Artist gets into the trenches to deliver powerful message

Artist gets into the trenches to deliver powerful message in Italy

Auckland artist Lang Ea’s sculptures, installations and paintings reflecting a childhood shaped directly and indirectly by the horrors of war, are attracting international recognition in this year of remembrance of some of the major battles of World War I. At the end of July her evocative sculptural installation, “Listen” will be found in the trenches of Val Dogna, Northern Italy near the Slovenian border, the scene of one of the most dramatic moments of the Great War.

It is part of a “Beside War” festival, organised under the auspices of the Council of Europe which is taking the work of young and emerging artists from around the world in a range of disciplines from fine art to video and dance, whose works aim to encourage thoughtful introspection on how mankind deals with conflict.

Born under the Khmer Rouge regime that terrorised Cambodia in the 1970s, Lang arrived with her refugee family in New Zealand in 1982 as a eight year old. She completed her formal art education at the School of Architecture and Design at Victoria University. Since that time she has built a significant body of work reflecting commentaries on politics, consumer culture and social perceptions of the universal challenges of war.

Her sculptures and installations are created from everyday materials including resins, polystyrene, glass, concrete and ceramic. “Listen “ comprises twenty resin casts of heads, eyes closed and missing ears and reminds the viewer of the horrors of conflict; the cast of one ear in front delivering a message of hope, an invitation to listen to each other. The installation was first shown at the New Zealand Sculpture On Shore at North Head in Auckland in 2015.

Following the exhibition in the Italian trenches, she will have solo exhibitions at Verdun Memorial in France and the Flanders Field Museum in Belgium. Her work will then join with the other artists in collective exhibitions in Trieste, Ferrara and Udine in Italy.

Lang has exhibited nationally and has been a finalist in several awards including the prestigious James Wallace Arts Trust Awards, and recent exhibitions have taken her work internationally. Her work is held in the James Wallace Collection in New Zealand and the IoDeposito NGO Pontebba collection in Italy as well as private collections in the United States, New Zealand and Australia.

Lang’s recent exhibitions include:

• ‘The coming of darkness –the eagle series’ (2014) Brush Strokes exhibition- Pen and Brush Gallery in, Manhattan –New York.

• ‘ Guns’ The Expatriates exhibition; & Gallery; 220 Spencer St, Melbourne; Australia;

• POP! Bang! KA –BOOM! (2016) – finalist for the 2016 Montalto Sculpture Prize -Victoria;

• Australia, Broken Toys (2015) was selected for the Small Sculpture Award indoor exhibition at Lorne Sculpture Biennale 2016 in Melbourne, Australia;

• KA -BOOM! (2016) and Listen II – Remains (2015) site specific sculpture installation for Sculpture at Scenic World 2015 and 2016, Sydney, Australia; These exhibitions have received positive reviews from both curators and audiences.

Lang is currently planning for the annual international exhibit at Sculpture by the Sea –Bondi 2016 –Sydney, Australia, and has been selected for well-known China residency Red Gate in Beijing which she takes up in August, and at the renowned Vermont Studio Centre Residency, Johnson, USA in 2017.

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