Red Spot Gallery - Rotorua Art Gallery supporting local artists
Susan K Louie
Susan K Louie – Glass Artist
In a world where identity is a constant debate, Susan Kim Louie takes a special place in New Zealand history and in particular for her role as a Chinese New Zealander. She exposes the past that has been bulldozed over by urbanisation. Long past is the family orientated market garden kept together by the determination and hard work of the parents, and the uncompromising workload of the children, who thoroughly understood the contribution of an individual to the collective family.
Decades later, Susan’s past bubbles up in her artistic expression using lead crystal glass through which the past beautifully reflects.
Within the Tairawhiti (Gisborne, East Coast, NZ) community Maori shared common values of working on the land and their mutual love of food. In acknowledgement of this intercultural relationship, Susan has used cultural metaphors from each side to bring the taniwha and dragon together.
The images are taken from the dining table, where the family huddled and ate simple yet flavoursome food. Or where her mother and sisters like generation before and after sat around chopping pork with two cleavers, stirring in the extra ingredients and folding the dumplings in home made rice flour pastry. These gow gee are then steamed and using chopsticks, dipped in soya sauce – experiencing the taste of the past and the present, and appreciating the taste that has been passed on through generations. When made in lead crystal glass, the visual image stimulates the memories that come flooding back to hearth and home, evoking smells and connections. They are mouth-watering moments.
Susan’s first solo exhibition ‘Memories of Sustenance’ was held at the Studio Gallery, Kingsland, Auckland in October 2005.
In October 2008 she exhibited at Tairawhiti Museum, Gisborne, East Coast, NZ (her home town) with her exhibition ‘Harvesting the Happy Heart’ made possible by a grant from the Chinese Poll Tax Heritage Trust.
Dr Professor Jack Richards purchased ‘The Bowl of Wealth’ (cast glass vessel) and gifted this to the museum for their permanent collection in November 2008.
Giles Peterson, Art Historian and Curator commented on Asia Downunder about Susan’s work as, “taking the object and giving it another cultural perspective”.
Susan has featured on Asia Downunder in 2006 as part of an interview of Asian Artists selected for Sculpture Onshore at Fort Takapuna, Auckland, NZ.
Following her success, Susan was asked to present at the Rising Dragons Soaring Bananas conference held in Auckland in July 2009, where she presented pecha kucha style (6 minutes, 20 images) in the session, ‘Visually Chinese’. She was interviewed about her life and works on Asia Downunder which featured on 26 July 2009.
Her work continues to be informed by her culture and her heritage as a chinese New Zealander.
She currently practices out of her studio in Pukekohe, Auckland.