Present. Tense: Huy Lam and Rod Mireau
United Contemporary is excited to present an exhibition of new work by artists Huy Lam and Rod Mireau. Working through sculptural approaches and works on paper, both artists embrace the use of existing materials, hands-on processes, and the possibilities of material problem-solving, as a meditative response to the tensions and chaos of contemporary life.
Toronto-based and Vietnamese-born artist Huy Lam’s finely balanced sculptures are formally inspired by memories of traditional weighing scales found in Chinese medicinal shops, and conceptually informed by his daily meditation practice. As a self-taught wood and metal-worker, his practice is shaped by intuitive material exploration and an appetite to explore different working methods, combined with the limitation of working with readily available scrap materials and industrial offcuts. Through his mindful approach and attention to detail, these materials are reshaped, refined, and combined into linear sculptural compositions, and minimal paper collages.
While Lam’s sculptures have an aesthetic ease and elegance, they are born of a response to global tensions. A recurring motif in his new work is the “drop”, representing his grief and frustration at recurring cycles of human suffering and violence. Lam channels this emotional response into his working discipline, transferring it instead into patience and determination to overcome engineering quandaries and opposing material qualities, to create works where tension is transformative, and even beautiful.
Rod Mireau’s practice explores tensions between the natural world and the industrial, informed by his upbringing in Saskatchewan, and the enduring memory of abandoned farm equipment embedded within and overgrown by the landscape. Using elemental materials such as reclaimed wood, metal, and charcoal grit that are imbued with their own sense of transformation and history, Mireau’s process combines practical engineering with dreamlike creativity.
Several large wall sculptures in this exhibition mark a departure from previous work to incorporate representational elements and landscapes. Although rooted in memory, Mireau’s compositions are largely imagined and instinctively constructed, using recognisable geological forms to conjure spaces that feel familiar but are outside of specific time or place. This notion of worldbuilding is important. The fragmentary make-up of Mireau’s work, whether figurative or abstract, suggests both building and dismantling, archaeology and memory. Through his material explorations he finds new possibilities and creates a transitional space, where the organic meets the mechanical, and alternative worlds can be formed.
