In the allegory of Plato's cave, the shadows on the wall that form perceived reality are of Dog and Butterfly. Dog and Butterfly are also the easiest shadow puppets that we make when we first play with light. They are forms that we create when we craft imaginary double worlds to play in.
Mike HJ Chang’s Dog and Butterfly is a shadow double of an artist studio. It is a metaphor that represents Chang’s working practice, reflecting the ways in which he thinks through art making and the world he lives in beyond the studio. Architecturally engineered to enable a series of optical mechanisms, moving through the installation re-forms our perspectives and complicates our positions as viewers. We become viewers only when the art work is clearly envisioned.
Dog and Butterfly is Mike HJ Chang’s first solo exhibition in Singapore.
The exhibition is at Yeo Workshop, runs from September 18th to November 1st, 2015
Exhibition review by Bruce Quek for TODAY.
