IAN TEE

In his latest exhibition the artist taps into the titular story’s central conflict between Captain Ahab and Moby Dick as a means of reflecting on the symbol of the white whale. In common parlance, a white whale is a goal that one pursues obsessively but with little chance of success. In his new works, Tee explores the psychology of “the chase” and the sensation of being caught up in the euphoria of a moment, echoing the drama that unfolds across the plane of his aluminium paintings.

The Moby Dick works are an evolution of Tee’s earlier ‘Target Paintings’ (2019-), which extend the idea of the target from the bodily into the abstract. Continuing to incorporate materials from his lexicon such as target papers, comic strips, children’s books, prayer cards and reflecting tape, the collaged elements in Tee’s works are held together by bold swathes of colour and gestural splashes of paint. The deep cuts into its aluminium surface hold a new graphic quality, recalling the motion lines found in comics.

Tee’s engagement with Moby Dick marks a new trajectory in his practice where the artist collides notions of narrative with the experience of seeing, where formal distinctions between imagery and gesture collapse.