Blog Assignment: Biennale 2008

Visited the Biennale recently and was indeed pleasantly surprised by the works which were exhibited.

I would say it is a real life reflection of some stuffs which we learnt in sch, both previously and presently.

The "Good" work

I'm Not Expensive (2008) by Lee Yong Deck.

This piece of work by the Korean artist is extremely clever, in my opinion. By making use of the various ways the human eye perceives things, this piece of work engages the audience to take a step back, think about what we had just seen and then decide on making a comment/decision.

From an angle, it may seem that the figures are moving closer. But when u simply take another step forward and look at it again, it may suggest otherwise.

In essence, this piece of work prompted an internal question within me, "is everything we see right before our eyes as apparent as it is?"

It may, or it may not be.

Interesting. :)

The "Bad" work

Swing (2007) by Tse Su-Mei

Somehow, this piece of work did not come across as strong as i felt it will when i was reading the guidebook before seeing it in real life.

Indeed, it gave the uncanny feeling of an empty swing moving without anyone on it, but that is just as far as it goes.

I couldnt establish a link between the usage of neon tubes and the attached connotation of "untouchable" and "unused" as i don't see a reason why we cant touch a neon tube?

But i guess the physical installation of this work plays a part too. It was sited in an open room, with a lot of demarcated space between the viewers and the actual artwork. Somehow, i felt that i was not able to make a closer examination of the artwork, and thus, may lead my unfair judgement of this piece of work.

Nevertheless, this visit has broaden my view in the respect of conceptual art forms.

Looking forward to the next Biennale.