Departed (From a place we've never been)

About

Entering Departed, the viewers seem to be temporary tourists in a self-defining human community: a city, perhaps, or a period in time. The surroundings are a mixture of the familiar and the strange, cross-cultural translated symbols and texts, sounds and images, creating a hybrid possibility we could be moving towards from our current state. A place without a name; an imagined community without a nation.  

-

CREO (b. Declared an artist statement is a Diversity Information defined by the Data Protection Act (DPA), the artist would only discuss his work and personal information face to face instead of uploading any text online.) In CREO’s work, one sees elements of old Chinese proverbs, afro hair, US political figures, all of which further confuse any assumptions that we may make about the artist. https://www.creo-ocre.com/

Lawrence Lek (b. 1982, Frankfurt) is a leading multimedia artist who has exhibited across the world, including at KW Berlin, Venice Biennale, and UCCA Beijing. Lek uses elements of contemporary social phenomena like influencer worship and the arrival of the AlphaGo to make what are in effect modern events appear dated, as if he is offering the viewer a chance to visit ‘now’ from the perspective of a post-singularity society.  https://lawrencelek.com/

Tabitha Swanson (b.1991, Winnipeg) appears as a specimen of an online race. A designer and creative technologist using 3D rendering, face filter and sometimes synthetic makeup on her own body, offers us the vision of a migrant from a virtual world. The Canada born and raised third-culture child now lives and works in Berlin. With a background in fine art, fashion and design, Swanson approaches her practice in the same boundless way as she views her mixed heritage, which spans across the continents. She is currently an artist in residence at Factory Berlin as a part of sonar+D programme and part of Digi-Gxl, an international collective of womxn, trans, non-binary and intersex 3D animators and designers. https://www.instagram.com/tabithaswanson_/

James Tabbush (b. 1991, London) is a British artist whose work includes digital, filmic, painting and photographic elements, often as installations. The basis of much of this lies in an extended study of the digital image as something which is exchanged, fragmented, desired and degraded as it travels. Hovering between emotional affect and cold distance, his recent painted works present a series of linked panels, a ‘Browser’ of imagery in multivalent greys. His film work ranges from looping gifs within viewing devices to cinematic essay films – common themes are the act of looking and being looked at, the sleeping body, and ideas around transience and the self. http://www.jamestabbush.com/

Syan MC Yan (b. 1971, Hong Kong) best known as a pioneer of Cantonese Rap and Graffiti, has tagged on the Great Wall of China and formed a band (LMF) in 1998, delivering iconic tracks that influenced the identity of the identity of the young Hongkongese with their lyrics, which contained cultural and political commentary. Syan a.k.a. MC Yan finished an MA in visual and conceptual art in France, returning to Hong Kong in the year of Handover, 1997. In recent years, the artist has returned to visual arts, creating installations outside gallery spaces described by the artist as painting with light, taking influences from Tibetan philosophy and occult sciences.  https://www.instagram.com/gudiii/