[objects in the mirror] brings together selected works of artists Desiree Tham, Ryan Benjamin Lee, and Yeyoon Avis Ann, to unfold their use of perception-shifting strategies to reveal magical relationships between the material world and the mind.
The fundamental desire to enchant underlies both art and magic, which equally harness illusion, perception and the fabrication of alternative versions of reality to return captivated audiences to a sense of naivety and awe. The exhibition raises possibilities of the magical in wilfully surrendering to an incomplete, and even non-rational understanding of the world; both as a comforting illusion in an incomprehensible world, and as an active belief in the impossible, against the banality of the everyday.
Playing on the safety warning ‘objects in the mirror are closer than they appear’, it draws attention to the phenomenological experience of seeing, encountering, and believing.
Preview of publication below.
Click here to read curatorial essay, best viewed in full screen.
Artwork Descriptions
Ryan Ben Lee
Bobo Magic, 2019, animation and book.
Untitled (Starry Bodies), 2019, animation and book.
Party, 2019, animation and objects.
Harnessing animation as an alternative to the cynicism of contemporary art, Ryan’s works revels in its potential to experiment with the movement of images and indulge in a sense of naivety and awe. In these works, he utilises replacement animation and found images to subvert conventional notions of cause and effect and a structural understanding of how as viewers, we interpret and create our own knowledges.
Yeyoon Avis Ann
Outdoor Blu, 2019, Installation including video projection, lifeguard chair, digital print and other objects.
The practice of Avis derives from the intermixing, melding and clashing of elements aggregated–an intuitive collection that draws from both online sources and those produced by the artist. Outdoor Blu explores the overwhelming experience of being in a city and bombarded by information through a captivating video installation, playing with metaphors of swimming, floating, diving, liquification, complete submersion as virtual elements spill out to the physical installation.
Desiree Tham
The bathroom should be pink, 2019, dice, vase plant, pipe, handle, wheels, rug
Place a 如意 where you work most, 2019, LED panel, table, electrical wiring
Only in multiples of tens, 2019, golden eggs, arrows, hooks
The sculptures of Desiree Tham employ fengshui to guide their construction and assemblage. Through altering and using them as directions, the artist creates sculptural objects that, even as they conform to the instructions, subtly play with how such symbols and meanings are interpreted. The works prompt viewers to consider: do wilful interpretations of symbols and metaphorical objects which we perceive to have invisible effects ultimately change how we perceive reality itself?
Credits
Co-curated with Ong Kian-Peng, Supernormal
Supported by | National Arts Council
Artists | Ryan Benjamin Lee, Yeyoon Avis Ann, Desiree Tham