Thomas C. Chung...

Thomas C. Chung at Hardware gallery

http://www.hardwaregallery.com.au/

6 - 17 December, 2011

What I Had I Gave Away is an exhibition of small soft sculptures and large watercolour and embroidery drawings and is the second part of a two-part show by Amanda Humphries and Thomas C. Chung.

The first exhibition: All I Have I Hope To Keep was shown at Gallery Eight in September 2011.

In part one the duo were chasing the shadow, and freezing the real, accentuating the constant representations of life through making toys and embroidering ambitions. Everything was detached and preserved in this ever sensation-simulated world.

Just as part one is based on permanence and plasticity, then part two starts to contemplate its opposite. Processes of abandon and dissolve, of letting go, rather than holding on; the two shows are threading together the dance created between permanence and temporality, often employing the 'double' as a common vehicle for such concerns, whether through an awareness of time sequence (before and after shots) with Thomas' soft sculpture and running narrative, or through shadowed imagery with Amanda's use of contrasting mediums, light fluid bodies with heavily embroidered shadows, butterflied machines and lovers.

Taking into consideration the name of the venue Hardware Gallery, the art works occasionally play with tools and hardware as their subjects, often casting them in an organic light.

There is a certain amount of acceptance in this show, of our fragility and decay, and with the cyclical nature of the two show themes rotating and jousting. The work appeals to the holistic nature of the relationship between the real and the imagined.