Methods of Art – Archive of Artists Interviews

I usually present my work in a white cube gallery, a white space, a very normal kind of space.
And for me, presentation means communication. Communicating an idea with the audience. It’s
about problem solving, it’s about design. It’s to think about, „what’s the best way to communicate
your idea with an audience, given a specific venue, given a specific size and structure of the venue. I
like something that is spectacular, I like to provide an enjoyable viewing experience from my
audience.
My audience can be anybody. It’s the general public. And I don’t really think about my audience
when I do my work. But the presence of an audience and the need for successful communication is
always in the back of my mind. And again it goes back to responsibility to the people who look at my
work. And I think once the work is in the exhibition, the author is dead. I mean, I am not there to
present my work to my audience and the work needs to speak for themselves. I think this is also the
beauty of art as well. I mean the audience is free to make their associations, they are free to take
back to create different meanings out of the work. It’s the ambiguity that intrigues me sometimes
about a piece of work.
I think presentation is all about stepping back and imagining myself as the audience and what I want
to see and what I would get out of the performance or the exhibition.
I would consciously think of how the audience is going to react. And I am a bit manipulative in that
kind of sense. So, I think a performance and an exhibition is very similar. Before everything happens, I
would try to anticipate, I would try to go into detail about how I dress, what colour, or what kind of
framing in an exhibition space so that I can do my best to communicate my idea with the audience.
But the end, what they get out of it, it’s out of my control.

Angela Su / Presentation

Bio

Angela Su received a degree in biochemistry in Canada before pursuing visual arts. By adopting existing scientific belief systems, Su creates works that prompt us to contemplate our own being, our inscription in space and in time. Her biological drawings often combine the precision of scientific sketches with a mythical sense of aesthetic to challenge the audience’s visual sensory on the pleasure of pain. Not only has Angela been interested in exploring the perception and imagery of the body, through her performance-based works such as „One-Woman-Apartment“ (2008) and „The Hartford Girl and Other Stories“ (2012), she continuously investigates the tension of the artist’s dualistic state of being when under physical endangerment or distress. Su’s works have been exhibited in the 2nd CAFAM Biennale, 17th Biennale of Sydney, Rossi & Rossi and Saatchi Gallery in London.

http://angela-su.blogspot.ch/

Angela’s video response to MOA

Credits

The interview was conducted on November 29, 2014 at Asia Art Archive in Hong Kong.

Interviewed by: Johannes M. Hedinger

Filmed and recorded by: Banny Ng

Edited by: Paul Barsch

Transcript by: Yvonne Mattern

Produced by: Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), Connecting Spaces Documents #5

Special thanks to: Asia Art Archive