HOTPINK | Duo Exhibition of Judy Gee & Ling -Li Tseng
Hong Kong | Parallel Space x Wangsim
HOTPINK
DUO EXHIBITION OF JUDY GEE & LING-LI TSENG
17.03.2023 – 01.04.2023
Presented by Parallel Space, in Collaboration with Wangsim
Parallel Space is pleased to present HOTPINK, a duo exhibition showcasing over twenty recent works by two female artists, Judy Gee, and Ling-Li Tseng. Through their unique approaches to painting, sculpture, and installation, Gee and Tseng collectively archive—with a paradoxical tone of alarming flamboyance and sensible self-referentiality in their work—the commentary on the fragile human condition and the uncontrollable nature of its evolution.
An award-winning architectural designer based in Taiwan; Ling-Li Tseng started creating the wall-mounted sculpture series Seasons of Lupus in 2016. Left alone at her London home with mild skin rashes caused by a work-related resin allergy, Tseng began experimenting with bright pink expandable foam— an industrial material commonly used as wall insulation, resulting in a series of seemingly ornamental and hauntingly beautiful work. Composed of colorful self-expanding foam and layers of hand-dyed Spandex nest regulating the foam’s movement, the body of work offers subtle gradations of colors and reflectivity. Neatly arranged in oval and rectangular shapes, the pieces also remind the viewer of tribal ritual masks or miniature landscapes, sequentially leaving us in an awed fascination with the world of wonder, myth, and irregular energies.
Tseng’s creations, whose material is drawn from a multitude of architectural traditions, have an explicit relationship to the body, exploring how the perceptual individual experiences are shaped by societal, economic, and geographical structures that are particular to a certain time. These eccentric variations, achieved by knowledge the artist obtained from her work, supply seemingly free-growing forms with complex inquiries into the nature of control and chance. However, Tseng’s virtuosic approach is more than an extension of her professional achievement. It is a complete submission into her internal experience and an ordered expression of objects and space.
With an intentionally naïve quality, Temptation (2018 - ) and Addiction (2022 - ) series by Taiwanese-American artist Judy Gee stand one meter tall and one meter wide each—audaciously scaled for her voluptuous subject matter in sweet everydayness. Inspired by her time living in Shanghai from 2008 to 2016, Judy began depicting simple everyday indulgences but quickly dived into blunt seduction—power, wealth, and violence. With meticulous brushwork and vivid color palette, the artist presents hyper-realistic sweet treats with the magnificent glaze, which presence acts as an unsettling foil to the darker sprinkles— sometimes your normal confetti, sometimes golden bullets.
Confronted by the giant donuts perhaps looked at first luminous, dreamy, and plain as day, the viewer, on a closer investigation, awakens to the sheer density brought out by the pictures, of the myopic obsessions and the long-running addictions, with which the world is brimming—one for each of us. Gee—while making sense of her own desires and bicultural identity—conducts a sharp interrogation on addictive behaviors and investigates the mastery of willpower. “It’s right in your face. Unapologetically”, said the artist.
HOTPINK’s month-long program will feature private public art tours, and one print and object signing event led by the artists. The exhibition is in collaboration with WANGSIM.
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