2018 | Exhibition & Workshop | PARADISE AIR (Japan)

ARTIST RESIDENCY

This was a residency project at PARADISE AIR, Matsudo, Japan to create a site-specific installation with the participation of the local community. An exhibition was organised during the Matsudo City Festival (御祭禮).

Supported by: Matsudo City, Agency for Cultural Affairs

Sponsored by: Hong Kong Arts Development Council

CREATIVE CONCEPT

Artist: UUendy Lau

Artwork Support: Hinz Pak

Medium: Kinetic Installation

Artwork: The Moving Plants

Size: 3 x 3 x 2 m

Materials: Clay, Motors, Wire, Fallen leaves & seeds

The life of nature never ends. It undergoes replicative stages of different forms and status of existence, looping from seeds, germination, growth, reproduction, pollination and back to spreading seeds. A distinctive, intriguing expression is witnessed during each phase of life. Defoliation, for instance, seems to be more visible and attached to us emotionally when falling off on the ground. We may consider it as the end of its being, or instead a preparation for another stage of being. The relationship between nature and human is thus an ongoing and ever-changing topic to be investigated from various perspectives, cultures and religions.

Inspired by the Bonsai and Miniature Culture in Japan, a kinetic installation juxtaposing the natural materials in Matsudo and the man-made creations from the artists and locals is shown and witnessed. The artwork is a communal project including the participation from Matsudo residents and the artists from Hong Kong to re-examine and re-discover the unnoticed side of nature through public engagement and interactive workshops.

EXHIBITION

PARADISE AIR Pop-up Exhibition

Date: 23 - 24 Jun 2018

Venue: MAD City Gallery, Matsudo, Japan

Participating Artists: UUendy Lau, Hinz Pak, Timo Lenzen, Sonja Borstner

WORKSHOP

A series of workshops was designed to emphasise the personalised experience of forming a “plant” that combined natural resources in Matsudo and man-made creations from the locals.

Venue: Harada Rice Store Studio, Matsudo, Japan

Artists: UUendy Lau, Hinz Pak

A Story of Your Plant Workshop 1.0: The Workshop 1.0 invited participants to rethink and imagine the ideal arrangement of plants in an unusual stage with illustration and drawing. New visions were stimulated through discussion and visual interaction among the group.

Creating A Plant Workshop 2.0: The Workshop 2.0 substantialised their thoughts of such “plants” with clay and hands-on exploration to experiment forms, shapes, scales and movement.

The workshops offered an alternative experience to re-examine and re-discover the unnoticed side of nature through the workshop. The outcome of this activity was included and shown in the final exhibition at MAD City Gallery.

PARADISE AIR PROGRAMME

PARADISE AIR is an artist-in-residence program located in Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture, conveniently close to yet comfortably removed from the bustle of central Tokyo. The program is held on the vacant floors of a former hotel, a setting afforded to us by the Rakuen pachinko parlor (a pinball-gambling establishment) that occupies the bottom floors of this building owned by Hamatomo Corporation. (Text by PARADISE AIR)

Details: http://paradiseair.info/

MAKING OF

A selective documentation of the project preparation and the encounters in the Residency.