DARREN TANNY TAN
Ambrose
Archival pigment print, framed
137.5 x 110 cm
2018
$2800 framed 1/8
Working in an expanded field of photography, Darren Tanny Tan’s practice centers on his interest in corporeality as the image for mental phenomena. His work reflects, through the presence of the body and the evocation of the natural world, imperceptible forces that plague human existence. Often contrived through unorthodox image-making processes where destructive impulses are sublimated, surfaces are attrited and deconstructed to a point of dissolution. Through this antithetical process of creation by means of destruction, his work reveals a morass of dread and desire intrinsic to human life.
slew
Treated pig skin, photographic chemicals, acrylic, nails, string, charcoal, wood
120 x 90 cm
2019
$ P.O.A
The photographic works of Ambrose and Hollow sustain a meditation on the body’s vulnerability to suffering. Through a haptic manipulation of photographic material, bodies are defaced and rendered into phantasmagoric figures that reflect deeper psychical states. Extending his interest in bodily material, Slew emanates from the curious relationship between humans and pigs, and the latter’s religious connotations. Working from its primordial state, pig skin is transformed, through an alchemical process, into a kind of curio—lacerated membrane absented from its body.
Hollow
Archival pigment print, framed
137.5 x 110 cm
2018
$2800 framed 1/8
Darren was born in Singapore (1991) and is currently based in Melbourne, Australia. He completed a Bachelor of Design (Communication Design) at RMIT University and a Bachelor of Photography at Photography Studies College. As an emerging artist, his work has been exhibited both locally and internationally and has been showcased in several major prizes across Australia, including the Bowness Photography Prize and the Olive Cotton Award.