ARTIST INTERVIEW // HYUN-HEE LEE

Hyun-Hee Lee_White Tears_2014_Korean paper, pencil, ink, cotton thread_350 x150cm

To coincide with her solo exhibition Secrete, we asked Sydney-based Korean artist Hyun-Hee Lee to talk to us about her practice, why she makes art and the way in which her work is informed by Korean culture and buddhist practice.

Describe your work in 100 words or less: 

My works are derived from very personal experiences and memories that I have recalled from my life in Korea. Many of these involve the relationship with various rituals and practices, which are prevalent in Korean culture. My art reinterprets many of these in a contemporary context, often reinventing the original intent and place specific objectives but maintaining a connection with materials and methodologies which are symbolic and spiritual to Korean sensibilities. 

Hyun-Hee Lee_White Tears_2014_Korean paper, pencil, ink, cotton thread_350 x150cm

How has your artistic practice changed over time? 

My early work was derived from my diaries and memories of Korea. Now I still express those ideas and personal experiences. I reinterpret them in a contemporary context using the rituals and practices that are an integral part of Korean culture. Also, the mediums I use now are more delicate and fragile, such as silk and Korean paper. Almost all my work is now installation based and my methodology has become more important to me.

Hyun-Hee Lee_Devotion #2_2015_Korean paper, pencil, silk, silk thread_60 x 60cm

How do you work? Can you tell me about your process? 

Normally I do meditation to clear my mind before I start work so I can totally concentrate, as my working process is important to me. I plan my work very methodically; quantifying exactly what is needed in the choice of materials and how they will work with my concept. 

What themes and ideas do you pursue? 

Through my art practice my aim is to establish a spiritual and cultural connection with my country of birth by exploring the religious rituals and practices that are fundamental and widespread in Korean life 

and how they have influenced me. 

I came to Australia more than a decade ago and I was having great feelings of nostalgia about my family and my culture. I explore the rituals and practices that my family use and I recreate them as a way of expressing my memories. This has become a fundamental way for me to establish and maintain 

emotional and spiritual connections. 

Hyun-Hee Lee_Penitence #2_2015_Korean paper, ink, pencil, silk, silk thread_60 x 60cm

Where would you like to be in 5 years? 

Five years ago I was doing my BFA. Since then I believe I have come a long way in understanding both my art practice and myself. Five years further on I would hope my art practice will develop as much as it has prior to now. I would also like to assume that my work will be seen on a more international level.


Hyun-Hee Lee's exhibition Secrete can be seen at Artereal Gallery until 3 October 2015.
(Please note Artereal Gallery will be closed from 9-13 September for Sydney Contemporary Art Fair).

STEVIE FIELDSEND / UMBRA

Video by Veronica Habib and William Bullock.

Music by Josh Woodward and Chris Zabriskiele

The artist would like to thank Marcus Dillon for all his assistance.

COLLABORATEURS / KARINA WIKAMTO

Karina Wikamto_Family Tree Project_2013_mixed media installation

Every day throughout the Collaborateurs exhibition, we will be sharing an interview with one of the exhibiting artists...

KARINA WIKAMTO

How did you and Michael first meet?

Michael is my older brother and my only sibling. Iʼve known him my entire life.

Why did you choose to collaborate with Michael?

I thought it would be only right, given the concept of the work, that I choose to collaborate with a member of my family. My brother and I are close siblings. We have a shared experience that informs my art practice, familial values and beliefs.

What is it about collaboration as a process that appeals to you as a contemporary artist?

This is my very first collaborative project. I find the process to be artistically appealing as I often utilise the understandings and advice of my peers as guidance for the direction of my work. In the past, such given tasks as group work has always been a frustrating process. However, when given the opportunity to choose your team members and the components of the task at hand, the outcomes of or the experience gained from the process could prove to be rewarding.

What is it that you hope to realise through this collaborative project?

I hope that I come out of this process realising the benefits of having two minds work towards a common goal. Hopefully the outcomes will encourage me to consider doing more collaborative projects in the future.

Karina Wikamto will be exhibiting today, Wednesday 10 July, from 3pm-9pm.

Click here to learn more about the Collaborateurs exhibition.

KEN + JULIA YONETANI @ 4A CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ASIAN ART

Ken + Julia Yonetani, What the Birds Knew, 2012, Uranium glass beads, aluminium wire, and UV lights.

Ken + Julia Yonetani, What the Birds Knew, 2012, Uranium glass beads, aluminium wire, and UV lights

Ken + Julia Yonetani are opening their solo exhibition What the Birds Knew at 4a Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, 181-187 Hay St, Haymarket, on Thursday 9th August from 6-8pm. The artists will also be speaking as part of 4a's Lunchtime Talks at 12:30pm on Friday 17th August.

What the Birds Knew includes new large scale sculptural works made from radioactive uranium glass. A 6-metre long green ant will threateningly loom over visitors to the gallery, and a large scale chandelier will be visible 24 hours a day. The use of UV lights will make the uranium glow green, giving the works an ominous energy.

These new visually stunning and highly provocative works arise out of the artists’ concerns over the recent nuclear tragedy in Fukushima. The title of the exhibition refers to the alternative title for Akira Kurosawa’s 1955 post-war film I Live in Fear, in which the central character declares that the birds would flee if they knew of the impending environmental threats.

What the Birds Knew reflects shared cultural expressions of environmental anxieties within Indigenous Australian and Japanese culture, and whether these function as either warnings or premonitions.

Following on from this exhibition, Ken + Julia Yonetani will have a solo exhibition at Artereal Gallery this October. Crystal Palace: The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nuclear Nations is a response to the recent Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident and the phenomenon of radiation. This exhibition will feature a new, never before exhibited installation of Uranium chandeliers.

Ken + Julia Yonetani, Crystal Palace: The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nuclear Nations (Japan), 2012, metal, UV lighting, Uranium Glass

KEN + JULIA YONETANI @ 4A CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ASIAN ART

Ken + Julia Yonetani will soon open their solo exhibition What the Birds Knew at 4a Centre for Contemporary Asian Art. 

What the Birds Knew includes new large scale sculptural works made from radioactive uranium glass. A 6-metre long green ant will threateningly loom over visitors to the gallery, and a large scale chandelier will be visible 24 hours a day. The use of UV lights will make the uranium glow green, giving the works an ominous energy.

These new visually stunning and highly provocative works arise out of the artists’ concerns over the recent nuclear tragedy in Fukushima. The title of the exhibition refers to the alternative title for Akira Kurosawa’s 1955 post-war film I Live in Fear, in which the central character declares that the birds would flee if they knew of the impending environmental threats.

What the Birds Knew reflects shared cultural expressions of environmental anxieties within Indigenous Australian and Japanese culture, and whether these function as either warnings or premonitions.

The exhibition opening is 6-8pm, Thursday 9 August at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, 181-187 Hay St, Haymarket. The artists will be speaking as part of 4A’s Lunchtime talks at 12.30pm Friday 17 August 2012.

Following on from this exhibition, Ken + Julia Yonetani will have a solo exhibition at Artereal Gallery this October. Crystal Palace: The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nuclear Nations is a response to the recent Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident and the phenomenon of radiation. This exhibition will feature a new, never before exhibited installation of Uranium chandeliers.

GARY DEIRMENDJIAN / NEWINGTON ARMORY

strata - newington armory_2012_site specific installation_mixed media_12m x 7m

Gary Deirmendjian has recently completed installing a new site specific work entitled strata - newington armory as part of an upcoming exhibition at the Newington Armory which opens this weekend.

"Engaging with Homebush Bay’s history of being a site for the illegal dumping of waste from the 1950s until its remediation in the 1990s as part of the development for the Sydney Olympic Games, Gary Deirmendjian’s strata – newington armory is both a literal and symbolic excavation.

A trench has been dug in which the artist has filled an assemblage of discarded household items and rubbish actually collected from the streets that acts as a kind of reverse sinkhole, an aperture from which we encounter regurgitated evidence of our consumerist culture’s unsustainable use of resources and exploitation of all the earth yields." - Pedro de Almeida. curator.

This work is related to Deirmendjian’s previous work strata 2011, a similar site-specific installation that incorporated the heritage listed Willoughby Incinerator, originally designed by Walter Burleigh Griffin in 1930-38 and like Newington Armory recently converted into an art space, that made use of the opportunities presented by the internal Modernist architectural spaces of a structure once dedicated to the incineration of waste.

As outlined in the press release "EXCAVATION: The Armory Exhibition 2012 will comprise the creations of 21 artists including such as fresh, young Sydney sculptors Adam Galea and James McCallum, the award-winning artists Gary Deirmendjian and Khaled Sabsabi, and well-known duo Sean Cordeiro and Claire Healy.

The theme of the exhibition – ‘excavation’ – was developed by curator Pedro de Almeida, who will present Curator Talks from noon on Sunday 17 June and 5 August.

“An excavation is an act of archaeological exposure, recording and analysis, and represents one of the ways by which we come to understand the chronology and development of human activity through the interpretation of objects. The idea of an ‘excavation’ is a rich metaphor for the practice of contemporary artists who enact interventions into the cultural, historical and physical landscapes we inhabit,” said Mr de Almeida.

Spanning a variety of art-forms including painting, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, glass, photography, video and installation, EXCAVATION: The Armory Exhibition 2012 will occupy the entire 500 square metres of the extraordinary Armory Gallery, which boasts the largest continuous gallery wall in Australia (at 38 metres by 3.5 metres)."  

Other exhibiting artists include: Osnat Almog, Alexis Apfelbaum, Sean Cordeiro & Claire Healy, Rose Daridis, Paul du Moulin, Bonita Ely, Adam Galea, John Gillies, Szilvia György, Tevita Havea, Locust Jones, Akira Kamada, Heather Kepski, Simon Maberley, James McCallum, Deborah Redwood, Khaled Sabsabi, Dianne Turner and Sydney-based new media artist, Jessica Tyrrell.

EXCAVATION: The Armory Exhibition 2012 runs from Sunday 17 June – Sunday 19 August (weekends only), from 10am-4pm. There will also be a free Curator Talk from noon on Sunday 17 June and 5 August at the Armory Gallery at Newington Armory, Sydney Olympic Park.

AZIZ+CUCHER REVIEWED IN THE NEW YORK TIMES...

Aziz+Cucher_The Time of the Empress_2012_installation shot at Indianapolis Museum of Art

The New York Times have recently reviewed Aziz + Cucher's solo exhibition currently showing at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Entitled Some People the exhibition features a new body of work by the New York-based collaborative of Anthony Aziz and Sammy Cucher. Working together since 1992, Aziz + Cucher are widely recognized as pioneers in the field of digital imaging. 

Through the use of digital animation, performance, video, and sound, Some People situates recent and current conflicts into a never-ending narrative that exists outside of a specific place and time. The outbreak of war between Israel and Lebanon in 2006 profoundly affected the artists, who have cultural and familial ties to the area. This conflict, in addition to witnessing firsthand the catastrophic events of 9/11, inspired Aziz + Cucher to embark on a new body of work exploring a cycle of tragic and absurd inevitability begun in antiquity that continues today. Some People was inspired in part by the late Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska's poem by the same name first published in 2001.

To read the New York Times review click here.

Bruce Reynolds wins a 2011 CCAA Public Domain Award...

Congratulations to Bruce Reynolds, winner of one of the 2011 CCAA Public Domain Awards - national awards for excellence in concrete to enhance the public domain.

Entered by – Cox Rayner Architects

Client – Queensland Government, Department of Justice and Attorney General

Architect – ABM Cox Rayner Architects

Landscape Architect – Tract

Consultants - Artist – Bruce Reynolds

Principal Contractor – Abigroup

Principal Engineer – Robert Bird Group

Main Concrete Supplier – Boral

Overview

The Ipswich Justice Precinct comprises a courthouse serving both District and Magistrates courts, and a police station. The brief required the police station to be independently identifiable while also forming part of the precinct.

The design strategy was to create a courtyard on the street front to wrap the courthouse around two edges and the police station around the other, the courtyard forming the fulcrum of activity.

The choice of pre-coloured concrete as the primary building material was made because of its adaptability to meet different planning layouts at each level, including slightly different sizes plates. A second purpose was to relate the buildings to a city renowned for its masonry civic buildings and churches, without resorting to obvious copy of their materials. As an essentially raw material, concrete was also bchosen for its compatibility with a palette of other raw materials, particularly timber.

Insitu rather than precast was chosen because the design did not generate the repetition suited to the latter. The design team also preferred the imperfect character of insitu concrete, optimising its plasticity to envelop spaces, define

certain functions and create tactility.

Judges Comments

The impressive integration of site-specific artwork and concrete construction for the suite of external walls in this project creates a setting that adds strength and depth to the public domain in Ipswich and confidence in contemporary civic institutions. A masterful demonstration of how creative narrative power and technical expertise in construction can work together in a public project.

Judged by:

Professor Catherin Bull, Emeritus Professor of Landscape Architecture, University of Melbourne, Adjunct Professor at QUT.

Professor Philip Follent, Head of School, Soheil Abedian School of Architecture Bond University.

Tony Blackwell, Managing Director, Landscape bArchitect and Urban Designer, Blackwell & Associates.