osage

Osage Gallery
4/F, Union Hing Yip Factory
Building, Hing Yip Street,Kwun Tong, Kowloon,
Hong Kong

CONTEMPORARY ART GALLERY

T : (852) 2389 8332
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Media Release

26 December 2013

Attention Arts and Culture Editors

For im m ediate release

Poetics of Materiality
Ringo Bunoan
ManilaYoung Rim LeeSeoul

Ng Joon Kiat
Singapore

Yu Ji
Shanghai

Curated byCharles MerewetherTime

4 January to 4 February, 2014
Opening Reception: 5 to 7 pm, 4 January
Monday to Saturday: 10.30 am to 6.30 pm
Sunday 2.30 to 6.30 pm
Open to special appointments & arrangements outside of these times.
Closed from 31 Jan to 2 FebVenue

osage hong kong
4/F, Union Hing Yip Factory Building, Hing Yip Street,Kwun Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong	  1	  CURATORIAL STATEMENT
By Charles Merewether
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. The
process or, in other words, the very making or construction of their work is integral to
the 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 notprinciples, of its construction. The understanding of this logic comes through theprocess of working and reflection and working again. There is a slow succession ofdecisive actions, additions or interventions. There is nothing swift about this process
nor necessarily certain. It may fail or not succeed to build. Or, hopefully, it will gain
momentum and the process continues and then perhaps stops. Finished. The work isdone.
The work is, in this moment, an artwork, gaining an autonomy which is neither
contingent on an external factor nor, at this point, on the artist. The artwork becomes
itself, 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 poets
and there is a truth to this observation. The economy of words chosen, of building
lines 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 again
but, 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 not
see this process, as described above, so much as experience its outcome. Throughthis 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 materials
from the mundane to the poetic.	  

2	  ABOUT THE WORKSRINGO BUNOAN
Pillows are banal and common objects. They are the sites of countless nights and mid-daynaps, we all lay horizontal, dreaming, drooling as our subconscious runs unchecked. Pillows
catch what leaks from our minds, via our mouths and eyes as we sleep. They are the sites ofphysical rest and rejuvenation, as well as cradles of our ideas, memories, nightmares anddreams.
Visibility takes monumental shape with The Wall - literally an entire wall of used pillows. Eachindividual pillow serves as a personal archive of another person’s accumulation of sleep, or a
stranger’s subconscious saliva. Ranging from white to mismatched bright colors to subtle
hues of yellow and brown stains, The Wall functions as a group portrait of interior substance.
The wall of used pillows also mimics a pile of bodies, where the lines between pleasure,desire, and violence become blurred. As an installation, it is a monument of soft mass –standing with a side of Minimalism that embraces process, the body, collaboration, andcommon material.
(Extracted from Gina Osterloh's essay, “Pillow Talk”, Catalog Essay for Ringo Bunoan, Solo Exhibition at Silverlens
Gallery, March 2008.)(Courtesy of Ringo Bunoan and Osage Gallery)

The Wall2008
Size variable	  3	  YOUNG RIM LEE“I have been intrigued by the spatial experiences through artworks such as paintings. My
main interest is related to space and in looking at the relationship between the pictorial andthe physical realms. That includes looking at relationships between painting and the actual
objects, between inner space (image) of artwork and outer space (surroundings or actualspace), and between the viewer and the artwork in a space.
With this exploration of the nature of painting within real space, my practices are mainly
accomplished in the area between painting and sculpture, while questioning what painting
could be or what is experienced through the painting in relation to real space.”(Courtesy of Young Rim Lee and Osage Gallery)

Nonstructural – Leaned Blue
2012
Wood stain, acrylic on wood
68 x 64 cm	  4	  (Courtesy of Young Rim Lee and Osage Gallery)

Constructions – Adjacent Plum2013
Acrylic on wood
107 x 122 cm	  5	  

NG JOON KIAT
“This set of work is part of a map series I am developing for my next solo. It looks at thesubtle counter-tensions between earth spaces as fixed territories with defined borders andthe natural changing character of earth spaces. I am keen to look at the constant evolving
physicality of earth’s spaces, for example, a new land appear from sea as earth’s tectonic
plate shifts, an unmaintained city quickly turns into a forest, land turning into oceans etc. I am
keen in seeing how the unspoken character of nature takes action as it pleases anddisregards man-defined spaces.”(Courtesy of Ng Joon Kiat and Osage Gallery)

Border Series: The Unspoken and Nature2013
Acrylic on cloth
60 x 80 cm	  6	  (Courtesy of Ng Joon Kiat and Osage Gallery)

Border Series: The Unspoken and Nature2013
Acrylic on cloth
60 x 80 cm	  7	  YU JI“The “Public Space” series is a deconstruction of the public toilet architecture in China since1949. I found those spaces composed of squares, rectangles and straight lines having acertain widely accepted formula in its design which is both abstract and apparently
directional. I borrowed from it the ratio and structure in constructing my own space. To me
this work does not lean on any interior wall. Standing on its own, it is fragile, a useless pieceof architecture.”(Courtesy of Yu Ji and Osage Gallery)

Public Space No. 1
2007
Plaster, dust and wood
45 x 150 cm	  8	  “The human body has always been an important yet obscure part of my work. During myworking process, I deliberately downplayed the physical characteristics or features of thebody. I chose not to obsess over details, and removed any dramatic elements or emotions
from my artwork. What I tried to explore was if the body does not represent any one person,
carry any emotions, showcase any physical details, or carry any anatomical accuracy, how it
can move people, or how its look can be trusted upon.”(Courtesy of Yu Ji and Osage Gallery)

Tiny Figure
2013
Cement and iron7 x 35 cm	  9	  

ABOUT THE CURATORCHARLES M EREW ETHER was born in Scotland and earned his Ph.D. in Art History fromthe University of Sydney. He is an art historian and writer on modernism and contemporary
art who has taught at universities in the United States, Mexico and South America, Australiaand Singapore. He was Collections Curator at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angelesfrom 1994 to 2004, Artistic Director and Curator for the 2006 Sydney Biennale, Deputy
Director for the Cultural District, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi from 2007 to 2008, and Director
at Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore and LASALLE College of the Arts from 2010
to 2013. Since 1991 and at the ICAS, he has curated a number of major exhibitions of major
artists from across South America and Asia, including Central Asia. He has publishedextensively articles and books including Ai Weiwei: Under Construction (2008) and Ai Weiwei:Beijing, Venice, London, Herzog & de Meuron (2008) and After Memory: 40 Years of Milenko
Prvacki (2013). Hehasalso

co-edited After

theEvent:

New

PerspectivesonArt

History (2010), Art, Anti-Art, Non-Art: Experimentations in the public sphere in postwar Japan
1950-1970, (2007).

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

RINGO BUNO AN is an artist, curator and researcher based in Manila, Philippines. She
received her BFA in Art History from the University of the Philippines in 1997. Her work
explores readymades, histories and given situations. Emphasizing the physical andmetaphorical dimensions of the material, she responds to personal and collective everyday
experiences in the context of larger social, cultural and historical issues.
Bunoan taught at the UP College of Fine Arts from 1997 – 1998. From 1999 – 2004, she led an
independent artist-run space, Big Sky Mind. From 2007 to 2013, she worked as the researcher
for the Philippines for Asia Art Archive in Hong Kong and initiated special research projects
on artist-run spaces and Filipino artist Roberto Chabet. In 2010, she co-founded King Kong
Art Projects Unlimited in Manila, and was of the lead curator of “Chabet: 50 Years”, a seriesof exhibitions in Singapore, Hong Kong and Manila from 2011 – 2012. She is a recipient ofthe Thirteen Artist Award from the Cultural Center of the Philippines (2003) and the Silverlens
Foundation Completion Grant (2007).

YOUNG RIM LEE is a mixed media artist born in Seoul, Korea. After completing thecoursework of her Ph.D in Cognitive Psychology at Ewha Women’s University in 2004, she	  10	  went on to study Furniture Design at Raffles Design Institutes in Singapore and obtained her
BFA from LASALLE College of the Arts in 2012. She stared participated in group exhibition inSingapore since 2009 and has exhibited in ‘Painting in Singapore & A Star In The Overcast’(Equator Project, 2013), ‘Icream Project’ (Merely Ice Cream Shop, 2012), LASALLE Show
(Lasalle College of the Arts, 2012) and ‘Raw Art Competition Finalist Show’ (The Gallery,2011). She now lives and works in Singapore.

NG JOON KIAT graduated from Singapore’s LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts andcompleted his master degree of Fine Arts at the University of Kent in England. Ng lives andworks in Singapore where he is heavily involved in the art community. In 2012 he wasselected as one of twenty-five Asian artists to exhibit work with Britain’s Royal Academiciansat the Institute of Contemporary Art, LASALLE. He currently also serves on a panel at theNational Arts Council of Singapore.
The artist exhibits his work on an international platform as well as within Singapore. His work
has been shown abroad in galleries such as Osage Gallery in Hong Kong and the Cultural
Centre of the Philippines. His solo exhibitions include those at the National Museum ofSingapore in 2007 and at the Esplanade in 2010. Collectors of his art include The National Art
Gallery of Singapore and private collectors from across Europe and Asia. He was awarded
the SIA Excellence in the Arts award, Singapore’s National Arts Council scholarship,
Singapore’s Georgette Chen Scholarship and the Ericsson Scholarship for art.

YU JI was born in Shanghai and graduated in 2011 from the Sculpture Department of theFine Arts College of Shanghai University with an MFA degree. Her practice mainly deals withsculptures and installations, and also involves performance and videos. Paying muchattention to nature and the repetitive process of labour, her work endeavors to explore therelationship between time and nature, looking at the vital yet mysterious connection
between body/spirit and the world. To Yu Ji, being an artist is more of a spiritual journey oftransforming things into life experience rather than a mere career title.
In 2008, she co-founded “am art space”, one of the few rare active non-profit experimental
art spaces in Shanghai.	  

11	  ABOUT OSAGE GALLERYOsage Gallery was established in Hong Kong in 2004 and grew quickly to become one ofAsia’s largest commercial gallery groups. Osage has become well-known in art circles in Asiaand in the art world for its uncompromising support for the most challenging and criticallythought-provoking contemporary art.
Osage Gallery is curatorially-driven and devoted to the exhibition and promotion of Asian
contemporary visual arts. It aims to be a catalyst for the creative expression of artists and thecreative expression of the artists and the active engagement of audiences by embracing aglobal, multidisciplinary and diverse approach to the creation, presentation andinterpretation of the arts of our time. It examines the questions that shape and inspire us asindividuals, cultures and communities through high quality programmes of research,
exhibition and publication.
www.osagegallery.com----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ENQUIRIESKaya Lo852. 2389 8332 | 852. 9556 1665 | kayalo@osagegallery.com----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------	  12