Yang Xun

Yang Xun (杨勋 Born in 1981 in Chongqing). In 2001 graduated from The High School Affiliated with The Sichuan Fine Arts Institute. And in 2005 Graduated with Undergraduate Degree from the Oil Painting Department of the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute. We sometimes use the word ‘beautiful’ to describe artworks, but it’s a word that has its taboo moments. If a painting or artworks is called beautiful, people’s thoughts instantly swerve to flaks like that there must be no critical value in the work, it’s all fluff, or that it’s just - gasp - a pretty work.

Avoiding social realist depictions or superficiality, Yang Xun’s works are instead dreamy, haunting works that grapple with history. “It transports you into this mood, but you always feel as though you’re floating, fantasizing. When you awaken, you always question whether this scene is real or imagined,” says the artist.

And despite the artist showing so little and making use of such a limited colour palette, you can’t help but look twice at Yang Xun’s paintings. They are shrewdly captivating. And very much so because of the single light that illuminates the centre of each work, throwing focus on the subjects in the works like the cherry blossoms, bamboos, and architectural elements that evoke a romantic China of the past - the kind also seen in historical Chinese dramas from TVB.

The absence of any figures in Yang Xun’s works exudes a ghostly quality and his works become representations of an old China that’s increasingly being replaced by modernization and globalization, from the mushrooming skyscrapers in Shanghai to the booming industry in Guangzhou. What Yang Xun’s works ultimately say is that with Chinese society’s bid to gain more and more wealth, there is amnesia – a memory loss – of history, the past, and the things that count.

Yang Xun clearly feels he has a responsibility as an artist and a goal to set himself apart from his contemporaries. He wants to, in his own words, “search for the fragments of history, and to present each fragment as clearly as possible”. In his exhibition this month, Yang Xun aids viewers with memory loss or the inability to look clearly by shining a light on relics from ancient history, making the works in Memory Loss like serums or little doses of medicine that induce viewers to imagine the past a bit more. And really, this one isn’t a bitter pill to swallow. The artist’s works are beautiful to boot, and what counts is that you won’t be forgetting Yang Xun’s fantastic works anytime soon.

C.V.

Other and former works: