Song Kun
21 Oct - 19 Nov 2006
SONG KUN
"It’s My Life"
Hailed as the most promising young female artist during the 2005 Triennial of Chinese Art, Song Kun’s exhibit this time is a diary painting series titled It’s My Life. The artist recorded her daily experiences and observations as paintings on the same size canvas over the period of one year starting in June 2005. For Song Kun, each blank spot on the canvas represents a period of empty time that she fills with interpretations of her life experiences and emotions. In this way, her recordings on canvas are as standard as sleep patterns or any other lifestyle habits. Each piece in the exhibit was completed over the period of one day, so there are a total of 365 pieces. The few blank canvases represent the artist’s temporary hiatus.
As one of few young Chinese female artists, Song Kun uses the simple method of painting to record and present 365 days of her life. “Time” and “The Ways People Consume Time” are two works from the series that represent her interests. A painted diary is one way of forming a relationship between the artist and daily life. It’s My Life is a rejection of others’ judgements; an individual perspective and renewed understanding of life. Through specific daily descriptions, Song Kun has collected on canvas the concerns, fears, desires, growth, happiness, and confusion of daily life; innermost feelings that disappear in a blink of an eye. The meaning of these paintings lies in both their description of the physical as well as emotional.
Presented together, the paintings reveal a tranquil blossoming that results from the combination of the artist’s interpretation of the times and retreat to her innermost heart. The artist’s sensitivity and warm-heartedness, along with her wisdom and somberness, reach out and touch audiences.
To Song Kun, It’s My Life is a way to reconcile art and spirit. They are less a work than a project. On the one hand, the artist attempts to use large numbers of paintings to establish a new understanding of painting. In these works, therefore, she constantly tries different techniques and styles. Though different, these techniques and styles belong to the same emotional set. The young artist attempts to employ this method as a way to go beyond the walls of the studio and merge into an area of social life that cannot necessarily be penetrated, turning herself and her paintings into a collection of life. Careful observation of these paintings reveals the artist’s inherent contradiction.
Sometimes, the artist attempts to reconcile the gap between appealing to popular tastes and the pursuit of an individualistic lifestyle. From another perspective, It’s My Life alternates between suspicion and denial. As the artist once said: “What I experience, my emotion filled life, is what I use to sort out my introspective thoughts.” These not only transmit a young person’s emotional and spiritual history, but also represent a process of mutual gazing. It is, perhaps, a sugar coated “protest” against contemporary life.
Artist’s CV: Song Kun was born in 1977 in Baotou, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. She graduated in 2002 with a degree in Oil Painting, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing. She participated in the 2005 Triennial of Chinese Art, Nanjing. She was also one of the main forces behind the young artist exhibition n12.
"It’s My Life"
Hailed as the most promising young female artist during the 2005 Triennial of Chinese Art, Song Kun’s exhibit this time is a diary painting series titled It’s My Life. The artist recorded her daily experiences and observations as paintings on the same size canvas over the period of one year starting in June 2005. For Song Kun, each blank spot on the canvas represents a period of empty time that she fills with interpretations of her life experiences and emotions. In this way, her recordings on canvas are as standard as sleep patterns or any other lifestyle habits. Each piece in the exhibit was completed over the period of one day, so there are a total of 365 pieces. The few blank canvases represent the artist’s temporary hiatus.
As one of few young Chinese female artists, Song Kun uses the simple method of painting to record and present 365 days of her life. “Time” and “The Ways People Consume Time” are two works from the series that represent her interests. A painted diary is one way of forming a relationship between the artist and daily life. It’s My Life is a rejection of others’ judgements; an individual perspective and renewed understanding of life. Through specific daily descriptions, Song Kun has collected on canvas the concerns, fears, desires, growth, happiness, and confusion of daily life; innermost feelings that disappear in a blink of an eye. The meaning of these paintings lies in both their description of the physical as well as emotional.
Presented together, the paintings reveal a tranquil blossoming that results from the combination of the artist’s interpretation of the times and retreat to her innermost heart. The artist’s sensitivity and warm-heartedness, along with her wisdom and somberness, reach out and touch audiences.
To Song Kun, It’s My Life is a way to reconcile art and spirit. They are less a work than a project. On the one hand, the artist attempts to use large numbers of paintings to establish a new understanding of painting. In these works, therefore, she constantly tries different techniques and styles. Though different, these techniques and styles belong to the same emotional set. The young artist attempts to employ this method as a way to go beyond the walls of the studio and merge into an area of social life that cannot necessarily be penetrated, turning herself and her paintings into a collection of life. Careful observation of these paintings reveals the artist’s inherent contradiction.
Sometimes, the artist attempts to reconcile the gap between appealing to popular tastes and the pursuit of an individualistic lifestyle. From another perspective, It’s My Life alternates between suspicion and denial. As the artist once said: “What I experience, my emotion filled life, is what I use to sort out my introspective thoughts.” These not only transmit a young person’s emotional and spiritual history, but also represent a process of mutual gazing. It is, perhaps, a sugar coated “protest” against contemporary life.
Artist’s CV: Song Kun was born in 1977 in Baotou, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. She graduated in 2002 with a degree in Oil Painting, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing. She participated in the 2005 Triennial of Chinese Art, Nanjing. She was also one of the main forces behind the young artist exhibition n12.