Trevor Yeung: The Sunset of Last Summer

Blindspot Gallery presents the latest solo exhibition “The Sunset of Last Summer” of Hong Kong artist Trevor Yeung. Continuing on his use of plants and horticulture, aquatic life, photography and installation as metaphors for the relationship between people in his artistic creation, Yeung also constructs a mode of narration oriented around viewing experiences through the hidden and interactive relationship between image, object, space and the viewer.

The impetus for Yeung’s work often stems from his inner conflicts. “The Sunset of Last Summer” opens with his memory of a past love affair. The showcase of photography and installations comprising different materials such as plants, specimen shells and candles spells an everyday, personal and private space and atmosphere. The exhibition presents a kind of human inertia steeped in nostalgia and selective memory. Memories are always beautiful— in watching the sunrise and sunset, in viewing art, is one seeking some kind of pre-determined memory and imagination, or the experience of viewing?

The exhibition opens with three photography works titled “The Saddest Sunse” that evoke memories of a past love affair. The Saddest Sunset deliberately avoids the decisive moments that people love to capture, but encapsulates the moment that precede and the one that follows the sunset. The photographs illuminate manmade traces that have been washed by sunlight and ultraviolet. While the nature of ‘That has been’1 of photography cannot be worn away, the memories of the moment captured are lost like the colours in a faded photograph.
“Pineapple Sea” is two installation works comprising of plants. The work revolves around the water-retaining capacity of the tropical plant bromeliad, which serves as a source of water for itself and insects, while turning the bodies of dead insects into nutrients for the plant. A metaphor for the opposing yet complementary relationship between people in the civilised society.

“Sunset Light” is an installation of candles that invites the audience to take part in it by lighting up the candle, which gives out a stunning and fleeting radiance in vermilion. The work contrasts the installation placed right next to it, “Last Summer Sunset”, whose palm tree shaped candle stand is covered in thick layers of congealed wax, as the afterglow of the sunset is rendered as a state for consumption. Entering a different space of the exhibition, the largescale installation The Cave takes its inspirations from the Chinese garden. Placed inside a long and narrow passage, the work comprises three tables of different heights. In the flickering light, the table clothes gently sway to the breeze, revealing the space beneath the table top that they are intended to cover. It also unveils the entrance to another space, offering a “sanctuary” that people need in their struggle for survival and rest. Beyond the passage are three sets of sculpture installations made of specimen shells, Three to Tango, Lonely Bastard, and Born with Two Hearts. A love trilogy, the works allude to the human tendency to romanticise, and their fascination with and bias towards sex.

Another large-scale installation, “Music Box (bedroom)”, is comprised by seven fish tanks. The lights in the water and the sound of the fish tank pumps pinpoint the interaction between the aquatic life and human activity, creating an introspective and microcosmic space. The exhibition closes with the set of Cacti on the table, where specimens of fugu are rendered in the form of plants. Through this work the artist questions the nature of objects and the meaning of appearance, satirising people’s selective understanding and their numbness towards the mundane. The artist will be present at the opening reception. Interviews are welcome and can be arranged.