Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Coming exhibition in Get it Louder 2007, China




Working title: As Much As You Like韧用

Date and venue:

23 Jun – 7 Jul Guangzhou

21 Jul – 4 Aug Shanghai

16 Aug – 1 Sept Beijing

To be confirmed Chengdu

This is a collaborate project between me and William Hailiang Chen, it will be exhibited in Get it Louder 2007 in China. Chen from China is an architectural graduate from the Architectural Association School and currently working in an architectural firm in London. He is interested in environmental sustainability issues in relate to transformation of object and materiality.

The concept developed from my sculpture piece Assemblage of Used Disposable Chopsticks, 2000. The working title ‘As Much As You Like’ refers to eating. It makes connection to a buffet style serves in some of the restaurants in the UK where diners pay a fixed price to “eat as much as you like”. The title translated into韧用 in Chinese, 韧 same pronunciation as任 has the meaning of using what ever amount you like, 韧 also means thing can be used as many times as possible.

Disposable chopsticks have very short life span; we threw them away almost immediately we finished our meal. This project combines both Chen and my interests, where we observe the relationship of this object with us within this temporal environmental and time frame, searching ways to make connection and expand the life span of the chopstick and its paper pocket accompanied. Trapped between controllable and uncontrollable, applicable and non-applicable, we are trying to allow dialogs to expand among the chosen materials and with the viewers. The work may be seen as a cross between architectural form and sculptural form.

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Welcome to the ground

Thank you for stopping over. The Ground We Share evolves from my research study where I make a comparative study between the concepts of the everyday in art practice and Zen.

My art practice may be seen as the result of my interest on the matters of the everyday and Eastern thoughts. Over the years, I have produced a body of cross-disciplinary work that explores the as-it-is-ness of things, and interconnectedness between objects and people. My own cultural background and life experience are often revisited, examined and evidenced in the work within this journey of exploration.

In Zen tradition, mindfulness to everyday trivial is important in their spiritual pratice, my research relates this notion of attentiveness from my work to this tradition. Historically, many important twentieth century artists and art groups who expanded Duchamp’s theory of the ready-made and the everyday were also influenced by Zen teaching from D.T. Suzuki and Shunryu Suzuki that can also be related to this research.

In contrast to the Western sociological perspective on the study of the everyday from important thinkers like Henri Lefebvre and Michel de Certeau; I look at it from a different perspective - through the prism of a contemporary artist that comes from an Eastern background.

This blog provides a space to share my activities and information arising from my work and research. You are welcome to be part of this interconnection by posting your valuable experience, thoughts and comments.