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In a time of great and far reaching disruption, HOFA Gallery's myth-making exhibition acknowledges the role myths play as tools for understanding and navigating reality. Through examining these artists through the lens of Myth-Making, the exhibition aims to achieve two interrelated goals: to analyse individual artists and the multifaceted artistic practices, as well as to explore the historical and cultural relevance of Myth-Making.
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THROUGH THIS EXHIBITION THE VIEWERS CAN EXPLORE CONSTRUCTED REALITIES OF EXHIBITED ARTWORKS IN WHICH MYTHIC ICONS ARE DEFTLY REFERENCED, DECONSTRUCTED, AND REIMAGINED.
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Amongst some of the newest faces in Myth-Making, HOFA presents Fabio Viale, who uses classic and iconic references which have been eternalised in time and mythology only to displace and fracture them. In Kouros, Viale imitates a tattooing process rather than simply painting on to the marble, a decision which endows the works with overwhelming realism. By distorting universal iconography, the artist challenges existing preconceptions and contemporary social norms.
Consumed by dark desaturated colour pallets, Dean Fox’s haunting paintings explore the grandeur and complexity of classical themes in art and reinvent them in the contemporary. Erasure and minimalism interplays with familiar narratives here. Fox, heavily inspired by the old masters finds a way to balance the classic beauty of form with crushing abstraction of the contemporary. Rewriting myths and legends of the past in unifying hues he brings out the beauty in the sinister and disturbing.
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For Ilhwa Kim, it is with traditional Korean Hanji paper, painstakingly rolled and dyed, that she conjures multi-dimensional seed universes that awaken the senses to the narrative dynamics of spatio-temporal perspective.
ILHWA KIM IN MYTH-MAKING
Ilhwa Kim is represented here by the ever evolving Hanji paper works, a material which also has a powerful connection to her roots and the Korean history. Kim however takes on the active stance on innovation and relinquishing connection to tradition. Her practice is a pursuit of innovation through constantly evolving manipulations of the familiar. The artist’s works appear tactile as opposed to merely visual, inviting the viewer to explore the ripples and voluptuous waves of her ever changing structures. Here the viewer is left to reflect on the vast network of seeds and the bridge that Kim establishes between the past and present.
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Zhuang Hong Yi
Northern Wind, 2020Zhuang Hong Yi is widely known for his colour-changing Flowerbeds created using meticulously painted rice paper or xuan paper which has been adopted by traditional painters and calligraphers in China for over a millennium. The role of the medium is intrinsic to Hong Yi’s practice, xuan paper references the rich historical tapestry of China, whereas the role of the flower symbolises purity regeneration and rebirth. The stunning colour-changing Flowerbeds astonish with their beauty and act as deposits of memory of a time preceding rapid global urbanisation and deforestation.
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THE VIEWER TO INTERPRET THE WORKS GENERATING NEW MYTH STRENGTHENED THROUGH ITERATION
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Myth-Making creates a space of interrogation to explore the constructed realities of individual artists unified by the influence of myth in the exhibition. Through defining their heritage, uncovering mythological archetypes, engaging in social commentary or constructing utopian visions, the artists create a new artificial language. Ultimately the exhibition becomes responsible for viewer to interpret the works for themselves, generating new myth strengthened through iteration.
MYTH-MAKING
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