Shed your skin and embrace the Year of the Snake
Brisbane artist Elysha Rei celebrates her Japanese heritage and the Year of the Snake with a stunning new public artwork on display at the swish Brisbane Quarter precinct.
Snakes get bad press but a major public artwork by Elysha Rei might change all that. After all, it is the Year of the Snake on the Asian lunar calendar.
To celebrate, Brisbane artist Rei, who has a solid track record of private and public work, has created a snake that is 25 metres long.
(Seijaku): Serenity, on display until March 8, spirals between levels down to Podium 1 of the swish Brisbane Quarter precinct at 300 George Street in Brisbane’s CBD. The quarter is home to, among other things, the luxury five-star W Brisbane hotel.
With its shimmering gold hue and large-scale form, Rei’s paper-cut snake captured in repose reflects transformation, inviting visitors to shed their skins (figuratively speaking) and embrace the year ahead.
Rei’s giant snake (an Australian tree snake embodying the Wood Snake Lunar New Year) is all the more impressive when you hear how it was handmade by the artist using a painstaking process.
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“I was able to use a lovely big Metro Arts studio, the substation at Norman Park,” Rei says. “I started at the end of November and had to finish it, paint it and install by January 22. It was rolled up for transporting.”
She admits she was more “site foreman” when it came to the installation as she worked with a team she has collaborated with previously for her public art. But she certainly did all the hard work creating the piece, cutting it out sitting on the floor.
Created from a single sheet of paper, (Siejaku): Serenity is Rei’s largest work to date and celebrates 20 years of practice for the 38-year-old artist and mum (she has two children) and 10 years in Brisbane. Her work explores narratives of cultural identity, site-specific history and environmental elements. She has worked internationally, including in Thailand where she spent some of her younger years.
This current work very much celebrates her Japanese heritage, its culture and art (which often uses paper), passed down through a Japanese grandmother.
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We mostly know this Lunar New Year as Chinese New Year, but it is also marked in other Asian countries including Korea and Japan. Rei says the Japanese title of the work, meaning serenity or stillness, “evokes the tranquil beauty of the snake at rest, embodying transformation in stillness, inviting the viewer to take a moment to contemplate the year ahead”.
Scale your eyes over the serpent and contemplate the future
“Hand cut in gold-painted paper, the serpent’s form meanders towards the viewer, representing renewal and transformation connected to the Lunar New Year horoscope of the snake,” Rei says. “I hope this installation will invite viewers to embrace a moment of contemplation as they scale their eyes over the details of the serpent, thinking about the transformation of their year ahead.”
The work also celebrates the 11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, currently showing at the Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art. It was commissioned by the owners of Brisbane Quarter, Shayer Group, which is also a major partner of QAGOMA.
Art lovers are invited to complement their cultural experience with special dishes and beverages at select onsite restaurants on Podium 2. An indulgent night at W Brisbane would be a nice way to cap it all off.
You can celebrate Lunar New Year with Cantonese Chinese cuisine at Brisbane Phoenix, sample Japanese sushi and sashimi at Tenya, tempt your tastebuds with Phat Boy’s flavoursome Thai and savour stunning riverside views with a handcrafted cocktail and dessert at Persone.
You could also experience an immersive weekend of art and culture with an overnight or longer stay at W Brisbane, taking in the (Seijaku): Serenity installation and APT11 just across the river.