The Time Vivarium - 108

The Time Vivarium – 108 was created in-situ during Sun Xun’s solo exhibition cum residency at Sean Kelly Gallery in New York from December 2014 to January 2015. Sun Xun worked in an ad-hoc studio alongside his assistants at the lower level of the gallery, creating paintings and drawings to add to the exhibition upstairs over the course of the exhibition. Inspired by the artist’s visit to American Museum of Natural History in New York, The Time Vivarium – 108 is one of many works painted during his month-long occupancy. Struck by the parallels between the dioramas depicting the past and official Chinese accounts of history, Sun Xun found interest, not in the depictions or narratives itself, but the way in which they are an apparatus of the state. The Time Vivarium – 108 uses a combination of newsprints from all over the world, in English, Mandarin Chinese and Korean. Central to the work are the dragon and fox, creatures which often depicted as powerful and magical in East Asian myths, legends, and folklore. Using imagery referencing stories deeply embedded within cultural identity, the tableau draws upon the tensions and skepticism of narratives that are interwoven with one’s notion of truth and of history.