CYRUS TANG'S WORK SUBJECT OF ARTICLE ON COBO SOCIAL

Diego Ramirez has penned an insightful reflection on CYRUS TANG’s artwork ‘Power Cables’, a finalist exhibition of the @sovereignasianartprize. Published on @cobosocial, Ramirez writes:

“[Cyrus Tang’s] migratory experience inspires much of her practice, where memory is a ruin that she reconstructs in labour intensive processes. Her body of work ‘Remember me when the sun goes down’ (2020) looks at the empty streets of Vermont and the city of Melbourne area during lockdown as an elegy for the future, documenting the social wreckage of COVID-19.
[…]

Cyrus Tang, Remember me when the sun goes down: Power Cables [detail], 2020, archival pigment print, 90 x 90 cm.

These are the optical traces that collectively form the impression of a blurry memory, a strategy that characterises Tang’ oeuvre, where mental images seem to find form on paper.
[…]
By photographing locations for extended periods of time, then compositing all images into a single frame…the mundane becomes fantastical.”

Read the full article here >

CYRUS TANG SHORTLISTED FOR SOVEREIGN ART PRIZE

Cyrus Tang, Remember me when the sun goes down: Power Cables, 2020, archival pigment print, 90 x 90 cm.

Congratulations Cyrus Tang! Her work Remember me when the sun goes down: Power Cables is shortlisted for the Sovereign Art Prize.

The Sovereign Asian Art Prize was launched in 2003 to increase the international exposure of artists in the region, whilst raising funds for programmes that support disadvantaged children using expressive arts. Held annually, The Prize is now recognised as the most established and prestigious annual art award in Asia-Pacific.

In the wake of the past year, Tang wishes to memorialise images that address our collective experiences, anxieties, and hopes, allowing us space to remember and recover. Having had a renewed opportunity to explore her landscape, Tang created 'Remembering me when the sun goes down - Power Cables'. The artist, drawn to the geometrical composition of the sky, took daily photos of the power cables. She then collated the images, creating composite, ethereal layers. At the centre point of convergence, the image condenses and vibrates, as if to confirm a moment of real existence.

The finalists’ artworks will be presented to the public at 9 Queen’s Road Central, Central, Hong Kong from 5 – 16 May 2021. The artworks will then be exhibited at Art Central at Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre from 20 – 23 May 2021.

More information >

BOWNESS FINALIST EXHIBITION NOW ON

Screenshot from the virtual tour of the exhibition, featuring Cyrus Tang’s work.

The Bowness Photography Prize exhibition is in full swing and open to the public Thursday - Sunday at the MGA!
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The Bowness is an important annual survey of contemporary photographic practice in Australia and one of the most prestigious prizes in the country. The prize continues to showcase excellence in photography. ARC ONE artists Honey Long & Prue Stent, Cyrus Tang and Anne Zahalka are finalists in this year’s pool and their works are on display in the exhibition.
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The gallery has also just launched the virtual exhibition if you’re unable to attend in person. Take a tour here.

More information >

TEN CUBE RELEASES LANDMARK PUBLICATION

Ten Cubed has released a publication to celebrate their tenth anniversary and the conclusion of their project - 2010 - 2020: TEN CUBED CONCEPT, COLLECTION, GALLERY.

Ten Cubed is an art experiment begun in 2010 whereby an evolving top ten contemporary artists were collected in depth. Their collection includes ARC ONE artists PAT BRASSINGTON & CYRUS TANG. 

This beautifully designed book records various stages of their wonderful journey - from conception, building the gallery, acquiring the collection to exhibiting the works of the many artists they are proud to have supported.⁣

Purchase your copy here!

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HONEY LONG & PRUE STENT, CYRUS TANG & ANNE ZAHALKA SHORTLISTED FOR BOWNESS PRIZE

Congratulations to ARC ONE artists HONEY LONG & PRUE STENT, CYRUS TANG and ANNE ZAHALKA who are all finalists in this year’s Bowness Photography Prize!

This year the MGA Foundation is committed to ensuring a physical as well as a virtual exhibition of the Bowness Prize finalists, and has extended the exhibition period over summer.

The shortlisted photographs will be exhibited from 31 October 2020 until 7 February 2021, with the prize announcements scheduled for January 2021!

More information >

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CYRUS TANG WINS INCINERATOR ART AWARD

CYRUS TANG is one of the winners of The Incinerator Art Award 2020 with her video work I wish…

The Incinerator Art Award (IAA) is Incinerator Gallery’s annual art award and exhibition celebrating contemporary arts practices that are socially engaged, environmentally aware, and seek to enrich community through dynamic, creative practice.

Cyrus Tang, I wish…[still], 2019, 2 channel video projection.

Speaking of her selected work, Tang says, “In Chinese culture, the wishing tree is identified as possessing a special religious or spiritual value. The worshippers write their wishes on paper and throw it to the wishing tree. Since March 2019, there have been a series of protests in Hong Kong over the extradition bill which relates to human rights and rule of law protections. For the first time in Hong Kong history, riot police used tear gas and smoke bombs to beat back protesters. The fog that drifts through this scenery is not a romantic mist but a toxic cloud of tear gas, drifting in from recent scenes of demonstration against the extradition bill in Hong Kong. Will the “god” take notice of these wishes of the Hong Kong citizens and the hope behind them?”

Visit the finalist exhibition online HERE >

Cyrus’ prize includes a solo exhibition at Incinerator Gallery in 2021 - stay tuned for these details!

CYRUS TANG WINS MCCLELLAND SMALL SCULPTURE AWARD

A huge congratulations to CYRUS TANG who has won the inaugural McClelland National Small Sculpture Award!

Tang is one of four winners chosen by the judges from 320 submissions. Her work The Modern World Encyclopaedia Vol 2 (2017) presents the partially cremated pages of a 1936 encyclopaedia alongside its hardbound cover. The sculpture refers to collective cultural knowledge and its fragility.

McClelland Gallery established this new award as a way of supporting artists in the current moment. Its prescriptions encourage sculptural concepts suitable for a domestic scale, no more than 50cm at the largest dimension. “We believe collectors are increasingly interested in including three-dimensional artwork in their collections, and we are pleased to offer the works of all 44 finalists for sale via a digital catalogue,” said McClelland Sculpture Park+Gallery Director, Lisa Byrne.

Be sure to check out the digital catalogue HERE.

Contact ARC ONE Gallery for more information about acquiring this work!

Cyrus Tang, The Modern World Encyclopaedia Vol 2, 2017, cremated book ashes, book cover and acrylic case, 40 x 40 x 45cm

Media Coverage

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CYRUS TANG INTERVIEWED FOR ART GUIDE PODCAST

CYRUS TANG is interviewed on the latest episode of Faraway, so close, a podcast hosted by Tiarney Miekus of Art Guide dedicated to considering the anxieties and opportunities emerging in the arts in our new COVID-19 world.

In this third edition of the podcast, Tiarney asks: how do you think about the future at a time when the future feels so uncertain? Artists Cyrus Tang & Lucy McRae give their thoughts and feelings on where we are now, and where we’re headed next.

“In Eastern philosophy, loss is not really like a loss, it’s like a transformation from one state to another state. This is how I see it. Even though I deal with a lot of history and loss [in my work], I keep on thinking that it’s because of history that we can perceive the future,” says Cyrus. The artist moved to Australia in 2003, 2 months after the SARS outbreak devastated her family and friends in Hong Kong. She asks herself how the memory of that crisis and loss affects the present.

Cyrus’ new body of work seeks to capture & archive this present moment in Australia. ARC ONE will be launching an online exhibition of these works soon!

Listen to the podcast here >

Left: Cyrus Tang. Right: Lucy McRae, photograph by Ira Chernova.

CYRUS TANG

CYRUS TANG's solo exhibition Golden Hour, previously shown at ARC ONE in 2018, is being exhibited at Galerie Oasis in Bangkok.

Opening today, this exhibition comprises a suite of photographic works that continue Tang's project of paradoxically reconstructing and recording ephemeral mental images and sensations in permanent materials. The title is inspired by the multiple meanings of the term 'Golden Hour' - sometimes referring to the narrow margin of time for treating casualty patients in trauma yet also used by photographers to refer to a brief moment of time just before sunset or just after sunrise.

The exhibition continues until 12 January.

More information >

CYRUS TANG

Cyrus Tang, still from Remote Nation, 2008, standard definition video loop, 13.56 min

CYRUS TANG’s work Remote Nation is currently showing at MS.SUE as part of the exhibition EVERYTHING THAT EXISTS IN THE CURRENT.

The exhibition, part of the Due West Festival program, explores the emotional and social implications of moving between different states of being. When the flow of our existence is interrupted and relocated, the context shifts, and everything we knew then is no longer.

Tang’s video work Remote Nation shows a city made of clay gradually disintegrating underwater, thereby alluding to a fading sense of 'home'. The water, however, transforms the city into another state of existence. Tang says she is particularly moved by the residue left from the melted clay.

Curated by Nikki Lam, EVERYTHING THAT EXISTS IN THE CURRENT is installed at multiple sites in central Footscray.

More information >

GUO JIAN | CYRUS TANG | GUAN WEI | JOHN YOUNG

Not one, but four ARC ONE artists are included in the exhibition Between Two Worlds at Newcastle Art Gallery. GUO JIAN, CYRUS TANG, GUAN WEI & JOHN YOUNG are featured.

Between Two Worlds aims to promote the diversity of works of art being produced by Australian artists of Chinese heritage. The exhibition acknowledges the artists who have lived, worked and are connected to China and Australia through migration, major historical events and Australia’s agricultural and industrial developments.

On the opening Saturday, GUO JIAN will join a panel discussion that introduces the exhibition’s themes, along with curator Catherine Croll and fellow exhibiting artists Rowena Foong & Peter Gardiner.

This talk will run from 2 -3 pm on Saturday 16 November.

More information >

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CYRUS TANG

Cyrus Tang, I wish..., 2019, 2 channel video projection.

CYRUS TANG is part of the group show The End/Future of History, open now at The Substation.

In this exhibition curated by Phuong Ngo, contemporary artists examine how rights are simultaneously upheld and violated by government. In an international system that has been dominated by Western ideology, a fundamental flaw exists with the administering of rights. It is a system where the guarantor of rights is almost always the key violator.

This exhibition explores Francis Fukuyama’s ideas on liberal democracies, their flaws and contradictions. It shows until 14 December. .

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JOHN YOUNG | CYRUS TANG

Join JOHN YOUNG today for a panel discussion with artist CYRUS TANG, historian Karen Schamberger and curator Michael Do on the use of archives in art, and the stories presented in The Lives of Celestials.

1:3- - 3 pm today, at the Boroondara Arts Centre.

This is a free event, but bookings are essential.
Book here >

John Young, The Lives of the Celestials installation view, Hawthorn Arts Centre, 2019

CYRUS TANG

Cyrus Tang, Topophilia 2, 2019, bronze, Paula Tsui’s cassette tape, crystal, mirror box, 44 x 43 x 61 cm

CYRUS TANG is one of five artists whose work makes up the new exhibition at RMIT Gallery Insistent Gestures. This exhibition brings together artists who live, work or were born in Asia to explore personal narratives.

The repetitive movements – or insistent gestures – of making carry a sense of ritual and intimate recollection that resonates with the artists’ personal histories. Here an insistent, female and labour creating subjectivity is woven into being.

Tang's bronze series Topophilia is on show, with nos. 1 & 2 visible through specially installed peepholes, and no.3 mounted on the wall.

The exhibition continues until 9 November.

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CYRUS TANG

Cyrus Tang, 'The Imperative', HD video, 1.48 min

CYRUS TANG is supporting Sleepless Summer, a solidarity project bringing together artists from Hong Kong and Australia which endeavours to rally support for democracy protests in HK.

Curated by Nikki Lam, Sleepless Summer will present a group exhibition alongside a public program of artist discussions, performances and solidarity actions like protest-banner-making.

A selection of independent publications on Hong Kong's civil rights struggles, collected by Zine Coop, will also be presented.

Tang is showing her video work, The Imperative.

More information >

CYRUS TANG

Cyrus Tang, The Modern World Encyclopaedia Vol.2, 2017, cremated book ashes, book cover, dimensions variable.

Congratulations to CYRUS TANG, a finalist in this year's Banyule Award for Works on Paper.

The 2019 Banyule Award called on artists to submit artworks that address current social, cultural, political or environmental issues. In Tang's selected work, the artist has taken a 1936 encyclopaedia and burned and arranged its contents. In this transformation of material, she suggests that the knowledge of the past has disappeared and we have not learnt from history.

The finalist exhibition will run from 28 August at Hatch Contemporary Arts Space in Ivanhoe.

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CYRUS TANG | ANNE ZAHALKA

Cyrus Tang, Golden Hour - Summer Snow - 108 mins, 2018, archival pigment print, 65 x 65 cm.

Congratulations to CYRUS TANG and ANNE ZAHALKA, finalists in the 2019 Olive Cotton Award for photographic portraiture. 

The finalist exhibition will open on 12 July and continue until 22 September, with the winner announced at the exhibition opening at Tweed Regional Gallery on Saturday 13 July at 5pm.

More information >

Anne Zahalka, The Ambassadors, 2017, pigment ink on canvas, 124 x 94.4 cm.

LYNDELL BROWN & CHARLES GREEN | CYRUS TANG

Cyrus Tang, The Final Cast Off, 2016-17, 2 channel video projection on Chinese paper scroll, dimensions variable.

LYNDELL BROWN & CHARLES GREEN and CYRUS TANG are included in the Castlemaine State Festival, opening today.
In Tang's work 'The Final Cast Off', exhibited as part of the festival, the artist has used incense ashes mixed with charcoal to create the images of Alice and Daisy, who represent the new Chinese elite. The video work is a gesture of worship for these two incredible Chinese women.

The exhibition continues until 31 March.

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CYRUS TANG

Cyrus Tang Exhibition installation view, Ten Cubed, Glen Iris, 2019. Photograph: Cyrus Tang.

CYRUS TANG will be giving an artist talk at Ten Cubed on Saturday 16 March, from 11am - 12pm.

Throughout her practice, Tang employs a range of variously permanent and ephemeral materials including clay, water, ash, steam, snow, human’s heartbeat, animal bones, and human hair. These produce a visual representation suggestive of the contrast and contradiction between appearance and disappearance, and between ephemerality and permanence.

Cyrus Tang's solo exhibition at Ten Cubed continues until 4 May.

CYRUS TANG

Cyrus Tang, Children’s Encyclopaedia Vol. 6, 2016, cremated book ashes, book cover acrylic case, 29 x 21 x 21 cm.

CYRUS TANG is currently featured in Art Money’s Stockroom favourites, curated by Jason Phu.

Phu says of Tang’s practice: "I love Cyrus' work, especially her cremated book series. it's the sort of work that makes you slow down and actually create a connection. It is nostalgic and speaks of loss and remembrance but without all the cliches. a beautiful work."

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