Sun Xun, Maniac Universe, 2018; mixed media on bark paper, commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia and Edouard Malingue Gallery
Sun Xun (b. 1980, Fuxin, China) is one of China’s most exciting young artists, best known for his animations made up of thousands of ink paintings, charcoal drawings and woodcuts. Containing very little dialogue, these hand-made films use combinations of image, sound and text to raise questions about what we perceive as truth and explore the slippery dynamics of memory, history, culture and politics.
Sun Xun’s works often highlight the absurd incongruities between authorised histories and personal recollections, and are particularly concerned with how history can be manipulated, interrogating the differences between official narratives presented by public agencies, politicians and the media — and more marginalised accounts that stem from ordinary people’s experiences.
Sun Xun, Heterodoxy III, 2017, image courtesy the artist and Edouard Malingue Gallery, Hong Kong
Sun Xun, image courtesy the artist and Edouard Malingue Gallery, Hong Kong
This is Sun Xun’s first solo exhibition in Australia. The exhibition includes a number of Sun Xun’s most important animated works and encompasses both the MCA’s Level 1 North and South Galleries. The artist is making a major new work especially for the MCA exhibition, a 40-metre-long painting on bark paper and series of woodcuts, which will be displayed in the Level 1 North Gallery. The MCA has also invited Sun Xun to do a residency project over one week at the start of the exhibition, where he will create a new painting in view of the public in the Level 1 South Gallery.
Curated by Anna Davis
About the exhibition
Dates: 9 Jul 2018 - 14 Oct 2018
Venue: Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
Courtesy of the artist and Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, for further information please visit www.mca.com.au.
