"Lacrimae Rerum"
Cyrus Tang
ARC ONE GALLERY
45 FLINDERS LANE MELBOURNE VIC 3000 AUSTRALIA
TELEPHONE +61 3 9650 0589 FAX +61 3 9650 0591 email
9 Feb > 5 March, 2016
 Cyrus Tang, 4505.00 s, 2016, archival Giclee print, 100 x 100 cm. |
 Cyrus Tang, In memory's eye, we travel..., 2016, 3-channel HD video, 8.38 min loop. |
“There is a rare and honest sensitivity to Cyrus Tang’s practice. A multi-disciplinary artist, she creates a ghostly dystopia of human presence that skirts the periphery of this known world.
Lacrimae Rerum, the title of Tang’s first solo exhibition at ARC ONE Gallery can be translated as “the tears of things”. In Lacrimae Rerum, Tang’s focus is on the collateral damage of man-made wars like the current Syrian War that has given rise to mass migration and homelessness, as well as catastrophic natural disasters, such as the April 2015 Nepal Earthquake that killed nearly 9,000 people and injured close to 23,000.
In her exhibited photographic series, each titled by their long exposure time, Tang captures the demise of a model city as it repeatedly collides with the elemental. Like an omnipotent creator, or conversely a child, she rebuilds the city again and again only to destroy it by fire, heat and flood. The cityscape is fractured and ruined and emphatic of all too familiar images we see in the media of humanity in crisis.
This deep poeticism in Tang’s practice mirrors a universal and visceral stirring in us all. Amongst large scale photography, subtle video and sculptural installations of ash, she traverses the notions of permanence, ephemerality, disappearance, transition and residual memory. Her work raises the paradox of having to exist in order to vanish, as well as the immortal question - what is left when things cease to be? Tang propositions a trace of the former always endures, even if dematerialised.”
- Venita Poblocki, 2016
Born in Hong Kong, Cyrus Tang moved to Australia in 2003. She completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) at the Victoria College of the Arts, Melbourne, in 2004, and her Master of Fine Arts (Research) at Monash University, Melbourne, in 2009. Cyrus has participated in a number of residency programmes, including Helsinki International Artist Program (2013); The National Art Studio in South Korea (2012); Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (2009); and the Banff Centre, Canada (2008). She was the recipient of the Asialink Grant (2012); the Australian Council for the Arts Skills and Arts Development Grant (2011) and New Work (Emerging) Grant (2009); the Georges Mora Fellowship (2008); Theodor Urback Encouragement Award (2004); and The National Gallery of Victoria-Trustee Award (2003). Her works have been shown across Australia and in various countries internationally, including Finland, South Korea, Singapore, Japan, France, China and Sweden. She currently lives and works in Melbourne, Australia.
Lacrimae Rerum, the title of Tang’s first solo exhibition at ARC ONE Gallery can be translated as “the tears of things”. In Lacrimae Rerum, Tang’s focus is on the collateral damage of man-made wars like the current Syrian War that has given rise to mass migration and homelessness, as well as catastrophic natural disasters, such as the April 2015 Nepal Earthquake that killed nearly 9,000 people and injured close to 23,000.
In her exhibited photographic series, each titled by their long exposure time, Tang captures the demise of a model city as it repeatedly collides with the elemental. Like an omnipotent creator, or conversely a child, she rebuilds the city again and again only to destroy it by fire, heat and flood. The cityscape is fractured and ruined and emphatic of all too familiar images we see in the media of humanity in crisis.
This deep poeticism in Tang’s practice mirrors a universal and visceral stirring in us all. Amongst large scale photography, subtle video and sculptural installations of ash, she traverses the notions of permanence, ephemerality, disappearance, transition and residual memory. Her work raises the paradox of having to exist in order to vanish, as well as the immortal question - what is left when things cease to be? Tang propositions a trace of the former always endures, even if dematerialised.”
- Venita Poblocki, 2016
Born in Hong Kong, Cyrus Tang moved to Australia in 2003. She completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) at the Victoria College of the Arts, Melbourne, in 2004, and her Master of Fine Arts (Research) at Monash University, Melbourne, in 2009. Cyrus has participated in a number of residency programmes, including Helsinki International Artist Program (2013); The National Art Studio in South Korea (2012); Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (2009); and the Banff Centre, Canada (2008). She was the recipient of the Asialink Grant (2012); the Australian Council for the Arts Skills and Arts Development Grant (2011) and New Work (Emerging) Grant (2009); the Georges Mora Fellowship (2008); Theodor Urback Encouragement Award (2004); and The National Gallery of Victoria-Trustee Award (2003). Her works have been shown across Australia and in various countries internationally, including Finland, South Korea, Singapore, Japan, France, China and Sweden. She currently lives and works in Melbourne, Australia.
