Wing Po So - From the Body to the Body Through the Body

Wing Po So From the Body to the Body Through the Body

de sarthe

Wing Po So From the Body to the Body Through the Body

de sarthe

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de Sarthe is pleased to present the Hong Kong-based artist Wing Po So’s first solo exhibition with the gallery, From the Body to the Body Through the Body, concluding de Sarthe’s third annual artist residency (deSAR). Featuring a new series of sculptures and delicate plaster carvings, as well as an immersive, large-scale installation the exhibition continues the artist’s ongoing exploration of Chinese medicinal materials. Through a studied use of corn—one of the most common of Chinese medicinal ingredients—a fictitious archeological reality is produced within the exhibition, offering new perspectives on time, space, truth and logic. The exhibition opens on Saturday, 7 September.

Upon walking into the gallery, visitors are greeted by petrified habitats and fossilized bones of a prehistoric crustacean-like creature. These are all in fact made from clay and corncob.

Embedded within the clay itself, the corncob disintegrates during the firing process and leaves the scaly, undulating impression of an ancient, unknown animal or bug. Collectively, these misleading clay sculptures pen the narrative of a highly evolved species that once roamed our planet.

The deceptive modern day archeology of these artworks leave us to contemplate alternate realities, the scale of time, and the innate fallacy of our perceptive abilities.

Further developing the fictitious narrative of a once animated corn creature, the immersive installation From the Body to the Body Through the Body is an eleven-meter-long cocoon made chiefly of dried corn silk. Laboriously untangled and restructured by hand over the duration of two months, the corn silk that comprises the skin of the cocoon was transformed from a matted, weed-like substance to a thin and airy woven mesh. The resultant moving and breathing cocoon it forms seems to biologically latch itself onto the walls, floor, and ceiling of the gallery space. Walking into the cocoon, one is immediately struck by the smell of the sweet and musky cornsilk as well as the sudden change in light.

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The experience inverts our relationship to corn silk, which our gaze normally looks down onto, thereby radically shifting scale. Inside the cocoon, individuals look upwards at the cornsilk surrounding them in totality, rendering their bodies bug-sized in comparison. Walking within this warped context, an interrogation between materials and our relationship to them unfolds, calling into question what we deem to be living and non-living, fictitious and real.

The final series in the exhibition, Changing States is a body of new artworks delicately carved out from a layer of plaster on board. A depiction of the material process of untangling and restructuring corn silk, the soft and quite painting-like works meditate on revitalization and how we perceive living and non-living. An introversion of the concepts addressed within the exhibition, the works hang immediately across from the imposing cocoon installation and conclude the exhibition.

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德薩畫廊榮幸地呈現香港藝術家蘇詠寶在畫廊舉辦的首個展《由體而始，至體而成，自體而過》，同時以 此為第三屆德薩藝術家駐留項目（deSAR）畫上句點。展覽將延續藝術家對中醫藥材的持續探索，展出一系 列最新創作的雕塑、經過精細雕刻的石膏以及大型沉浸式裝置作品。展覽通過對粟米須這一常見藥材的深 入探究和多樣運用，虛構了一個考古現實，以全新視角審視時空與邏輯。展覽將於9月7日週六開幕。 走入畫廊，觀眾將邂逅由黏土及粟米棒製成的石化的棲息地和類似史前甲殼類動物的化石骨頭。掩埋在黏 土中的粟米芯在燒製過程中解體，留下鱗片狀起伏的凹凸，彷彿一種古老未知的的動物或者昆蟲。這些誤 導性的黏土雕塑敘述了一類高度進化的物種在這片土地上漫遊的往昔。在現代考古學的偽裝下，這些作品 引導觀眾考量另一種現實，另一種時間尺度，思考自身認知能力裡的固有謬論。 沉浸式裝置作品《由體而始，至體而成，自體而過》繼續豐富這個關於粟米動物的架空敘事。這件裝置作 品長11米，形似蠶繭，主要由乾燥的粟米須製成。粟米須原本是粟米的外殼。經過長達兩個多月的手工拆 解與編織，粟米須從一種粗糙的雜草狀存在轉變成為輕薄透風的編織網。由此製成的粟繭富有動態，呼吸 自如，如生物般自發地佔據畫廊內的牆面、地板及天花板。觀眾步入繭的空間，立刻被粟米須微甜的麝香 氣味所纏繞，被光線的剎那變換所打動。這種體驗倒置了我們與粟米須的關係，我們無法像往常一樣向 下打量，因而尺度被劇烈放大。在粟繭之內，個體仰視這個包圍自身的整體，身體如同被縮放至幼蟲的 尺度。在這一扭曲的世界觀中穿行，我們不斷直面關乎物質、關乎自身與物質的相對關係的拷問，從而 質疑所謂生命與非生命、假象與真實的本質。 最後展出的《變形的狀態》則是藝術家在光滑的白色石膏上雕刻而成的最新雕塑創作。作品描繪了粟米須 分解與重組的物理過程，肌理柔和，有著如同畫作般的質感。作品試圖討論新生的萌發，亦意欲引導我們 再次考量對生命與非生命的感知，以此點題並結束此展覽。

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Wing Po So Habitat No.1 2019 Clay, corn cob, steel 82 x 35 x 40 cm

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Wing Po So Habitat No.2 2019 Clay, corn cob 47 x 54 x 54 cm

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Wing Po So Habitat No.3 2019 Clay, corn cob 50 x 25 x 26 cm

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Wing Po So Partial Skeleton 2019 Unfired clay Dimensions variable

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Wing Po So From the Body to the Body Through the Body 2019 Corn silk, thread, iron, sound, motors 630 x 1170 x 378 cm

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Wing Po So Changing States – Phase 1 2019 Plaster on wood 170 x 122 cm

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Wing Po So Changing States – Phase 2 2019 Plaster on wood 170 x 122 cm

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Wing Po So Changing States – Phase 3 2019 Plaster on wood 170 x 122 cm

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Artist CV Wing Po So b. 1985 in Hong Kong 2007

Bachelor of Fine Arts, Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts, Washington University in Saint Louis, USA

2012

Master of Arts in Fine Arts, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Solo Exhibitions 2018

Six-Part Practice, Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong

Group Exhibitions 2015 2013 2012

2011 2007

Ghost Walk, Hong Kong Fringe Club, Hong Kong Sound of Image: Exploring the Links between Audio Description and Visual Art, Hong Kong Cattle Depot Artist Village, Hong Kong Seesaw-MA Fine Arts Graduation Show, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Black Market, Wan Chai Gresson Street, Hong Kong Detour 2012:Hawkerman II, Wan Chai Police Station, Hong Kong Market Forces: Response, Osage Gallery, Hong Kong Vision Mission-MA Fine Arts Year 1 Show, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Exhibition of Books Saint Louis Artist’s Guild, Missouri, USA

Publications From Space to Space: An Illustrated Guide to an Infinite Something, Wing Po So, 2018

蘇詠寶 1985年出生於香港 2007

美國華盛頓大學聖路易斯藝術學士，美國

2012

香港中文大學藝術文學碩士，香港

個展 2018

《六種練習》，大館當代美術館，香港

聯展 2015

《陰陽路》，香港中環藝穗會，香港

2013

《聽、見、想、像：口述影像與視覺藝術的一些事》，牛棚藝術村，香港

2012

《思嗦－第二屆香港中文大學藝術碩士畢業展》，香港中文大學，香港 《黑市藝術快閃展》，灣仔機路臣街，香港 《Detour 2012：排檔藝術嘉年華 II》，香港前已婚警察宿舍，香港 《 回應市場力量》，奧沙畫廊，香港

2011 2007

《 Vision Mission》，香港中文大學藝術碩士一年級作品展，香港 《Exhibition of Books Saint Louis Artist’s Guild》，密蘇里州，美國

出版 《微物萬象》，蘇詠寶，2018

Wing Po So b.1985 in Hong Kong

Born in 1985 in Hong Kong, Wing Po So graduated with a B.F.A from the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts, Washington University in Saint Louis in 2007, and with an M.F.A. from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2012.

Born into a family with generations of Chinese medicine practitioners, Wing Po So has been acquainted with the forms and smells of Chinese herbs since childhood. With an interest in plant reproduction, energy flow, structural assemblages and celestial science, she contemplates the microcosm and physicality of substance by incorporating the pharmacological herbs which have always surrounded her into large-scale installation and sculpture. Wing Po So's artistic practice weaves Chinese medical and philosophical thinking into celestial wonders that reconstruct the correlation of matter and being.

Wing Po So's most recent solo exhibition is Six-part Practice, Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong (2018). Her work has also been widely exhibited in group shows, including: Ghost Walk, Hong Kong Fringe Club, Hong Kong (2015); Sound of Image: Exploring the Links between Audio Description and Visual Art, Hong Kong Cattle Depot Artist Village, Hong Kong (2013); Seesaw- MA Fine Arts Graduation Show, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong (2012); Black Market, Wan Chai Gresson Street, Hong Kong (2012); Detour 2012: Hawkerama II, Wan Chai Police Station, Hong Kong (2012); Market Forces, Osage Gallery, Hong Kong (2012); Exhibition of Books Saint Louis Artist's Guild, Missouri, USA (2007).

She also published an artist book in 2018, titled "From Space to Space: An Illustrated Guide to an Infinite Something".

Wing Po So currently lives and works in Hong Kong.

蘇詠寶於1985年出生在香港。她分別於2007年及2012年在美國華盛頓大學聖路易斯取得藝術學士及香港中 文大學取得藝術文學碩士畢業。 蘇詠寶成長於傳統中醫學世家，自幼觀察各種藥材，對草藥的形狀氣味甚為熟悉。對植物生成、能量流動、 組織構成及天文科學饒有興趣的她，慣以其熟悉的中醫藥材及日常用品為創作媒介；由微觀角度探索物料的 特質。她的作品以大型裝置和雕塑為主要形式，其藝術實踐融合中醫傳統哲學思想和她對天文奇觀的浮想， 充滿詩意地詮釋萬物之間的關聯連繫。 蘇詠寶近期的個展包括《六種練習》，大館當代美術館，香港（2018）。參與過的群展有:《陰陽路》,香港中 環藝穗會,香港（2015）；《聽、見、想、像: 口述影像與視覺藝術的一些事》 ，牛棚藝術村，香港（2013 )；《 思嗦- 第二屆香港中文大學藝術碩士畢業展》，香港中文大學，香港（2012)；《黑市藝術快閃展》，灣仔機 路臣街，香港（2012)；《Detour 2012:排檔藝術嘉年華II》, 灣仔警察宿舍，香港（2012)、《 回應市場力量》， 奧沙畫廊，香港（2012)；《Exhibition of Books Saint Louis Artist's Guild 》，密蘇里州，美國（2007)。 另外，在2018年蘇詠寶出版了她創作的藝術家書籍《微物萬狀》。 蘇詠寶現時於香港定居及工作。

Wing Po So From the Body to the Body Through the Body 7th – 21st September, 2019 Hong Kong

de sarthe 20/F, Global Trade Square, No. 21 Wong Chuk Hang Road, Hong Kong Opening hours: Tuesday to Saturday 11am – 7pm T: +852 2167 8896 F: +852 2167 8893 E: hongkong@desarthe.com Design and photographs: Vivian Yau

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