藝評
Work in Sculpture
約翰百德 (John BATTEN)
at 2:56pm on 30th June 2009
Combining the practical and conceptual ideas of three accomplished artists of different media: Jaffa Lam (mixed media sculpture), Jamsen Law (new media and video) and Anthony Yeung (sound), Work in Sculpture comprises a single large sculpture built with welded tubular steel providing a strong super-structural frame and divided into individual hollow compartments covered by plywood panels as an acoustic and sculptural ‘skin’.
Described as an “alternative sound sculpture exhibition”, viewers are invited to climb over the sculpture and test its sound capabilities. Each artist has designed or appropriated additional objects that can be worn and used to make sound. Jamsen Law has sourced wooden butcher’s clogs for the audience to stomp around the sculpture – an appropriate accessory, as 1aspace is in a former abattoir building (see image).
However, the sculpture has greater impact as an object to view rather than as an interactive medium to generate sound. To add greater musical variety the work requires the inclusion of other material with a wider tonal range, such as plastic or tin. Beautifully finished with an austere minimalist feel, the sculpture could conceivably be placed in a fantasy recreation room for a Chicago School of architecture-designed building.
The dull, monotonous thud of the sculpture’s plywood does conceptually reflect the artists’ questioning the motivation behind the “patchy art projects” of Hong Kong property developers and their recent and trendy interest of including art in the public areas of their new buildings.
Significantly, the sculpture’s lack of musical qualities mirrors the mundane, safety-first approach to the presentation of art in most shopping malls, commercial atriums and lobbies. It is a considered, strategic approach for an astute tycoon: you know that official largesse is always a future possibility.
Exhibition: 《Work in Sculpture》
Date: 9.5. – 14.6.2009
Venue: 1a space
Enquiries: 852 2529 0087
Website: http://www.oneaspace.org.hk/
Described as an “alternative sound sculpture exhibition”, viewers are invited to climb over the sculpture and test its sound capabilities. Each artist has designed or appropriated additional objects that can be worn and used to make sound. Jamsen Law has sourced wooden butcher’s clogs for the audience to stomp around the sculpture – an appropriate accessory, as 1aspace is in a former abattoir building (see image).
However, the sculpture has greater impact as an object to view rather than as an interactive medium to generate sound. To add greater musical variety the work requires the inclusion of other material with a wider tonal range, such as plastic or tin. Beautifully finished with an austere minimalist feel, the sculpture could conceivably be placed in a fantasy recreation room for a Chicago School of architecture-designed building.
The dull, monotonous thud of the sculpture’s plywood does conceptually reflect the artists’ questioning the motivation behind the “patchy art projects” of Hong Kong property developers and their recent and trendy interest of including art in the public areas of their new buildings.
Significantly, the sculpture’s lack of musical qualities mirrors the mundane, safety-first approach to the presentation of art in most shopping malls, commercial atriums and lobbies. It is a considered, strategic approach for an astute tycoon: you know that official largesse is always a future possibility.
Exhibition: 《Work in Sculpture》
Date: 9.5. – 14.6.2009
Venue: 1a space
Enquiries: 852 2529 0087
Website: http://www.oneaspace.org.hk/