Ed Pien
The Pursuit, 2014
aquarelle sur film réfléchissant #3M découpé sur papier shoji, encre et aquarelle au dos du papier /
watercolour on cut out #3M reflective film on shoji paper, ink and watercolour on back paper
watercolour on cut out #3M reflective film on shoji paper, ink and watercolour on back paper
35 7/8 x 47 1/4 "
91 x 120 cm
91 x 120 cm
Copyright The Artist
$ 16,500
'The Pursuit is a hand-cut work on 3M reflective film, with hand-tinted shoji paper beneath it. The image draws on two completely separate sources. The first is the high-tension wires...
"The Pursuit is a hand-cut work on 3M reflective film, with hand-tinted shoji paper beneath it. The image draws on two completely separate sources. The first is the high-tension wires and structures associated with transformer stations, where a sense of danger and potential harm is always present. The 3M film has been left uncoloured to evoke the metallic quality of these electrical installations.
The second source comes from the psychological and emotional world of Alfred Hitchcock’s films. Two figures appear within the composition. What brought them there in the first place? Is the male figure pursuing the female figure, or are both attempting to evade something or someone else? The dense surrounding structures create a maze-like space that heightens the sense of confinement, precarity, and vulnerability for both. As in Hitchcock, the tension lies in what is implied rather than revealed, leaving the viewer to construct the narrative." – EP
Ed Pien is a Taiwanese-born Canadian artist who has exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally, including at the Drawing Centre, NYC; the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; The Canadian Culture Centre in Paris; The Goethe Institute in Berlin; The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria; The Art Gallery of Ontario; Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal; Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal; Songzhuang Art Centre, Beijing; the National Art Gallery of Canada; Oboro and Musée d’art de Rouyn-Noranda. He has participated in the 2000 and 2002 Montreal Biennales; the 18th Edition of the Sydney Biennale, “Oh Canada”, at MASS MoCA. Pien also presented work at the Moscow Biennale (2013), the Beijing International Art Biennale (2015), the Curitiba Biennale (2017), the Biennale Internacional de Asunción (2020), and the Havana Biennale (2024). The solo exhibition Present: Past/Future, which premiered at The AGO (Toronto) in 2022-2023, is touring and will be shown at Art Windsor-Essex (Windsor) in 2027. His work can be found in numerous public institutions, including the National Gallery of Canada, Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal; Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal; Musée d’art de Joliette, The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and The Art Gallery of Ontario.
The second source comes from the psychological and emotional world of Alfred Hitchcock’s films. Two figures appear within the composition. What brought them there in the first place? Is the male figure pursuing the female figure, or are both attempting to evade something or someone else? The dense surrounding structures create a maze-like space that heightens the sense of confinement, precarity, and vulnerability for both. As in Hitchcock, the tension lies in what is implied rather than revealed, leaving the viewer to construct the narrative." – EP
Ed Pien is a Taiwanese-born Canadian artist who has exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally, including at the Drawing Centre, NYC; the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; The Canadian Culture Centre in Paris; The Goethe Institute in Berlin; The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria; The Art Gallery of Ontario; Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal; Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal; Songzhuang Art Centre, Beijing; the National Art Gallery of Canada; Oboro and Musée d’art de Rouyn-Noranda. He has participated in the 2000 and 2002 Montreal Biennales; the 18th Edition of the Sydney Biennale, “Oh Canada”, at MASS MoCA. Pien also presented work at the Moscow Biennale (2013), the Beijing International Art Biennale (2015), the Curitiba Biennale (2017), the Biennale Internacional de Asunción (2020), and the Havana Biennale (2024). The solo exhibition Present: Past/Future, which premiered at The AGO (Toronto) in 2022-2023, is touring and will be shown at Art Windsor-Essex (Windsor) in 2027. His work can be found in numerous public institutions, including the National Gallery of Canada, Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal; Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal; Musée d’art de Joliette, The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and The Art Gallery of Ontario.