Alvin Luong: Soft and Precious

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Alvin Luong, "Soft and Precious, Invitation"

EXHIBITION | 26 May – 08 July 2017

OPENING RECEPTION | Friday 26 May, 8:00 PM

ARTIST TALK | Friday 26 May, 7:00 PM

“How soft does a metal have to be in order to be used to create a precious sculpture? Is the sculpture materially precious as an economic asset or culturally precious as a social asset?

Photography remains the defacto tool in the circulation of art history, a history largely comprised of sculptural work. How can sculpture be better conveyed through the two-dimensional arrangements of pixels, dyes, or silver particles that make up photography?​​ “Soft and Precious​​” begins as a formal response to this inquiry. This body of work employs large-scale photographs of metal surfaces that have been treated to physically recreate mid-twentieth century sculptures from Western art history.

Does this act of counterfeiting reaffirm or subvert the continuation and legitimation of institutions that establish and circulate a particular art history? The Chinese collection at the Royal Ontario Museum, comprising of precariously-obtained metal artifacts and antiques, is the source for the photographs in this body of work. In the recreation of sculptures from Western art history through its imperialistic legacy over and fetishistic thirst for Otherness, ​“Soft and Precious” ​slashes open this art history and generates a space to question who is represented and how they are represented.” – Luong

BIOGRAPHY

Alvin Luong is an emerging artist from Toronto. Luong is interested in why documentations and instructions arecreated and how they can be interpreted. This set of interests is put into practice through research, performance,moving image, and photography. Luong has exhibited in group exhibitions at Gallery 44 and Trinity Square Video, and exhibited commissioned works at Trinity Square Video. He has performed and lectured at Blackwood Gallery. Most recently, Luong has exhibited a collaborative video installation co-presented by Y+ Contemporary and the 2017 Images Festival, the exhibition was awarded as the strongest new media installation in the festival. Upcoming exhibitions include a group show at Idea Exchange in July, and a collaborative experimental installation taking the form of an escape room game at Bunker2 in August 2017.