MIMI LEUNG @ Culture Club HK 01 - 26 JULY 2008

Exhibition Press July 08

2008-07-15T08:33:00.000-07:00

Hong Kong Walker

A brief interview...

TurdCity, 11.7" x 16.5"

2008-07-06T03:50:00.000-07:00

Used in VICE August 2008 magazine

WildBeasts,11.7" x 16.5"

2008-07-06T03:49:00.000-07:00

Originally created for and featured in the July 08 issue of PlanB magazine (UK) with an article on the band Wild Beasts (hence the name). References traditional Chinese dragons and lions. I had an idea of something very ridiculous rolling around, thinking it was fierce and wild but actually it looked kind of cute, if a little psychotic.

SOLD

GrungeGunge, 16.5" × 11.7"

2008-07-06T03:46:00.000-07:00

Created as artwork for an 'Asian Rock' night for The Underground (HK). (see it here) This grunger dude is picked up and sucked the life out of by some yellow birdbeast. Digestive enzymes, guts and gore drip onto the HongKong Central skyline. Good.

Thatcher, 16.5" × 11.7"

2008-07-06T03:43:00.001-07:00

Originally created for and featured in VICE magazine UK.
This portrays the infamous politician as a cross between an anime alien, Vivienne Westwood (apologies...) and the 1980's miner's strike in the UK.

SOLD

CockRock, 16.5" × 11.7"

2008-07-06T03:40:00.001-07:00

Also created for The Underground (see it here) this time for Swiss cockrock (hence the name) band Djizoes. This is kind of tongueincheek. (some people really love cockrock)

SOLD

Back, Back!, 28" x 22"

2008-07-06T03:36:00.000-07:00

Inspired by Haruki Murakami's short story (Poor Aunt) as featured in his collection Blind Willow Sleeping Woman this piece is about tensions between yourself and the things you want to forget or avoid. This thing on his back is the bursting of dams inside a head; the past won't ever leave you.

Faces&Hands, 8.3" × 11.7"

2008-07-06T03:20:00.001-07:00

This is an unused G-Shock watch strap design originally requested by VICE (uk) Recently used on a VICE fashion party invitation. Inspiration.... have you seen Ichi The Killer? Faces slide down walls...

SOLD

Hope&Struggle, 23" x 16"

2008-07-06T03:19:00.000-07:00

This was used as a Fefo (HK) YouSayParty, WeSayDie! poster in May08 (see it and them here) It's about feeling a movement, being still on the outside when your body's screaming to move. A conflict/dialogue that can be engaging for hours whilst trapped on public transport....

SOLD

Waves, 16.5" x 23"

2008-07-06T03:17:00.001-07:00

Inspired by another Haruki Murakami short story (The Seventh Man). A lot of my work contains a feeling of helplessness and detachment. This boy watches his friend get swallowed up by the raging sea and come back to taunt him in a pseudo drug-fuelled vision of the waves.

Birds, 16.5" x 23"

2008-07-06T03:14:00.000-07:00

I was thinking about birds feeding their young.

This piece had been SOLD.

O Baby, 23" x 16"

2008-07-06T03:10:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you want to be absorbed by something else, sometimes you have no choice.

3Heads, 16.5" x 23"

2008-07-06T03:07:00.001-07:00

Leaky thoughts can't be retrieved, they could stain a place forever.

Poostick I, 23" x 16"

2008-07-06T03:03:00.000-07:00

Poostick. Poosticks are things you wear, like jewellery, but they're more of an effort cos they're sticks. You carry them like a weapon or an intimidating device when going to war. We choose things to represent some part of our personality to the outside world but is this a baggage or an aid? Why do we have to carry bits of ourselves like prizes for others to see...? If I had one, this would be it.

Poostick II, 23" x 16"

2008-07-06T02:57:00.000-07:00

See Poostick I (above)

SchtickBaby, 23" x 16"

2008-07-06T02:23:00.000-07:00

Along the same lines as poosticks, they're kind of like trophies... This would be my sister's poostick trophy. It's funny how mothers become their babies, and I've only recently seen how children really are just like their parents. This realisation makes me uncomfortable.

Exhibition Press

2008-07-06T01:55:00.000-07:00

THE HOPE & STRUGGLE
Paintings and Drawings by Mimi Leung

This is an exhibition of new work on the themes of hope, struggle and compassion.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Mimi was born in Hong Kong and moved to England when she was two years old, where she grew up in the wild fields of Hampshire. Days were spent drawing and cycling around on her bike until a rough and winding road led her to the Royal College of Art in London in 2005.

Mimi returned to Hong Kong in September 2007 and started a new body of work which developed into the pieces in this show. They reflect the struggle and isolation of living in a new country which grew stronger with the daily pressures and tensions of life in Hong Kong. These pictures represent a personal world away from the talk and hustle of the city, a place to plant individual beliefs, and to rebuild the artist's confidence in individualism and the need for self-expression. In with these ideas are the recurring motifs of disease, mutation and vomit that have come to represent the undeniable voice of the body and our struggle to keep in the things that aren't acceptable to the outside world.

Mimi works with her memories, trying to give form to thoughts and feelings in the flow of abstract organisms or manifested in physical objects. The past plays over in the artist's mind: sequences, events and memories surge forwards and sink behind, but the underlying themes of hope, struggle and compassion remain constant.

Selected Education, Exhibitions, Clients

2008-07-06T01:03:00.000-07:00

Education
2005 - 2007 Royal College of Art, London.
2002 - 2005 Central St Martins School of Art and Design, London.

Selected Exhibitions and Animation Screenings
2008

MAR Draw Exhibition, Stolen Space Gallery. London
FEB Emerge and See Film Festival, Ciné Babylon, Berlin.
2007
AUG Edinburgh Fringe Festival, The Forest Gallery. Edinburgh.
JUN The Great Exhibition, Royal College of Art Summer Show,

Hyde Park. London.
MAR Oberon Book Illustration, Royal College of Art. London.

(Highly Commended)
What They Could Do They Did, Auto-Italia South East London

Gallery. London.
Drawings and Sound, The Blue Room. London.

2006
SEP The Under The Pier Show (with Tim Hunkin), Southwold Pier.

Suffolk.
APR Nouassa Film Festival, Nouassa, Greece.
Slinky Pes Film Festival, Czech Republic.
JUN Super Shorts, London.

2003 - 2005
Central St. Martins Show, Backhill, London.
Betsey Gallery, Betsey Trotwood. London. (solo show)
Post, Ruskin Gallery, Oxford University. Oxford.

Recent Clients
VICE Magazine (UK)
The Guardian Newspaper (UK)
The Underground (HK)
Dazed&Confused Magazine (UK)
Styleslut (UK)

Press

TimeOut (HK)

HKWalker (HK)

Galleri 3 (HK)

BCmagazine (HK)

SouthChinaMorningPost (HK)

all about the vomit....

2008-07-01T10:26:00.000-07:00

time out hk

thanks again emily and calvin!