The exhibition title is taken from the 1996 book of the same name by Fed Wah, which is a series of writings about his ChineseHYPHENCanadian upbringing. In Diamond Grill, Wah emphasizes the hypen as it opens up new combinations, a space for ‘mongrels and hybrids’ and those ‘living in the hyphen’. Homi Bhabha states that the hyphen ‘gives rise to something different, something new and unrecognizable, a new area of negotiation of meaning and representation.’
Laric has registered a new hybrid orchid with the Royal Horticultural Society, named after the Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The work is presented as living orchid in the space, as a photographic print roughly framed in OSB board and as a stack of printed postcards. The work is in response to the naming of an orchid after the Burmese prime minister, Thein Sein, in honour of his 2009 visit to Singapore, which lead to international protest. The new hybrids full name is Doritaenopsis Aung San Suu Kyi, Doritaenopsis being an intergeneric hybrid between the orchid genera Doritis and Phalaenopsis.
Flanking the orchid are a number of wall-based panels that employ overlapping layers of small circular holograms. Commissioned by the artist, these holograms were produced in their thousands by factories in Shenzhen, China. The region is renowned for manufacturing and
production of both official and bootleg goods. The hologram stickers contain imagery in the decorative Guilloche style, commonly used to convey originality when authenticating products, visa documents, certificates and paper money. The holograms also contain depictions of
artworks that have been made widely familiar through excessive reproduction and mediation, such as Rodin’s Thinker. One hologram depicts the blueprint of the Ise shrine, a Japanese Shinto shrine that has been ritually destroyed and rebuilt every twenty years since 690 A.D.
A substantial pile of sealed Police evidence bags completes the show. The transparent sacks contain hundreds of seized bootleg DVD and CDs, kindly provided for the exhibition by the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT). The bootlegs were seized from various sources in the North west of England and having been processed as evidence were to be officially destroyed and further recycled. Having diverted and exhibited the disks, Laric intends to shred and recycle the material, modifying them into further incarnations in a future exhibition.
We would like to thank FACT for their help in making this exhibition possible.
Oliver Laric, Installation view, 2011
Oliver Laric, Installation view, 2011
Oliver Laric, Seized Bootleg DVDs and CDs, 2011
Police evidence bags, counterfeit DVDs, counterfeit CDs
150 x 70 x 50 cm
Oliver Laric, Wu Tang Guilloche Rodin, 2011
Custom produced holograms, lacquer, Doritaenopsis Aung San Suu Kyi orchids, ceramic pots
205 x 175 x 60 cm, unique
Oliver Laric, Wu Tang Guilloche Rodin, 2011 (Detail)
Custom produced holograms, lacquer, Doritaenopsis Aung San Suu Kyi orchids, ceramic pots
205 x 175 x 60 cm, unique
Oliver Laric, Doritaenopsis Aung San Suu Kyi, 2011
Postcard
10.5 x 14.8 cm, unlimited edition
Oliver Laric, Doritaenopsis Aung San Suu Kyi, 2011
Photographic print in OSB frame
Edition of 5
42.8 x 31.6 x 2.5 cm
Doritaenopsis Aung San Suu Kyi orchids
Oliver Laric, Doritaenopsis Aung San Suu Kyi, 2011
Photographic print in OSB frame
Edition of 5
42.8 x 31.6 x 2.5 cm
Doritaenopsis Aung San Suu Kyi orchid
Oliver Laric, Discobolus Guilloche, 2011
Custom produced holograms, lacquer
205 x 125 cm
Oliver Laric, Seized Bootleg DVDs and CDs, 2011 (Detail)
Police evidence bags, counterfeit DVDs, counterfeit CDs
150 x 70 x 50 cm
