Sun Xun
Chinese animator mixes fantasy and reality to address history, culture and politics.
Sun Xun, “Mythology or Rebellious Bone” (detail), 2020
ink, gold leaf and natural colour pigment on paper (courtesy of the artist and ShanghART Gallery, Singapore)
The dynamic animated videos of Chinese artist Sun Xun, which focus on history and reality, as well as fantasy, ideology and myth, blur the lines between drawing, painting and storytelling. They are featured in Mythological Time, Sun's first solo exhibition in Canada, at the Vancouver Art Gallery until Sept. 6.
Born in 1980, Sun attended the China Academy of Art in Beijing, majoring in printmaking. In 2014, he returned to his hometown of Fuxin, in the country’s northeast, and recorded his impressions in a series of ink and charcoal drawings that he stitched together in the 10-minute stop-motion animation Mythological Time.
“Animation is the glue that sticks all the frames together,” says curator Diana Freundl. Sun is only interested in technology to “break through restrictions,” she says. “The video is really a representation of hand-drawn frames that give a panoramic journey through the history of the city.”
It starts quietly. Birds and insects float through the landscape. Then, suddenly, the soundtrack erupts with a cacophony of drums and trumpets. Fuxin used to be a major coal-mining centre, but as the coal ran out, the area suffered economic decline, along with environmental degradation. Sun illustrates this with a melange of real and mythological creatures that fill the frames with an uncomfortable, other-worldly presence.
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Sun Xun, “Mythological Time,” 2016
two-channel colour video animation with sound (collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery, gift of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in connection with the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Chinese Art Initiative)
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Sun Xun, “Mythological Time,” 2016
two-channel colour video animation with sound (collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery, gift of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in connection with the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Chinese Art Initiative)
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Sun Xun, “Mythological Time,” 2016
two-channel colour video animation with sound (collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery, gift of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in connection with the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Chinese Art Initiative)
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Sun Xun, “Mythological Time,” 2016
two-channel colour video animation with sound (collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery, gift of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in connection with the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Chinese Art Initiative)
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Sun Xun, “Mythological Time,” 2016
two-channel colour video animation with sound (collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery, gift of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in connection with the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Chinese Art Initiative)
In one scene, the camera tilts up from a group of coal miners who have struck a heroic pose reminiscent of mid-century Communist propaganda to a statue of “the great leader” pointing forward. Sun is on record as being disillusioned with post-1949 China so I wondered if he was taking a swipe at state-sanctioned progress. At one point, a predatory wolf roams through the post-industrial landscape, eventually morphing into a serpent that disappears beneath some waves.
Mythological Time is projected onto a screen Sun embedded in an eight-metre-long scroll that he created expressly for this show and gifted to the gallery for future screenings.
Sun Xun, “Mythology or Rebellious Bone” (detail), 2020
ink gold leaf and natural colour pigment on paper (courtesy of the artist and ShanghART Gallery, Singapore)
In 2020, he created a sequel called Mythology or Rebellious Bone. It’s not a video but a 31-metre-long ink-and-brush drawing on hand-crafted mulberry paper. Again, Buddhist deities or luohans dominate the scene.
Even for those unfamiliar with the mythology – and I’m one of them – the emotional charge is unmistakable. The huge piece, presented in a floor-to-ceiling semi-circle, is overwhelming in its scale and energy. It speaks of danger, turmoil and an ever-changing cosmos.
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Osvaldo Ramirez Castillo, “Santo Marero,” 2020
mixed media (pencil crayon, conté, acrylic ink, watercolour, oil paint and collage) on Mylar (courtesy of the artist)
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Osvaldo Ramirez Castillo, “Naufragio en El Espino,” 2020
mixed media (pencil crayon, conté, acrylic ink, watercolour, oil paint and collage) on Mylar (courtesy of the artist)
Sun's exhibition shares space with Stories that animate us, a collection of drawings, etchings and videos drawn from both the gallery’s collection and individual loans. It’s an important pairing because it allows visitors to see myths and stories deemed important in other cultures.
In the video Flood, Vancouver’s Amanda Strong, a Michif Indigenous filmmaker, uses shadow puppetry to tell the story of Spider Woman and her creation, Thunder.
Osvaldo Ramirez Castillo documents the violent history of his homeland, El Salvador, in a series of mixed-media drawings, while Spanish master Francisco de Goya addresses Spain’s fight for independence in etchings he made between 1810 and 1820.
Regardless of their time frame, the artworks in this show all advance storytelling. ■
Sun Xun: Mythological Time and Stories that animate us at the Vancouver Art Gallery from Feb. 20 to Sept. 6, 2021.
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