YUK KING TAN
Passerby
17 June - 15 July 2000
The centrepiece of Yuk King Tan's exhibition is a stainless steel trolley, modelled after the ubiquitous mobile food carts found in Asian markets, except that Tan's is a luxury designer version, made for travelling in style. It is as though the artist were making an analogy between herself as artist and humble street peddlers.
A sense of dollar shop chic pervades this show. Tan's New Line suits, tailored from the cheap plastic fabric used for making carry bags, are displayed on mannequins as though the latest thing. Tan also presents an array of melted plastic objects hung on display hooks, as though we might consider purchasing them. She describes the piece as "a simultaneous seductive invitation to the happy marketplace and literal meltdown of capitalist idealism."
In another room, Tan invites us to enjoy a personal jingle she commissioned from commercial composers Smith & Keats Music. Interpreting her requirements and translating her desires, they have come up with four jingles aimed at distinct audiences.
