Touchy, no touchy

About

This group exhibition explores the complicated nature of life, the confrontation between the progress of humanity and animals and the distance between audience and artwork. As the exhibition title suggests, there is a focus on contrast between tactile and non-tactile work, further highlighting the many comparisons presented, animal and human, urban and wildlife, and the innate conflict of the human psyche.

Yuen-Ying Lam’s (b.1992) sculptures explore the emotionality of being human in an absurd world. She casts human feelings into mundane objects so that they become deeply personal and poetic. Her objects are soft and comfortable to the touch, with a compassionate intention to provide the viewer a temporary emotional support through physical sensation. Her current research lies in psychological processes that work at subconscious level and the compelling influence of early relationships with parents towards mental development in each individual, hoping to underline the breadth and invisibility of mental health issues inherent in today’s society.

Zongxiu Xie (b. 1995) frequent relocations in her childhood from grassland to an urban environment influenced her profoundly, igniting her interest in exploring the complicated patterns of life in the city and the difficult confrontations that occur between the human and nature in an urban setting. Her work combines pinhole photography with sculpture. She is captivated by the visual accidents which frequently occur with pinhole photography. These accidents represent the uncertainty of everyday life. By building pinhole cameras through sculptural language, she aims to express a tangible understanding of social issues. By encouraging the viewers to interact with her work, she is also instigating an interaction with these issues. She wants to create a closeness with her work, and therefore, no distance between the represented issues and the viewer.

Karen Flecknell (b. 1991) is interested in exploring and highlighting issues of how humans destroy and harm nature, urban development, pollution, deforestation to name a few. She is especially interested in animal testing, how they cause deformities and the uses of animals for food and fur. Nature inspires her works which are created in a range of media including ceramics, papier-mache, found objects, housing materials, and more. Her works range from sculpture and installation to drawing and collage pieces. She is currently creating works on the issues of animal testing, researching scientific experiments that could be mistaken for fiction and personifying their purpose into artworks.