Amy Leung Fine Artist
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About
Amy is a London based artist working across sculpture, drawing and workshops to explore the articulation and communication of joy. As an arts educator, she is interested in the intersections in which community, craft, objects and cultural identity meet. Material exploration and working collaboratively is key to her practice, with ideas coming about through making together. She is part of Narration Group, a collective of women and non binary artists, curators and academics who meet fortnightly at SLG and is currently studying for an MA Art and Design in Education at UCL. Amy has previously worked with schools and communities on projects at the Saatchi Gallery, Firstsite, SLG and MK Gallery. https://amyleung.hotglue.me |
To welcome Amy to the CCE@HGAED, fine art student Saffron went to meet her
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Saffron: What inspired you to create such abstract artworks and what are you trying to present to the viewer?
Amy: I am inspired by lots of things: conversations I have with my mum, the process of working with materials like clay, things I fnd on walks, exhibitions and books, anecdotes from my childhood and my freelance work in education: working in schools, galleries and museums. All of these set off questions or ideas to be explored – usually around community, craft, objects and cultural identity. I usually make lots of notes and drawings and from there, decide whether to make in response – whether that's in a studio by myself or in a workshop with others. My work takes lots of different forms: objects, drawings, prints, sound recordings, writing, installation but it usually always involves making of some sort. I think I'm trying to present to the viewer some sort of insight into what's inspired me and to maybe inspire or set off questions of their own. In a workshop setting, it can be an invitation to participate and collaborate together to try and work through an idea through a shared experience. |
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Saffron: When did you aspire to become an artist and what made you want to carry on the profession?
Amy:I've always been interested in art: making images, drawing and playing with materials. My parents are creative in their own ways and I had supportive teachers at school and later on, tutors and technicians at art college and university. They helped me realise that art isn't just about being good at drawing whilst at the same time, helping me to hone in on skills and craft. There's a skill to being able to think, develop and talk about your ideas with others and I was exposed to lots of different ways artists express themselves. Your initial motivation to make art might change and that's okay, you're still an artist making and I like the fact you don't have to stick to one thing within your practice – you can design your own way of working. An artist delivered a lecture on my BA at Camberwell College of Arts and said that the Art world was huge, there's a place for everyone and their art – this idea of inclusivity and expansiveness really motivates me.
Saffron: How do you plan to take your work further in the future?
Amy: I plan to keep on making and collaborating. At the moment I am studying for my MA in Art and Design in Education which has helped me combine practical making with thinking and theory. I hope to continue making, learning new techniques, making with and learning from others and showing in different places and platforms, like Harris Girls Academy.
Amy:I've always been interested in art: making images, drawing and playing with materials. My parents are creative in their own ways and I had supportive teachers at school and later on, tutors and technicians at art college and university. They helped me realise that art isn't just about being good at drawing whilst at the same time, helping me to hone in on skills and craft. There's a skill to being able to think, develop and talk about your ideas with others and I was exposed to lots of different ways artists express themselves. Your initial motivation to make art might change and that's okay, you're still an artist making and I like the fact you don't have to stick to one thing within your practice – you can design your own way of working. An artist delivered a lecture on my BA at Camberwell College of Arts and said that the Art world was huge, there's a place for everyone and their art – this idea of inclusivity and expansiveness really motivates me.
Saffron: How do you plan to take your work further in the future?
Amy: I plan to keep on making and collaborating. At the moment I am studying for my MA in Art and Design in Education which has helped me combine practical making with thinking and theory. I hope to continue making, learning new techniques, making with and learning from others and showing in different places and platforms, like Harris Girls Academy.
Saffron: How are you planning to interact with the students and how are you going to include them in your work?
Amy: I'd love to collaborate with students who are interested in exploring cultural identity and representation in their own work and lives. I am hoping to use the ID Gallery as an extension of the studio space, putting up shows and work in progress alongside holding workshops for students to create content and contribute to the changing space. I plan to work with a few students initially and hopefully reach out to different groups within the school. I'd like to be included in their work as much as they're included in mine and hopefully create new conversations and artwork that we are proud of and we can share with the wider community.
Saffron: How has your work progressed over time and how do you identify with it?
Amy: I used to be quite fixed with what I considered my work – it need to be a fnished sculpture and I didn't really give much thought to all the sketches and little ideas that pop up but aren't necessarily immediately made, exhibited or resolved. I think I am more open minded about my practice and appreciate how maybe my freelance facilitation work with Early Years in a gallery can help inform how I work with materials in the studio and vice versa. I think I am much more open to ideas, working with other people and what I allow to infuence my work. In terms of this specifc residency, in the past I have struggled to make work about my cultural identity or even address the issues it brings up. Working in Narration Group (a collective of women and non binary people of colour who meet fortnightly at SLG) has really helped me construct a language - literally and visually – to process ideas with. I feel my relationship to my identity and work has shifted and will probably continue to in the future.
Amy: I'd love to collaborate with students who are interested in exploring cultural identity and representation in their own work and lives. I am hoping to use the ID Gallery as an extension of the studio space, putting up shows and work in progress alongside holding workshops for students to create content and contribute to the changing space. I plan to work with a few students initially and hopefully reach out to different groups within the school. I'd like to be included in their work as much as they're included in mine and hopefully create new conversations and artwork that we are proud of and we can share with the wider community.
Saffron: How has your work progressed over time and how do you identify with it?
Amy: I used to be quite fixed with what I considered my work – it need to be a fnished sculpture and I didn't really give much thought to all the sketches and little ideas that pop up but aren't necessarily immediately made, exhibited or resolved. I think I am more open minded about my practice and appreciate how maybe my freelance facilitation work with Early Years in a gallery can help inform how I work with materials in the studio and vice versa. I think I am much more open to ideas, working with other people and what I allow to infuence my work. In terms of this specifc residency, in the past I have struggled to make work about my cultural identity or even address the issues it brings up. Working in Narration Group (a collective of women and non binary people of colour who meet fortnightly at SLG) has really helped me construct a language - literally and visually – to process ideas with. I feel my relationship to my identity and work has shifted and will probably continue to in the future.
Saffron: What do you feel needs to be addressed in your art and why?
Amy: Lots of things! Specifc to this residency in which cultural identity and the ways in which we construct our narratives and represent ourselves, I would like to address how we can work through ideas creatively, learning making skills and sharing our thoughts and opinions through our work. In a wider sense, I think community is really important – internal and external to settings like school or a studio and through making art together, I think it can help us understand each other a bit better.
Amy: Lots of things! Specifc to this residency in which cultural identity and the ways in which we construct our narratives and represent ourselves, I would like to address how we can work through ideas creatively, learning making skills and sharing our thoughts and opinions through our work. In a wider sense, I think community is really important – internal and external to settings like school or a studio and through making art together, I think it can help us understand each other a bit better.
Amy's reflections on her time with the CCE@HGAED
What was your experience like at the CCE @ HGAED?
The project Shared Fragments: repetition through materials and bodies emerged from shared interests between A' Level students and myself, under the unusual circumstances of Covid-19 and repeated lockdowns. A couple of months into my residency at the Centre for Creative Explorations, Covid hit and any initial thoughts started with the students were put on hold. Drawings and interactions were left half finished and the studio and classroom remained in a period of stasis.
Through a sequence of stop and start interactions, instead of trying to create a semblance of complete continuity with our shared practice, it became apparent that even whilst workshops were scattered across the 2 years of the residency, certain themes persisted.
Breathing, repetition, space and movement and care were themes exacerbated by the conditions of lockdowns we found ourselves in in Autumn 2020. It felt important to respond to these urgent themes in a materially playful way, each workshop acknowledged the real possibility of another lockdown and therefore stood alone: we explored artists working with the themes, at times what I was making in the studio and responded with materials in short, playful, materially inquisitive ways. Ironically at times it felt like a suspension of and escape from Covid-19 and for me, dividing up materials for each student to enable safe working and interacting with ideas, ink, string, paper, lights, fabric, cameras etc ... provided a way in to grapple with and take some control of the tumultous circumstances.
Throughout, our relationships with our bodies and spaces were constantly in focus and when workshops restarted in Autumn 2021, we re-focused on Peckham as place, our shifting relationships with it and how our bodies feel in certain spaces analysing sensations through the lens of: gender, ethnicity, age, upbringing, cultural background – factors that make up our identity. Responding to Nadia and Jenna's work in year 13, workshops took cue from ideas they were currently exploring and a small set of sculptures I had been working on. Peckham Festival enabled us to pick up on these shared threads and take them into the wider community. Displaying work and running workshops at the festival brought another layer and context to the work created. It invited opinions, thoughts, suggestions and questions to art created in a the diverse but closed microcosm of school.
My residency at the CCE has been undeniably impacted by Covid-19 but also overwhelmingly influenced by the work and practices of the young artists in the Art Department and teachers. It has provided a base to return to and reciprocal way of working. As fragmented as it has felt at times, our shared interests and persistence with making art, has fed into my practice and attitudes towards art making in a turbulent and unstable time. It has provided a huge amount to think about moving forward in my work, how might my practice be influenced by the context by which it has been made in and what happens when ideas are impacted by external forces? Working responsively with students has meant the work culminating at Peckham Festival has been unexpected but in my opinion, all the more richer and interesting for it. It has enabled me to confront ideas around my identity, find material language to try and express it through and be inspired by the ways in which the artists at the Centre for Creative Explorations are navigating their own identities through art practice.
November 2021
What was your experience like at the CCE @ HGAED?
The project Shared Fragments: repetition through materials and bodies emerged from shared interests between A' Level students and myself, under the unusual circumstances of Covid-19 and repeated lockdowns. A couple of months into my residency at the Centre for Creative Explorations, Covid hit and any initial thoughts started with the students were put on hold. Drawings and interactions were left half finished and the studio and classroom remained in a period of stasis.
Through a sequence of stop and start interactions, instead of trying to create a semblance of complete continuity with our shared practice, it became apparent that even whilst workshops were scattered across the 2 years of the residency, certain themes persisted.
Breathing, repetition, space and movement and care were themes exacerbated by the conditions of lockdowns we found ourselves in in Autumn 2020. It felt important to respond to these urgent themes in a materially playful way, each workshop acknowledged the real possibility of another lockdown and therefore stood alone: we explored artists working with the themes, at times what I was making in the studio and responded with materials in short, playful, materially inquisitive ways. Ironically at times it felt like a suspension of and escape from Covid-19 and for me, dividing up materials for each student to enable safe working and interacting with ideas, ink, string, paper, lights, fabric, cameras etc ... provided a way in to grapple with and take some control of the tumultous circumstances.
Throughout, our relationships with our bodies and spaces were constantly in focus and when workshops restarted in Autumn 2021, we re-focused on Peckham as place, our shifting relationships with it and how our bodies feel in certain spaces analysing sensations through the lens of: gender, ethnicity, age, upbringing, cultural background – factors that make up our identity. Responding to Nadia and Jenna's work in year 13, workshops took cue from ideas they were currently exploring and a small set of sculptures I had been working on. Peckham Festival enabled us to pick up on these shared threads and take them into the wider community. Displaying work and running workshops at the festival brought another layer and context to the work created. It invited opinions, thoughts, suggestions and questions to art created in a the diverse but closed microcosm of school.
My residency at the CCE has been undeniably impacted by Covid-19 but also overwhelmingly influenced by the work and practices of the young artists in the Art Department and teachers. It has provided a base to return to and reciprocal way of working. As fragmented as it has felt at times, our shared interests and persistence with making art, has fed into my practice and attitudes towards art making in a turbulent and unstable time. It has provided a huge amount to think about moving forward in my work, how might my practice be influenced by the context by which it has been made in and what happens when ideas are impacted by external forces? Working responsively with students has meant the work culminating at Peckham Festival has been unexpected but in my opinion, all the more richer and interesting for it. It has enabled me to confront ideas around my identity, find material language to try and express it through and be inspired by the ways in which the artists at the Centre for Creative Explorations are navigating their own identities through art practice.
November 2021
