Poetics of Materiality
Visual Arts
Description
Description
These four artists Ringo Bunoan (The Philippines), Young Rim Lee (South Korea), NgJoon Kiat (Singapore), and Yu Ji (China) come from four different countries thattogether span East and South East Asia. Placed besides one another, the art work ofthese four artists show a certain unity as much as a distinction. This unity is acommitment to the materiality of artistic practice not simply the basis of much ofartistic practice but, as its subject.
Utilizing cloth or cardboard, paint, wood or stone, almost all materials have not beenpreviously used. They are raw or manufactured materials to be used or re-used. Theprocess or, in other words, the very making or construction of their work is integral tothe subject itself. The work gains its inspiration not from some external factor, as if imposed from without. The work builds through and out of itself. That is, it comesfrom within, out of a then unclear logic inscribed in the first lineaments, if not principles, of its construction. The understanding of this logic comes through the process of working and reflection and working again. There is a slow succession of decisive actions, additions or interventions. There is nothing swift about this processnor necessarily certain. It may fail or not succeed to build. Or, hopefully, it will gainmomentum and the process continues and then perhaps stops. Finished. The work is done.
The work is, in this moment, an artwork, gaining an autonomy which is neithercontingent on an external factor nor, at this point, on the artist. The artwork becomesitself, autonomous. It speaks out of itself and to the viewer whose curiosity lead to anengagement. Commentators have often aligned this kind of practice to that of poetsand there is a truth to this observation. The economy of words chosen, of buildinglines and verses. There is no excess here but, a lean economy and with it, a reflexivity, aware that in its making, its constitution, the poem or artwork will be shown againbut, differently. Let me start again. This is wood, paint, cloth, stone, cardboard thateach have a certain banal or commonplace character. However, the use of thismanifested materiality involves a change of form, of shape and function. We do notsee this process, as described above, so much as experience its outcome. Through this process, we become witness to the poetics of materiality. The work of each of theartists and the artwork they create is about this process of transformation of materialsfrom the mundane to the poetic.
Note：This event record is compiled from "Hong Kong Visual Arts Yearbook 2014" published by Department of Fine Arts, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
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