From 1-31 March, our Moving Image Program is exhibiting a selection of works on our King William Road digital screens.
Jingwei Bu, Cabbage Land, moving image, 5:38
Based on a private performance documentation, using fixed lens and one take method, the moving image work Cabbage Land explores the red cabbage as a central motif, highlighting hand movements as a focal point to poetically celebrate culture and daily life. Drawing inspiration from the artist's childhood memories of tending and preparing sauerkraut, a beloved Chinese dish, the artwork unfolds her memory in two chapters. Each chapter pays homage to the natural world, the routines of everyday life, and the dedicated women in the artist's family, showcasing the intergenerational transmission of love and care.
The resilient and loving essence embedded in the hands at work becomes a central theme. Utilizing the commonplace materiality of red cabbage, the artwork captures the beauty of its leaves, vines, colours, and the dynamic changes during aging processes. These elements symbolize the passage of time and the celebration of human generations finding beauty in the ordinary.
Cabbage Land stands as a beautiful, poignant, and poetic portrayal, celebrating the shared experiences of everyday life that transcend cultural backgrounds. It encapsulates a universal celebration of the mundane, showcasing the intrinsic beauty found in the rituals and routines embraced by people from diverse cultures.
About the Artist
Jingwei Bu, an emerging visual artist based in Tarntanya/Adelaide, explores the concept of time as a collaborative element in her artwork using various media and artistic disciplines. Her work focuses on the interplay of duration, ritual, and repetition, delving into the essence of time. Inspired by Buddhist Chan philosophy, her art is known for its responsive, experimental, and participatory nature.
Image: Jingwei Bu, Cabbage Land, (still), moving image, 5:38
Brad Lay, Pegasus, digital video, 4:38
A surge of sea foam engulfs a displaced feather, and we are plunged into a turbid, variegated world within a world. Flows and eddies of sediment and seawater shift through blues to fiery yellows, punctuated by moments of darkness. In close up, and momentarily abstracted from site, these scenes may read as light through a smoke machine, looking at the sun through your eyelids, or the last light before sleep. We suddenly emerge and turn towards the sky, perhaps for a breath or to reinstate our surroundings, only to return to the water and retrace our journey in reverse. Our feather is again revealed as the sea foam retreats, and the cycle continues.
Entitled Pegasus, in reference to the mythical winged horse that emerged from the sea foam, this work alludes to hybridity, universal connectivity and the fluidity of interfaces between land, sea and sky.
About the Artist
Brad Lay is an artist living and working on Kaurna Land in Adelaide, South Australia. He works with video, photography, sound, drawing and installation to experiment with and coalesce the interplay between land, sea, people, and biota.
image: Brad Lay, Pegasus, (still), digital video, 4:38