China’s Top Artists of 2024: Song Kun——Endogenous Eastern Cyberpunk

2024中国年度艺术家之宋琨——内生东方赛博美学

Song Kun (宋琨) is a Chinese female artist holding a Master’s degree from the Oil Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Regarded as “one of the outstanding representatives of contemporary Chinese art”, she serves as a visiting instructor at the Third Studio of the Oil Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, is one of the founders of the N12 Art Group, and established the “Island” Art Project. Although her work is primarily rooted in painting, she seamlessly incorporates live music, music videos, installations, and other media. Experimentally fusing elements from contemporary subcultures and religious iconography with her creative framework, Song Kun persistently explores the interplay between the human body, the subconscious, imagination, and the lived experience—revealing how the intricately private inner worlds of individuals reflect and respond to China’s evolving landscape.

Song Kun holds a deep reverence for Chinese tradition and is dedicated to studying the aesthetics of Eastern visual forms; yet, she is equally critical of the entrenched cynicism that often stifles the art and cultural scene. Growing up during an era of rapid urban development—when subcultures, animation, and rock music swept through the lives of urban youth—she found herself at the vortex of popular culture. Naturally inclined toward fantasy and endowed with rich emotional sensitivity, she immersed herself in a variety of compelling artistic experiments. Her creative practice involves channeling influences that move her, such as diverse anime-inspired designs, cyborg aesthetics, independent music, songwriting, and music video production. By distilling and blending traditional motifs with various subcultural elements, Song Kun has crafted a series of characters that embody a pan-cultural corporeality. These figures, with their diaphanous skin and captivating gazes, expressions, and gestures, encapsulate sensuality, emotion, futuristic technological allure, and Eastern aesthetic. The ethereal quality inherent in her work draws from the Buddhist concept of the “Eastern Lapis Lazuli Pure Land”, which alludes to the interdependent causality between spirit and flesh; meanwhile, the deliberate inclusion of mechanical components and fragmented, mechanized forms hints at humanity’s current state—being governed by order and gradually morphing into a cyborg existence that navigates the realms between reality and the surreal.

Since 2015, Song Kun has continuously developed a body of work centered on a collective of figures known as “Animists”, each endowed with its own code name, distinctive visual form, and unique personality traits. These characters draw inspiration from the artist herself and her close, real-life acquaintances. As a practitioner of Gesamtkunstwerk, Song Kun describes her creative process as the preparation of a “script”—one that is not arbitrarily defined but rather unfolds through an unconventional narrative that weaves together the tangible world and the realm of the subconscious.

宋琨，中国女性艺术家。毕业于中央美术学院油画系，硕士。“中国当代艺术杰出代表之一”，中央美术学院油画系第三工作室客座教师，N12艺术团体的发起及组建人之一,“岛”艺术项目创始人。作品以绘画为主,同时结合了音乐现场、Music Video、装置等方式。

宋琨的作品实验性地将当代亚文化及宗教元素与其创作系统相融合，持续探索人类身体、潜意识、想象力及生存体验之间的关系，展现出个体瑰丽隐秘的私人世界对变化中的中国特有的反映和关照。

宋琨尊重中国传统，沉心研究东方造型的美学系统，但同时又厌恶艺术文化领域固步自封的犬儒主义。在她成长的年代，城市进程飞速发展，亚文化、动画、摇滚乐等席卷了都市年轻人，身处在流行文化暴风中心的她因为天生喜欢幻想，富于情感和想象力，她沉迷于各种极具吸引力的艺术实验，挥洒创造力，尝试将触动她的元素和媒介融入到作品里，例如各种动漫造型、赛博格美学、独立音乐、写歌、做Music Video等。

通过提炼、融合传统及各类亚文化元素，艺术家宋琨塑造了⼀系列各具性格的泛文化肉身，这些角色轻薄通透的肌肤，摄人心魄的眼神、表情及动作，集性感、情感、未来科技感及东方美学于一身。作品里特透明的属性源于佛法中“东方琉璃净土”的概念，指涉灵与肉的互为因果；嵌入身体的机械部件及机械化错位提示当下⼈类被秩序控制、进而赛博格化的生存现状，使其在现实与超现实世界间穿越。

自2015年起，宋琨持续塑造一个族群“泛灵族Animist”作品系列，这个系列的人物各自有自己的代号、不同的造型和性格特点。这些形象来自艺术家本人及她身边真实的朋友。

这些形象来自艺术家本人及她身边真实的朋友。作为“整体艺术”（Gesamtkunstwerk）的实践者，宋琨将自己的创作过程形容为准备“一个剧本”，但“这个剧本并不是可以随便定义的，而是以一种穿行于现实与潜意识世界、非常规的叙事方式生长的”。