Marcus Tse
Knox Grammar School
IMPERMANENCE, ABSENCE, PRESENCE
Collection of Work
Cement, Used Clothes, Perspex Box, Photo
My body of work is a memento mori exploring humanity's impermanence, reminding viewers of their own transience. It mourns the absence of individuals who we never knew, paying respect to their lives regardless of our relation to them. Hollow sculptures of clothing express the brevity of our lives. The absence of the figure in the fossilised objects represents varying states of absence. Accompanying objects provide some elaboration on these anonymous figures and their unheard memories. My intent is to prompt reflection upon the extent to which lives are valued before and after their passing. Mortality transcends the confines of materialism.
My artmaking practice has been influenced by the study and interpretation of the following artists: Ai Weiwei, Daniel Arsham, Alex Seton.
Marker's Commentary
This comprehensive collection of works is comprised of nine separate objects in the forms of photography and sculpture. Grey, cement-encrusted clothing consisting of a shirt, a jumper, a child's one piece and a woman's slip hang hollow and empty, as if wet, evoking the memory of the person they once clothed. Placed centrally in the submission is a horizontal black and white photographic banner featuring images of tightly cropped clothing and cloth. These have also been treated with the same cement crust prior to being photographed. Each of the items in the photograph are shrouded in a sea of velvet black. Below, arranged on three small plinths sit small piles of clothing and a Perspex box holding date labelled, lidded jars containing material alluding to memory.
This is a captivating work evoking the lives of those gone, the empty vessels of clothing leaving a haunting memory of their presence. It is dark and introspective, whilst also being ordered and methodical in its construction and cerebral in its intent, dealing with universal themes of life, death, absence and loss. Each of the pieces of clothing holds a secret evoking the unknown lives of those who once wore them. Like stone sculpture, there is a sense of monumentality, of form and concept.
A classical understanding underpins this work, yet it is wholly contemporary. The tightly cropped photographic images create a feeling of timelessness and a sense of mystery. The forms are almost abstract due to the cropping which emphasises the folds, creases and crushed fabric surfaces. Light has been carefully controlled to exaggerate the high contrast and drama. The body of work evokes contemplation and melancholy. Death pervades, and its inevitability is a powerful reminder of our own lives within the trajectory of time. Intimate and unsettling, this body of work is compelling and confronting in its stillness.