Parallel Worlds: Sara Tse

ISBN : 978-988-19720-3-3
Publisher : Osage Gallery
Date Published : May 2012
Author : Jean-Michel Sourd, Homan Ho, Bing Yan
Editor : Vivian Poon, Sonja Ng
Designer : Oxeye Lau, Anson Suen for Osage Design
Curator : –
Artist/s: : Sara Tse

This publication was published as the catalogue to the exhibition, Parallel Worlds: Sara Tse and Shirley Tse held at Osage Kwun Tong from 26 March to 18 Aprl 2010.

Parallel Worlds: Sara Tse and Shirley Tse presents the works of two closely-related artists working with sculpture and objects. The two sisters are internationally acclaimed artists, but living in different worlds: Sara Tse is based in Hong Kong and Shirley Tse has been based in Los Angeles since 1990. Both graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong but have taken different paths. They use different languages in their daily lives and belong to two different art communities. And despite the globalisation of the art world, their practices are informed and contextualised by different trajectories of contemporary art. This will be the first time works by the Tse sisters will be presented side by side. The exhibition will feature recent work as well as earlier works, which will exemplify and provide a deeper understanding of their works and practices, their connections, relationships as well as differences. 

While it is tempting to point out the obvious dichotomy of their practices; Sara Tse works with ceramics, a natural material while Shirley Tse is invested in plastics or synthetic materials, in this post-medium specific era, such focus on materials or media may be too myopic and overshadow the more interesting and intricate approaches towards object-making. For example, one similarity in their work is the examination of the fragility in the everyday, whether it is a shirt that has been transformed into eggshell-thin porcelain, or packing styrofoam that has been machined carved into intricate forms, both items of extreme vulnerability and of the transience. While ceramics and plastics are supposed to last forever, paradoxically in the Tse sisters’ applications, the longevity of these materials is challenged. The difference between their practices is perhaps less vested in materials and more in the different visual language each artist employs: while Shirley Tse explores multiplicity via plasticity, Sara Tse presents inscription of memory. Curiously, there is a common shift in their recent work towards the narrative, specifically the narratives of Chinese diaspora, exposing a deeper autobiographical content. For example, Shirley Tse was given some faded tourist slides of Hong Kong from a friend in Los Angeles whose parents were tourists in the 1960s. These slides are now in the hands of Sara Tse and will be the subject of her new work in the exhibition. Shirley Tse will also include work from her Quantum Shirley Series, a body of work inaugurated in 2008 that imagines the connection between personal narratives, economics (as manifested through movement of traded goods), political ruptures and theoretical explanation of reality.

Parallel Worlds : Shirley Tse

ISBN : 978-988-19720-4-0
Publisher : Osage
Date Published : 2011
Author : Michael Ned Holte
Editor : Vivian Poon, Sonja Ng
Designer : Oxeye Lau, Joseph Yiu for Osage Design
Curator : –
Artist/s: : Shirley Tse

This publication was published as the catalogue to the exhibition, Parallel Worlds: Sara Tse and Shirley Tse held at Osage Kwun Tong from 26 March to 18 Aprl 2010.

Parallel Worlds: Sara Tse and Shirley Tse presents the works of two closely-related artists working with sculpture and objects. The two sisters are internationally acclaimed artists, but living in different worlds: Sara Tse is based in Hong Kong and Shirley Tse has been based in Los Angeles since 1990. Both graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong but have taken different paths. They use different languages in their daily lives and belong to two different art communities. And despite the globalisation of the art world, their practices are informed and contextualised by different trajectories of contemporary art. This will be the first time works by the Tse sisters will be presented side by side. The exhibition will feature recent work as well as earlier works, which will exemplify and provide a deeper understanding of their works and practices, their connections, relationships as well as differences. 

While it is tempting to point out the obvious dichotomy of their practices; Sara Tse works with ceramics, a natural material while Shirley Tse is invested in plastics or synthetic materials, in this post-medium specific era, such focus on materials or media may be too myopic and overshadow the more interesting and intricate approaches towards object-making. For example, one similarity in their work is the examination of the fragility in the everyday, whether it is a shirt that has been transformed into eggshell-thin porcelain, or packing styrofoam that has been machined carved into intricate forms, both items of extreme vulnerability and of the transience. While ceramics and plastics are supposed to last forever, paradoxically in the Tse sisters’ applications, the longevity of these materials is challenged. The difference between their practices is perhaps less vested in materials and more in the different visual language each artist employs: while Shirley Tse explores multiplicity via plasticity, Sara Tse presents inscription of memory. Curiously, there is a common shift in their recent work towards the narrative, specifically the narratives of Chinese diaspora, exposing a deeper autobiographical content. For example, Shirley Tse was given some faded tourist slides of Hong Kong from a friend in Los Angeles whose parents were tourists in the 1960s. These slides are now in the hands of Sara Tse and will be the subject of her new work in the exhibition. Shirley Tse will also include work from her Quantum Shirley Series, a body of work inaugurated in 2008 that imagines the connection between personal narratives, economics (as manifested through movement of traded goods), political ruptures and theoretical explanation of reality.

Featured Artists

Women’s Works

ISBN : 978-988-17583-9-2
Publisher : Osage Kwun Tong
Date Published : July 2008
Author : Jonathan Thomson
Editor : Agnes Lin
Designer : Joseph Yiu
Curator : Isabel Ching
Artist/s: : Cai Jin, Cheng Shu Lea, Chen Xiaodan, Doris Wong, Eva Chan, Geng Xue, Ivy Ma,
Jaffa Lam, Lam Waikit, Sara Tse, Siy Takyin, Sun Guojuan, Suzy Cheung Kaisun,
Tan Yukking

This catalogue was published on the occasion of the exhibition, Women’s Works held at Osage Kwun Tong from 18 July to 29 August 2008.

It is a legacy that unites the twelve Chinese artists represented in this exhibition.  While not necessarily explicitly Feminist in intent, all of the female artists in this exhibition are working as catalysts for change.  This is not to suggest that they are unique in this or are working towards the resolution of issues that are specifically gender based or are addressing the roles and relations between men and women.  They have all been selected because they bring a particular female sensibility to their work without necessarily essentialising either a male or female nature.  Their work addresses a broad range of issues and employs a variety of attitudes, media and forms.  The female artists in this exhibition are all women working for what women want.  Feminism gave them the ability to put their ideas to work.

Lui Chun Kwong. You Are Here, I Am Not.

ISBN : 978-988-99399-4-6
Publisher : Osage Art Foundation
Date Published : November 2012
Author : Vivian Poon, Eva Man, Ho Siu Kee
Editor : Agnes Lin, Eugene Tan
Designer : Ansion Suen for Osage Design
Curator : Eugene Tan, Vivian Poon, Sonja Ng
Artist/s: : AMA, Au Hoi Lam, Chan Sai Lok, Chow Chun Fai, Josephine Chow, Margaret Chu,
Carmen Ho, Ho Sin Tung, Ho Siu Kee, Hui Chui Hung, Hung Keung, Hong Ko,
Kong Chun Hei, Kong Kee, Kwan Sheung Chi, Wong Wai Yin, Cass Lam,
Lam Hiu Tung, Jaffa Lam, Lam Tung Pang, Lam Yuk Lin, Lam Yuk Mui, Flora Fok
Yim Sui Fong, Sarah Lai, Elise Lai, Woody Lee, Woody Lee, Leung Chi Wo,
Sara Wong, Joey Leung, Otto Li, Li Lau Mang, Ling Chin Tang, Lui Chun Kwong,
Ma Chi Hang, Mok Yat San, Man Fung Yi, Pak Sheung Chuen, Sin Yuen,
Samuel Adam Swope, Tang Kwok Hin, Tsang Chui Mei, Sara Tse, Tse Yim On,
Annie Wan, Wong Chiu Tat, Wong Tin Yan, Woofer Ten, Yolanda Yeung, Karr Yip

This catalogue was published on the occasion of the exhibition, Lui Chun Kwong: You Are Here, I Am Not held  at Osage Kwun Tong from 18 September 2010 to 07 November 2010.

The exhibition consists of works by more than fifty Hong Kong artists. All the participating artists are graduates of the Fine Arts Department at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, where Lui taught for more than twenty years. For this exhibition, Lui sees his works as ready-mades that become the starting point for collaboration with his former students. After initial discussions with Lui, the artists are at complete liberty to use the work, and even transform it with their own ideas and interpretations, to create a new work. With Lui’s artworks as the point of departure, this exhibition will examine the possibilities resulting from collaboration between Lui and his former students and will further explore the intricate and complex relationship between teacher and student and its role in artistic creation. Through this fellowship of past teacher-student relations and their collaboration as artists in the present, as well as a platform to differentiate from their usual mode of thinking and working, it will also be an examination of the artistic practices of each artist in the exhibition.