From Rebecca Gallo…
Fluorescence is Hiromi Tango’s latest show at Sullivan + Strumpf, and signals a deepening of Tango’s interest in the healing properties and potential of art. Her work itself is far from scientific – riotous curls and colours speak of a subjective, emotional realm – however her motivations move into the medicinal and curative. Tango is interested in memory formation and loss, in particular in relation to the deterioration in her father’s health, as evidenced in words spelled out in neon and the titles of the works.
Tango’s installations, wall-mounted sculptures, performances and neon text pieces share a common sense of barely-contained abundance. Soft materials – bound, woven and threaded coiled forms – are combined with sleekness of mirrors, fluorescent light and perspex. These two kinds of materials appear oddly at ease with one another in Tango’s works, where the reflectiveness of mirror and the angularity of perspex contain and give form to heaving masses of soft tubes, coils and springs. The process itself, which the artist describes as ‘Sort. Wrap. Weave. Breathe. Repeat.’, is meditative and therapeutic, suggesting that the curative properties are to be found as much in the action of making as in the finished works themselves.
Until August 22
Sullivan + Strumpf, Zetland
Pic: Hiromi Tango, Fluorescence, 2015, performance. Courtesy Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney.
