We both died at the same moment Siliquaria armata

2014 - Sculpture (Sculpture)

12 x 4 x 3 cm

Trevor Yeung

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“We both died at the same moment” is a humorous observation of anthropomorphism, the attribution of human emotions to nature and animals. A siliquaria armata is a slitworm that loosley-coiles a shell. Growing inside a sea-bed, a siliquaria armata will grow vertically until it touches another siliquaria armata, at which point they will knot together. Once caught by fishermen, the two worms die at the same time. Yeung undermines this romanticized phenomenon by emphasizing the emotionless in the process from the life to death of a slitworm. Yet while Yeung’s theoretical interrogation of life and death in nature and humankinds tendency to romanticize the unknown and the unknowable, “We both died at the same moment” simultaneously connotes a mythologisation of the slitworms. The vitrine, a showcase usually hosting Buddhist sculptures, common in Hong Kong, which houses the slitworm aggrandizes the phenomenon of dying at the same time of knotted siliquaria armata’s. “We both died at the same moment” puts into question the desire and tendency to romanticize nature, turning to a slitworm as a metaphor for beauty, life and death.

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Trevor Yeung’s (b. 1988, Guangdong Province, China) practice, traversing a wide range of mixed media works from drawings and photographs, small objects and installations, is a delicate examination of human relations and processing. Using the human body, plants and animals as an aesthetic pretext to examine the processes of exchange and participation, Yeung projects emotional and intellectual scenarios onto biological substitutes. His allegory of the biological as the emotional interrogates the artificiality of nature and the capacity for a simulated construction of meaning. The artist creates worlds with their own logic, with his rules and that are connected to his own experiences. In doing so Yeung’s work invites his audiences to interrogate perspectives and challenge the creation of systems. He currently lives in Hong Kong.

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Colors:

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• romanticize.v.01
• snail.n.01
• intertwine.v.01
• organic.a.02
• biology.n.01
• containment.n.03