being / becoming
1 – 18 NOVEMBER 2018
Opening Wednesday 31 October | 6:00 – 8:00pm
being | becoming is an exhibition curated by Lauren Castino and Alanna Irwin that brings together two artists who engage with photography as a
fluid material, encouraging a palpable sense of changing between and moving towards.
Sydney-based artist Meng-Yu Yan creates spectral self-portraits that use mirrors, water and fragmentation to bridge illusion and reality. Yan’s work
actively reveals and conceals the hidden self through these layers in both photomedia and installation to reflect on their Australian-Chinese queer identity. Their works contemplate the shape-shifting nature of the social masks that we wear and the cultural haunting that can come from these transformations.
Melbourne-based artist Noah Spivak experiments with the materials and processes of analogue photography to question the idea that photographs are
past moments mummified for the present. Spivak’s works are both physically and temporally present through the use of photo-chemicals and undeveloped paper that progressively evolve and ‘grow’ over time. Paring back any representational or biographical elements, the artist’s works are minimal and subtly point to the unpredictable minutiae of our experience.
Together, these works reflect on and reconstitute photography to frame ‘being’ as something that is constantly in transition. The artists act as tricksters
and alchemists through their materials, asking viewers to question their belief in the finiteness of appearances and the medium of photography.
fluid material, encouraging a palpable sense of changing between and moving towards.
Sydney-based artist Meng-Yu Yan creates spectral self-portraits that use mirrors, water and fragmentation to bridge illusion and reality. Yan’s work
actively reveals and conceals the hidden self through these layers in both photomedia and installation to reflect on their Australian-Chinese queer identity. Their works contemplate the shape-shifting nature of the social masks that we wear and the cultural haunting that can come from these transformations.
Melbourne-based artist Noah Spivak experiments with the materials and processes of analogue photography to question the idea that photographs are
past moments mummified for the present. Spivak’s works are both physically and temporally present through the use of photo-chemicals and undeveloped paper that progressively evolve and ‘grow’ over time. Paring back any representational or biographical elements, the artist’s works are minimal and subtly point to the unpredictable minutiae of our experience.
Together, these works reflect on and reconstitute photography to frame ‘being’ as something that is constantly in transition. The artists act as tricksters
and alchemists through their materials, asking viewers to question their belief in the finiteness of appearances and the medium of photography.
Meng-Yu Yan, images courtesy of the artist and Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney. Noah Spivak images courtesy the artist.