LEUNG CHI WO We Must Construct As Well As Destroy at Rokeby Art Opening Thursday 19th January 2012
Leung Chi Wo, We must construct as well as destroy, 2011, hand cut original copy of Daily Mail from December 31, 1940, 57.5 x 83.7 cm
Leung Chi Wo, Enemy Bombing, 2011, Marble
Leung Chi Wo, An Imagined City in the South, 2011, LED Light, Etched Plexi Glass
Leung Chi Wo, I’m Glad We Have Been Bombed, 2011, (detail) LED Light, Etched Plexi Glass, C-Type Print
20th January 3rd March 2012
Leung Chi Wo is one of Hong Kong’s leading contemporary artists of a generation influenced by the territory’s post-1997 identity and politics. Through extensive research and observation Leung investigates social and political concerns within a poetic and reflective practice that encompasses photography, text, video, sculpture, installation and performance. Combining historical exploration with conceptual inquiry Leung uses the contemporary urban landscape as a site from which to consider social, political, historical and global concerns and the complex relativity between conception, perception and understanding.
Leung Chi Wo’s forthcoming exhibition at the gallery presents the artist’s extensive project that considers a Post-Colonial Hong Kong and its wider global readings. The work will be seen in London before being exhibited in Hong Kong, underlining the artist’s investigations into notions of context and place.
The new series of work consists of photographs, lightboxes, text work and sculptures which revolve around the British built Legislative Council Building (LEGCO), which originally housed the Supreme Court.
Born in Hong Kong Leung Chi Wo graduated with a Master of Fine Arts from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, in 1996 he co-founded Para/Site Art Space, Hong Kong. Leung Chi Wo has exhibited internationally and represented Hong Kong at the Venice Biennale in 2001.
Leungs work will be included in the forthcoming Marrakech Biennale, solo exhibitions including Hanart TZ Gallery, The Asia Art Archive and Para/Site, all Hong Kong, and the Queens Museum of Art, New York. His work has been included in the Guangzhou Triennial (2008), the Busan Biennale (2006), Gwangju Biennale (2002) and the Shanghai Biennale (2000). Leung has exhibited at Tate Modern, London, PS1, New York, Museu da Imagem e do Som, Sao Paulo and the Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius amongst others.
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