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Neon Parc acknowledges the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and Bunurong Boon Wurrung as the Traditional Owners and sovereign custodians of the Country on which we operate. We pay our deepest respects to their Elders past and present. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.

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Spencer Lai
‘Let us be silent so that we may hear the whisper of God ...’
Brunswick
15 Jul.–12 Aug.
2023

Neon Parc is pleased to present ‘Let us be silent so that we may hear the whisper of God: strained tremors of life rise from dark billows of muteness as a modern wind soars beneath engineered wings’, a major solo exhibition by Spencer Lai in the Brunswick Gallery. For the artist’s second solo exhibition with Neon Parc, Lai presents a suite of intricate drawings, felt paintings, sculptural forms, assemblages and found objects, along with a series of collaborative photographic works with artist Tim Hardy.

Lai’s artistic practice draws inspiration from encounters in urban environments, such as walking, shopping and salvaging. These everyday moments guide their creative approach, allowing them to gather materials from their immediate surroundings and extract imagery, symbols, and language associated with consumer culture.

Simplistic materials, such as synthetic felt, balsa wood and fabric are juxtaposed with ornate antiquities and Asian artefacts, challenging preconceptions of value, taste, and artistic production. This oscillation between ornamentation, pure form and hard-edge abstraction is a continuing presence in their work. The tone and register of Lai’s works shift depending on material compositions: some are passive or open, contemplative, divine, direct and minimal, flowery, austere, banal, beautiful or abject.

Included in the exhibition is ‘We are Shaped by the Hands of Many’ (2023), a photographic series made in collaboration with Tim Hardy, which features photographed subjects from the artists’ personal and professional lives: fellow artists, former teachers and classmates, friends and partners. Drawing influence from source materials including the Judson Dance Theatre, the sexual liberation movement, Freudian psychology, fashion photography and cinema, the images are set in community halls, universities and middle-upper class neighbourhoods. By interweaving personal and historical subject matter, this series provides a complex and non-linear narrative of youth, power dynamics, freedom, creativity, sexuality and spirituality.

Artworks
(34)
Exhibitions (3)
Biography Spencer Lai

Spencer Lai (b. 1991 Sarawak, Malaysia) is a Naarm/Melbourne based artist interested in the impact of consumerism, cultural objects, and ephemera on identity. Their work engages with a range of artistic mediums, including sculptural compositions, installation and expanded paintings to explore connections between design, education, desire, and the self.

Spencer Lai graduated from Honours at the Victorian College of the Arts in 2014. Working across multiple forms and formats, including sculpture, installation, curation, writing, drawing, Lai’s practice produces associative meaning from a range of accumulated materials that are worked into assemblages, expanded paintings and installations. These materials often include text, found objects, design elements or images from consumer cultures, lifted from thrift stores, replicated, or traced or by chance encounters.

Spencer Lai has exhibited extensively in Australia and internationally. Recent solo exhibitions include ‘Academy for the Sensitive Arts’, Theta, New York, 2022; ‘A Patience Game’ with Jürgen Baumann, Holden Garage, Berlin, 2022; ‘Oriental Painting.’, Neon Parc, Melbourne, 2022; ‘Comfort the Afflicted’, Envy, Wellington, 2022; ‘The body speaks before it even talks’, 99%, Melbourne, 2022; ‘Huddling, friends with thermal benefits’, Cool Change Contemporary, Perth, 2022; ‘buddhaminefield’, Ge Hinnom Small Group Love, South London, 2021; ‘Improvements and Reproductions’, West Space, Melbourne, 2020; and ‘Air becomes metallic scented as anger is emitted, a bounding animal halts as blood in crimson unfurls in still waterhole’, Kimberly-Klark, New York, 2018.

Spencer Lai’s works are held in private collections in Australia and the United States.

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Spencer Lai, ‘Entropic Peace Construction’, 2022–23. Antique textile sampler by unknown maker (N.D), pencil on paper, foam board, epoxy and acrylic spray paint, adhesive, acrylic frame, 53.5 x 71 cm.
Spencer Lai, ‘Form: egg (watermelon’), 2022. Powder coated steel, foam core, acrylic spray paint, rubberised spray paint, synthetic felt, beads, sequins, 68.5 x 47 cm.
Spencer Lai and Tim Hardy, ‘System (Desire Activity)’, 2023. Chromogenic print, custom blackwood frame, 65 x 65 cm. Edition of 3 + 2 AP.
Spencer Lai and Tim Hardy, ‘Scenario (Tutorial)’, 2023. Chromogenic print, custom blackwood frame, 65 x 65 cm. Edition of 3 + 2 AP.
Spencer Lai and Tim Hardy, ‘Song for Tom’, 2023. Chromogenic print, custom blackwood frame, 65 x 65 cm. Edition of 3 + 2 AP.
Spencer Lai and Tim Hardy, ‘Rehearsal (Formation of a Soul)’, 2023. Chromogenic print, custom blackwood frame, 65 x 65 cm. Edition of 3 + 2 AP.
Spencer Lai and Tim Hardy, ‘Figures’, 2023. Chromogenic print, custom blackwood frame, 65 x 65 cm. Edition of 3 + 2 AP.
Spencer Lai and Tim Hardy, ‘We are Shaped by the Hands of Many’, 2023. Chromogenic print, custom blackwood frame, 65 x 65 cm. Edition of 3 + 2 AP.
Spencer Lai, ‘Compartmentalisation aid II’, 2022–23. Bed sheet, high density foam, muslin, sequins, antique glass beads, plastic beads, thread, vegetable oil, graphite, resin, bolts, plastic, bolts, wooden board, 41 x 51 x 6 cm.
Spencer Lai, ‘Stratagem for non-verbal reformation’, 2023. Cotton, silk organza, acrylic resin, glow in the dark pigment, thread, breads, sequins, antique gelatin puff sequins, bells, buttons, stingray pelt, dragonfly, wood, adhesive, 92.5 x 78 cm.
Spencer Lai, ‘Ensnared Fortitude Construction’, 2022–23. Antique textile sampler by Nancy Grinnell (1799) , pencil on paper, foam board, epoxy and acrylic spray paint, adhesive, acrylic frame, 51 x 53 cm.
Spencer Lai, ‘Untitled’, 2023. Pencil on paper, found and altered Asian frame, 42.5 x 42.5 cm.
Spencer Lai, ‘Untitled’, 2023. Pencil on paper, found and altered Asian frame, 42.5 x 42.5 cm.
Spencer Lai, ‘Impulse’, 2023. Synthetic felt, adhesive, acrylic frame, 126.5 x 194 cm.
Spencer Lai, ‘Crushing, spit’, 2022. Synthetic felt, adhesive, 140 x 69.5 cm (irregular).
Spencer Lai, ‘Thoughtless, rendered in flesh’, 2022. Synthetic felt, adhesive, 144 x 64.5 cm (irregular).
Spencer Lai, ‘Reincarnation’, 2022. Synthetic felt, adhesive, 156 x 72 cm (irregular).
Spencer Lai, ‘Form: egg (yellow)’, 2022. Powder coated steel, foam core, acrylic spray paint, rubberised spray paint, synthetic felt, beads, feather, 68.5 x 47 cm.
Spencer Lai, ‘Form: egg (grass green)’, 2022. Powder coated steel, foam core, acrylic spray paint, rubberised spray paint, synthetic felt, beads, 68.5 x 47 cm.
Spencer Lai, ‘Form: egg (rust)’, 2022. Powder coated steel, foam core, acrylic spray paint, rubberised spray paint, synthetic felt, beads, 68.5 x 47 cm.
Spencer Lai, ‘Form: snowflake I’, 2022. Powder coated steel, foam core, acrylic spray paint, rubberised spray paint, synthetic felt, beads, 49 x 49 cm.
Spencer Lai, ‘Form: snowflake II’, 2022. Powder coated steel, foam core, acrylic spray paint, rubberised spray paint, synthetic felt, beads, 49 x 49 cm.
Spencer Lai, ‘Mantra Device (In trembling domiciles we rest risen by the sound of the Bird-Machine)’, 2023. Foamcore, spray paint, graphite, beads, pearls, antique gelatin sequins, lab-grown gemstones, sternocera aequisignata beetle forewings, adhesive, powder coated steel, 107 x 85 x 3 cm (irregular).
Spencer Lai, ‘Form’, 2022. Resin, spray paint, 51 x 21 x 15 cm.
Spencer Lai, ‘Form’, 2022. Resin, spray paint, 37 x 14 x 11 cm.
Spencer Lai, ‘Form’, 2022. Resin, spray paint, 30.5 x 14 x 11 cm
Spencer Lai, ‘Form’, 2022. Resin, spray paint, 23 x 12 x 12 cm.
Spencer Lai, ‘Sound in head dissipates with sweet impulsiveness brought protected from broken modern wind born again to completely new life’, 2023. Foamcore, spray paint, graphite, beads, pearls, antique gelatin sequins, lab-grown gemstones, sternocera aequisignata beetle forewings, adhesive, powder coated steel, 87.5 x 93.5 x 3 cm (irregular).
Spencer Lai, ‘Presentation of Transitional Phenomena: Regression in Service of the Self (Forms)’, 2023. Wood, various components, 120 x 300 x 600 cm.
Spencer Lai, ‘Untitled’, 2023. Goatskin vellum, India ink, glitter, varnish, upholstery nails, acrylic spray paint, wooden board, 15 x 15 cm.
Spencer Lai, ‘Untitled’, 2023. Goatskin vellum, India ink, glitter, varnish, upholstery nails, IKEA shelf, 90 x 17 cm.
Spencer Lai, ‘Tract’, 2023. Foam core, acrylic and epoxy spray paint, beads, lab-grown gemstones, bells, adhesive, 21.5 x 230 cm.
Spencer Lai, ‘Born From a Wish’, 2023. Vintage plastic swan, mother’s Christmas ornaments, steel cabinet, Thai votive amulet, vintage Bergdala art glass figure, toy component, plinth. Dimensions variable.