24 Owen Leong

Aura | 2014 | pigment print on archival cotton paper | 120 x 90 x 5 cm

24 Owen Leong

Sunshine Coast Art Prize 2016 – Finalist

[Image courtesy of the artist]

Owen Leong | Aura | 2014 | pigment print on archival cotton paper | 120 x 90 x 5 cm

Artist Statement

Aura visualises the human circulatory system as an external shadow. This work is inspired by an 18th century engraving of the blood circulatory system, which has been cut from black leather. The act of hand cutting leather traces the passage of blood as it circles the body. The webbed veins of the circulatory system are then draped over my body like a second skin. A surgical stainless steel device holds my mouth open, symbolically silencing while opening up the body as a passive receptacle, suggesting medicalisation of the body, hierarchies of classification and power. Aura attempts to make visible the transmission of social, cultural and political forces across the body.

Sunshine Coast Council acknowledges the Sunshine Coast Country, home of the Kabi Kabi peoples and the Jinibara peoples, the Traditional Custodians, whose lands and waters we all now share.
We commit to working in partnership with the Traditional Custodians and the broader First Nations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) community to support self-determination through economic and community development.
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