c/discoveries: Turn of the Sun

Cuturi Gallery presents its first c/discoveries solo exhibition of the year: Turn of the Sun by multidisciplinary artist Dawn Ang, also known as Aeropalmics.

In collaboration with So-Far, this exhibition showcases woodcut sculptures to emulate the Japanese rock gardens. Each rock was then designed to have symbolic meaning, to represent and articulate a mountain, animal or tree, chronicling the cycle of birth and death. Turn of the Sun is a reflection of the continuous, cyclical motion of the universe and its parts, ageless and enduring.

Synopsis of the Exhibition:

Aeropalmics: Turn of the Sun

At this peculiar moment in time, c/discoveries presents Turn of the Sun, a solo exhibition of new woodcut sculptures by multi-disciplinary artist Dawn Ang, also known as Aeropalmics. The phrase is a reflection of the continuous, cyclical motion of the universe and its parts, ageless and enduring. The vault of heaven revolves, on and on, from millenia to millenia, above us and perhaps, despite us.

Solaris; sun
In our yearning to make sense of this cosmos, we humans have often perceived and positioned ourselves at the centre of it. Blindsided by our anthropocentric ambitions, we have been brought low by That which is beyond us.

Some say solar energy is the most powerful energy. The day after Christmas, there was a solar eclipse. What happened across our galaxy and upon our planet when the sun turned into the 2020s was perhaps unknowable. It shook our sense of time and life, yielding to a new decade where all that we formerly had and held dear might never be the same.

Terra; earth
If there is anything that this must reveal, it is our own mortality and fragility. We are of the earth: mere particles, returning to dust. Here, the materials of our craft and art should not remain unfamiliar: wood, pigment, charcoal. They are extensions of our carbon thumbprints. Thus, these materials and objects are intended to become mirrors, points of meditative focus. Consider them.

The gallery has been transformed with wood pieces carefully placed and arranged to evoke the sentiment, rhythm and values of japanese rock gardens. These pieces are composed to evoke focus, attention, and calm. They serve as a controlled climate, aiding the one searching for the true meaning of existence, through his or her own relationship with the natural world. Each element is designed as a symbol and synecdoche: rocks articulating mountains; soft gradients representing ripples in water; curved branches standing for trees of the forest. These elements when put together, chronicle the cycle of birth, life and death. They whisper of the Essence of nature.

In this spirit, and with great care, Aeropalmics has applied naturally occurring textures to her objects. They remind us of the polypores of bracket fungi, the annual lines of tree rings, or weather-worn rock faces. Their soft, internal edges also breathe of the wind, sky and sea.

Anima; air, soul
There is now a desperate need to breathe. After the turn of the sun’s shadow, uncertainties and fears have surfaced everywhere about a viral threat to our fundamental life engine: our lungs. If urban life were not already stress-inducing enough prior to this, now city dwellers wrestle with the radical change of distance and isolation.

Yet the conditions for self-regulation have been created — even forced upon us. Their placing is not accidental. Aeropalmics’ sculptures challenge us to still our erratic minds, and to simply breathe. The clouds within their billowing shapes disperse outwards. The softness of the air in their wooden hearts contracts then expands, slowly.

There is calm, and clarity, in the midst of the turn.

Text by Christina J. Chua and Aeropalmics, 2020

Exhibition Catalogue