UCCA Beijing

Song Kun: A Thousand Kisses Deep

2012.6.3 - 2012.7.15

2012

Oil on canvas

65 x 45 cm

Courtesy of Artist

About

Location:  Nave

Song Kun (b. 1977, Beijing), one of China’s most prominent young female artists, paints with a kind of wistful desire, as the figures portrayed in her works seem to hover in a dream world both familiar and fantastic. In “A Thousand Kisses Deep”, Song Kun’s works are shimmering, technical studies of drifting light and explore a sinister, sensual beauty. Human forms and jellyfish tendrils slowly glimmer, as a sense of silence pervades the shadowy rooms and ocean depths. Arrayed across the twin walls of UCCA’s Nave, one group of paintings explores the quiet properties of natural materials, while another ventures into the realm of carnality. An immersive video installation situated at the end of the exhibition and a multimedia performance on the opening day, June 2, expand the exhibition’s scope. In this exhibition, Song Kun distances herself from earlier, narrative-driven work and enters a reserved, wavering reality.

For more information, please read the “Song Kun: A Thousand Kisses Deep” press release.

News

Song Kun’s work is so cool, and the exhibition set up is amazing!”.

—That’s Beijing

Works in the exhibition

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Song Kun

Silent Wave

Oil on canvas
65 x 45 cm
2011
Courtesy of Artist.

Song Kun

Dance on knife

Oil on canvas
45 x 65 cm
2011
Courtesy of Artist.

Song Kun

Big Jewelry Fish

Oil on canvas
65 x 45 cm
2011
Courtesy of Artist.

Song Kun

Meat-machine on the Bed

Oil on canvas
180 x 140 cm
2011
Courtesy of Artist.

Song Kun

Love Is Death

Oil on canvas
65 x 45 cm
2011
Courtesy of Artist.

Song Kun

A Thousand kisses Deep No.7

Oil on canvas
2011
Courtesy of Artist.

Song Kun

Blind Musician

Oil on canvas
220 × 140 cm
2011
Courtesy of Artist.

Song Kun

The Judge

Oil on canvas
180 × 140 cm
2011
Courtesy of Artist.

Song Kun

Two Inner Mongolian Punks

Oil on canvas
180 × 141 cm
2011
Courtesy of Artist.

Song Kun

Two Inner Mongolian Punks -Xijia

Oil on canvas
60 × 45 cm
2010
Courtesy of Artist.

Song Kun

Two Inner Mongolian Punks -Little Dragon

Oil on canvas
60 × 45 cm
2010
Courtesy of Artist.

Song Kun

A Thousand Kisses Deep No.1

Oil on canvas
65 × 45 cm
2011
Courtesy of Artist.

Song Kun

A Thousand Kisses Deep No.2

Oil on canvas
65 × 45 cm
2011
Courtesy of Artist.

Song Kun

A Thousand Kisses Deep No.3

Oil on canvas
65 × 45 cm
2011
Courtesy of Artist.

Song Kun

Sewage Icicle

Oil on canvas
65 × 45 cm
2011
Courtesy of Artist.

Song Kun

Poison Drinker

Oil on canvas
65 × 45 cm
2012
Courtesy of Artist.

Song Kun

Peach Yasha

Oil on canvas
65 × 45 cm
2011
Courtesy of Artist.

Song Kun

The You That Is Lost in the Night

Oil on canvas
90 × 125 cm
2011
Courtesy of Artist.

Song Kun

Baby Delinquent vs Mechanical Hand

Oil on canvas
125 × 90 cm
2011
Courtesy of Artist.

Song Kun

Those Adept at Disguise

Oil on canvas
180 × 140 cm
2011
Courtesy of Artist.

Song Kun

A Thousand Kisses Deep (film still)

video
6'54''
2012
Courtesy of Artist.

Song Kun

A Thousand Kisses Deep (film still)

video
6'54''
2012
Courtesy of Artist.

Song Kun

A Thousand Kisses Deep (film still)

video
6'54''
2012
Courtesy of Artist.

Song Kun

A Thousand Kisses Deep (film still)

video
6'54''
2012
Courtesy of Artist.

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Videos

Videos

Installation Views

Installation Views

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Publications

A Thousand Kisses Deep

The Current cycle of paintings, A Thousand Kisses Deep, shows how far her explorations have taken her in the intervening years of work, bearing the marks of extended deliberation. The marks of extended deliberation. The subject matter unfolds coherently but not exactly predictably: Inner Mongolian punks, cyborg girls, and jellyfish all make appearances, split along either side of an imagined line between spirituality and carnality that dissects the central Nave of the exhibition space, and that finds separation between the front and back of this fold-out book. If Song Kun's earlier work was about capturing situations, this cycle attempts instead to poeticize a state of mind。