Susan Pui San Lok

detail of Monumental Bargain—

» A tower of T-shirts bears the legend ‘SPSL’ – authentication of the artist, by the artist, witness and monument to the transformation of an historical event (the 1997 Hong Kong handover) to memorabilia and cultural souvenir. «

Susan describes herself as a »British (-born-girl-woman-) subject who speaks in a Chinese-inflected-English, an Essex-accented-Cantonese.« Her work examines the idea’s of ‘British-ness’, ‘Chinese-ness’, ‘femininity’, and ‘ethnicity’, and her own personal experiences of playing the continual ‘foreigner’.

Her work, Monumental Bargain consists of a tower of T-shirts bearing the logo ‘SPSL’ (authentication by the artist). These mock souvenirs represent the overlap of interconnected cultural clichés that appeal to Hong Kong, China and Chinese in Britain. These authentic fake souvenir’s are inspired by the widespread phenomenon of fake brands, which are worn with as much pride as the ‘genuine’ article. They are a monument to the conveyance of historical event to memorabilia and cultural souvenir. This work is a comment on the hand-over as an event to be consumed and the proliferation of souvenirs encountered in recognition of something that was yet to happen. What do these labels say about identity and culture? What do they authenticate if they are expressly inauthentic?

@ Artist's Website #1

@ Artist's Website # 2

»»»

.-°-.