Seekee Chung, Ed Pien
light boxes, drawings, video
6 June – 22 August 2010
Seekee Chung (1979) makes work that is best described as 3-d windows. In a recessed rectangular framework she has placed cut-out fragments of photographs beside and behind one another. The window is closed off with frosted glass, rendering the representation diffuse and creating a shrouded depth. For the elements of her representations Seekee Chung searches the Internet. Frequently these are interiors in which the light is coming in from outside through a window, natural forms of trees and plants and here and there an indication of people. With these elements she builds a new world looming up from behind the frosted glass as in a dream or like a vague memory. This suggestion is intensified by lightening up the windows from the rear in a subtle, mysterious light.
Ed Pien (1959), born in Taiwan and living in Toronto, combines elements from western and Asian visual culture in his work. Often these are mythical creatures and demons which he puts on paper in lively delicate lines. He also makes cut-out drawings in which representations of dense forests with human figures in them are cut out from the paper. The figures and creatures in his recent work are based on classical works in Chinese literature, such as Journey to the West and The Classics of Mountains and Seas. Also to be seen at the exhibition is the video Shadow Play, in which Ed Pien himself moves through an installation with cut-out paper and networks of ropes that continue to be transformed by means of dynamic, dramatic lighting.