Connotie Yu
I am interested in exploring the narrative potential of things – material or textual. When conceptually juxtaposed or formally intervened, they give rise to an imaginal space where new contexts and meanings emerge. The underpinning of this interest is perhaps twofold. The first may be my propensity for seeking patterns or connections in objects, words and imageries; the interplay among them, its potential in generating unexpected content, is of great fascination to me. The second has more to do with the expression of emotional natures. Quite often I would come to realise that my attempt in preserving the truths of such things were to be hindered by either personal limitations or self-censorship. Because of this, I sometimes feel the need to distance, at least to a certain extent, the narrative voice of my work from my autobiographical self, so that the former may survive without being compromised too much by the confinement or surveillance of the latter.
The initial idea of this work sprang from a simple wish to know what the centre of a mandarine looks like. Oxide tainted plaster is poured into the central cavity of the fruit; the plaster casts are de-moulded once they harden, each with its two ends tapered, and then suspended from the ceiling with threads.
I am more inclined to think that the “objects of desire” refers not to the plaster casts in the picture but rather to the (now disposed) corpses of the mandarines (the former came into being through the latter’s structural disintegration). It seems to me, therefore, that the narrative is concerned not simply with intimacy and desire, but (depending on one’s perspectives) with birth, sacrifice, invasion or prey.
Connotie Yu 2020
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Objects of Desire, plaster, nylon thread
Connotie is a poetic storyteller. She approaches her practice in a thoughtful and considered manner, which allows her to investigate materials and textures to find their potential narrative. Connotie is interested in breaking down the expected and stereotypical associations of society, to create surprising and unexpected moments for viewers.
Being conscious of her role as an artist and its subsequent influence on the meaning of her work, she carefully balances her autobiographical self with the artwork concept by applying limits, confinement or surveillance during the making process.
In this work, ‘Objects of Desire’, Connotie’s curiosity led to her wondering how does the hidden space inside the flesh of a mandarin look. She cast a series of these imagined worlds and suspended them playfully. The mandarin material has a duality in its meaning. There is an element of intimacy created when we understand that Connotie desired to eat the sweetness of a mandarin, and then peeled and consumed this. From another perspective, the narrative reflects notions of birth, sacrifice, invasion or prey.
Jade Armstrong 2020