Angela Su: Melencolia

Angela Su: Melencolia is published in conjunction with the artist's eponymously titled first solo exhibition in the Western Hemisphere. The richly illustrated book provides an overview of the artist's work since 2013 which includes installations, speculative docufiction videos, and drawings and hair embroideries of composite cyborgian bodies. The title is a tribute to Albrecht Dürer's engraving "Melencolia I" (1514). In medieval philosophy, melancholy is associated with insanity, and late in the Renaissance it was also linked to creative genius. This print is a divining rod for understanding Su's varied practice. Weaving a spiritual dimension in works that veer into strange and uncomfortable spheres, she reenvisions interlocking symbolisms and expands into the mediums and realms drawn from the modern and contemporary archive.