In this exhibition, her third at Murray Guy, Shirley Tse continues her research in plastic polymer, its cultural history and particularly its philosophical implication of fluidity, multiplicity, paradox and contingency.

Power Towers is a group of sculptures replicating electricity transmission towers. Built to human scale and made of white high-density polyethylene, these bodies convey tension, energy and connectivity as well as insinuating political power structures: the friction between industrial interests and ecological concerns.

Inter-Mission consists of six cubicles that imply public “private” spaces such as a polling or telephone booth. Each houses an individual sculpture with the name of a place implying episodes in a narrative, stages of a journey. The works appear to be in a mutable state; either on the way to becoming or ceasing to be. There is a repetition of mechanical forms - moveable arms, shutters, hinges - but the fleshy tone is that of the human body, the prime site of transmutation.  

Shirley Tse’s work has been exhibited widely in the USA and overseas including the 2002 Biennale of Sydney, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Vancouver Contemporary Art Gallery, Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Bologna, ICA, Boston, the New Museum, New York and the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. She lives and works in Los Angeles.