Andrew Wang
When we look at artworks, the artworks look back at us. This idea lies at the heart of Georges Didi-Huberman’ s critique Ce que nous voyons, ce qui nous regarde, and it remains central within my own practice. To me, art goes far beyond creating pieces; it is about communication, confrontation and sensitivity to the surrounding environment.
I have learnt to practise flânerie, wandering through urban spaces as an observer, echoing the dérives of the Situationist International. Moving through the city from a third-person perspective, I have encountered a series of urban paradoxes that quietly reveal themselves within quotidian scenes.
My artworks emerge from my reflection upon these urban and societal paradoxes that I have encountered, such as the absurdity of certain utopian masterplans, the tragedy created by the reinforcement of identities, as well as the tension between construction and deconstruction. Through the pieces presented within the exhibition, I seek to question these paradoxes and contradictions, and invite the audience to recognise the ambiguity that permeates our shared contradictions within our quotidian.
There are three main concepts at the core of my creations: absence and presence, death, and superficiality. Absence and presence, central to abstract and contemporary French artists such as Christian Boltanski, form a paradoxical idea where absence persists as presence, made perceptible through what remains, what is missing and what is remembered. Death, as permanent disappearance or destruction, as the shared destination of all creatures, of all materials. Superficiality, as the emphasis on facades that conceal the underlying supporting structure and tension, a satire of urban developments.
There isn’ t more to say, all else is about experience and interpretation, as I prefer the artist’ s voice to remain absent.