Lol, 2018

Hong Kong 2018
Lol

ShanghART Gallery

Sculpture
Concrete, steel, cable ties, plastic, books
1
215.0 x 95.0 x 65.0 （厘米）
84.6 x 37.4 x 25.6 （吋）
Michael Dean, whose works start with his writings, has adopted multiple materials which construct the character and concrete syntax of public spaces to create a range of works. Those reinforcement bars, paperbacks, V sign etc. together consist of artist’s language as words and letters. Analogue LOL series focuses on the recent proliferation and prominence of pictorial language and the text-based communication of emotion via our digital devices, and explores how the ambiguity of these has enabled them to take on a range of culturally specific meanings and spaces beyond their intended use. The evolution of the acronym LOL (laughing out loud) and the emoji????, which is defined between picture and word, has started and diversified the time of emoticons. Interpreted by Dean’s works, the emoji itself is a unique blend of communication constructed by recomposing words into a type of sculpted articulation.