Marc Ngui and Magda Wojtyra: Let's Glow

January 18 - March 4, 2012

Opening Reception: Friday, January 20, 8 - 9 pm
Artist's Talk: Wednesday, January 18, 7 pm

Marc Ngui and Magda Wojtyra, Detail of Polytopia textile sculpture in progress, 2011, upholstery, vinyl, nylon, ripstop, waterproof fabrics and thread, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artists.

Allegories rely on symbolic representation, rather than language to convey ideas. Art critic and activist Craig Owens proposed that allegory be reclaimed from the realm of trite storytelling and be recognized for "what is most proper to it: its capacity to rescue from historical oblivion that which threatens to disappear."* For Cambridge-based art and design duo Marc Ngui and Magda Wojtyra, allegory becomes a tool to reinvent familiar narratives of willpower and perseverance.

Central to Let's Glow are the Crystal Kings (Luciferous Radii), an imaginary group of self-generated beings conceived in collaboration between Ngui and Wojtyra. Resembling a hybrid of biological forms and crystalline rock structures found in caves, these brightly coloured creatures seem to fluoresce. The creatures are brought to life through a variety of means which, when seen together, form an exuberant counterpoint to the monochromatic nature of winter. Through a series of animated videos, painted portraits, and an undulating, dimensional quilt-like sculpture, Ngui and Wojtyra create a playful natural history of evolution in the dark.

Working collaboratively since 2000, Marc Ngui and Magda Wojtyra both studied architecture at the University of Waterloo. Their projects often merge craft and design with influences from subjects as diverse as comics, biochemistry,
models of human consciousness, physics, and cultural iconography.


*Craig Owens, "The Allegorical Impulse: Toward a Theory of Postmodernism" in October, Vol. 12. (Spring, 1980), 68


Let's Glow - Evite