On February 20, the Vancouver Art Gallery opens Sun Xun: Mythological Time and Stories that animate us, two dynamic and compelling exhibitions that draw from a diverse range of oral histories, narratives, knowledge systems and cosmologies.
In his first solo exhibition in Canada, Sun Xun employs printmaking and animation to produce ambitious works that contend with notions of time and history, fantasy and reality, and ideology and myth. In his highly imaginative video installation Mythological Time (2016), Sun takes viewers on a journey through his hometown of Fuxin in northern China, a coalmining centre facing the depletion of its economic lifeblood. Premiering at the Vancouver Art Gallery is Sun’s most recent work, Mythology or Rebellious Bone (2020), an epic 31-metre scroll comprised of Buddhist deities and fictional gods, and where humans disappear without a trace. References to Chinese legends intermix with the artist’s own imaginings to create lively narratives of a land after time.
Drawn primarily from the Vancouver Art Gallery’s collection with select loans, Stories that animate us, foregrounds diverse voices, to showcase stories that span from the small to the sweeping. Joyce Wieland and the Royal Art Lodge embrace the exploratory medium of drawing to stimulate the creative process. David Hockney gleans from the world of fairy tales and fiction as fodder for his drawings. Robert Davidson and Amanda Strong bring Indigenous stories to life as potent acts of cultural reclamation and resilience within the colonialist context of Canada. Cindy Mochizuki digs into family legends as a way of finding solace and keeping connections to culture alive. Francisco de Goya and Osvaldo Ramirez Castillo work through the ongoing traumas of war. Marina Roy, Jérôme Havre, Cauleen Smith and Camille Turner use the speculative nature of the science fiction genre to imagine new identities and ways of being. Ed Pien and Howie Tsui find inspiration in the spectral and the supernatural as radical sites of transformative potential.
The narratives conjured in Mythological Time and Stories that animate us resonate well beyond the artists and artworks, inviting the public to reflect on the importance of storytelling in their lives: What stories inspire you?
“The traditions of visual art constitute systems of communication and thinking that exceed any single language or linguistic family. Visual arts draw upon the poetics of fine art, the social relevance of the humanities, and the experimentation of science. These exhibitions are a compelling look at how artists recruit various strategies of communication to make meaning and to tell stories,” says Vancouver Art Gallery CEO and Director Anthony Kiendl. “These artworks are boundless in their capacity to transport us through time and space, and offer nearly endless worlds to explore.”
Sun Xun: Mythological Time is organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery and is an initiative of the Institute of Asian Art, curated by Diana Freundl, Interim Chief Curator.
Stories that animate us is organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery and curated by Zoë Chan, Assistant Curator and Diana Freundl, Interim Chief Curator.