"Art seems to me like water": Chinese artist Sun Yi on non-existence and the judgement of time

This article originally appeared on Culture24.

Artist’s Statement: Chinese-born recent Slade graduate Sun Yi’s works include free newspapers, a bench, a packet of cigarettes, wire and string

“Art, as far as I have practiced it, seems to me like water – tasteless, but you could never live without it. Whatever forms it takes, I get bored as the excitement fades. As time passes, I even forget it ever existed.

I was born and raised in China. For almost 24 years, I have studied traditional Chinese culture from poems, paintings and literature, which collects the wisdom and thoughts of many scholars.

I found it endlessly captivating, although it has not brought me any notable success. In Chinese culture, non-existence means existence, existence means Dao - the way - and Dao can never be literally explained.

In terms of this idea, I am relentlessly striving for the ‘non-existence’ of my work. Perhaps being and not being are of no difference – they are meaningless in the end, nothing but a different way of thinking.

We are a generation that is experiencing the most revolutionary and competitive era of Chinese history. Everything is unbelievably fast and unsettling.

The faster the country develops economically, the faster it degenerates spiritually. This might be one of the reasons that pushes me to understatement, or, even non-existence.

My journey in the west was lonely but fruitful. Taking my knowledge of Chinese culture, I left home. I left China, the place that gave me everything, but in the west somehow I haven’t yet found a ‘community’ that I would like to attach to. Maybe I am not even sure what I want to attach to.

For me, time is inevitable. It is lying in front of me, driving me along a fixed track, a persistent dread.

Time makes the final judgement. It decides the ‘winner' and the ‘loser'. Sometimes we might forget the existence of time, but it is there. It must be there, like the chime of the clock.

For me, reading is irresistible. I enjoy the process of being drawn to another world of imagination, but I also feel anxious about the ever-expanding boundaries. But any over-indulgence or anxiety I feel will all come to a balance with the witness of time.

Regardless of equality, we distinguish things as good and bad, beautiful and ugly, first and second, right and wrong, yin and yang, yes and no.

I don’t resist explaining my works, but I dislike the idea of imposing my interpretation on the audience. The most important thing is the audience’s connection, otherwise explanation is worth no effort.

Until now, I have not seen being an artist as a career, but rather a process of constructing a man. What constructs a person in turn determines the kind of art he constructs.”

• Sidelines: Recent work by Sun Yi is at Candid Arts Trust Gallery, London until September 20 2015.

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Three places to see contemporary art from China in

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
At the beginning of the 20th century, the palace retainers of China’s Empress Dowager Cixi included a ‘ghost painter’. This accomplished female artist was tasked with producing paintings in the Empress’s name, and only rarely signed her own works. Find out more in current exhibition From Palace to Studio: Chinese Women Artists, 1900 to the Present. Until September 27 2015.

Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art, Manchester
Investigating the most exciting contemporary work coming out of China and East Asia today, the centre works with a wide array of partners to embrace a global century where Chinese art is moving firmly centre-stage.

The Fan Museum, London
The museum’s rich collection of Chinese export fans will be augmented with highlights from Hong Kong-based author, collector and philanthropist Edwin Mok, as well as sumptuously embroidered textiles and ceramics, in current exhibition Chinese Export Fans. Until December 31 2015.

Source: http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/art536869-sun-yi-artist-statement-candid-arts-gallery-london