“Unwrapped”
Cyrus Tang
14 Apr → 29 Apr 2006
Wai Kuen (Cyrus) Tang ‘Unwrapped’ 2006 Installation view: West Space, Bourke Street Mall, 2006. Photography by West Space
Unwrapped by Cyrus Tang centres on the affective nature of art by exploring the work’s appeal to the emotional receptiveness of viewers. The presence of personally symbolic substances and objects traces the events, spaces, and memories that make up a lifetime.
"Pure was I created, and pure will I remain for ever. I would rather be burnt and turn to white ashes than suffer darkness to touch me or the unclean to come near me.
The ink-bottle heard what the paper was saying, and it laughed in its dark heart; but it never dared to approach her. And the multi-coloured pencils heard her also, and they too never came near her.
And the snow-white sheet of paper did remain pure and chaste for ever, pure and chaste – and empty.” — Kahlil Gibran
Cyrus Tang is a Hong Kong born artist in Naarm/Melbourne. Her practice reflects sentiments of nostalgia through translation of disappearance into remembrance and fantasy. Her work examines the paradox of reconstructing ephemeral mental images and sensations in permanent materials.