Brendan Lee Satish Tang’s ceramic sculptures are mash-ups of cultures, histories, and pop influences. His series, Manga Ormolu, in particular, are clashes between Chinese Ming dynasty vessels and “techno-Pop Art.” The artist says “the hybridization of cultures mirrors my identity as an ethnically-mixed Asian Canadian.” Tang was featured way back in Hi-Fructose Vol. 6 (and you can now see pieces from that issue in Hi-Fructose Collected 2).
“While Manga Ormolu offers multiple points of entry into sociocultural dialogue, manga, by nature, doesn’t take itself too seriously,” the artist says about the series, in a statement. “The futuristic ornamentation can be excessive, self-aggrandizing, even ridiculous. This is a fitting reflection of our human need to envision and translate fantastic ideas into reality; in fact, striving for transcendence is a unifying feature of human cultural history. This characteristic is reflected in the unassuming, yet utterly transformable material of clay. Manga Ormolu, through content, form and material, vividly demonstrates the conflicting and complementary forces that shape our perceptions of Ourselves and the Other.”
See more pieces from the series below.
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