Longing for the other (double bed)

Longing for the other (double bed)

Newspapers, cable ties, tiger balm––Yuk King Tan casts her net wide when it comes to potential sculpture materials. When the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery reopened with a new wing in 1997, Tan was among the opening line-up. She had just finished a residency at the gallery, and for her show, The Picturesque, she set off images made from fireworks to create drawings on the walls. Longing for the other (double bed) was added to the gallery collection three years later, being much easier to collect than traces of sulphur and smoke.

Longing for the other features 70 wax-dipped objects laid out in the dimensions of a double bed, linked by candle wicks that hint at fragile connections—and potential meltdown. There’s a whiff of absence, as if a couple have gone but their signs remain. Tan often plays with the language of symbols, modifying objects heavy with cultural connotation. She took these objects, bound them together, wrapped them in thread, then lowered them into vats of wax. Here, wax is a stifling blanket, literal in its homogenising whiteness.

After graduating from Elam School of Fine Arts, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland in 1993, Tan quickly became a bright spark in Aotearoa New Zealand contemporary art, exhibiting widely across Australasia, including at the 1996 Asia Pacific Triennial. The Govett-Brewster has long positioned itself in relation to the Pacific Rim and Yuk King Tan, as a Chinese New Zealand artist born in Australia and now living in Hong Kong, embodies these live connections across the Pacific Ocean.

–– K. Emma Ng, 2023