The Macao Museum of Art (MAM, from the Portuguese acronym), under the Cultural Affairs Bureau, has launched the “Macao Arts Window” since 2012, which aims to encourage creativity and develop contemporary art in Macao. The theme of this edition of the “Macao Arts Window” is the exhibition “Dwelling on objects – Fragments drawn by Yuen-yi Lo”, the vernissage will be held this Thursday, 6 October, at 6:30pm, on the third floor of MAM. The artist Yuen-yi Lo will give a finishing touch to her works by varnishing them. Admission is free and all are welcome.
The “Macao Arts Window” aims to provide an open and diverse exhibition space and exchange platform, and encourage local artists to explore and express concepts and forms of contemporary art. Local artist Yuen-yi Lo trained in the fields of Communication Design and Fine Arts in Hong Kong, Italy and Britain. She has held solo shows and has participated in joint exhibitions in Britain, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. She is currently dedicated to artistic creations, writing and teaching. Her works are mostly pencil drawings and visual anthropology and are centered on scripts and graphics and old objects; while her writings explores themes such as art and culture, feminism and oral history. Yuen-yi Lo contributed writings about art and life in Hong Kong’s “Mingpao” newspaper; 76 pieces of them were compiled and published in the book “Drawing the Writing”. Her other publications include “Love Messages across the Centuries: 21 Letters to Parisian Artists”, “A Room” and “A Journal of Nüshu, Women’s Script”, among others.
Yuen-yi Lo considers that pencil drawing has been something “peripheral” in traditional Western art, but this is the core of her artwork to explore its role and meaning in contemporary art. By drawing ordinary old objects, she retains traces of faded life experiences and memories. In the words of French philosopher Jacques Derrida, perception is recollection, and people choose to draw in order to record what is gone or what will be gone. The author invites the audience to tour around and watch the stories flowing in this series of artworks, so as to observe and feel the images, sounds, smells and textures of objects displayed.
The exhibition “Dwelling on objects – Fragments drawn by Yuen-yi Lo” is held until 20 November. The MAM, located at Avenida Xian Xing Hai, is open daily from 10am to 7pm (no admittance after 6:30pm, closed on Mondays). Admission fee is MOP5 and is free on Sundays and public holidays.