Sun Guaiwu
怪悟
Guaiwu is an artist living and working in China. He holds a PhD in Contemporary Art Practice from the Central Academy of Fine Arts and an MA in Design Interactions from the Royal College of Art. He currently teaches at the School of Future Design, Beijing Normal University.
His practice spans moving image, sculpture, installation, painting, performance, and interactive systems. His work considers what happens to individuals as beliefs surrounding the future, success, family, and continuity begin to lose their hold, as well as the relationships that persist after loss.Fiction and object-making are central to his practice. Fabricated objects may appear as props or symbols within a situation, but they can also act as proxies for relationships, creating forms of recall, waiting, and connection across moving image, space, and action.
Alongside his artistic practice, Guaiwu is also engaged in design research. In 2017, he founded the design collective Mentionso, which explores the possibilities of design in relation to social and cultural issues through speculative design, critical design, design action, and design comedy.
怪悟是一位生活和工作于中国的艺术家，获中央美术学院当代艺术创作博士学位及英国皇家艺术学院 Design Interactions 硕士学位，现任教于北京师范大学未来设计学院。他的实践跨越移动影像、雕塑、装置、绘画、行为与交互系统，关注围绕未来、成功、家庭与延续所形成的信念逐渐松动之后，个体所面对的精神处境，以及那些在失去之后仍未结束的关系。虚构与造物是其重要的工作方式，人造物既可以作为情境中的道具与象征，也可以成为关系的代理，在影像、空间与行动之间触发某种召回、等待与联系。除个人艺术实践外，他亦从事设计研究。2017年，他创立设计团体“明想社”，通过思辨设计、批判性设计、设计行动与设计喜剧等方式围绕社会与文化议题探索设计的可能。
Education
PhD Contemporary Art Practice
Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing
MA Design Interactions
Royal College of Art, London
BE Facility Agricultural Science and Engineering/ BE Industrial Design
Hohai University, Nanjing
Selected Exhibitions
My practice grows out of myths I once believed without question, but which have gradually begun to lose their hold. The future would keep getting better; hard work would lead to success; family could continue from one generation to the next; growing up meant becoming more complete. These beliefs profoundly shaped my understanding of life and formed an important part of the world in which I grew up. Over time, however, I have become increasingly interested in what happens to us as these beliefs begin to loosen or break apart.
Blood ties, family responsibility, the drive for success, the urge to expand, and the fear of decline and death recur throughout my work. I do not see them as separate subjects; together, they point to the struggle of confronting our own finitude. Yet relationships end, bodies age, childhood does not return, and some futures never arrive.
Loss does not mean a true ending. People, objects, identities, and futures that have disappeared from our lives continue to act on the present through memory, habit, a sense of debt, remnants, ghosts, or repetition. Art, for me, has therefore come to resemble a non-religious, personal ritual. It cannot repair what has already happened or bring the absent back, but it can allow us to attempt a connection with what can no longer be recovered.
My practice encompasses moving image, sculpture, installation, painting, performance, and interactive systems, with an ongoing interest in how different media intersect. Fabricated objects may appear within a situation as props, symbols, or prototypes for thought; they may also exist as independent sculptures, installations, or objects with a particular use. I am increasingly interested in what objects can do beyond conveying meaning: how they might preserve, substitute, wait, bear, or summon, and how, through their relationships with moving image, space, and action, they might acquire responsibilities, temporalities, and fates of their own.
我的实践源于那些曾经深信不疑、如今却逐渐失效的神话。未来会不断变好，努力会通向成功，家庭能够延续，成长意味着变得更加完整——这些信念曾经深刻地塑造了我对生活的理解，也构成了我成长经验的重要背景。但随着时间推移，我越来越关注它们发生松动甚至破裂之后，人的精神处境。
血缘、家庭责任、成功冲动、扩张欲望以及对衰败和死亡的恐惧不断出现在我的作品中。它们不是彼此独立的议题，而共同指向人面对自身有限性时的挣扎。然而关系会结束，身体会老化，童年不会返回，某些未来不会到来。
失去并不意味着真正终结。离开的人、事物、身份和未来，会以记忆、习惯、亏欠、遗物、幽灵或重复继续作用于当下。艺术对我而言，因此越来越像一种非宗教的、个人化的仪式。它不能修复已经发生的事情，也不能让缺席者回来，却可以让人与那些无法挽回的事物尝试建立联系。
我的创作包括影像、雕塑、装置、绘画、行为、交互系统，并关注不同媒介间的交织。人造物有时作为情境中的道具、象征或思想原型出现，也可以作为独立的雕塑、装置或某种具有用途的器具。我越来越关心物除了表达意义之外，还能在作品中做什么。这些物如何保存、替代、等待、承担或召回，又如何在与影像、空间和行动的关系中获得属于自己的职责、时间和命运。