You are here

Reorientated: a Conversation of Different Geographies

City:

Categories:

Date: 
Thursday, 22 June 2017 to Tuesday, 27 June 2017
Opening: 
Thursday, 22 June 2017 - 7:00pm to 9:30pm

Reorientated: a Conversation of Different Geographies.

Julie Brixey-Williams  & Michelle Loa Kum Cheung  

A-side B-side Gallery, 352 Mare St, E8 1HR   21-27th June 2017

 

Loa Kum Cheung and Brixey-Williams create a disjunctive path that dances between Western upbringing and Eastern composition. Deconstructing the terrains of their own backgrounds, they attempt to understand the relationship between physical and cultural heritage within the context of personal experience. Drawing upon the Chinese notion of Shan Shui, where the purpose is less about realism and more about an expression of the mind and heart, the artists are able to absorb technical qualities of composition, rhythm and flow to cultivate personal landscapes that offer a variety of perspectives upon the idea of belonging. This repositioning unites the artists as they deploy some of the boundaries of Asian landscape art and calligraphy to investigate disconnections between time and location, allowing the pre-existing landscapes to be absorbed into the original meaning of ‘–scape’: a personal and continued material engagement with place.

 

Brixey-Williams renders visible the relationship between the body and site through performative and sculptural inscriptive acts in the landscape. Evoking calligraphic practice where the ink performs a role within the white space to bring vitality to the page, she opens a dialogue between the gestural quality of her movements (and their semiotic function as a language abstracted beyond the readable) and the intrinsic qualities of the place. Carefully applying spatial compositions and Asian formalities in her photographs, sculptures and ink drawings, she balances the freedom of gestural flow with the delicate colours of the Essex marshlands of her youth that echo traditional Chinese ink wash paintings.

 

Loa Kum Cheung explores the idea of a displaced heritage, drawing reference from old family photos and open source archive to fabricate nostalgia for a lost lineage. The melding of the actual family memory and idealized projections of places she has never experienced first hand is lightly layered, creating slippage where the new and ideal can co-exist. Favouring the tactility and raw materiality of wood, she employs pyrography and oil with a focus on intentional mark making. The physicality of the techniques used is an attempt to exert ownership over the elusiveness of memory, time and place - inherently flawed, disjointed and the subject of idealistic escapism.

 

This is an intersection of a duo of trajectories that share both affinity and disconnection. Deconstructing the terrains of their own backgrounds, the artists attempt to understand the relationship between physical and cultural heritage within the context of personal experience.

 

Biographies

Brixey-Williams

Julie Brixey-Williams was born in Essex, moved to London in the 1970’s and is a member of the Royal British Society of Sculptors. Her interest in Asian art was fostered during the two years she worked in Hong Kong in the 80’s, when she visited China shortly after border controls were relaxed. Exhibitions include Arabesque V&A museum, London; Drawing The Process national touring show; What is Line? Frost Museum, Miami and W0budong: texts without meaning, Manchester. Residencies include The Observatory at Lymington, The Barbican library and The Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland.

http://www.juliebrixey-williams.co.uk/cv.html

 

Loa Kum Cheung

Michelle Loa Kum Cheung was born in Sydney, Australia, and lives and works in London, United Kingdom. Exhibitions include 'Studio Oriental' at Gaffa Gallery, Australia, and Dot to Dot, run by the Mayor of London's Office, in various locations around London. 

www.michellelkc.com

Telephone: 
02085337258
Venue ( Address ): 

A-side B-side Gallery

Other events from A-side B-side Gallery

view
When you can't put feelings into words
05/02/2019 to 05/07/2019
view
When you can't put feelings into words
05/02/2019 to 05/07/2019
view
Routine Depth
03/07/2019 to 03/12/2019
view
Upscape
02/07/2019 to 02/19/2019

Pages

Related Shows This Week in UK

view
Capturing the Climate – Mixed Media Workshop
03/29/2024 to 04/07/2024
view
The Dark and the Light
03/06/2024 to 03/31/2024
view
STORM WARNING
11/18/2023 to 04/13/2024
view
Claire Cansick: You and I Are Earth
10/14/2023 to 04/14/2024
view
Art and Books Charity Sale at Ben Uri
03/15/2024 to 03/31/2024
view
Joe Cheetham
02/29/2024 to 04/06/2024
view
transfeminisms
03/08/2024 to 04/20/2024
view
Lucy Harwood: Bold Impressions
12/02/2023 to 04/14/2024

Pages