A&E
Drawing and text collage on board (70cm x 33cm)
Artist: Lily Cheung
Cheung’s piece draws on the experience of falling during her birthday party. Landing on her face, and losing one of her teeth, Cheung wakes to find her facial features have taken on a life of their own. Recalling Shostakovich’s The Nose, where the protagonist wakes to find his nose living independent of his face and referencing A&E visits and Snellen charts, Cheung’s work recollects the facts of her accident. Cheung’s swollen facial features float within a stark background, representative both of the white-noise of Cheung’s disorientation and the harsh bright light of the optometrist’s office. Rearranged and situated in some estranged limbo, her features seem momentarily to take on new meaning, before self-reflection and remembrance begin to reconnect these once disparate parts.
Nadia Cheung 