SUN XUN Time Spy

by Rhiannon Paget Curator of Asian Art

ON VIEW AUG 11 – FEB 16

The Ringling’s year of Asian art continues with Time Spy, a mesmerizing animated film by Chinese artist Sun Xun that opens in the Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Center for Asian Art this August. A superb painter and draughtsman, Sun Xun incorporates traditional techniques including ink painting, charcoal drawing, and woodblock printing into his films. His masterful use of analog and digital technologies to explore pressing concerns of our time make him one of the most compelling artists working in new media.

The frames for Time Spy were made from panels of wood carved and inked in much the same way that blocks are prepared for woodblock printing, which was invented in China around 600 CE. Sun Xun mobilized an army of student assistants to complete the thousands of blocks necessary for the nine minutes of running time. Rather than being printed on paper, the blocks were digitally scanned and animated. The chunky block cutting style in high-contrast black and white recalls the work of German Expressionist artist Käthe Kollwitz, as well as more local sources such as the communist printmakers Li Hua and Jiang Feng. A selection of the panels used to make the film will also be on display.

Time Spy is a fantastical and disquieting meditation on global history, environmental collapse, power, and the indifference of time to human concerns. Chimeric creatures—a winged tiger, flying violins, and cameraheaded horses and birds—traverse and surveil bleak landscapes. Twirling moons, newspapers, and clocks speak of our attempts to measure and make sense of the passage of time. Fat cats in top hats scheme, skies seethe, and mechanical gauges oscillate wildly. Towards the end, Georges Méliès’s satirical silent film A Trip to the Moon makes an appearance, while Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s Tower of Babel, Vladimir Tatlin’s Monument to the Third International, and China’s Great Wall share a landscape, raising the question of what monuments to hubris we are leaving for future archeologists.

The immersive experience of Time Spy is enhanced by the use of old-school anaglyph 3D, a type of stereoscopic technique using red and cyan to render the film in three dimensions. The Museum will provide tinted glasses to view the film. A darkly theatrical score composed by Zhang Fei and performed by Beijing Young Philharmonic Orchestra heightens the palpable sense of foreboding.

Based in Beijing, Sun Xun was born in Fuxin, an industrial mining town in northeast China. He studied printmaking at the China Academy of Fine Arts, and founded Pi animation studio in 2006. Growing up in the aftermath of the Cultural

Revolution, he has long been interested how history is constructed for official purposes, as opposed to how it is lived and experienced by ordinary people. He has held solo and group shows at major museums in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia, and has received numerous honors, including the Best Young Artist award by the Chinese Contemporary Art Award in 2010, the Young Art Award by Taiwan Contemporary Art Link, and the Arts Fellowship by Civitella Ranieri Foundation in Italy.

Time Spy was conceived as part of a project called Reconstruction of the Universe, a multimedia installation Sun Xun made for the second edition of the Audemars Piguet Art Commission, a prestigious program that supports artists in the creation of works of “exceptional complexity, precision, and experiential impact.” The installation was exhibited at Art Basel, Miami, in 2016. It has since been shown at Saint Louis Art Museum and Sean Kelly in New York City. A shortened version was screened at Times Square in July 2017.

Interview with artist NATASHA MAZURKA

by Ola Wlusek

Keith D. and Linda L. Monda Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art

pattern languages. I’m interested in examining our desire for stability and certainty, achieved through systems of visual design. With my new work I’m splicing and synthesizing sourced patterns and creating a new visual syntax from existing languages, including natural science, architecture, maps, and data-based visuals. What the sources share in common is a role in communicating knowledge and bringing a sense of order to our experiences.

OW What are some current applications of pattern systems and how does the concept of aestheticizing information factor into the content of your work?

NM The new paintings deal with the regulated and encoded behavior of women. I took inspiration from the novel by Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale. The book is about inhibiting movement beyond the patriarchal order system. Even though the book is a science fiction, it’s topical within our current society. By referencing The Handmaid’s Tale my work points to how quickly the tools used to help us feel assured and our lives purposeful can be used to control us.

OW Is this the first time you've inserted your direct personal experience into your paintings?

Earlier this year, Ola Wlusek braved the bitter cold to visit Natasha Mazurka in her Ottawa studio, where Natasha was preparing for her solo exhibition at The Ringling.

OLA WLUSEK Thank you for taking a break from working to chat with me. It’s so wonderful to be able to finally see your new paintings in person. They are glowing and vibrating!

NATASHA MAZURKA The translucency of the surfaces is due to the numerous thin layers of paint. It takes a while for each layer to dry, so I work on multiple paintings at once.

OW You’ve been occupied with coded languages in patterns for some time now. I love how your paintings demand my eyes to move around and try to decipher the different shapes and motifs within the patterns.

NM I’ve been examining the communicative potential of pattern systems and disciplines of information visualization for many years. In these paintings, as well as the hand embossings and vinyl installations, I’ve been researching

NM Based on my role as a mother, yes. After giving birth to my daughter I became interested in the portrayal of the female experience. My new work incorporates systems and technologies that are from a decidedly female experience. With titles such as Feeder and Suckers, these works explore concepts of affirmation and acceptance, the ambivalence of motherhood, the concept of being nurturing, and the surveillance of the female body and its functions.

OW During your visit to The Ringling last year did anything in particular inspire you?

NM I was really excited to come across the vanitas paintings, in particular the painting by Jan Davidsz de Heem, titled Still Life with Parrots. The painting captures a rich assortment of visual codes within the symbols of the objects. My work, All flesh is weak. All flesh is grass, is a contemporary vanitas. Like de Heem, it warns us of our transience, alongside symbols of opulence and intellectual achievement. In my work, coding is this achievement, in de Heem's, it is the acquisition of material objects and delicacies.

Monda Gallery for Contemporary Art

The Ringling is pleased to offer visitors new work by esteemed photojournalist David Burnett from his current documentary project Fourth Quarter: Senior Athletes, their Indomitable Spirit. Burnett is a veteran photographer whose reportage and documentary work span 50 years. His storied career includes coverage of the Vietnam War and the Iranian Revolution, portraits of world leaders and newsmakers, and competitions at every Summer Olympics around the world since 1984.

Years of photographing the drama of international athletes striving for the gold have filled him with an appreciation for the dedication that it takes to become a champion. In developing his latest project, Burnett challenges us to rethink our perceptions about athletics. He notes that while we are quick to celebrate medalists and record-breakers, we ought to expand our notion of athletics to those who demonstrate a tenacity of commitment and extreme perseverance in pursuit of their sport. Even more valiant are those who practice athletics in their advanced years; they challenge their bodies and our stereotypes about old age. These are the indomitable spirits of Burnett’s Fourth Quarter

Fourth Quarter: Senior Athletes, their Indomitable Spirit is a result of a commission awarded to Burnett by the Greenfield Prize at the Hermitage Artist Retreat in 2017. This award provided Burnett with the opportunity to travel the country for two years, from California to New York, Iowa to Florida,