This interview with Chinese artist Sun Xun inaugurates a new video series by artnet News called In The Frame. We will be exploring the worlds of different artists and documenting their stories in multipart series.
In “The Time Vivarium” at Sean Kelly gallery, a two part exhibition spanning two months, Sun explores the past and present through his father’s recollections of China’s cultural revolution. With over a dozen large-scale paintings, several re-illustrated propaganda posters, and a Chinese folding album, Sun Xun presents rich symbolic scenes.
He told us that he visited the American Museum of Natural History multiple times while coming up with these works. “You can see from this museum the understanding of American culture—the whole natural world becomes the footnote of American culture,” he said.
Because he is in residence at the gallery, visitors are welcomed to interact with him while he works. “I’ll talk to people and they will give me ideas,” he said. “Everybody is a key that God gives to me…I’ve made an interesting door for people. Open and go inside. Please enjoy my story, my very personal spirit story.”
The gallery is closed for the holidays from December 25, 2014, to January 5, 2015.
Stay tuned for the next segment of In The Frame with Sun Xun.