Exhibition Opening

‘O’ (Yuen) opens at Artspace

Jewellery designer Angela Yeung teams up with fine art photographer Rob Mills to present a new body of work entitled “O”.

The work integrates the two-dimensional medium of photography with the sculptural aspect of jewellery design as well as prints and items of jewellery. This show opens at Artspace Gallery on 21 August 2010 at 15h30.

Using the material-rich aspect of Jewellery and focusing on pearls in particular, Yeung adds her layer of interpretation to Mills' images, resulting in a unique set of works. The pearl is used as an archetypal symbol of transformation and completion. From the womb-like ocean depths the moon calls forth the pearl as an incarnation of her mysterious energy.

“Chinese mythology has extensive references to the pearl as symbol of healing, associated with rites of passage, magical transformation and completion,” says Yeung. Mills adds: “The images are deliberately ambiguous, allowing one to attach one’s own meaning, exploring a somewhat mythological space; an inner world juxtaposing ecstasy, tragedy, pain and transcendence.”

The works shown in this exhibition are the beginning of an on-going project through which the artists seek to develop a deeper mythological narrative around the elements of water, moon and pearl. “This work is a fusion of contrasting media and cultural perspectives,” says Yeung.

Mills and Yeung first worked together in 2008 when they mounted an exhibition in Johannesburg entitled “The Man in the Sensible Pants”- the lucidity of madness. This was the first time the artists attempted to integrate aspects of their respective mediums. This new body of work seeks to build on this successful collaboration.

“O” is intended as an unspoken word/symbol, arising from the Chinese character pronounced “Yuen” meaning completion, rounded, finished. “Not that this work represents anything that is by any means perfect or that its creators are fully completed beings,” Mills is quick to point out, “but rather that this is an aspiration – towards wholeness; an adventurous journey.”

The exhibition opens at Artspace, 1 Chester Court, 142 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parkwood, 15h30 on 21 August 2010. The work will be introduced through a performance of storytelling by well-known performance artist and academic Nomsa Mdlalose. Please join us at the opening for a glass of wine and to meet the artists.

Gallery hours: Tues- Fri 10h00-17h30
Saturday 10h00 – 15h30

The exhibition runs until 4 September 2010.