Collaborative project by Anie Nheu and Jan Fieldsend exploring emotions conveyed by the elements used in their assemblages of forms, objects and textures; and almost all works take the form of imaginary bodies with memories. Playbox a collaboration with Jan FieldsendInstallation of paintings, collage of found materials AIRSpace Project 1.8.2014-16.8.2014 The project arose to some extent in an impromptu fashion. This in effect characterises the nature of the work, and hence the title, Playbox. Both artists are drawn to the emotional content conveyed by the elements used in their assemblages of forms, objects and textures; and almost all works take the form of imaginary bodies with memories. In the act of attempting to put two distinct practices into one space, conversations arose not only about formal and spatial concerns but also about poly-culturalism and the ensuing flux that is within each individual, and of course in the wider world. Negotiation of space/place and the making of sense requires a great deal of imagination and an ability to accept really odd things being together. Odd, not in a pejorative sense but perhaps more evoking a gentle poignancy of things not being even, of unsettledness or even as an antidote to standardisation. In his respect it may be apt to observe that Nheu is more interested in eroded painted forms and how they inhabit the space assigned to them, and Fieldsend in the productive alliances of decoration, inimalism, hard-core nostalgia and nature. In this collaborative project with Fieldsend, Nheu was drawn to the thoughts of Mono-ha, a school of art in Japan active between 1968 and 1973, as a way to relate and understand Fieldsend's installations. Loosely translated as 'school of things', Mono-ha art is experienced as multi-sensorial. It uses ordinary objects such as rocks, steel, sticks and cotton with as little human intervention as possible, and often is ephemeral in nature. The focus is on the 'the things’ themselves and their interdependence through juxtaposition and placement.The elements are stripped of their obvious identity and then through the working process particular sensory qualities are amplified. Nheu has attempted to draw on these ideas to create abstract tactile forms made with painted plywood and moulded acrylic paint. In some instances these materials are used as themselves with their intrinsic characteristics laid bare, but often as much stand in as rich shadowy bodies, or perversely doubling as cavities. Anie Nheu, Jan Fieldsend 2014

A record of mixed media works on paper submitted for Sydney Contemporary 2019. 2019 Paper Contemporary a Sydney Contemporary event +

Several Ways of Conversations, 2012 As a follow-up to Yarns Between Bubbles, this second collaborative project brings together Asian artists Li Wenmin and Yiwon Park in Seoul, South Korea. The mixed media works on paper explore themes of identity by responding to each other's mark-making, while also providing space for each artist to express their individual voice within the shared composition. Several Ways of Conversations, 2012 As a follow-up to Yarns Between Bubbles, this second collaborative project brings together Asian artists Li Wenmin and Yiwon Park in Seoul, South Korea. The mixed media works on paper explore themes of identity by responding to each other's mark-making, while also providing space for each artist to express their individual voice within the shared composition.

An exhibition of engagement with materials through responding, making and assembling- a way of making sense of experience. Byproducts This body of work showcases a collaboration with materials. This collaboration generally occurred at two levels: the selection of materials whose lives originated for a different purpose, and the artist’s response to their inherent properties. They in turn are informed by a narrative of migration and its intergenerational effects. The plywood offcuts are remnants from previous projects, readapted into new work. Forms shaped by plasters and pumice intimate the byproducts of forced displacement and increased disorder. Cardboard boxes, an ambivalent material, are perceived as a symbol of a system designed to generate profit from cheap labour; here they suggest two readings, one is the drive of aspiration for a better life, and the other is a homage to those who delivered a better life to the coming generation. Working with these materials also demanded a response to the incidentals of their unexpected behaviour. Like gifting another vocabulary to a sentence, these incidentals pointed to the resolution of each work. The sense of these works, engendered through their materials and assemblage is at times contradictory, at others complimentary. It evokes senses of detachment and attachment, presence and absence, contact and separation, abandonment and reclamation, permanent and transient. Ultimately, the process of making is a way of engaging with the byproducts of displacements and emplacements. Working with the repurposed materials, and assigning them with a new identity, suggests a making good– reordering the disorder. Individual Works Installation View

An exhibition of abstract geometric painting on shaped marine ply. Forms on Edge AIRSpace Project 05-20 August 2016 One of the ideas that sustains Nheu’s visual exploration is the relationships the body forms in the space it inhabits. ‘Relationships’ encapsulates the experiences of a body in a myriad of affect and effects, both tangible and intangible. The background narrative is told through the female body of a perpetual migrant with a culture of birth that is predominantly patriarchal. Resettlement and adaptation brought changes in traditionally assigned roles. Negotiations for place and roles in the new community at large, and at a micro level within the family unit, were acutely felt. These ideas form the basis of the visual framework for the exhibition. Visually, the placement of paintings in an enclosed space becomes the metaphor in the process of resettlement. Like fields with no borders, encapsulated experiences are by nature inter-corporeal; identity is socially constructed and defined by borders and forms. The exhibition as a whole attempts to amass these two seemingly contradictory elements and dwell at its meeting points hedging edges to redefine place and space. The paintings are in effect formed by these edges where space and borders meet. The space the paintings inhabit plays an integral role in the composition of the exhibition. It is used literally in the context of the negotiation of space. Paintings are made with implied sustained emotions that define these ‘bodies’. The visual cues for these are surface treatments, shapes, quality of the edges where two spaces meet, and ultimately, how they claim the space they inhabit. Photographed by Joy Lai & John Dennis