Leaving LA

Presented in association with the Art Gallery of Western Australia

From working with Grammy Award-winning musicians to creative commissions from the likes of Google, Twitter, Netflix and Perrier, Tee Ken Ng is a Perth-based artist, film-maker and designer with a global reach and reputation. This exhibition focuses on his recent animated collaboration with another Perth luminary, Tim Minchin. Presented as an installation of the swirling hand-made zoetropes that bring Tim’s song ‘Leaving LA to life’, it reveals the unique and exquisite charm of Tee Ken’s art and animation practice. Combined with live video projections of the zoetropes in action and an accompanying soundtrack, Tee Ken creates a sense of being within the animation itself as the entire piece becomes a living artwork that fully encompasses the viewer.

Tim Minchin wrote ‘Leaving LA’ after an animation project of his own was cancelled after four years of work; transforming his feelings into an angry-funny meditation on the city of Los Angeles, its empty promises and false hopes, our will to believe and our capacity to be deceived. As he says, “the [Hollywood] sign is so famous and is such a good metaphor for Hollywood. People travel to see the sign and it’s just this slightly disappointing two-dimensional thing. I spoke to Ken about me being a two-dimensional Tim getting his three-dimensionality back”.

At turns melancholic and anthemic, the song and Tee Ken’s video is full of propulsive feeling, as it stages a quest for freedom from superficiality and limits on our creative spirits. In this way, the project is the perfect union of the two Perth school-friend artists whose careers have seen them find huge global audiences for their unique perspectives on the world.