Sun Daliang: SOUL AND LUST
Beijjng
26 May 2023 - 2 Jul 2023
Sun Daliang: SOUL AND LUST
After five years, Sun Dalang once again presents nearly thirty new works in a solo exhibition. He has always focused on continuing and deepening two intertwined themes: "soul" and "lust", the experience of mysticism and the fantasy of erotica. In his expression, as in some ancient paths of religious practice, the two are not in opposition or denial, but are a pair of wings that shake off the burden of reality.
From the perspective of image studies, perhaps the most striking of these new works is the flower series, where blooming flowers are combined with fingers, knife tips, or duck bills poking out from the heart of the stamen, demonstrating the various forms of desire and its overflow after it bursts forth. At the same time, there is also a sense of unease that reveals its true form in the face of supernatural scrutiny.
In other new works, women are placed among flowers or trees, reminiscent of the jungle dreams depicted by Henry Rousseau. On the small island of Jiangxinzhou where Sun Dalang once lived for many years, similar wilderness can be found, which is the terrain where his lonely and depressed imagination ferments. In several related landscape paintings, the descending full moon, the swaying light bulb, and the twinkling tiger's eye become the light source in the forest, radiating a peaceful and mysterious energy.
Rather than depicting illusions, it is more accurate to say that he portrays what he has witnessed in certain moments. Perhaps he would agree with the Italian writer Alberto Moravia's statement that "what eroticism and mysticism have in common is a depreciation of the world", especially when the world slides into a certain abyss... In this exhibition, he also responds to the past three years in his own way: a simple cottage, a knife trying to pierce through the wall, a woman's leg trying to step out of its window, and in a more daring gesture, the entire cottage is lifted up and begins to move with the woman's footsteps.
Zhu Zhu
May 2023
Sun Daliang,1971 Born in Xu zhou,1997 Graduated from Shanghai Theatre Academy, Currently works and lives in Nanjing.
