Live Performance: Ebb is to flow as wax is to wane by Liang-Jung Chen and Céline HyunJin Barreau
Saturday 15th February 2025 , 2:00pm to 4:00pm
An exclusive live durational performance by Liang-Jung Chen to activate Ebb is to flow as wax is to wane (2023), her in-situ beeswax installation in collaboration with dance artist Céline HyunJin Barreau.
One of only two chances to see Chen’s candle installation lit in the space, she invites the audience to witness its disappearance as a way to celebrate the effort we put into our everyday life and embrace the transience of our existence.
Bow Arts’ East London Art Prize celebrates the talent and diversity of art made in east London. This exhibition will present 12 incredible artworks shortlisted for the second iteration of the Prize. Read more about the exhibition here.
Liang-Jung Chen’s shortlisted work Ebb is to flow as wax is to wane (2023) is an in-situ beeswax installation created by Liang during a two-month residency in Xenia Creative Retreat. The installation is an exploration on labour-intensity and its futility, inspired by Chen’s personal experience of working in cleaning and her obsession over candles. During its installation, the candles are drip-shaped on suspended wicks, burnt down to the wick, crafted once again from the pooled wax, then burnt again, in a repetitive cycle that mirrors that of the endless and mundane nature of labour.
‘Every morning, I would drip the wax strips and let them solidify in the afternoon. At dusk, I would light up the candle structure and observe how they behave. I go to bed when the wax strips are completely burnt. When the sun rises the next day, I craft new candles in a more refined manner, and I see them burn down again at night. This routine is almost identical to when I was cleaning the Airbnb rooms. My labour evaporated into the air. Nothing is left. Day after day.’
Yet Chen’s installation brings a quiet and haunting beauty to these symbols of futility. There is adaptation, as the work changes to fit each space in which it’s installed, and resilience as each candle renews once more after it has burnt out. For the Nunnery’s installation, Chen will work with composers and choreographers to put on live durational performances of the installation, inviting the audience to witness its disappearance.
The performance will take place between 2-4pm in the Nunnery Gallery.
The Nunnery Café will be open for the duration of the event, selling drinks and a range of tasty snacks and refreshments.
The development of Chen’s live performance is supported by The National Culture and Arts Foundation of Taiwan.
More about Liang-Jung Chen
Liang-Jung Chen is an interdisciplinary artist working across drawing, object, installation and performance. Her practice is deeply informed by material culture in anthropological study which leads her to investigate the usage, consumption, creation and trade of artefacts, as well as the behaviours, norms and rituals associated with them. Intrigued by tensions embedded in everyday scenarios, each series of her work scrutinises a specific interaction between a daily object and its user.
Chen is an associate lecturer at Chelsea College of Arts. She also runs ii (initial initiatives), a design and research-driven creative practice, and hardware archive, a virtual home to a random selection of household hardware items found online and around the world. Selected exhibitions include Regarding the Retractability of Boundaries, V&A, London (2024); Have you had breakfast yet? Hweg, Cornwall (2024); On Tenderness and Time, Daniel Katz Gallery, London (2024); Minus20degree Biennale, Flachau (2024); Plus20degree, Galerie Im Traklhaus, Salzburg (2024); Playing House, Hudson Wilder, New York (2023; The Spout and its Churn Rate, Tangent Projects, Barcelona (2022); Local Ware: cooking edition, Oros, Marseille (2021); The egg rack made a disclaimer 2.0, Now Space, Taipei (2021); The egg rack made a disclaimer 1.0, Error22, Tainan (2020); 1 two 1 two, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2020); The Misused 3.0, Coal Drops Yard, London (2020); The Misused 2.0, Taiwan Design Research Institute, Taipei (2020); The Misused 2.0, Piet Hein Eek, Eindhoven (2019).
More about Céline HyunJin Barreau
Céline HyunJin Barreau is a dance artist specialising in contemporary improvisation methods. Her practice revolves around making dance and performance accessible to everybody and the ongoing research of the sensing body in the creation of real time compositional scores.
Access information
The Nunnery Gallery and Café have step-free access throughout from street level, including to the accessible toilet, and is service animal friendly. This venue does not have a hearing loop system. Accessible parking is not available on-site.
If you have any questions regarding accessibility at this venue or event, would like to make us aware of any access requirements that you have in advance of visiting, or would like this information in an alternate format including Easy Read, please email nunnery@bowarts.com or call 020 8980 7774 (Ext. 3)
Access requirements could include things like providing equipment, services or support (e.g. information in Easy Read, speech to text software, additional 1:1 support), adjusting workshop timings (e.g. more break times), adjustments to the event space (e.g. making sure you have a table near the entrance) or anything else you can think of!
Transport Information
Nearest station(s): Bow Road (District and Hammersmith and City lines) is a 6-minute walk away, and Bow Church (DLR) is a 3-minute walk away. Bus: 205, 25, 425, A8, D8, 108, 276, 488 and 8 all service the surrounding area. Bike: Bicycle parking is located at Bow Church Station. The nearest Santander Cycles docking station is at Bow Church Station.
Address: Nunnery Gallery, 181 Bow Road, London, E3 2SJ
Opening hours: Tues-Sun, 10am to 4pm
Read more about the East London Art Prize
East London Art Prize
The East London Art Prize celebrates and promotes the incredible talent and diversity of art made in the cultural hive of east London.
