Mythos
Project Description
Mythos is a large-scale animated installation by Sun Xun (b. 1980, Fuxin, China), one of the acclaimed artists of his generation. His hybrid practice combines traditional Chinese artistic techniques with contemporary media, drawing on ink painting, charcoal, woodcut and hand-drawn animation.
The work was presented as part of There Is No ‘I’ in Team, a major group exhibition bringing together a new generation of artists from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau working across moving image, sound and installation. Presented at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art and across off-site venues in Newcastle and Gateshead, the exhibition formed part of CHINA NOW and EAST’08, and subsequently travelled to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and Program E.V. in Berlin.
In Mythos, Sun Xun creates a visual palimpsest of time, myth, memory and historical reconstruction. Its shifting narrative resists linear storytelling, presenting a surreal landscape populated by kings, magicians, empty chairs and engulfing flames. These recurring images evoke fragments of collective and personal memory, layered within a dreamlike and constantly changing sense of time.
Sun Xun’s use of woodblock printing and hand-drawn animation draws on traditions associated with Chinese storytelling and political imagery, while transforming them into a language of ambiguity and speculation. History appears not as a fixed or authoritative account but as something fragmented, reconstructed and experienced through individual memory.
His practice frequently examines the relationship between official histories and personal experience, bringing together historical trauma, cultural memory and technological change. Voiceovers, texts and sound collages contribute to works in which time appears to collapse and repeat, creating parallel worlds where memory and imagination become intertwined.
Mythos exemplifies Sun Xun’s wider approach to moving image, in which traditional techniques are used to create contemporary reflections on history, perception and the construction of cultural memory.
Bio
Sun Xun (b. 1980, Fuxin, Liaoning, China) is a Chinese artist based in Beijing whose practice encompasses animation, painting, drawing, woodcut, installation and film. He studied printmaking at the China Academy of Art and established π Animation Studio in 2006. His work combines traditional Chinese techniques with contemporary animation to explore history, memory, mythology and the instability of historical narratives.
Sun Xun has exhibited internationally at institutions including the Guggenheim Museum, New York; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Vancouver Art Gallery; and Centre Pompidou, Paris. Recent exhibitions include Parallel Circus at TANK Shanghai (2024), Heroes and Magicians at ARARIO Gallery, Seoul (2024), Sun Xun: Magic Atlas at Times Museum, Guangzhou (2025), and Metamorphosis: Chinese Imagination and Transformation at China Institute Gallery, New York (2025–26). In 2026, his work has been presented in Black Myth at White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney, Thucydides Fever Dream at Hill Art Foundation, New York, and Everyday We Create Histories at ShanghART Singapore.
Project details
Year: 2008-2009
Artist: Sun Xun
Work: Mythos
Exhibition: There Is No ‘I’ in Team
Curated by: Keith Whittle, Keri Elmsly, Pauline Doutreluingne and Jian Jiang
Produced by: Keith Whittle, Keri Elmsly and ISIS Arts
Venues: BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Newcastle and Gateshead; off-site venues
Subsequent venues: Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Program E.V., Berlin
Format: Installation
Programme: CHINA NOW; EAST’08
Partners: ISIS Arts; Newcastle City Council
Support: Culture10; British Council China
Country: United Kingdom