Everyday Practice – Dual Solo Exhibition by Sai-lok Chan and Tzu-an Ko

July 19 – 29
Thursday to Sunday 1-6pm
Opening Reception and Performance on July 19 at 6pm

Or by appointment at annhikali@gmail.com

Two Asian artists meet at Flux Factory at the height of this summer.

Tzu-an Ko, a Taiwan based artist, searches for employment as her alter-ego Super Perfect Working Robot, which intervenes with the alienated nature of existence under Capitalism. While Hong Kong based artist and art critic Sai-lok Chan continues his reflections on the relationship between painting and text, and explores issues surrounding cultural identity.

*The Exhibition by Sai-lok Chan is presented by United Overseas Bank (UOB).

ARTIST TALK AND WORKSHOP: Have a Bit of Culture, and Write Your Own Queerness
27 July
2:30pm – 4:30pm

This event combines an experiential Artist Talk and Workshop, and is divided into two parts.

The first part will include learning how to make delicious marinated eggs, using tea leaves, red dye and a potpourri of spices. Tzu-an Ko will take you on a journey of cultural metamorphosis.

In the second part of the event, participants will create their own written character or calligraphic symbol. How would you create a script for a queer word that is difficult to define? If typography is more than to please the eye, then writing can be a process of introspection into ones own identity.

Exhibition Statement: Sai-lok Chan

For Chan, winner of the 2017 UOB Art in Ink Awards, taking time to be an Artist-in-Residence at Flux Factory allows for a mid-career moment of introspection, and an opportunity to clarify his conceptual framework and plan his future trajectory.

In Chan’s recent body of work, he returns to the roots of his artistic journey holding a dialogue with Chinese ink painting. The works ask questions about the nature of narrative in painting, and the use of material in service of meaning. On top of its delicate materiality, (painting on) silk has also become a cultural symbol in an Asian context. While text is a familiar motif in Contemporary Art, how are Chinese characters interpreted in the context of the New York art scene?

New York City is extraordinarily culturally diverse, and Chan roots his practice in adapting to such diversity and connecting with people. His work, which includes writing on exercise books and painting on canvas frames, are both physical exercises but also a process of discovery, clarification and an acceptance of values. The work produces a meandering journey, emotional and full of self-doubt.

Exhibition Statement Tzu-an Ko

Repeat the same thing every day: put on the pale robot makeup, move stiffly, interact with human society, and observe the outcome. The chameleon senses its environment and changes color in 5 seconds. Super Perfect Working Robot needs to do the same thing every day to learn how to adapt to its environment. Part of that process has been changing genders.

Ko has been doing Super Perfect Working Robot since 2013. Dressed as a robot she goes to different countries looking for work to explore the existential experience of capitalist employment. She wants to know the feelings and stories of immigrants when they are working.

For this exhibition, Super Perfect Working Robot exhibits more of its cyborg side, with installed mannequin arms and legs representing Robot’s days spent walking around New York City handing out flyers. The installation will also include photographs and excerpts of Robot’s diary. Each individual piece is like a pixel in an image or scene from a film; when viewed altogether they show the experience of Super Perfect Working Robot’s life.

Artist Bios Tzu-an Ko

As an artist and writer, Chan Sai-lok glides across the fields of art and literary practice, education, art criticism and gender studies. He has always taken text and literature as points of departure in his artistic endeavor, through which he contemplates the intimate relationship between painting and literariness. There is a certain queerness in his paintings, as his aesthetics and use of material often convey a sense of ambiguity, while the positioning in form between Asian or European styles rejects simple categorization. Chan is a freelance artist, part-time lecturer in universities, and co-founder of an art critic group Art Appraisal Club. He has published exhibition catalogues One Way Ticket, Future, at Variance with Memories, Writing Painting, and The Countenance of Text.

In 2017, Chan Sai-lok won the UOB Ink Art of the Year Award and was entitled to a residency program at Flux Factory in NYC in autumn 2018 as part of the prize sponsored by Regal Hotels. With the support of UOB, Chan organized a solo exhibition titled Land of Longing and Exile in February in 2019 summarizing his response to the New York experience. As the Lead Partner of Art Central, UOB exhibited Chan’s award-winning artwork titled Sealed at the 2018 and 2019 Art Central in Hong Kong.

Tzu-an Ko is concerned with popular culture and the conflict between personal identities and social values. Since 2013, Super Perfect Work Robot – Rich Ann program series has been developed and shown in various cities such as New York, Paris, Tokyo, Singapore, and Cambodia. Through the program series, she invites audiences to contemplate new and different perspectives, to think about the relationships between people and the robots of existential labor.