Kelsey Ashe
Paper Trails Between Lion & Swan
Paper Trails Between Lion and Swan is a two-phase collaborative exchange exhibition curated by Harrison See, Desmond Mah & Yeo Chee Kiong featuring 6 artists from Singapore and 6 from Boorloo/Perth, opening at Singapore Art Week.
These two coastal and culturally diverse locations are bound by intersecting histories of British colonisation in the Asia Pacific region. To renegotiate these intersections in a contemporary context, the artists have explored paper and textiles as a metaphor for diaspora, trade and identity.
Phase 1 (January 2024) was featured at SCULPTURE2052 (Singapore) as part of Singapore Art Week.
Phase 2 (June 2024) will be featured at ‘Old Customs House’ (Artsource WA).
Exhibition supported by: SCULPTURE2052 Gallery ARTSOURCE; WA Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries (DLGSC) and The National Arts Council (Singapore).
Perth/Boorloo artists:
Deborah Worthy-Collins, Desmond Mah, Di Cubitt, Harrison See, Kelsey Ashe, Sarah Thornton-Smith.
Singapore artists:
Ezzam Rahman Nhawful Jumaat, Tan Yen Peng, Terry Wee, Xin Xiao Chang, Yeo Chee Kiong.
Left:
'Orihon Codex of the Flame, Shell, Swan and Mer-Lion' Kelsey Ashe, 2024. Canvas, paper and Silk, botanical inks Indigo, Myrolaban, Wax. Screen Printed Origami Folding Concertina Scroll.
140cm (H) x 300cm (W) x 0.2 cm (D) When Open and 30cm (H) x 70cm (W) x 35 cm (D) when closed.
In the age of the ‘Archival turn’ Ashe delves into allegorical, symbolic and mythological narratives, to subvert, intervene or disrupt the colonial archive and to contemplate both harmonious and difficult moments of cultural collision.
The Orihon Codex of the Flame, Shell, Swan and Mer-Lion is a contemporary form of Origami and Scroll making, where the printed mountains and valleys of the folded origami hint at the complex dimension of relations across the vast Austral-Asian geographic basin.
In depicting the Mer-Lion and the Swan amongst the Shell, Fire, and a geometric grid, the work asks the viewer to consider their own projections and understandings of the multiple social, geographic and symbolic links between the Republic of Singapore and the city of Perth in Western Australia.