Lang Ea (born in Cambodia in 1974) is an international artist that works on political and social topics using mainly sculptures and installations, created from everyday life materials.
Inspired by the words of the British artist Rachel Whiteread “I don’t want to make plop art, sculpture that just gets plopped down in places.”, she tries to create not just standalone sculptures but, in fact, expansive works that respond to – or reflect – their environments.
Her work is strongly connected to the collective memory but also evolves from her personal narrative, especially from her childhood when her family had to leave Cambodia, after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime, and, after spending three years in various Thailand refugee camps, they moved to New Zeland.
Lang graduated at the Architecture and Design School at Victoria University in Wellington, NZ.
Lang took part to exhibitions located mainly in New Zeland, although recent exhibitions have taken her works internationally. Her recent exhibitions include: the artist recidency project of Redgate Gallery in occasion of the Independent Art Space Festival in Beijing, China; POP! Bang! KA –BOOM! in Victoria, Australia (2016) where she run as finalist for the 2016 Montalto Sculpture Prize; Broken Toys (2015) was selected for the Small Sculpture Award indoor exhibition at Lorne Sculpture Biennale 2016 in Melbourne, Australia; Listen II – Remains (2015), a site specific sculpture installation for Sculpture at Scenic World 2015 in the Blue Mountains, in Sydney, Australia; Listen (2014) a site specific sculpture installation for New Zeland Sculpture Onshore exhibition in Auckland; and Here We Remain (2014) a wall sculpture for the Legato exhibition at Casino in Italy.
She participated to the B#Side War Festival Vol II (2015-2016 edition) with the site specific installation Listen that she decided to place at the trenches of Stavoli dei Plans at Dogna, IT.
Her works are held in public and private collections, including the James Wallace Art Trust, and she arrived finalist in several awards, including the prestigious James Wallace Art Award.
She is currently based in Auckland, New Zealand.
ARTIST STATEMENT
As a multidisciplinary artist my work explores a variety of issues that affects our unstable contemporary age, drawing inspiration from my Cambodian origins, my works are commentaries on politics, consumer culture and the process of social perception, creating works to satisfy my psyche, a subconscious urge that comes from within… a lost memory from a childhood amid the complexity of war. I like to explore in the personal yet universal challenges of war, questioning the correlation between us and the horror and tragic consequences of war.
It is not my intention to make bold political or social statements in my Art work,
I am more interested in hinting the direction, inviting the viewers to a process of self-reflection that may lead to subvert a variety of usual, stereotypical cultural categories, to provoke direct relations in the viewer and accomplish the difficult task of going beyond the surface of communication by engaging and stimulating the social conscience.
One of the most convincing aspects of my approach is the way it accomplishes to create an unconventional and engaging narrative.
