Emily Yujie Song | (a remembering of) Piano sonata no.18 in D major, k.576 I. Allegro

Artist Statement

With a focus on the process of making, the artist explores the re-remembering and the processes of forgetting a piano piece she once was extremely familiar with. Recreated without reading the score or listening to the music, this work depicts a sense of longing for a time that once was, and the deteriorating memories of what used to be ingrained through countless hours of practice. 

‘Departed: in place’ is a hand-drawn frame-by-frame animation, created from almost 300 charcoal drawings on rice paper. As a result of an automatic drawing process, this work explores how movement distorts, stretches and re-creates shapes, forms and scribbles. This video documents the installation of this animation at multiple locations, suggesting how time, memory and place all intersect throughout the cyclical nature of life.

Artist Bio

Emily Yujie Song (she/her) is an Australian-born Chinese emerging artist who is based across Naarm (Melbourne) and Boorloo (Perth). Her multidisciplinary practice is rooted in expanded drawing, manifesting through forms of painting, sculpture, installation and the moving image. Her process-driven practice utilises a sense of labour and repetitive methods of making, exploring ephemerality and impermanence. In search of a kind of freedom through relinquishing agency over the process of creation, her most recent body of work has showcased a fascination with motion, energy and transformation through spatial investigations.