Terence Koh

opening Saturday June 9 2007, 6 – 8 pm

de Pury & Luxembourg is proud to present GOD, a solo exhibition by Terence Koh (b. 1978, China).

With GOD, Koh expands his reflections on spirituality and myths by illuminating the theme of Christianity while inserting himself into one of the most iconic works of Western art history, Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper. The central work in the exhibition consists of a 1:1 scale of the Last Supper scenario. Koh has interpreted the disciples as skeletons casted in black wax as they feast on a double wax cast of Koh’s body. The artist has become the last supper itself. A colony of poisonous ants is embedded and living within the central figures of Jesus and the casts of Koh’s body - alluding to an interconnection between the artist, Christianity, and notions of a higher power, all the while infused with a tension and feel that can be properly characterized as sadomasochist and ritualistic.

Additional works in the exhibition include a forest of sculptures made of exact casts of Koh’s arms atop anthills, a room filled with paintings made in situ in utter darkness, in a trance-like state reached through intense meditation and reflection. The exhibition space has been entirely covered in giant rolls of black plastic sheets, transforming the gallery into a space reminiscent of a dark dungeon, unapologetically terrifying and electrifying.

For the opening reception, Koh will further transform the gallery with a performance in the form of a party. Thunderous drum n’ bass music, stroboscope lights and partygoers will fill the gallery, and the remnants will become part of the installation thereafter. The party itself will be documented and published in the catalogue produced on the occasion of GOD.

Since Koh’s first solo exhibition at Peres Projects, Los Angeles in May 2003, then working under the name of Asianpunkboy, he has become an internationally renowned artist via his signature works combining performance, sculpture, painting, artist books, video and photography. Koh’s works can be found in museum collections that include the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Tate Modern, London; and The Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg. In addition to his many solo exhibitions at Peres Projects, both in Los Angeles and Berlin, Koh has presented various performances and installations at the Asia Song Society (ASS), a project space/gallery he coowns with Javier Peres. Recent institutional solo exhibitions include Wiener Secession, Vienna (catalogue); the Zurich Kunsthalle, Zurich (catalogue), curated by Beatrix Ruff; and, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (catalogue), curated by Shamim Momin. Forthcoming solo museum exhibitions include Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, curated by Martina Weinhart; and The Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, curated by Norman Rosenthal. information and visual material

Jutta Nixdorf

Terence Koh
GOD