I am an artist based in China and currently a lecturer at the School of Future Design, Beijing Normal University. My practice centres on the act of making objects. These objects function as condensations of imagination, enabling ideas to move beyond narration and acquire a temporary material reality—entering perception and re-participating in the world.
In recent years, I have come to understand that the deeper impulse of my practice is rooted in two intertwined structures: bloodline and what I call the “masculine condition.” Within the Chinese cultural context, bloodline operates not merely as kinship, but as a sacred genealogical system that promises a form of familial immortality. It counters the individual’s fear of death while assigning each life a predetermined position of obligation and inheritance. Yet under the pressures of modernization, this order has entered a state of mutation, producing both existential uncertainty and structural dislocation.
Parallel to this, the “masculine condition” describes a life posture that converts an inner fear of mortality into continuous outward expansion, seeking secular forms of power—success, control, and transformation—to construct an illusion against nothingness. Suspended between the longing for strength and the refusal of weakness, it remains destined for collapse or disillusionment. My work rarely narrates these tensions directly; instead, they are compressed into objects themselves or into unstable relationships between humans and things.
From this foundation, I am particularly concerned with the interweaving of different media, especially the ways in which moving image can activate fabricated objects. For me, moving image is not a means of documenting sculpture or installation, but a working method through which fictional artifacts obtain new spatial, temporal, and perceptual structures. My doctoral thesis, The Analysis and Construction of Fictional Artifacts in Moving Image Art, offers a systematic articulation and extension of this methodology. By embedding fictional artifacts into the moving image as “plug-ins,” I generate continuous redundancy and overload on both material and informational levels, allowing the image to operate beyond the limits of its own medium. In this condition, objects acquire an almost transgressive dominance within the frame; viewing shifts from narrative following toward an immediate encounter with presence, producing a perceptual “mist” formed through excessive visibility and accumulation. Within such a state, spectators tend to rely on intuition and affect rather than explanatory interpretation, entering a calm condition in which perception slows and thought begins to drift.
Since 2023, I have been developing the ongoing project Unfilial Sons, which persistently asks: as unworthy sons of the world, where can humanity ultimately go? The first completed work in the series, Refractory Period, unfolds through an installation-based constructive logic in which numerous artificial objects form the material ground, while symbolic figures and minimal performances function as props within a spatial system activated by moving image. The second work, The Infinite Game of Life, currently in production, is planned to consist of eighty-four micro-films, marking a new temporal extension of this continuing exploration of objects, perception, and existential inheritance.
我是一位常驻中国的艺术工作者，目前任教于北京师范大学未来设计学院。我的创作以造物为核心展开，这些物是想象的凝结体，使观念得以超越叙述，获得一种暂时的物质现实——进入感知，并重新参与世界。
近年来，我逐渐意识到，驱动我实践的更深层动力根植于两种彼此交织的结构：血缘以及我所称的“男性状态”。血缘在中国语境中非常复杂，它是传统社会结构的基础，塑造了以自我为中心、根据血缘与关系的远近而铺展开的网络。并最终升华成一种神圣谱系，通过“家族永生”的契约，来对抗个体对死亡的恐惧。个体生来就被嵌入其中，其权利与义务，皆由其在这张网络中的具体位置所决定。然而在现代化的冲击下，血缘为基础的网络发生了重大的异化，并引发了社会与个体一系列的结构困境与意义危机。
所谓“男性状态”并非指向男性，而是一种将内在对死亡的深刻恐惧，转化为一种永不安宁的、向外扩张的生命形态。它通过不断追逐世俗力量（成功、控制、改造），来建立能够抵抗虚无的幻觉。在渴望强大与拒绝脆弱之间摇摆，这种姿态终究走向崩塌或幻灭。
我的作品很少直接叙述这些张力，而是将其压缩进物本身，或嵌入人与物的关系中。在方法上，我特别关注不同媒介之间的交织，尤其是影像如何激活被制造出来的物。对我而言，影像并非用于记录雕塑或装置，而是一种使虚构人造物获得新的空间、时间与感知结构的工作方式。我的博士论文《影像艺术中虚构人造物的分析与建构》正是对这一方法的系统性梳理与延伸：通过将虚构人造物作为嵌入影像结构的“插件”，在物质与信息层面持续制造冗余与过载，使影像逐渐在自身媒介的极限之外运作。此时，物在画面中获得一种近乎僭越的主导性，观看由对叙事的追随转向对在场之物的直观感受，进入一种由过度存在与视觉堆积所生成的“迷雾感”。在这种状态中，观众更趋向于依赖直观经验与情绪感受，而非解释性的理解，甚至进入一种感知被延缓、思绪游移的宁静状态。
自 2023 年起，我策划并展开《不肖子》系列，持续追问人类作为世界的不肖子，我们到底能够走向何方？目前完成的第一部作品《不应期》以装置化的构建逻辑展开：大量人造物构成其物质基础，其中角色采用符号化造型，配以极简表演，同样呈现了道具感。这些物质与“道具人”又通过影像来激活为一个可被观看与进入的空间系统。目前，系列第二部《人生无限游戏》正在制作之中，计划由84个微影像组成，作为这一造物实践在时间维度上的新挑战。
Sun Guaiwu is an artist based in China, whose work spans almost all major media and focuses on the interweaving of different mediums. His doctoral thesis, "The Analysis and Construction of Fictional Artifacts in Moving Image Art," explores the integration of artificial objects like installations, sculptures, and props in video art, while also serving as a systematic review and extension of his previous creative methods. In recent years, his artistic practice has centered on three themes:"Bloodline", "Masculine Condition." His video series "Unfilial Son," which he began planning in 2023, stems from these two themes. The first part of the series, "Refractory," has been completed, and work is currently underway on the second part.
In addition, Guaiwu is a design activist and researcher who sees design as a moral declaration and a medium to inspire discussion. He aspires to generate valuable narratives and thought experiments outside the script of consumerism. In 2017, Guaiwu founded the Mentionso studio, which actively engages in various issues within the Chinese social and cultural context through radical design, design comedy, speculative design, critical design, and social design, striving to act for a better society of tomorrow.
怪悟是一位居住在中国的艺术家，作品几乎涵盖所有主要媒介，并关注不同媒介间的交织。其博士论文《影像艺术中虚构人造物的分析与建构》聚焦于影像中装置、雕塑和道具等人造物的融合，也是对以往创作方法的系统性梳理与延伸。近年他的艺术实践主要围绕“血缘”、“男性状态”两个主题。他于23年开始策划的影像系列作品“不肖子”正是源自这两条路径，目前完成了系列的第一部《不应期》，正在进行第二部的前期工作。此外，怪悟是一名设计行动者和研究者，将设计作为一种道德宣言和激发讨论的媒介，渴望能在消费主义脚本外产生有价值的叙事和思想实验。2017年怪悟创立当代设计团体明想社，针对中国社会及文化语境，用设计激进主义、设计喜剧、思辨设计、批判设计、社会设计等方式，积极介入不同议题，为了明天理想的社会而行动。
2022-2025 PhD, Contemporary Art Practice, Central Academy of Fine Arts, CHN
2015-2017 MA, Design Interactions, Royal College of Art, UK
2013-2014. MA, Visual Communication, Shih Chien University ( Exchange Course), CHN
2008-2011 BE, Industry Design, Hohai University, CHN
2005-2008 BE, Agricultural Facility of Science and Engineering, Hohai University( no diploma), CHN
2024-2025 Visiting Tutor, School of Continuing Education, Central Academy of Fine Arts
2017-2022 Creative Director, Mentionso
2019 Guest Lecturer, China Academy of Art (Shanghai Campus)
2012-2013 Creative Director, Otacool
Email guaiwuart@gmail.com
Instagram sunguaiwu