All things return to rest, lacquer embraces all things — Sun Wenjia Solo Exhibition On Site
Sun Wenjia Solo Exhibition Art China 2023-03-29 16:35 Beijing
Yan Hua E Series - Exhibition Site
The installations in the exhibition hall are wrapped in rustic lacquer in a balanced and harmonious posture, while the sharp bone spurs stubbornly break through the smoothness and calm of the space. The enormous constructed skeleton seems to come from the spine of a massive prehistoric creature, and at this moment, the exhibition hall appears to transform into the inner cavity of the Kun in Zhuangzi's "Free and Easy Wandering". This is Sun Wenjia's solo exhibition at Yuan Museum in the spring of 2023, presenting the artist's sculptural installation works reflecting two years of thought and creation, named "The Returning of All Things". Three years ago, the "Objects in Evolution" series brought Sun Wenjia into our view— he respects and is sincere towards lacquer, not following the conventional academic and institutional understanding of it, completely discarding the solid and profound painting skills honed during his university years, returning "lacquer" to its original simple material, and through installations and actions, allowing the medium known as the blood of the lacquer tree to flow anew in his works.
"Lacquer" is an ancient natural coating from the East, derived from plants. Even today, its production and craftsmanship retain the most traditional methods—constructing the base, mounting the fabric, applying putty, ingesting lacquer, and painting lacquer—each detail is indispensable. In this process, the creator comes into very direct contact with the highly sensitising lacquer, and the natural materials’ drying imparts an indelible temporal dimension to the work. Therefore, compared with other media, creations primarily using lacquer possess a strong physical presence, and the creator's mental state is more distinctly reflected in the work.
The products of Eastern culture, from ink painting to ceramics and then to lacquer art, like its philosophy, do not rely on theoretical deduction and rigorous repeated experiments; it is perception, experience, and the momentary chance and insight akin to Zen that forge art that is more irreplaceable and impossible to replicate, and lacquer's roots are deeply embedded in such cultural genes.
Regrowth Series - Exhibition Site
When asked why he created this series of new works, Sun Wenjia admitted that after 'Wu Yan', he turned his focus back to biological fossils, which had fascinated him since his youth. Giant hyenas, ancient horses, ancient rhinos, sea turtles, and even the kitten skulls he collected as a child still captivate him to this day. In the exhibition hall, Sun Wenjia used lacquer as a restoration material and decorated the vertebrae and skulls of the prehistoric creatures with gold powder—contrasting the lacquered complete models with the damaged fossils created a dialogue and resonance between materiality and temporality. At this moment, lacquer became a medium with a connective property, linking different states of matter and spanning millions of years.
Yan Hua E Series - Exhibition Site
Biological fossils, originating from plants and animals thousands of years ago, are the remains and traces of past life, narrating the story of time silently. From prehistoric living organisms to the static forms we see today, after millions of years of temporal change, the birth and demise of life, the activity and decomposition of organic matter, and the meaningful material transformations are poignantly illustrated in each fossil. In harsh conditions, organic life exchanges death and time for the permanence of remains, much like the branches and leaves that once flowed within the trunk of lacquer trees, transitioning from a biological to a material state through human collection and craftsmanship. By decorating fossils with lacquer, or even creating large sculptures resembling biological skeletons, Sun Wenjia, in his works, uses lacquer as a medium to reconstruct and present the process of material cycling and the potential connections of plant and animal life. The exhibition hall of the Yuan Museum is ethereal and solitary, with immense installations standing like land left with only skeletons after the geological eras of time and change, conveying a sense of extinction and the tranquility of death at first glance, as if 'all things return to rest'. Yet, observing the surface closely, the warmth brought by the lacquer seems to whisper hidden life, and the chaotic forms of the sculptures convey hope for new growth, much like the stability and inclusiveness of lacquer, capable of embracing all things.
Author: Chen Yuxin
Chen Yuxin, graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, is an art critic and writer.