Artists Shuyi Cao and Leelee Chan on materiality, objectification of materials, and the ecology of upcycling.
Artist Shuyi Cao
Artist Leelee Chan
Ep.68 | Strange Strangers curated by Cusson Cheng is a duo-artist exhibition at Para Site in Hong Kong. I sat down with both artists, Shuyi Cao who is based in New York and Hong Kong-based Leelee Chan. I began the conversation asking about their working method, their relationship with materiality, their work at the current show, and what art is for in relation to climate change.
The practice of Shuyi Cao (b. 1990, Guangzhou; lives and works in New York) explores alchemical approaches to object making and knowledge osmosis. Through archeological speculation and ecological fiction, she contemplates the plurality of relations between technoscience, mythology, and cosmology. Her multi-medium installations synthesise various organic and inorganic materials, and natural and artificial processes. Combining hand-crafted and digital artefacts, moving images, and sounds, the assemblages suggest heterogeneous material temporalities. She has exhibited internationally including at NARS Art Foundation, New York (2021); Power Station of Art, Shanghai (2021); and MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA (2018). She is the recipient of the Today Art Museum Wang Shikuo Nomination Award, The New School Tishman Environment and Design Center Research Grant, and MASS MoCA’s Assets for Artists Grant. She is an assistant professor at Pratt Institute and adjunct faculty at Parsons School of Design. She received her MFA from Parsons School of Design, New York, and her MPA and LLB from Fudan University, Shanghai.
Leelee Chan (b. 1984, Hong Kong; lives and works in Hong Kong) makes enigmatic sculptures that incorporate urban debris, ancient artefacts, natural materials, and industrial products, generating visual paradoxes in which these objects move seamlessly between past, present, and future. Reflecting the shifting urban fabric in her immediate surroundings in Hong Kong, Chan's sculptures undergo an elaborate transformation through tactile experimentation with materials and processes. The artist pushes the limits of her objects' physicality and expands the possibilities of the language of abstraction. In 2020, Chan was the recipient of the ninth BMW Art Journey. She’s participated in exhibitions including at Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong (2021, 2018); Para Site, Hong Kong (2021); Skulpturen Park Köln, Cologne (2020); and UCCA Dune, Beidaihe (2019). Chan's work is in the permanent collections of M+, Hong Kong; Skulpturen Park Köln, Cologne; and Kadist Art Foundation, Paris and San Francisco. Chan received her MFA in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design and her BFA from the School of Art Institute of Chicago.
Installation view of 'Strange Strangers', Para Site, Hong Kong, 2023. Photo: Felix S.C. Wong
Installation view of 'Strange Strangers', Para Site, Hong Kong, 2023. Photo: Felix S.C. Wong
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