they're having a ball

Koo, deep in her thoughts, was carefully forming sentences to explain the origin of the magnet presented in her work. With sincerity and conviction, she described her first encounter with medicinal magnet and the impact it had on her as a patient and as an artist. Further conversations with people from various fields confirmed that although magnet and its effect were all around us, it was seldom given a throughout examination.

Koo reads Financial Times to keep up with what’s happening in the wider world.

“Would you like to sit down?” Koo inquired during the middle of her talk. She looked around her studio, which was bare and tidy with stacks of wooden boxes containing her work to be shipped soon to Berlin’s König Galerie for her upcoming show on the 24th November. One thing I noticed about Koo is that she was able to pick up nonverbal cues and be sensitive of others’ need. A trait she was born with or perhaps she acquired through many years of living abroad, mainly Paris and London; through speaking the unfamiliar languages and through living in different cultures.

Koo asked me not to post her work. So I’m posting her handy tool here. Koo’s installation often contains everyday objects.

She opened a couple of boxes, placed a painting on an electrical outlet. The painting was painted with magnet imbued paint. Magnet nuggets were positioned on the edge of the paintings with care. Koo moved them around, told us how the viewers could potentially interact with the art work and become a part of the art. When Koo moved on to explain another painting, I moved the largest piece of irregular shaped nugget from the edge of lower left corner to the centre. Koo saw. She casually and slowly walked back, while was still speaking, gently and deliberately placing the nugget back to its precise location two minutes ago.