Studio Art MFA candidate Ling-lin Ku is exhibiting her recent sculptural installation Play without Play at Wayfarers Gallery in Brooklyn. The exhibition will on display March 16 - April 7, 2018 and will have an opening reception Friday, March 16 from 7-10 pm.
Adult imaginations are under constant threat by the demands of contemporary life. Ling-lin Ku keeps her imagination alive by looking at objects as being unfixed. Preferring to approach objects and content as materials that stretch and warp; Ku believes that that when objects refuse easy genre placement, our sense of the familiar is challenged and new genres open. Using play as a tool of being - of becoming - that acts simultaneously in celebration and critique of mainstream culture, Ku shows her versions of “regular” things.
Using digital scanning and rendering processes, she fuses mundane things into unknown hybrids. The gap between tangible materials and dematerialized data is where she renders, blends, and replicates a range of household objects. Playing with visual free association, Ku creates hybrid identities of once familiar objects: a four-foot tall wishbone is also a pair of legs, so she sews a custom stocking for it, stores a chunk of “butt”er on the shelf and designs fetish footwear for the foot of the table. Ku plays at the intersection of language, daydreaming, and materiality, walking the tightrope of innocence and deviance, and celebrating the slapstick routine built into that balancing act.
Ling-lin Ku is a Taiwan born, U.S.-based artist currently living and working in Austin, Texas. In addition to being an artist, Ku has a background in music and law. Ku has a degree in Law in Taiwan and a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. Ku was selected to participate in the International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP) in Brooklyn, NYC in 2017 and Vermont Studio Center in 2018. Her group exhibitions include Time Share at Chelsea, NYC and 11 Strangers at the Visual Arts Center at Austin, TX. Ku is currently an MFA candidate at the University of Austin’s Sculpture and Extended Media Program.