Eugenia Lim (AU) Olfactory (2021)
Olfactory is one of a series of sculptural works by Eugenia Lim that address the financialization of time. Sleep is where rest and healing occur - but what if it is disrupted or potentially obliterated? From the migratory insomnia of Gamble's white-crowned sparrow to Amazon's world ecology, the series of works examines sleep as the final frontier of late capitalism. I Olfactory synthetic up and downers essential oils to endlessly augment and recalibrate the atmosphere and circadian rhythms of the gallery and its occupants. (translated from the artist's own description)
Plastic, Red Bull, water, sleeping pills from Amazon. 42x40x9cm.
Diurnal nocturnal (2021)
I Diurnal nocturnal two ready-made candles bought on Amazon project a Venn diagram of time - the 'always on/never off' space we know from the 24/7 time of our globalised, digitally connected capitalist world. (translated from the artist's own description)
LED lights purchased on Amazon.com. Dimensions vary.
Photos: Søren Rønholt
About the artist: Eugenia Lim is an Australian artist of Chinese-Singaporean descent who works across video, photography, performance and spatial practice to explore how national identities cut, divide and bond our interdependent world. An ongoing strand of practice considers work, collectivity, technology and ethics - and art and capital as strange bedfellows. Based on unceded lands in the Kulin Nation, Lim's work has shown at the Tate Modern, LOOP Barcelona, FIVA (Buenos Aires), Recontemporary (Turin), Kassel Dokfest, Museum of Contemporary Art (Syd), ACCA, Melbourne Festival, Next Wave, ACMI, FACT Liverpool and EXiS (Seoul). She has been artist-in-residence with the Experimental Television Centre (NY), Bundanon Trust, 4A Beijing Studio, Gertrude Contemporary, and was co-founder of Tape Projects and CHANNELS Festival, and co-directed APHIDS (2018-21). She counts amongst her 'art heroes': Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Tehching Hsieh, and Agnès Varda. (from the artist's own description)
www.eugenialim.com
@eugeniuslim
Australian Eugenia Lim is crowned winner of the Deep Forest Art Land 2022 award by this year's jury and co-founder of Deep Forest Art Land, Søren Taaning. The prize triggers the opportunity to create a site-specific work for the sculpture park in Kibæk in 2023. Eugenia Lim wins with the works Sleep no more (Zonotrichia leucophrys gambelii Taurine edition) (2021-2022), Olfactory (2021) and Diurnal nocturnal (2021).
"To know that my work-created in the depths of Melbourne, Australia's long lockdown-resonates at a global level, 16,000km away, is a sublime feeling. A Deep Forest feeling! I am honoured to have received the prize and look forward to visiting West Jutland."
- Eugenia Lim
On behalf of Deep Forest Art Land and this year's jury, Søren Taaning explains why Eugenia Lim is the winner of the award:
"Together with the jury, we have chosen Eugenia Lim, an Australian artist of Chinese/Singaporean origin. Eugenia works across video, photography, performance and sculpture. At first glance at the submitted works, you might not think her practice out in a forest. But given the original way she deals and relates to the world, people and situations, we are quite sure that she will understand how to use the very special context we and nature can offer."
See Eugenia's third work below and read the artist's credit below the image.
Sleep no more (Zonotrichia leucophrys gambelii Taurine edition) (2021-2022)
Cast from aluminium, Red Bull cans and ritalin (a prescription drug used to treat ADHD and sleep problems), Sleep No More seeks to elevate a migratory bird to the level of a contemporary spiritual icon. Each northern spring and fall, tens of thousands of Gambel's white-crowned sparrows migrate 4,000 miles between Alaska and California, flying by night and feeding by day for up to seven days at a time without sleeping. The sparrow (and the simultaneous state of always being on and never not being - like having a digital device on 'sleep mode') is an emblem of this work. (translated from the artist's own description)
Cast aluminum, melted and unmelted Red Bull cans, ritalin. 32x22x30cm.
Photo: Søren Rønholt
Credit (translated from the artist's own description)
This project is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, the country's arts funding and advisory body.
This work was conceived and created across the unceded territory of the eastern part of the Kulin nation, Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and Boon Wurrung. The artist acknowledges the sovereign, living culture of the Indigenous Peoples that connects community, landscape, water and sky here and far beyond this place. This has always been, and will always be, Aboriginal land.
Artist: Eugenia Lim
Cultural production: Julien Comer-Klein and Mark Friedlander
Metal fabrication and installation: Dale Holden
3D modelling and printing: Tony Yu and Melissa Iraheta (NExTlab)
Anonymous workers: Amazon global logistics and supply chain workers, global postal and freight couriers for various companies including UPS and Australia Post, Chinese factory workers
Thanks to: Sidsel Becker, Samantha Barrow, Philippa Griffin, Isabella Hemmersbach, Darcy Zelenko, Quino Holland, Mark Shorter, Amy Coombs and Hoda Afshar.