INSTINC SOHO opens with a newly renovated space in 2016, presenting Sophrosyne: Polyethylene-based Control, showcasing art by INSTINC AIR Anya Mielniczek (Canada) including collaborative work Origomi created with local artist Li (Singapore).
Sophrosyne: Polyethylene-based Control put’s value on one of today’s most modern materials. In the 21st century we have tonnes of it around, millions – billions, even trillions of tonnes of it. Easily accessible, cheap and durable — the plastic bag. In this exhibit Anya Mielniczek and Li re-energize the material we so easily toss aside with work that is both playful and inviting yet speaks towards an environmental reality our consumerism is impacting.
Sophrosyne is an ancient Greek ideal which suggests that harmonious living can be obtained through mastering balance and moderation in life through controlling ones desires and excessive behaviours.
The title for this exhibit is both the aim behind the entire body of work and the projected irony. The artworks themselves have been created through a meditative and mindful state, taking a modest approach and respect of their material nature. On one hand compositions are balanced and self-aware in their strokes and arrangements. On the other, there is a power in scale and number that can be seen in installation work Origomi, harmonious yet extreme where the main material being employed is simply trash. Profiling how excessive our society’s consumeristic tendencies can be one plastic bag at a time.
Polyethylene-based Control questions our actions, our consumption and the responsibility we have for the materials we go through at hyper speed. The exhibit invites the viewer to look at our human foot print, of our relationship to nature as a whole and what balance and harmony can be sought when trash becomes treasure and plastic becomes controlled.
Opening reception: 6 January 2016, 7.00pm – 9.00pm
Exhibition Dates: 7 January & 8 January 2016
Thursday & Friday, 7pm – 10pm
About ANYA MIELNICZEK – Born in 1990, Anya Mielniczek is a Toronto based Polish-Canadian artist who grew up between the city in Canada and the country sides of Poland. As a mixed-media artist, her work explores combinations of both fine art and street dirt mediums.
Mielniczek takes easily discarded materials adding value to what otherwise is considered disposable, in the process drawing attention to our consumeristic tendencies and the implications they have on our environment. Inspired by litter bits, moody images and the treatment of our natural resources her pieces are emotionally charged, experimental and responsive to the time and place she’s creating in. The artist’s work is both figurative and representational, compiled of layers, textures, and the energy felt in unaltered lines.
Decidedly playing between a real and fantastical aesthetic forming a greater narrative pertinent for environmental awareness –informing herself as well as viewers, of the obstaclesour finite world faces.
The artist graduated from Queen’s University in Kingston Ontario in 2012 receiving her BFAH and completed a year long fellowship with The Living Arts Centre in Mississauga in 2014..
www.anyamielniczek.com
About NUR LIYANA – INSTINC’s local artist Li focuses on the materials and is in love with the process of the material’s uncertainty. Her works relies on the nature of the viewer looking at the material used. Her inspiration varies from independent films and music through interpreting it into her works creating solitude during the process of her art making.
Li hopes to intrigue people through looking at the beauty of the materiality phenomenon.
http://nurliyanaali.weebly.com/
