Hearing Things, sallies (copper)

STPI – Creative Workshop & Gallery

About Artwork

Heavily utilising the embossing technique on bronze, cream and silver papers for her Hearing Things series (2018), the works evoke a feeling of a certain something going on yet being indiscernible, which the artist likens to an “afterimage”. This idea of concealment and then subsequently bringing the concealed item to light is heightened through the origin of the embossed figures themselves: in her 2013 show with MAK – Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna, the artist came across a wide trove of forgotten items in the museum’s storage dating back to the 1920s. New life was breathed into these overlooked items through inserting their image into her 2013 exhibition, and through her STPI embossed works. On another level, Hearing Things is also about the elevation of a basic object—both the figures themselves and the material of paper—to something elaborate and extraordinary, where its quietness can, in fact, contain density and volume. In this case, the treatment of the materials here impart upon one the feeling of looking at something almost ornamental and jewellery-like in nature despite its simple physicality.

Artist Profile

Pae White’s diverse practice is marked by her uses of unconventional materials such as glass, marble,
fabric, marzipan, marshmallows, and vinyl. Merging art, design, craft and architecture, White responds
to materials and the site to create captivating works that challenge our perception and expectation
of mediums and techniques. By collaborating with different artisans and industrial fabricators, the
artist realises her ideas through playful explorations, reflecting a desire to create work beyond her
personal skillset.

At STPI, the artist allowed for chance and collaboration to guide her artistic production. This resulted in
a wide series of works that combines recurring motifs in her oeuvre, such as the use of alphabets and
threads, with the opportunities presented to her at STPI’s workshop and in Singapore; for example, the
use of lettuce as material and heavily exploring the flocking technique on two-dimensional surfaces.
All in all, explorations were made into ideas such as space, colours, material, rhythm and movement,
and change and transformation.

Recent solo exhibitions and public commissions include Friendship is Magic, STPI, Singapore (2021);
~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~~v2, neugerriemschneider, Berlin (2021); Noisy Blushes, San Jose Museum of Art, San
Jose (2020), Beta Space: Pae White, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose (2019); Presumptive Close,
greengrassi, London (2018); Demondaine, Kaufmann Repetto Gallery, Milan (2017); Qwalala, Le Stanze
del Vetro, Venice (2017); Command- Shift-4, Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle
(2015); Special No. 127, neugerriemschneider, Berlin (2014); Genau or Never, greengrassi, London
(2014); O R L L E G R O, MAK, Vienna (2013); Too much night, again, South London Gallery, London
(2013) and S U M M E R X X, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia (2012); among many
others.

Her works are part of prominent public collections such as the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA),
New York; Tate Modern, London; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; Museum of
Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Art Institute of Chicago; and the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles

Artist:

Pae White

Medium:

Embossing on coated paper

Size:

Framed: 72.7 x 51.5 x 3.8cm

Year:

2018