Sun Yitian Asia Girl, 2024
Acrylic on wood panel
53,8 x 44,8 cm (unframed)
The depiction of a young girl with long black hair in a white blouse and sailor suit top is subtly ambiguous. The figure's face is painted neither entirely portrait-lie and realistically nor similarly artificial as Sun Yitian's frequent motifs of doll heads. In this context, we are not sure whether the light reflecting on the full red lips is a sign of life or, on the contrary, if it is the characteristic reflection of studio lights the artist often depicts in her representations of mass produced toys.
The title then also suggests a slight provocation to the observer: Sun Yitian portrays the figure in an anachronistic Western manner of children's clothes with bright blue eyes. Is this an Asian girl? What are acceptable contemporary criteria we are supposed to consider? By implication, one might also consider the role of the artist herself as she appropriates Asian and Western iconography in her painting practice.
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