SSSSSSSSSCULPTURESQUE

EVENT DESCRIPTION

Kiang Malingue is pleased to present SSSSSSSSSCULPTURESQUE, an exhibition of artworks by Evgeny Antufiev, Eric Baudart, He Yida, Phillip Lai, Heidi Lau, Oren Pinhassi, Lee Relvas, and Nicole Wermers. By assuming the form of a piece of functionless furniture, a Han Dynasty ceramic burial object, or a toothbrush tree, and by making playful use of mattress springs, a stack of Robin Day chairs, window blinds, rice, dollar bills, door frames, and some Balenciaga coats, the artworks in the exhibition examine the ways in which sculpturesque realities can contribute to our reflection upon domesticity, survival and existence in a post-pandemic era.

Phillip Lai has been pondering manual means of survival for more than three decades. Both the floor work Untitled (2018) that folds a large sheet of fibreglass around a thick pile of used clothes, and the relief Untitled (2018) that balances a handful of rice, emphasise what is essential to life, exploring the sculptural potential of resources. Turning from the matter-of-factness of the manual world to the glamour that the contemporary reality has to offer, Nicole Wermers examines the subtle changes in public space, and the evolution of elements and factors within. Included in the exhibition are two of Wermers’ recent chair stack works that dashingly don glamorous Balenciaga coats. Cunningly avoiding a narrative that suggests the absence of a user who probably has just left the room, these chair stacks – rendered unusable since the coats are sewn into the chairs – instead portray a fashionable, acephalic anti-scarecrow figure at work.

Developing her sculptural practise, writer, musician and artist Lee Relvas uses the most obvious readymade of all: money. The bentwood sculpture House of Mirth (2020) named directly after Edith Wharton’s novel is a meticulously structured, sculpturesque scene that incorporates actual dollar bills, speaking earnestly of the possibility to overcome personal existential crises and the state of being suspended amidst the pandemic. Also interested in exploring suspended situations is He Yida, whose Urban waste imitation 3 (2019) echoes Phillip Lai’s work by staging a carefully choreographed fall, forging new relationships and functionalist purposes. There was light coming through shining on the imaginary city 1 & 2 (2019) also in the exhibition prints shiny yet ruined scenes on window blinds that crack and droop, presenting once again a struggling balance that opens and maintains portals to safe, domestic environments.

Regarding the composite assemblage of things and the possibility to create and live with pseudo-natural beings in a domestic environment, Oren Pinhassi’s Untitled (toothbrush tree) (2019) is born out of a logic the artist has developed called “Erotic Construction”. Acknowledging that things are shaping in and are immersed in each other in the anthropocene, the toothbrush tree witnesses the collapse of categories such as the artificial and the natural, suggesting a coming together of people to participate in a group activity of care and tenderness. Eric Baudart turns the comfort a domestic setup has to offer in-side-out by presenting Multispire (2014), a striped-bare spring mattress mounted on the wall. His Fauteuil (2008) is another piece of impossible furniture: there is nothing underneath its cozy appearance. The materials and methods used in creating the work are properly sculptural; as a ghost couch, it presents a mere façade that is playfully deceptive.

The untitled bronze vase (2021) and the mosaic piece (2022) by Evgeny Antufiev belong to the artist’s total project that explores anew the relationship between the living and the dead. These are relics and artefacts that are considered magical, empowering their owners as they embark on a journey for eternity. Finally, also exploring an uncanny domesticity in relation to memory and life is Heidi Lau who uses the old, universal material of clay to create works such as the Chainlink Vessel II (2022) and Dreaming (2021). Piecing together architectural elements from historical buildings that no longer exist, Lau also references mingqi — ceramic burial objects found in tombs — pondering today’s post-secular condition which positively transforms the relationship between the sculpturesque, the environment in which a sculpted object is installed, and the user who lives with the object, physically and spiritually.