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Owen Leong
Original Nature, 4-28 July 2018, Artereal Gallery.
Photographer: Zan Wimberley. Courtesy of Artereal Gallery.
Owen Leong
Original Nature, 4-28 July 2018, Artereal Gallery.
Photographer: Zan Wimberley. Courtesy of Artereal Gallery.
Owen Leong
Self-Portrait as Landscape 山水 (Centre)
2018
Concrete, marble dust, white quartz, beeswax, steel base
34 x 35 x 24 cm (landscape), 110 x 45 x 45 cm (base)
Owen Leong
Self-Portrait as Landscape 山水 (Centre)
2018
Concrete, marble dust, white quartz, beeswax, steel base
34 x 35 x 24 cm (landscape), 110 x 45 x 45 cm (base)
Owen Leong
Self-Portrait as Landscape 山水 (Centre)
2018
Concrete, marble dust, white quartz, beeswax, steel base
34 x 35 x 24 cm (landscape), 110 x 45 x 45 cm (base)
Owen Leong
Self-Portrait as Landscape 山水 (Centre)
2018
Concrete, marble dust, white quartz, beeswax, steel base
34 x 35 x 24 cm (landscape), 110 x 45 x 45 cm (base)
Owen Leong
Self-Portrait as Landscape 山水 (East)
2018
Concrete, marble dust, white quartz, beeswax, steel
32 x 22 x 22 cm (landscape), 110 x 45 x 45 cm (base)
Owen Leong
Self-Portrait as Landscape 山水 (East)
2018
Concrete, marble dust, white quartz, beeswax, steel
32 x 22 x 22 cm (landscape), 110 x 45 x 45 cm (base)
Owen Leong
Self-Portrait as Landscape 山水 (West)
2018
Concrete, marble dust, white quartz, beeswax, steel
30 x 24 x 22 cm (landscape), 110 x 45 x 45 cm (base)
Owen Leong
Self-Portrait as Landscape 山水 (West)
2018
Concrete, marble dust, white quartz, beeswax, steel
30 x 24 x 22 cm (landscape), 110 x 45 x 45 cm (base)
Owen Leong
Self-Portrait as Landscape 山水 (North)
2018
Concrete, marble dust, white quartz, beeswax, steel
23 x 19 x 22 cm (landscape), 110 x 45 x 45 cm (base)
Owen Leong
Self-Portrait as Landscape 山水 (North)
2018
Concrete, marble dust, white quartz, beeswax, steel
23 x 19 x 22 cm (landscape), 110 x 45 x 45 cm (base)
Owen Leong
Self-Portrait as Landscape 山水 (South)
2018
Concrete, marble dust, white quartz, beeswax, steel
25 x 17 x 27 cm (landscape), 110 x 45 x 45 cm (base)
Owen Leong
Self-Portrait as Landscape 山水 (South)
2018
Concrete, marble dust, white quartz, beeswax, steel
25 x 17 x 27 cm (landscape), 110 x 45 x 45 cm (base)
Self-Portrait as Landscape 山水 is a series of sculptures that combines human with landscape forms. The artist’s head was moulded and cast, smashed into fragments, then reabsorbed, reshaped and resculpted. These sculptural assemblages were then cast again in their final forms as solid concrete human-mountain-landscapes. This labour-intensive, material-driven process in the artist’s studio reflects the cyclical nature of self-creation and destruction.
This series was inspired by 山水 (shān shuǐ, literally “mountain-water”), Chinese brush and ink paintings that depict landscapes or scenery, centred around mountains. In these works, Leong has translated traditional Chinese ink-brush paintings into contemporary sculptural form.
Self-Portrait as Landscape 山水 evokes the lone philosopher on the mountain, the process of introspection and the quest for self-knowledge. Mountains are powerful and mystical places, where the minuteness of human presence conveys the vastness of the cosmos.