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The Wheels of Fortune
Friday, 3 February 2023
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A conceptual, interactive art installation by Tym Yee (OKG07) is now on display at The Concourse as part of Willoughby Council’s Year of the Rabbit Festival. Titled The Wheels of Fortune, Tym’s artwork was inspired by his cultural lineage and family migration journey to Australia. It builds upon a prototype Tym created during his PhD research. As the photo shows, the artwork has five spinning discs sitting on a transparent ballot box. “People can spin these discs and generate a random code, which can be seen through a viewfinder. You’re asked to decode this to generate a random migration story,” Tym explains. “They’re then asked to vote ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to the question, ‘would you take this journey to Australia?” “Some of the stories are humorous, some are sad and silly. For example, ‘I left home at 18, travelling with my grandma. When I arrived all my possessions were stolen, then I became an Uber Driver.’ No matter what story is generated, it’s likely someone has taken a journey exactly or very much like it.” Tym, who was born in Australia to migrant parents, hopes his installation will create empathy around migration stories, prompt critical reflection and provide an indication of how the community values the difficulty and risks of travelling here. “I really identified with this third cultural space [the theme of Willoughby’s Inner Edge Drifting exhibition]. It can be difficult to articulate, and this exhibition presented a really interesting opportunity to explore that. Personally, Tym has come to realise his own good fortune, and that his Knox education is an affordance of past sacrifices and courageous decisions of his ancestors. The opportunity for Tym to exhibit his installation came about after he sent the curator, Cassandra Hard Lawrie, some of the prototypes from his PhD. The original inspiration to create art works prompting critical questions came from his experience of undertaking a summer internship at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society (Harvard University). As part of the festival, Tym is also leading a workshop, “Art Decoder and the Migration Story” at Chatswood Library on 4 Febuary, where he will help participants explore their personal stories through experimental art making. Details here. His next exhibition will be at the Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf in May, which will involve a similar interactive installation. Prior to this conceptually-driven work, Tym – whose greatest regret from his school days is not taking art in the HSC – was mostly focused on painting. When he’s not making art, Tym works at the Foxtel Group as a Talent Marketing Manager. He holds a Bachelor of Media Studies and his Masters of Research explored podcasting. Read more about the Inner Edge Drifting Exhibition on the Willoughby Council's website. Photo supplied Date posted: 3 February 2023 |