INDOOR FIREWORKS
Andrew Ooi, Indoor Fireworks, 2024 | Installation
Indoor Fireworks, is artist Andrew Ooi’s first-ever installation around the themes and ideas presented in director Bernardo Bertolucci’s cinematic classic, The Last Emperor.
Andrew Ooi, Grand Empress, 2020 | 1960 Acrylic and ink folded gampi-paper paintings | 19 x 19 x 1 inches, 48 x 48 x 3 cm
Conceived as an ancestral shrine, the installation incorporates Manchu shamanism and Tibetan Buddhist sacred implements, with eight of Ooi’s paper sculptures. Using handmade Japanese gampi washi (paper), the sculptures are created from hundreds to thousands of small, folded sheets. Ooi cuts, creases, paints, folds, and fits together each sheet individually by hand.
Andrew Ooi, Empress, 2020 | 780 Acrylic and ink folded gampi-paper paintings | 9.5 x 9.5 x 0.75 inches, 24.1 x 24.1 x 1.9 cm
More than representing death and birth, the shrine also commemorates the awareness of the analogous relationship between the two. That is, what would life be like if you rebelled or rejected, risked or reasoned, outside of convention, or expectation? What are the limits on how you can live – if not for yourself, than for others – and are they any different from those Bertolucci portrays in scenes from the Emperor’s childhood?
Andrew Ooi, Forbidden City, 2020 | 1452 Acrylic and ink folded gampi-paper paintings | 16.5 x 16.5 x 1 inches, 41.9 x 41.9 x 2.5 cm
Told through a series of flashbacks made by the character of the Emperor as an adult (John Lone), viewers quickly learn of the manipulation that follows him as China’s dynastic rule ends. Here is a child that is to command a nation and yet couldn’t leave what is essentially his home, the Forbidden City. The irony struck Ooi deeply. Having seen the film at a young age, Ooi identified with the many trappings, contradictions and pretense affecting his own life such as receptions amidst strangers, maintaining appearances, and activities forced to attend. These celebrations and rituals were like fireworks lit indoors: unpredictable, dangerous, and with repercussions. For Ooi, the dramatization of the Emperor’s life was a foretelling of his own, which he understood needed to change if he was to live it to its potential.
Andrew Ooi, Last Emperor, 2020 | 530 Acrylic and ink folded gampi-paper paintings | 9.75 x 9.75 x 3.5 inches, 25 x 25 x 9 cm
Andrew Ooi, Last Emperor 2, 2020 | 530 Acrylic and ink folded gampi-paper paintings | 9.75 x 9.75 x 3.5 inches, 25 x 25 x 9 cm
To discover what that potential may be, Ooi instinctively turned to art – specifically folding and drawing on paper – as the materials were available everywhere, and the technique was neutral to develop and explore. Besides offering the assurance and safety Ooi craved, the process taught him about himself – how to prepare, question, take action, take time, be brave, and learn from mistakes – lessons he still lives by to this day. With art, Ooi was free to set his own limit. He could choose to follow or break the limits he set for himself; true for everyone and a difference we can all appreciate.
Andrew Ooi, Sunrise, 2021 | 800 Acrylic and ink folded gampi-paper paintings | 20 x 15.75 x 2 inches, 50.8 x 40 x 5.1 cm
Andrew Ooi, Sunset, 2021 | 800 Acrylic and ink folded gampi-paper paintings | 20 x 15.75 x 2 inches, 50.8 x 40 x 5.1 cm
The artworks in the installation serve as a reminder of what it means to live by your own accord and rules. Titled Forbidden City, Grand Empress, Empress, Sunrise, Sunset, Caligula, Last Emperor 1, and Last Emperor 2, their compositions and forms interpret the colours, costuming, architecture and historical references relating to the Emperor’s life story and Bertolucci’s cinematography. They are portraits, mementos and markers of time and history of when one realm truly did open up to another.
