Soft Sculptures
Text by Maria Nicolacopoulou
With her soft painted and decorated canvas sculptures, embodying the secrets and powers of mythological symbolism, Silia Ka Tung’s reconfiguration of ancient cultures into contemporary terms, is manifested through a microscopic world of embroidered charm and transfigured cynicism.
By merging Chinese and Greek mythology with Japanese manga, Hindu philosophy and Korean media, Silia personifies traditional magic, wisdom and religion into contemporary morphologies which foreground a contesting naivete and innocence that inspire while transgress; the softness of the material and the blissful colour-palette distract from the underlying opaque narrative to suggest the intricacy of our human condition and natural order via an evolutionary transformation.
The result is evocative of a comforting yet mysterious childhood nostalgia filled with sinister connotations that reflect the complexity and aimlessness of contemporary existence in a world dominated by confusion and chaos.