I enjoyed Kerry Ann Lee’s new exhibition: 大世界 Da Shi Jie/The Great World: Shanghai Works 2009-2010 currently at Toi Poneke in Wellington.
Three bodies of work feature in the exhibition, which has shown at Island6 art centre and Shanghai Art Museum in 2010, while Kerry was in residence there through the Wellington Asia Residency Exchange (WARE) program. Electric Warrior is a series of raw wire sculptures highlighting the rapid urban development. I loved the idea of wireframe versions of our intimate daily objects — shoes, bras, dumplings. The display on transparency projectors, throwing wireframe shadows on the walls of the gallery, captured the essence of life in flux, the ephemera of daily life and culture.
Chinese Relatives, features paper-cut pieces set into recycled window frames, inspired by local stonewall tenement houses that were being gradually demolished revealing a mysterious assortment of ephemera - stickers, lucky charms, pop posters and calendars.
The third section deconstructs Shanghai architectural landmarks such as 东方明珠塔, the Oriental Pearl Tower, featured above. At the rear of the gallery, a video shot riding though Shanghai neighborhoods conveys the sense of landscapes in flux, all combining to create the effect of “big dreams built on top of shifting terrain.”
大世界 Da Shi Jie literally means “The Great World,” and is also the name of a station on Shanghai Metro line 8.
Da Shi Jie / The Great World: Shanghai Works 2009 – 2010 runs until Friday 20 May at Toi Pōneke Gallery, 61 – 69 Abel Smith Street. The gallery is open from 9.00am – 7.30pm on weekdays, and from 10.00am – 4.00pm on weekends.
