Yuk King Tan graduated from Auckland's Elam School of Art in 1993. Since then, she has garnered international recognition for her practice using various media (including video, sculpture, photography and site-specific installations) to explore ideas about cultural identity, global politics, trade, power and consumption. Earlier this year, Tan relocated from Auckland to Hong Kong which the artist describes as "a city on steroids" because of its energy and frantic pace of life.

City Gallery Wellington is delighted to announce that Yuk King Tan's solo project 'Overflow' will open on 27 November. This is Tan's first solo show in a Wellington public gallery.

Yuk King Tan - Overflow
City Gallery Wellington
27 November 2005 - 6 February 2006 Yuk King Tan graduated from Auckland's Elam School of Art in 1993. Since then, she has garnered international recognition for her practice using various media (including video, sculpture, photography and site-specific installations) to explore ideas about cultural identity, global politics, trade, power and consumption. Earlier this year, Tan relocated from Auckland to Hong Kong which the artist describes as "a city on steroids" because of its energy and frantic pace of life.

City Gallery Wellington is delighted to announce that Yuk King Tan's solo project 'Overflow' will open on 27 November. This is Tan's first solo show in a Wellington public gallery.

Yuk King Tan - Overflow
City Gallery Wellington
27 November 2005 - 6 February 2006Tan has been visiting markets in Hong Kong, in Shenzhen (a rapidly expanding Chinese city on Hong Kong's border) and New Zealand, collecting mass-produced objects, souvenirs and goods that she will fashion into an installation at the Gallery. As Tan explains:

"The collection will include pieces that suggest status, control and power: designer goods next to copies of designer goods; iconic masks; toys of violent role-play such as guns, tanks, shells; figurines; models; replica money, paper tokens of symbols of wealth. There will be a profusion of objects to make sense from, like the cornucopia of a market."

Tan notes that her use of this assortment of significant objects and throwaway goods could be seen as a critique of consumerism, but that this reading is complicated by the visual spectacle created when she marshals her army of consumer items into a gleeful explosion of colour and shape.

Tan's installation will follow a rule of repeated forms and patterns that references the geometric form of a snowflake, a phenomenon that Tan has been using as an organising principle in recent work. Tan has also been altering and adorning these objects, dripping and pouring coloured sealing wax over them. The colours she uses are inspired by the colouring of microscopic organisms: vivid blues and yellow, with ruby red shades used to emphasise key objects.

City Gallery Wellington director Paula Savage says: "We are thrilled to be presenting this exciting project. Yuk King Tan is known for her double-edged works: gorgeous visual spectacles that pack a conceptual punch. We would also like to acknowledge Telecom for their ongoing support of City Gallery Wellington's mission to present the work of young New Zealand artists to a wide audience."

City Gallery Wellington is producing a catalogue to accompany and document Yuk King Tan's project (due in mid December 2005). A programme of public events will also accompany the exhibition.