The Ox Warehouse has invited two female South Korean artists, MJ Lee and Maing Heewon, to join their Artist-in-Residence Programme entitled “Wonderland”, sponsored by the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) and Macau Foundation (FM), according to the gallery’s Facebook page.
The artwork created by the two artists during their stay here is currently showcased at the Post-Ox Warehouse Experimental Site.
According to a statement by the gallery, Lee and Maing know each other in South Korea where they studied at Sunhwa Arts School in Seoul.
Both have come to explore Macau’s “complexity” and “chaos”, the statement says.
According to the statement, Lee has been particularly attracted by Macau’s street shrines.
Lee made use of clay, gold foil and other materials to build a large altar at the entrance of the exhibition hall, complete with a monitor, imagining that the altar would be broken into little pieces and scattered in mud, ending up in a pile of soil, gold paint and other materials.
In her installation, according to the statement, Lee aims to reflect on local people’s superstitious behaviours, while deliberately emphasising the time limit of all existence in the world and asking the fundamental question: “What is it that we are searching for in life?
Maing has been inspired by Macau’s numerous saunas. The naked bodies of Maing’s sauna girls are shown as symbols of desire, according to the statement. At this time, the artist has reinterpreted the birth of Venus through her own understanding, depicted in a line of delicate, sculptural bodies; placed on numbered pedestals. They are showcased for observation, as though an endless row of beauty pageant contestants, the statement points out.
The images of voluptuous female bodies are printed on thermal paper, the fine texture of which recalls the smoothness of the girls’ skin, mapping the transformation of desire and the fleeting impressions of the city, according to the statement.
At the exhibition, the artists’ peculiar perspectives allow audiences to see Macau in a different light, as they point to the burning issues of modern insanity, according to the statement.
The exhibition is on display until May 24 on the ground floor and first floor of the Post-Ox Warehouse Experimental Site in 15 Rua do Volong, except Mondays, from noon to 8 p.m. daily. Admission is free.
Visitors are required to wear a facemask and apply hand sanitiser when entering the venue.
For enquiries call 28530026 or visit the website: http://www.oxwarehouse.blogspot.com
The statement is available in Chinese and English on https://www.facebook.com/events/1076207672747244/
Photos: Camy Tam
