pang + kanako: “Departing the Departed”

Posted on 2 July, 2012

For months, two pairs of hands sculpted over 5,000 ceramic flowers. Many broke along the way, but most will make their way to the Substation gallery for an exhibition from 20 to 29 July. Departing the Departed is a delicate, poignant work meditating on the fragility of life and death by art collective Pang + Kanako, a duo made up with ceramist Kanako Furukawa and artist-designer Calvin Pang. This is their first collaboration together.

 

 

Muse: Why the title “Departing the Departed”?

Pang + Kanako: Departing the Departed simply means leaving the one (or letting go of) that who/which has already left. It embodies a sense of reluctance and attachment, at the same time bringing a soft spotlight onto the departure ceremony, which is the main focus of our installation.

The notion of impermanence and mortality imprints itself deeply in our collective’s articulation. In particular for this installation, we intend to bring across a statement of impermanence – both in the choice of medium (a stalk of white lily) and the audience involvement. It is a simple message that departures can happen anytime, anywhere, anyhow. It is what viewers take away that is important to us, not so much what we are trying to say.

 

M: Do you work with clay often? Why did you choose the material, porcelain?

P+K: We initially started with few types of clay to make flowers like, recycled clay, stoneware clay, and some other clay we can find in the studio but when we developed artwork that are physically thin and fragile, all the above mentioned materials did not hold up to it. Porcelain has lesser plastic in the clay body then the others so it became possible to push for thinner and finer artwork.

 

M: What are your plans after this project?

P+K: A Long Vacation.

 

 

 

 

Details:

Departing the Departed 旅立ち
pang + kanako
Friday 20 – Sunday 29 July 2012, 12pm-9pm
The Substation Gallery