Sun Xun

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES
By Andrew Maerkle


21KE (2010), animation, 27 minutes. All images: Courtesy Sun Xun and π Animation Studio, Beijing.

Born in 1980 in Fuxin, Liaoning Province, and educated at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, Sun Xun is one of China’s most promising emerging artists. He established his own studio, π, in 2006 and has since become known for making socially critical animations employing a variety of techniques and media including ink, pastel, wood printing and stop-motion. Often centering upon the allegorical figure of the “Magician” as socially-validated liar, these works simultaneously address China’s contemporary reality while touching upon broader world historical currents.

In March of this year Sun was in Tokyo to participate in the residency east-asia dialogue (r:ead) program, which brought together artists and curators from China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan for cross-cultural research, exchange of ideas and creation. ART iT met with him at that time to discuss his work.

Interview:

ART iT: In recent years you have done many residency projects, going to places like Los Angeles or Utrecht or Kiev and making works by yourself on site. However, for such a time-consuming and detail-oriented process as animation, I would imagine the ideal situation is to work in one place, with a team of experienced assistants and in a familiar environment. Can you discuss the differences between making works in residencies and working with your studio in Beijing?

SX: To date I have made 17 films, only two of which were actually produced in my studio. For example, I made the film The New China (2008) at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. I was working in the museum space, drawing on the walls, brushing that off, and then drawing again and brushing that off again. This is one of the important ways that I work. Of course the assistants at the studio are also a big help for me. I will finish a script and then assign all the different types of work to the assistants. It is very detail oriented. The process is similar to making a feature film.
The process of working on site is something I developed myself. It allows me to discover new things about my work and ideas. Working in the same place all the time is good for the film, but the studio can also become a prison. Working at residencies provides freedom, but at the expense of detail. So I think I need both ways of working.

ART iT: Do you also find special inspiration in working outside of China? For example, when you made the Hammer Museum project you were in the US but the content of the work still dealt with China. Did you use the US as a position for thinking about China?

SX: Yes. Of course I am from China, but today we are so international that we can no longer think only about one place and forget the rest of the world. In China the economy, businesses, entertainment – everything is international. So if we want to see China clearly, we need to borrow a mirror. The US can be such a mirror. Europe can be such a mirror.


Top: The New China (2008), animation, 5 min 19 sec. Left: The History You Can Not See 1, acrylic on paper, 60 x 50 cm. Right: The History You Can Not See 3, acrylic on paper, 50 x 40 cm.

ART iT: You also made a work called The History You Can Not See (2013) for an exhibition of Chinese artists at the PinchukArtCentre in Kiev in 2013, and now the world’s attention is focused on the Maidan protests and Russia’s attempts to annex Crimea and East Ukraine.

SX: Yes. In the past year there have been two situations like this. One is with the project I made for the Singapore Tyler Print Institute in Singapore, which addresses the cultural background there. Singapore differs from China and other countries in East Asia because it is home to many kinds of people, from ethnic Chinese to Hindus, Muslims, and others. It is very diverse. This has some positive aspects, but also some difficulties.
So I was thinking about how such a country developed. I tried to make a new country there, the Republic of Jing Bang, but as I was completing my project a riot occurred in Singapore’s Little India neighborhood involving migrant workers from India. The country is dependent on the labor of migrant workers to survive, but there are tensions between these workers and the societal structure around them. The rioters burnt and damaged police cars and ambulances, and there was a major investigation into the incident. Then my curator told me that because the government is one of the main sponsors of STPI, we have to delay exhibiting the work in Singapore until a later date, due to the sensitivity of the situation. We still are not sure when we can show it. But I think this is also part of my work.
The exhibition at the PinchukArtCentre is the other situation, because my work there dealt with hidden histories. The Ukrainian Revolution strikes me as being strange, because the people want to join Europe, but I question whether they know what Europe really is. If you want to know what Europe is, you have to check the history, and how it connects to places like the Netherlands and Germany, and what Germany and Russia did in World War II, and what sparked the beginning of the war. You need to know everything about the culture. But people don’t care about the history, so now we have the current situation. Ukraine is split into different parts, east and west. The western people want to join Europe, while the eastern people want to join Russia, and Russia has sent its army to manipulate the situation. Ultimately, what did the people get? Happiness, wealth? Freedom is only a word. This is because most people don’t care about culture and history.

ART iT: But perhaps the situation you describe with the Ukrainian revolutionaries is similar to the discourse in China about democracy and capitalism.

SX: Yes. In China many people have been following the Ukrainian Revolution. After it occurred, everyone said, OK, what about us next? But such people are thinking too narrowly. They don’t know about the cultural background of the Ukraine. They only see the revolution in the square. They don’t see the real situation. If they want to talk, they must read history, and then they can talk about China now. If you don’t know both Chinese history and Ukrainian history, then the example of the Maidan is not helpful. What do you really need, freedom on paper or real life? Which is more important?


Top: Coal Spell (2008), animation, 7 min 56 sec. Bottom: Clown’s Revolution (2010), animation, 10 min 8 sec.

ART iT: So this is a very interesting time for you right now to see everything happening around the world, and it helps you to think about what you want to do with your work?

SX: Yes. I joined the r:ead project, which has also been interesting, because it helps me to learn about the cultures and histories of the four participating countries. At the beginning we held many discussions among the participating artists and curators, and then at last we artists rioted, saying that we need more time to work, and then after that we can talk. But talking is useful, because we are all from a younger generation and have similar levels of education, and all reject nationalist mentalities. We have no country in that sense. I got here and the first place I went was the book district in Jinbocho, where I checked all the history books, seeking to understand the history from Japan’s viewpoint. I always do this kind of thing when I am visiting another country.

ART iT: So this is the process for when you make an animation: you look at the various histories, pick up different aspects from them and turn those into an animation?

SX: Yes. Also, I think the whole world is connected today. Maybe in the Netherlands I can find something about Germany, and from that I can learn something about what happened in China.

ART iT: You have many mirrors that you use and play off against each other. How did you start to make the site-specific works? What led you to that idea?

SX: Sometimes I imagine a prison. If you always stay in your studio then it becomes a prison. You think that you control everything, but really everything is in control of you. You think you are a god. If you have a table, and it’s your table, then you can decide everything about that table. But you must face the whole world, not just the table. Art is also like this. So at the time I thought, what would happen if I were cast into the ocean? Would I die, or survive?
With each on-site project I go and have to finish everything in a limited amount of time. And there is a different system governing the space in each city or country. For example, in England things move slowly. In China they move quickly. In Japan there are many rules. In the US it’s one way, in Europe it’s another way. You are never the boss. You have to follow, and adapt. But you fight, too, or you cannot finish your work. The security always comes and tells me that I cannot work at night, or that I cannot smoke inside. This is also a part of my work, because I touch the real culture in the place where I am working, and I talk to people about what they are thinking. All that information goes into my work and gives me ideas.

ART iT: You use many different materials and techniques in your work, like ink painting and woodcut, which also have historical significance. Ink painting has a millennia-old tradition. Woodcut connects to the early 20th-century revolutionary movement in China and also to socialist movements in Japan and other places.

SX: I choose materials based on the country of the residency. For example, in the US I use acrylic paint. In Europe I use oil paint. In Japan I use ink on rice paper. One reason why I do this is that I want to be sensitive to the cultural background of the country. If I work with ink on rice paper in Japan, the people there can enter the work more easily. Another reason is that this allows me to work within a limited budget. In Japan, the ink brushes and rice paper are of good quality and cheap. In the US, acrylic paint is cheap, but if you want to buy ink and a brush, it’s expensive and low quality. Every time I go somewhere I think about what is both good and effective. In the Netherlands, every Tuesday is trash day and all the trash is left on the street, so for my materials I collected chairs and sofas – the quality of which was much better than what I could buy from a shop – and these also have a history that can be guessed at through the work.


Top: Posters for The Republic of Jing Bang (2013-14), ink on paper, 89 x 120 cm. Bottom: Installation view of The New China, mixed-media installation and animation, at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, 2008.

ART iT: Who were the artists who inspired you when you were trying to find your own artistic language?

SX: That’s a good question. When I studied art in high school we had a strict curriculum that emphasized drawing skills. I copied from the Western masters, and two artists were especially important for me. One is Dürer, and the other is Holbein. I learned everything from them. I copied all their works out of books, including their sketches. In the beginning I was coping their techniques, but in the end I was able to see how they understood the world, because a sketch is not just a representation, it is also a thinking system. It is a rule on paper for how to create a new world, and each master has his own style. This is what I learned.
Actually, I cannot agree with the way that many schools in Europe seem to think that painting and drawing are of the past. I think they don’t really understand the masters’ works. Understanding the work of a master is not just about learning the old way of drawing something. It is also about learning how to understand the world the way that Van Gogh did – always special – or Cézanne, who is very close to Hegel. So I learned everything from the classical masters, and it’s something that I apply even now in directing my studio. It’s the same mentality as thinking through a sketch.

ART iT: Are there any Chinese artists who gave you inspiration?

SX: There are many. Artists help each other all the time, and we drink together as well, which is when the really interesting discussions happen. I think it’s important to share ideas with other artists. It opens another door to the world for me. People generally only have one door to the world, and through this door you can see only one landscape, but if you have many good friends, then they will share their doors with you, and through those doors you can see other landscapes. I think being able to see several landscapes together is a really wonderful thing.

Sun Xun: Historical Perspectives

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