SUPERCUT x Louis Lim & Christine Ko
11 July - 14 August 2022
Departure
Image: Louis LIM & Christine KO / Departure [detail] 2022 / paper kite & tree branch installation / dimensions variable / © Louis Lim & Christine Ko
Departure uses the symbolism of the kite to express ideas related to the immigrant experience—flights of joyous and naïve child-like wonder and optimism that is simultaneously at the whim of external circumstances; constantly buffeted by the surrounding environment that can sometimes lead to deep disappointment (crash landing). The creation of the artwork gives Christine Ko and Louis Lim a chance to reflect upon and give voice to their own immigrant experiences that can hopefully contribute to larger conversations around immigration and race in Australia. The use of the paper kite also references the history of kites and paper as Chinese inventions which have been exported around the world and draws parallels with Christine and Louis’s cultural backgrounds as global citizens and migrants of Chinese descent.
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Outer Space Window Gallery
2R-C, 420 Brunswick Street
Fortitude Valley Q 4006
(map here)
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Christine Ko and Louis Lim are Brisbane-based Asian-Australian visual artists working across photography, installation, public art and community projects.
Christine’s practice explores marginality, hybridity and spaces characterised by the ‘in-between’. Drawing from her own Chinese-Australian migrant experience, Christine uses an autoethnographic methodology to examine feelings of ambivalence—between hopes, dreams, invisibility and shame.
Louis’s practice explores the diversity in human conditions, specifically those that are under-represented in mainstream media. With a keen interest in light, Louis’s focus is on non-fictional visual storytelling and conceptual photographic portraits using a collaborative methodology.
Collectively, Louis and Christine have exhibited locally and internationally in numerous group and solo exhibitions, notably at QUT Art Museum, Gold Coast City Gallery, Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery, Logan Art Gallery, Artisan, Onespace and Botanica (Brisbane City Botanic Gardens). They have been finalists in the Churchie National Emerging Art Prize, Toowoomba Biennial Emerging Artists Award, Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award, Macquarie Group Emerging Artist Prize, MAMA Art Foundation National Photography Prize, Clayton Utz Art Award and Moreton Bay Region Art Awards. Their works are held in the collections of Gold Coast City Gallery, Macquarie Group, Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery and the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital.
Hear more from Louis and Christine in their artist talk here
Documentation by Louis Lim
SUPERCUT is supported by the Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund – an Australian Government Initiative and is presented in partnership with Artspace Mackay and Northsite Contemporary Arts, Cairns.