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Details
- Date
- 2014
- Media category
- Sculpture
- Materials used
- tinsel, steel
- Dimensions
- 115.0 x 60.0 x 45.0 cm
- Signature & date
Not signed. Not dated.
- Credit
- Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program by Clinton Bradley 2016
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 348.2016
- Copyright
- © Koji Ryui
- Artist information
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Koji Ryui
Works in the collection
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About
Koji Ryui's practice is based upon the subtle and sustained transformation of commonplace materials. Working intuitively, Ryui invests these humble things with an almost mystical quality, sometimes underscored by wry humour. In this cluster of five assemblages, Ryui's minimal gestures open out an array of associations between the banal and mystical, inert and animate, micro and macro. In 'Mother', for instance, an upturned pot capped with Spakfilla and resting on an old stool evokes the snowy peak of Mt Mehru, considered to be the centre of the universe in Buddhist and Hindu cosmology. 'Cloud' plays in a more abstract fashion on the elemental and allusive properties of found items, while 'Ceramic' brings small talismanic objects from the natural world into dialogue with moulded packaging, investing the consumer cast-offs with anthropomorphic stature. Both 'Smiling' and 'Smiley face' invoke the pervasive pop-culture icon of the "smiley face" through unlikely means, a bucket and a strand of tinsel respectively.
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Exhibition history
Shown in 3 exhibitions
Koji Ryu: Soft landing, Sarah Cottier Gallery, Paddington, 06 Nov 2014–29 Nov 2014
Bowerbird: Clinton Bradley and the art of collecting, Dubbo Regional Art Gallery, Dubbo, 09 Jun 2018–26 Aug 2018
20th-Century galleries, lower level 1 (rehang), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 20 Aug 2022–2023
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Bibliography
Referenced in 1 publication
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Georgina Cole., Koji Ryui: Soft landing, 'Koji Ryui: Soft landing', Paddington, 2014, not paginated. press release
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