Nothing but the truth

In search of the truth, artist Sun Xun presents a collection of cartoon videos and original drawings from his earlier motion pictures in his debut solo show at the ShanghART Gallery and H-Space.

Created by the 32-year-old over the past nine years, the display features animation projects and drawings - mostly collages fusing pieces of old newspaper pages and various documents dating back to the 60s and 70s.

"You can create better images with larger drawings," he said. "Cartoons don't have to be simple and straightforward - they can be quite complicated."

Growing up in an industrial base in eastern Liaoning province in China's northeast, Sun was fascinated by the change in social values over the last few decades. He recalls his astonishment at the sudden removal of two monuments erected in honor of the Soviet repulsion of Japanese invaders in Northeastern China. One was a military tank at the Shenyang Railway Station in Liaoning, and the other, an aircraft at the Changchun station in Jilin province.

"One day they were gone - demolished and removed. Just like that. So many things have changed," he said. "People tell different stories about the past, and some things we once believed to be true have turned out to be lies."

"Things change, as time passes, and as people's points of view change," he added. "You can never get the whole truth, but we should always be trying to approach the core of it."

Because of his subject of inspiration, his cartoon work is known to concentrate on military aircraft, submachine guns, and old photographs and newspapers.

"We are not supposed to lie in life, but magicians perform their tricks by deceiving people's eyes," he said. "They are actually encouraged to lie."

Artists can be compared to the exposed nerve of a population, always feeling and thinking about their existence, asking questions and challenging accepted ideas, regardless of how they express themselves or which media they use to do so, he said.

"It doesn't really matter what I am speaking about, or against, with my art," he said. "It's just important that I get closer to the core of the matter with my line of questioning."

Until May 16, 1-6 pm

ShanghART Gallery & H-Space

Building No.'s 16 & 18, 50 Moganshan Road

莫干山路50号，16和18号楼，香格纳画廊，H空间

Tel: 6359-3923

(China Daily 04/24/2009 page13)