Biography

Born in 1980 in Fuxin, China, Sun Xun studied printmaking at the China Academy of Fine Arts, Hangzhou (2001–05). His interest in traditional art forms, such as ink painting and woodcut prints, is reflected in the deft craftsmanship that characterizes his animated films, which often consist of energetically composed, hand-drawn single frames that can number up to five thousand. As evident in Mythological Time (2016), a site-specific video installation created for Tales of Our Time (2016–17) at the Guggenheim Museum, the artist sometimes builds large experiential environments replete with props and hand-painted walls for viewing these films. Permeated with a sense of skepticism, Sun’s practice revolves around the interplay between reality and fantasy, history and mythology, and offers a dreamlike alternative to reality. In disclosing the arbitrariness of grand narratives of history, certain images recur: mosquitoes are vehicles of historical lies that link past and present; crows are soothsayers that bridge the present with the future; a magician shuttles through time and space to alter history’s course as he pleases. The magician features prominently in New China—A Sun Xun Residence Project (2008) at Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, a site-specific wall painting and animated video inspired by the book The New China (1914), written by an American preacher living in the country. By conjuring the imaginary new nation as perceived in the Republic of China (1912–49) and in today’s post-revolution era, the work highlights the cyclical nature of history and suggests that history writing is a farce riddled with conscious deletion and lies. In 2006, Sun established the Pi Animation Studio for the production of his animation works. Sun’s films have also been screened at the Torino Film Festival, Turin (2007), and Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, Germany (2016). His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions including those at the Hammer Museum (2008); Drawing Center, New York (2009); Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai (2010); and Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art, Manchester (2015). His work has been featured in the group exhibitions China Power Station: Part II, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo (2007); By Day By Night or Some (Special) Things a Museum Can Do, Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai (2010–11); and Ink Art: Past as Present in Contemporary China, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2013–14). He has also participated in Aichi Triennial, Japan (2010), and Asia Pacific Triennial, Brisbane (2012–13). Sun lives and works in Beijing.