Exhibitions » Exhibition Archive » SQUARE2 Archive » Mei Ling Cooper
Mei Ling Cooper
29 August - 18 September 2011 in the Square² Gallery
The compulsion to fix something broken is a distinctively human one. Perhaps more than any other creature we are drawn to collect and cherish fragile objects. The inevitable breakage of such objects, and the cycle of grief, failure, and repair are all part of this work. The fractured and crudely mended urn seems to weep or mourn the relentless processes of change and loss.
In her film and sculptural installation works artist Mei Ling Cooper uses simple and functional objects, often with strong symbolic or allegorical associations. These are given monumental status, yet altered in some way so that their functionality is compromised or changed. Every day has its reminders of the past (2011) focuses on a very brief moment in time, but one which suggests an endless sequence. The perpetual filling and emptying of the vessel intimates a state of being which runs parallel to everyday life, an equation of energy lost and renewed which is a backdrop to human existence.
It’s a small event given a big stage, aligning the object with our efforts to maintain wholeness, wellness, an unbroken link with the past through language and narrative. The artist writes, ‘We live in a state of constant forgetting’, and in this sense perhaps the grief of inevitable change does not triumph. The work could also be seen as a celebration of the possibility of the moment, of all the unlikely and exquisite transitory situations folded away in corners of time.
Mei Ling Cooper is currently studying for a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) at the Elam School of Fine Arts, Auckland. Working across media, Mei Ling is interested in ways of knowing. Her work deals with the dismantling and refiguring of existing verbal and visual languages to find a way of conveying basic knowledge in a new and material form.
Infinity Pool (11 August–8 September 2011), an exhibition of Mei Ling Cooper and Melanie Bell’s work running concurrent with this film screening can be seen at Enjoy Gallery, 147 Cuba Street, Wellington. http://www.enjoy.org.nz/node/1438
Mei Ling Cooper
29 August–18 September 2011
Every day has reminders of the past 2011
DVD
Duration: 23 seconds, looped
Courtesy of the artist
This is the second work in 'Tidelines', a 16 week series of short video works linked by the idea of tidal currents, the waterline and the navigation of history and everyday daily realities.