LIE FHUNG
Lie Fhung was born in Jakarta, Indonesia in 1969 to a Chinese émigré father and a sixth-generation Chinese-Indonesian mother. As a child she showed such a prodigious talent for drawing that her parents arranged for classes with the painter Abdul Rachman, who later recommended her to study fine arts at the Bandung Institute of Technology in West Java. While at the institute Fhung developed a strong interest in ceramics and undertook studio classes with A.J. Irianto, whom she considers as an important mentor. She also had the opportunity to study with the dynamic painter and performance artist Tisna Sanjaya.
After graduating, Fhung found herself grappling with questions of artistic and cultural identity, which stymied her creative work. She left Indonesia to work as a designer in Shanghai and eventually settled in Hong Kong, where she began to work independently in digital media design. Like Tisna, Fhung’s engagement in activities beyond the pure scope of art helped her to forge a network of connectivity that has conversely inspired her art-making processes. Fhung describes herself as being interested ‘in tensions between the private and the public, between the individual and society, and between what lies beneath and what is shown on the surface.’ In her digital scrapbooking business, she was privileged to gain insight into the small visual histories that women, especially mothers, created for themselves and their families, and in her role as an artist she explored with them the question of what is hidden from these histories, an exploration that influenced her on-going multi-media project To Breed or Not to Breed (2005 -). A major installation of this period, Flight, embodies the delicate tactile sensibility that infuses much of her work. Comprised of pairs of small, porcelain wings, each suspended within a wire cage-frame without bars, it also symbolizes a key theme: that individual freedom, or its perceived lack, is ultimately dependent on one’s own state of mind. In her interactive installation Freedom is a Collaborative Effort, the wings are made from hand-embossed woven metal sheets, suspended from a tangled system of connected wires and manipulated by single pulls attached to each one. To set freedom in motion, all one has to do is make the effort to reach out and pull. In her Hidden Growth series, she explores female bodies - or rather, the unseen beneath them and the passage of time implied. Growth - as in constructive developments and as in destructive diseases, their progression and their often mysterious or clandestine nature are some of the occupying thoughts in this series of works.
website: http://art.liefhung.com
RECENT ACHIEVEMENTS & EXHIBITIONS
2012
‘Crisscross’ Group Exhibition at Sin Sin Fine Art, Hong Kong.
‘Earthly Evocations: Indonesian Art Now’ Group Exhibition for HK ArtFair 2012 at Sin Sin Fine Art, Hong Kong.
2011
‘La Composition Séduisante’ Group Exhibition at Edwin’s Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia.
‘Motion/Sensation’ Indonesian Kinetic Art Exhibition at Edwin’s Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia.
2010
‘Hidden Dreams’ Group Exhibition at Mischmasch Gallery, Hong Kong.
2009
‘Jakarta Contemporary Ceramic Biennale 2009’ at North Art Space, Ancol, Jakarta, Indonesia.
‘Corporeal Dream’ Solo Exhibition at SIGIarts Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia.
‘flight’ was featured in the book ‘Contemporary Ceramics’ by Emmanuel Cooper, Thames & Hudson, 2009.
‘GirlTalk UnEdited’ Group Exhibition of Seven Women Artists at Linggar Seni Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia.
‘Latitudes in Transit: Indonesian and Mexican Women Artists’ Group Exhibition held by the Embassy of Mexico at The National Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia.
2008
‘Hello Print’ Group Exhibition at Edwin’s Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia.
‘Sincere Subjects’ Group Exhibition for the opening of SIGIarts Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia.
‘Work In Progress’ Exhibition at the Red Mill Gallery, Vermont, U.S.A.
Recipient of the Freeman Fellowship Award for an 8-week artist residency at Vermont Studio Center, U.S.A.
2007
‘flight’ is selected for CEBIKO, 4th World Ceramic Biennale, Korea as one of the two representatives from Indonesia. On exhibit from April 28th – June 28th 2007, it is now part of the World Ceramic Foundation’s permanent collection.
2005
Solo Exhibition ‘flight’ at the CP artspace, Jakarta.
Joint exhibition ‘Exodus Barang’', celebrating Nadi Gallery's new exhibition space in Jakarta. Featuring non-ceramic works (in collaboration with Ace Hardware): ‘unshelving’ and ‘self-exiled’.
2004
Participated in 'The Young Indonesian Ceramic Artists', a national ceramic exhibition at the National Gallery of Indonesia, in Jakarta. Featuring new work titled ‘pre-flight’.
PUBLICATIONS
2011 : ‘What I Wish For You’ by Patti Digh, The Globe Pequot Press
2010 : ‘Four Word Self Help’ by Patti Digh, The Globe Pequot Press
2009 : ‘Contemporary Ceramics’ by Emmanuel Cooper, Thames and Hudson
2008 : ‘Life is A Verb’ by Patti Digh, The Globe Pequot Press
Media articles and reviews can be accessed from http://art.liefhung.com/fhungpublications.html
EDUCATION BACKGROUND
1994 : Graduated from Institute Technology of Bandung (ITB), Bachelor of Fine Art, Major in Ceramics, Bandung, Indonesia.
