Cici Wu's“Auld Lang Syne (Prelude)” Explores Transnational Cultural Memory

(MENAFN- USA Art News) Artist Cici Wu's exhibition,“Auld Lang Syne (prelude),” at 47 Canal features 11 lantern sculptures crafted from bamboo, willow withies, and mulberry paper. These works are internally illuminated, casting light within the otherwise dark basement gallery space.

Among the installations, a 16mm projector is positioned behind a flickering image of Princess Bari, the Korean deity associated with guiding souls to the afterlife. However, the projector does not generate this image or any narrative. The exhibition also includes a warmly lit clock floating above, the Buddhist goddess Kuan-yin on a white pedestal, and a creature sculpture resting on the floor. One lantern, painted with ink and watercolor, replicates a miniature schoolhouse based on an archival 1914 photograph of an all-girls' high school in Shizuoka, Japan. This Japanese site is the subject of Wu's upcoming film.

Wu's artistic method, which translates ideas across sculpture, painting, and film, reflects the transnational journey of“Auld Lang Syne,” the song that lends its title to the exhibition and dictates the rhythm of the lightbulbs. The 18th-century Scottish song, initially spread through missionary activity and colonial exchange, later became a Korean patriotic anthem during Japanese colonial rule. In contemporary Japan, it signifies the close of the workday in retail establishments. The exhibition seeks to evoke an unconscious, tactile presence of this displaced history.

Source: Hyperallergic

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