From February 20 through March 28, 2009, The Drawing Center will present Sun Xun: Shock of Time, the first museum exhibition in New York devoted to the work of the Hangzhou-based artist. For his exhibition in the Drawing Room, Xun will exhibit two recent hand-drawn animations, shown together for the first time: Shock of Time (2006) and The Lie of the Magician (2005) which combine drawing and printmaking techniques with animation.

Formally trained as a printmaker at the China Academy of Fine Arts, Xun creates hand-drawn films that engage aspects of historical and allegorical painting as well as political cartoons and natural imagery. Xun works with drawing to explore the analogous relationship between the moving image and the recurrent cycling of history; in particular, China’s ongoing cultural, artistic, and political evolution. In Shock of Time, Xun depicts various tropes and metaphors of duration and transience (e.g. a clock, a swinging pendulum) made from hundreds of single illustrations drawn on old newspaper and magazine pages. The artist sequentially films these drawings, a suite of which will be on view in the exhibition, to create a series of vignettes revolving around the passage of time. The Lie of the Magician makes use of the artist’s own body as a landscape for images of nature (e.g. rain clouds evaporating, seedlings taking root) that invoke myths of creation.

This exhibition is curated by João Ribas, Curator, The Drawing Center.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Sun Xun (b. 1980, Fuxin, Liaoning Province, China) studied at the China Academy of Fine Arts from 2001 to 2005 and went on to establish his own animation studio, Pi, in 2006. His films have been featured in a number of exhibitions and film festivals including Hammer Projects: Sun Xun, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA (2008); 25th Torino Film Festival, Torino, Italy (2007); Up-and-Coming International Film Festival Hannover, Hannover, Germany (2007); AURORA Film Festival, Norwich, UK (2007); 23rd
International Berlin Short Film Festival, Germany (2007); 26th Uppsala International Short Film Festival, Uppsala, Sweden (2007); MECAL International Short Film Festival, Barcelona, Spain (2007); China Power Station: Part II, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Norway (2007); 8th Seoul International Film Festival, Seoul, South Korea (2007); 53rd International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Oberhausen, Germany (2007); Future Landscapes, Duolun Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai (2006); and The Minority is Subordinate to the Majority, BizArt, Shanghai (2003).

PUBLICATION

To accompany the exhibition, The Drawing Center will publish Sun Xun: Shock of Time. This 48-page edition of the Drawing Papers will feature an introduction by João Ribas and an essay by Richard Vine, author of New China, New Art (Prestel, 2008).

MISSION STATEMENT

The Drawing Center is the only museum in the U.S. to focus solely on the exhibition of drawings, both historical and contemporary. It was established in 1977 to provide opportunities for emerging and underrecognized artists; to demonstrate the significance and diversity of drawings throughout history; and to stimulate public dialogue on issues of art and culture.