Samuel Xun’s AMSR, ‘I’m Exhausted, Where is He’
By Wong Kar Mun Nicole

This is a writer's response to Samuel Xun’s AMSR. AMSR is an Art & Market project featuring digital and physical small rooms showcasing the practices of emerging artists and writers. For more information, click here.

The most fun I have ever had in describing my dating life is in talking about all the things that have gone wrong. I have taken to distributing morsels of these encounters like party favours — Thank you for your time; here, take a disastrous dating story on your way out! It is easier to do this than to have to admit to the inevitable disappointment that accompanies a failed connection. In his exhibition, ‘I’m Exhausted, Where Is He’, Samuel Xun harnesses the heartbreak and frustrations of dating, with greater aplomb and good humour than most of us are capable of.

‘I’m Exhausted, Where is He’ is a glorious explosion of meticulously balanced abstraction, ribbons, and glitter. It is immediately evident that Xun’s works play with ideas of camp and queerness. For the unacquainted, and against the contrary instructions from Susan Sontag to avoid defining it, camp is a sensibility that gravitates towards artifice and drama. Camp also began as a kind of unspoken code within communities that shared those same sensibilities.

Each of Xun’s pieces sport an aesthetic extravagance that leans into the exaggerated femininity, customary of drag culture. On first sight, the flamboyance of his works appear at odds with the emotional tenderness of their titles. For example, in ‘That’s the Last Time I’m Watering your Flowers’, Xun’s flowers bloom in gold glitter and a technicolor palette of green, orange and purple. Instead of emphasising finality and loss, the visual electricity of the work gives the effect of a sly grin or a hair toss, as though reminding this nameless ex-lover, “You’re going to miss me when I’m gone.”

“Each of Xun’s pieces sport an aesthetic extravagance that leans into the exaggerated femininity, customary of drag culture. On first sight, the flamboyance of his works appear at odds with the emotional tenderness of their titles.”

Samuel Xun, ‘That’s The Last Time I’m Watering Your Flowers’, 2021, acrylic paint, glitter ribbon, metallic polyurethane vinyl, & polyvinyl acetate glue on stretched canvas, 110 x 110 x 3cm. Image courtesy of the artist.

This playfulness is front and centre in Xun’s exhibition. He scatters cheeky innuendos across his works, teasing the audience with his boldness. In ‘Everything Reminds Me of Him’, two forms of “wood” are on display as a phallic symbol cuts across the neat circles that resemble tree rings. In ‘I Hate You THVIIS much’, Xun uses the curving length of another phallic shape to chart the extent of his disdain and as a parody of a raised middle finger.

Samuel Xun, ‘Everything Reminds Me of Him’, 2021, acrylic paint, glitter ribbon, & polyvinyl acetate glue on stretched canvas, 110 x 110 x 3cm. Image courtesy of the artist.

Samuel Xun, ‘I Hate You THVIS Much’, 2022, acrylic paint, glitter ribbon, and polyvinyl acetate glue on canvas, 6 canvases: 23 x 31 x 3cm each. Image courtesy of the artist.

When asked about this penchant for lightheartedness in his work, Xun describes it as a “defence mechanism”. While innuendo and exuberance may easily draw a viewer in, they also keep them distanced from the vulnerabilities that may accompany them. Ostentatious confidence and side-eye pettiness are always easier emotions to share with strangers. More than his deft manipulation of textiles, or the structural techniques that were also previously employed in his fashion design, this is where Xun’s background in fashion is most apparent. Like fashion, everything here is simultaneously aesthetic and armour.

Yet, as inspired by philosopher Kuno Fischer, Xun also uses humour as a tool to deepen his excavations into his own personal experiences. For Xun, humour is prevalent throughout the exhibition because it is also an essential part of his being. Thus, in order for these works to accurately present the authenticity of his forays into love, laughter needs to be a part of them too.

Through his work, Xun transfigures the rawness of his emotions and experiences into self-contained, decorative abstractions. In works such as ‘Psycho Ornamental Ideal Boyfriend II’ and ‘Maybe That’s What It’s Supposed to Feel Like’, Xun blatantly gestures towards a romantic ideal while emphasising the artifice of these aspirations through his use of lush materials as well as mod-inspired geometric lines and shapes that contribute to the visual drama.

Samuel Xun, ‘Psycho Ornamental Ideal Boyfriend II’, 2022, wall paint, glitter ribbon, polyvinyl acetate wood glue, and crystal rhinestones on wood base, 80 x 80 x 15cm. Image courtesy of the artist.

While Xun’s jokes may seem obvious to some (it might be surprising that anyone could fail to recognise the prominent phallic symbols), Xun is intently aware that they might be missed by others. For Xun, he knows that queer communities are more likely to grasp the full extent of his humour. Xun says “We get it when we see it. We understand the nuances of a narrative when there’s a joke that’s a said-unsaid kind of thing. We just get it.” Enjoying Xun’s work feels like joining a community. When you get it, you also then get to be part of an inner circle – stepping closer to the artist, edging your way into his tribe by virtue of laughing over the same things.

It is no wonder then that Xun chose to name the exhibition after a quote from an episode of ‘Sex and the City’ where the characters, as they are prone to do, lament their dating lives. A central aspect of this iconic early-naughts romcom was ultimately the camaraderie among the four main characters as they played witness, therapist, and advocate for each other throughout their turbulent dating lives. ‘I’m Exhausted, Where is he’ similarly forges an intimacy between artist and the select audiences who can hold both Xun’s heartache and humour at the same time.

Every heartbreak is uniquely personal. Despite the many ways we can share them as stories of humour, grief, or at times, growth, each romantic entanglement and dissolution is individually experienced, even for those on either end of the break. To experience ‘I’m Exhausted, Where is he’ is to be constantly aware of this distance while also relishing in the brief moments of community that come from commiserating over yet another bad date or sharing a wink over an inside joke.

For more written responses to AMSR, click here.