by Patricia Frischer
In this live lecture by Shirley Tse as part of the UCSD
Guest Lecture series (now
archived so you can watch it yourself), we are shown work from 2019 to
2024. During this period, Tse is working with 1000 lathe turned wood components with 3-D printing connector pieces shown in
the Venice Biennial and in Hong Kong. But her more recent work pushes toward art made with existing materials with as
little carbon footprint as possible.
The metaphor for the stakes of all sorts of different shapes
and sizes is an exploration of stakeholders. In essence it is the relationship
of one element/person to another. Is it unequal? Is it collaborative? Does it
create conflict? Is there an opportunity for added value? The set of elements
she creates can be assembled to be site specific and crawl from inside to
outside and from floor to ceiling.
A variation on this type of construction was the quasi-badminton shaped sculpture. Particularly interesting was the shuttlecock which Tse actually called a shuttle pod. The ball front is rubber and the feather actually vanilla pods. This points toward her family’s history with rubber and vanilla plantations.
Tse decided it was time to teach a sustainable art class.
She spoke of how greed is the major cause of the big three problems that are
important to her: the unjust economy, climate change and health concerns. The
wars, environmental problems and prejudice are interrelated. To solve one, you
need to solve all. One simple decision
was to start to only re-use existing objects. Another was to try to cut down on
storage and transport cost.
She was surprised to be accepted to an Artic Circle Residency
in 2023 because her application was Do
Nothing. Climate change in this region is 6 time more evident than
anywhere else. This becomes a jump start for her search of a Zero impact sculpture.
Her idea was to be present, with less making and filming and more observing. She
only used a cell phone to record, but brought tools to observe like sound
enhancing gear. The resulting film has large segments of simple white subtitles
on a black background. This again is a throwback to her early family life when
she had to have subtitles on all the movies. For her having no images full
fills a fantasy of not missing anything. The art becomes the narrative and not
a documentary.
There were 20 artists in the residency and since she was doing nothing, she volunteered her time and equipment to any of them that wanted to take advantage. She actually ended helping 6 of them with a yoga practice. She has such an interesting take on the breath. When we breath in, we are not taking in air. Instead, we are creating a space and the universe puts air into that space. She expands that concept of oneness stating that the idea of each of us as a separate person is an illusion. It turns out that moving away from the notion of an individual artist and into a space of collaboration is all part of zero impact sculpture.
She and her two children went to the Orkney Island in
Scotland where the sun does not really set in the summer. This sculpture was made while discovering her son’s need for
a soccer ball. It could be covered in some tissues her daughter was using for a
project and the result was her very own Orkney moon. Once it was kicked around a bit and
the tissue skin removed, it made a perfect low-tech foldable, fit in your
pocket, no shipping cost sustainable sculpture to take home.
How do you charge for zero impact sculptures in a gallery setting. Shirley Tse is lucky to work with Shoshana Wayne Gallery who agreed to price each one the same percentage of the value of her total time. In this case it was $3,300.
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