And So, We Build An Amusement Park On The Uninhabited Island

Li Si-Rong & Jenny Zhong – And So, We Build An Amusement Park On The Uninhabited Island

4-24 September
Opening: 4 September 2-4pm
Central Space

Covid-19, pandemic, we are stuck at home. Our life circle has shrunk from the entire city to home, and the majority of our activities have moved to virtual spaces. In retrospect, quarantine is like everyone returning to their own uninhabited island.

On our uninhabited island, we frequently put ourselves in a trance by staring at a specific space without thinking anything. Just letting thoughts wander around with peace, like meditation with eyes opened, and creating tranquillity in our body.

Dreaming and daydreaming. We are fantasising about a beautiful illusion. Darkness will be defeated when we are deep in fantasy. We weave one beautiful story after another, gazing at one attractive creature after another. Everything is wonderful and luminous.

Jenny Zhong

My artworks are responses to states of fantasising. Fantasy can bring positive energy to people, and it can relieve the pressure brought by everyday life. Painting can be a form of communication with imagination in my creation. Each colour underneath my brush are distinct characters with distinct personalities. Each piece of art is made up of different colours. Their union creates a one-of-a-kind world that is entirely theirs, as well as a record of their personal life story. Each story is a microcosm of life, a flourishing bubble influenced by my interactions with their spirits.

The audience will generate ‘touch’ through the guidance of play and use touch to extend and connect further of it. When the sensation hits a crucial point, the “push” will activate the delay unit as a result of ‘play’, rotates.

Li Si-Rong

This work is composed of diary, memories, daily debris, objects, gaze, empathy poems, and creative and theoretical reflection.

On my uninhabited island, I live with many objects. I resemble their centre. They must surround me and support me to complete my daily routine. I know that I do not need much since everything in my everyday life revolves around the same objects at home. I know that they have been watching my every single move and that we are coequal. I am under the vision area of everyday objects all the time – this is a close and reciprocal relationship.

Considering the object gaze and the concept of object-oriented-ontology, I sought to redraw everyday objects in an abstract way, and attempt to rearrange them in a new way. I present everything in daily life that we take for granted via my own observation and reorganisation in the form of ceramic, photography, poetry and painting.

About the Artists:

Li Si-Rong

Born in 1994 in Tainan, Taiwan

Lives and works in Auckland, New Zealand

Li Si Rong received her M.F.A. in Elam from the University of Auckland. She is a mixed-media artist, focusing specifically on everyday life and the relationship between humanity and everything. She works across diverse mediums from painting, sculpture, photography, installation, to poetry. With an illusion rich in everyday objects and debris, the artistic conception aims to integrate the deconstructed little events and fragmented slices of daily routines.

Jenny Zhong

Born in 1996 in China

Lives and works in Auckland, New Zealand

Jenny Zhong received her B.F.A and M.F.A. in Elam from the University of Auckland.

She is a contemporary participatory installations artist whose recent work utilizes-participate rotational of shaped canvas/wood panels, as well as mixed media painting, sculpture to examine the collision of imagination, fantasy daydream, play and positive emotions.