109. SUN YITIAN: A SPACE BETWEEN TRANSCIENCE AND TIMELESSNESS.
The depictions of objects within Sun Yitian’s paintings are not as they first appear… Placid figurines stare glacially while inflatables, taught to bursting, gently float within images saturated with a palette familiar from pop art - and yet digital bright with an exhausted melancholy of knowing, replacing any trace of innocence - If only these paintings could speak… The artist discusses personal influences and cultural significance.
Abridged Interview
Sun Yitian, Castle, 67 x 67 cm, Acrylic on canvas 2023.
Courtesy of Sun Yitian's Studio, BANK/MABSOCIETY and ESTHER SCHIPPER, Berlin/Paris/Seoul.
‘In the classical era, the life span of an object was longer than that of a human being, but in the modern era, the life span of an object is becoming shorter and shorter. I am fond of these fleeting objects produced on the assembly line, which were my childhood playmates and the imprint of my generation.’ S.Y.
There are many depictions of dolls within your work, why are you drawn back to this context?
您的作品中有许多关于玩偶的描绘，为什么您会被这种背景所吸引？
我出生在90年代的中国，那时候我们实行的是计划生育的政策，因此我的同代人大部分都是独生子女，家里并没有其他的兄弟姐妹可以一起玩耍。而90年代的中国也因为改革开放政策经济在不断地腾飞。我的家乡温州就是一个以制造业而闻名的城市。因此，我小时候经常会去朋友家里的工厂里面玩，而工厂里的流水线上有很多外地来的工人，他们没日没夜地干着活，工厂的陈列室里摆满了流水线上生产出来的玩具，眼镜，打火机，他们远销世界各地。作为独生子女，我经常一个人在家里和玩偶一起度过了很多父母不在家的时光。上大学的时候，机缘巧合地去了一次义乌，我惊讶于那些林林总总，充满时代感的造型、材质、配色和触感的小商品，便开始了我的“人造物”系列创作。古典时代，物的寿命比人要长，而进入现代，物的生命愈发短暂。我留恋这些流水线上生产出来的稍纵即逝的物品，它们是我童年的玩伴，也是这个时代的印记。
I was born in China in the 1990s, when during the nation’s family planning policy, so most of my generation were only children, without siblings to play with. In the 1990s, China's economy was taking off because of the reform and opening-up policy. My hometown, Wenzhou, is a city known for its manufacturing industry. Therefore, in my childhood, I would often play with my friend in her family's factory, and there were a lot of workers from out of town on the assembly line in the factory, who worked day and night. I used to see in the factory showroom many small goods produced on assembly lines, such as toys, glasses, lighters, which were later exported all over the world. As an only child, I spent a lot of time alone with dolls when my parents were not at home. When I was in college, I went to Yiwu by chance and was amazed by the variety of shapes, materials, colors, and tactile sensations of those small commodities, and then I began my series of creations of man-made objects. In the classical era, the life span of an object was longer than that of a human being, but in the modern era, the life span of an object is becoming shorter and shorter. I am fond of these fleeting objects produced on the assembly line, which were my childhood playmates and the imprint of my generation.
Your work has an extraordinary quality of immediate realism, which almost appears to be digital and yet these works are the opposite, they are painted by hand - this contradiction is fascinating, what do you feel the methods of your process contextually imply?
您的作品具有一种非凡的直接写实主义特质，几乎可以说是数字化的，然而这些作品却恰恰相反，它们是手工绘制的--这种矛盾令人着迷，您觉得您的创作方法在语境中意味着什么？
由于显示频幕的尺寸和显示效果，我的画在手机里看是像照片一样的写实，并且数字感很强。但是看我作品的实物，其实是存留了很多绘画的痕迹的，肌理，笔触，颜色的堆叠，我会把绘画的路径留一个小口给观众窥探。我希望用一种古典的方式去塑造一种当代的图像，而并不是用一种波普的方式去再现当下的图景。就像我更热衷于17世纪荷兰的静物画，在意画面的结构，颜色，以及物的隐喻。
Due to the size of the screen and the display effect, my paintings look like photo realistic in the phone and have a strong sense of digital effect. But when you look at my works in person, there are actually many traces of painting, texture, brush strokes, colour stacking, and I always leave a small window of the painting process for the viewer to peek into. My aim is to shape a contemporary image in a classical way, rather than reproducing the current image in a pop way. Just as I am more passionate about 17th century Dutch still life paintings, I care about the structure of the image, the colors, and the metaphors of the objects.
I find the emotion of your work to be fascinating, the high-octane palette and the lustrous surfaces and yet there seems to be so much melancholy - do you feel this? And if so can you express how you define emotion within your work?
我发现你作品中的情感非常迷人，高调的色调和光亮的表面，但似乎又有很多忧郁--你有这种感觉吗？ 如果是这样，您能表达一下您是如何在作品中定义情感的吗？
早期创作，我需要绝对的客观，我不希望带入任何个人的情感和叙事，这才能保持一种真正中立的状态。我其实希望将观看绘画的干扰因素都去除掉，只剩下一个非常冷静客观、甚至显得“沉默”的画面。
在去年巴黎的个展里，我突然对画面中的叙事性感兴趣，于是我在展览里用好几组画来串联起叙事线索。也就是说，我不希望叙事性在我单张的绘画中过多地呈现，因为有了叙事就很难避免情感的外露。如何在绘画中有节制地表达，是我目前阶段感兴趣的话题。
In my early works, absolute objectivity was a must; I didn't want to bring in any personal emotions or narratives in order to maintain a truly neutral expression. In fact, I wanted to exclude all distractions from viewing the painting and maintain a very calm, objective, even "silent" image.
In my solo exhibition in Paris last year, I showed my interest in narrative in painting in recent years. I used several groups of paintings in the exhibition to connect the narrative threads. In other words, I don't want to present too much narrative in a single painting, because with narrative it is difficult to avoid the exposure of emotion. How to express emotions in paintings in a restrained way is a topic I am interested in at this stage.
The act of painting, historically and still today seems to imply permanence, and yet your subject matter seems to return to references of the ephemeral, this contradiction is fascinating...
绘画行为，无论是在历史上还是在今天，似乎都意味着永恒，而你的主题似乎又回到了短暂的参照物上，这种矛盾令人着迷......
在古典时代，人在自然中降生与成长，而时至今日，我们在人造物的包围中醒来。物（Object）的扩张和膨胀让物的寿命变得愈发短暂，物总是处在一种不断升级/更新换代中。这是自18-19世纪初工业革命以来，生产力不断提高所带来的物的过剩。它是一种无法避免的趋势。而往往短暂的事物才令人着迷。用绘画的永恒去抵抗物的短暂。
Whereas in classical times people were born and raised in nature, today we wake up surrounded by artefacts. The expansion of objects has shortened their lifespan, and they are constantly being upgraded and renewed. This is the surplus of objects brought about by the increasing productivity since the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and early 19th centuries. It is an inevitable trend. The transience of things is fascinating. What fascinates me is the resistance of the transience of things with the timelessness of painting.
The full interview with Sun Yitian is published within issue 4 of M-A (A SPACE BETWEEN).
Sun Yitian, A Tender Panther, Cropped - cover of M-A (A SPACE BETWEEN) Issue 4. Still life image: Harry Nathan.
Orignial work: 150 cm × 150 cm, Acrylic on canvas 2017. Courtesy of Sun Yitian's Studio, BANK/MABSOCIETY and ESTHER SCHIPPER, Berlin/Paris/Seoul.
Sun Yitian’s ‘Tender Panther’ on the cover of M-A (A SPACE BETWEEN) Issue 4 - sold at Dover Street Market, Haymarket London, 15 May 2025.
Sun Yitian is a contributing artist to the 4th issue of M-A (A SPACE BETWEEN) available now.
Sun Yitian, Romantic Room - Ester Schipper, Berlin. Until 31 May, 2025.
Thank you Haihai at studio Sun Yitian, Ester Schipper and Zhonghua Sui.