Hammer Projects: Sun Xun
July 11- October 12 2008
10899 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles
Eclectic Chinese artist with an enviable name, Sun Xun, will be beginning his stay at the Hammer Museum this weekend. His show transcends the normal boundaries of a simple exhibition, and is appropriately termed a “project” by the museum. Instead of preparing a work for the project, Sun Xun has incorporated the process into the project. According to the museum, Sun Xun will be “inhabiting” one of their galleries for over a week, creating a site-related installation, the creation of which will somehow be on view. Press releases and descriptions on the Hammer’s website are relatively vague about what they mean when they say the artist will be “inhabiting,” but considering the museum’s reputation for having an open and talent-oriented mind, consummate art-goers will not likely be disappointed.
Though a relatively young artist, born in 1980, Sun Xun is founder of his own animation studio, Pi, and works a great deal in film and animation. Though beginning as an art student at the China Academy of Fine Arts, Sun Xun has been able to create various types of moving images that elevate the usual misunderstood and underappreciated animation medium. He has participated in several film festivals from the Torino Film Festival to the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen. His work has been shown in several galleries and museums internationally, but this will be his first stay at an American museum.
Sun Xun’s work springs from a multiplicity of inspirations, rendered in equally multiple mediums. Evocative and often historical, his work taps into the historical and familiar as much as the creative 
unfamiliar. This amalgamation is coupled with a combination of traditional and untraditional media, such as hand-drawings and found materials. He often deals with multiple images, progressions over time, or what could be called very organized collage, all of which work toward the creation of a narrative or chronology. The aesthetic effect is often reminiscent of the Dadaists, right down to the institutional critique, with an intense interest in even the simplest of forms.
Though Sun Xun will only be “inhabiting” the Hammer’s Vault Gallery for a week’s time, the project’s video and drawings will be on view until October.
All images courtesy of the Hammer Museum
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