KAN XUAN

Antrepo No.3

Kan Xuan was born in 1972, in XuanCheng, An'hui, China, lives and works in Beijing and Amsterdam. She is a graduate of the China Art Academy in Hangzhou and recently completed a fellowship at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam from 2002-2003. Exhibitions of her video work include shows at Venice Biennale, Chinese Pavilion (2007), “I Still Believe in Miracles”, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, “Prix de Rome”, De Appel Foundation (Amsterdam, 2005), 9th Havana Biennial, Wifredo Lam Center (Cuba, 2006), “Cycle Tracks Will Abound in Utopia”, Australia Centre for Contemporary Art.

Object

Indeed. The objects are isolated from their usual surrounding and projected on a television set, there is something unreal about the items shown in this film. Of course, I have eliminated all traces of colour. But that doesn’t matter, because our memory fills in the information on what has gone. As soon as we see a carrot, we immediately assume it is orange, just as we take for granted that coffee is brown. If I say something that is wrong, your memory will remind you of the truth. On the other hand, if I bring up something that is true, then your imagination has the power to make you believe that what you are witnessing is deceiving. With my work, I want to stir up all these different feelings so that people can become aware of what I feel. The videos are slow, quiet, beautiful and somewhat sad. When you feel happy, there is movement in your mind. Emotions are small intervals of time that have a beginning and an end.