Moganshan Road
Building 18
+86 21-6276 2818
Shanghai
His story –
Sun Xun Solo Show
April 3-May 16, 2009
His Story – Sun Xun solo exhibition in H Space presents the artist’s animation works in their entirety from his premier early works to his latest works, thereby narrating the history of the development of his filmwork.
Sun Xun and all ten of his animation works construct yet another history that runs parallel to the chronology of actual "historic" time. In these animated "histories," the magician, the king and the pendulum all play symbolic crucial rules. The noir images emphasize the other side of the truth of the history. Xun works with drawing to explore the analogous relationship between the moving image and the recurrent cycling of history; in particular, China’s ongoing cultural, artistic, and political evolution.
Sun Xun’s main oeuvre consists of a series of highly interrogative and impressive animated films, almost always in back and white. In these, he explores how history is constructed and narrated.
His recent animated films such as Magician's Lie (2005), Mythos (2006), and Requiem (2007) all feature the same character, namely a magician, easily recognizable and always dressed with a tall hat. In these films, the viewer follows the protagonist's journey in search of another world, a better place to be. We witness the magician and his expedition through an apocalyptic world where the earth is set on fire in dramatic dream-like scenarios. Sun Xun also touches upon such themes as society’s development and revolution, referencing paraphrases by Marx, Adorno, and Horkheimer.
Accompanying the animations, Sun Xun has also made an extensive series of small paintings Shock of Time (2006) on various material, all measuring 17 x 25 cm. Here, he also plays with our notion of time, narration, and history. As background material he uses old newspapers, books and other documentary material quoting different passages of the past.
Sun Xun was born in 1980 in Fuxin, China. Today he lives and works in Hangzhou. In 2005 he graduated from the Print-making Department of China Academy of Fine Arts. In 2006 he established Phi Animation Studio. Sun Xun started to make animation and show in contemporary art exhibitions at home and abroad in 2003
Recent exhibitions include Mythos, ShanghART F-Space, Shanghai (2007/2008), Refresh: Chinese Emerging Artists, ARARIO, Beijing (2007/2008), Art Did Not Have a Standard, MoCA, Shanghai (2007), China Power Station: Part II, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Norway (2007), Shouting Truth, Platform China Contemporary Art Institute, Beijing (2007), Borderline Video Festival, Beijing (2007), 25th Torino Film Festival, Italy (2007), up-and-coming International Film Festival Hannover, Germany (2007), AURORA Film Festival, Norwich, UK (2007), 23rd International Berlin Short Film Festival, Germany (2007), and The 26th Uppsala International Short Film Festival, Uppsala, Sweden (2007), Future Shorts Festival, UK (2007), Split Short-film Festival, Croatia (2007. |
