For the third year of No Break in Summer, we welcomed London-based artists Ada Bond and Yang-En Hume to the gallery, presenting two distinct practices that explore memory, identity and the ways in which familiar materials and images can take on new meanings.
Ada Bond is a London-born painter whose work draws on personal memory and imagery sourced online. Familiar subjects become subtly strange: soft pink palettes and intimate compositions initially suggest comfort and nostalgia, before closer inspection reveals something more uncanny.
During the residency, Bond continued her playful yet unsettling exploration of “Beetlemania”. The ladybird — an instantly recognisable symbol of childhood and cuteness — takes on a different character when multiplied and enlarged. Through repetition and scale, Bond transforms an innocent motif into something curious, humorous and faintly unnerving.
Yang-En Hume is an Australian-Singaporean artist based in London whose multidisciplinary practice explores how memories, histories and identities can be carried through objects and materials. Drawing on family traditions such as quilting, alongside found objects, textiles and batik, Hume gives tangible form to personal and cultural histories.
Growing up in Australia within a Singaporean family, Hume’s work reflects on belonging, migration and cultural inheritance. Memory sits at its centre, particularly the idea that it can live within the materials we keep and pass on. Batik is especially significant: shaped by Chinese, European and Malay influences, it connects Hume to her cultural background while reflecting the movement, exchange and complexities of migrant identity.
Curious to discover what Bond and Hume developed during their residency at Mandy Zhang Art? Click on Blog to read the full feature.