Kirsteen Pieterse

The Hong Kong Jockey Club Clubhouse, Happy Valley – Commission

These 2 sculptures are newly installed, site specific, commissioned sculpture work for the Hong Kong Jockey Club in Happy Valley, HK.

These works were made for the space inside the Clubhouse which links the old clubhouse and the new extension. The windows around this space look out onto Mount Butler and Mount Nicholson.  

“Hushed Inception”, derives from and seeks to suggest the architecture of the old clubhouse and the adjacent presence of Mount Butler. 

“Tend and Settle”, represents the architecture of the new clubhouse extension and the nearby Mount Nicholson. 

Story from exhibition:

“The third floor link building makes a positive connection between tradition and the contemporary.  A pair of sculptures by Scottish artist Kirsteen Pieterse likewise make a nod towards tradition while employing contemporary elements that are contemplative expressions of nature and our human interactions with it.  In Hushed Inception she uses a stack of shaped plywood to suggest the form of Mount Butler and a metal structure to reflect the undulating rooflines of the old Clubhouse.  In Tend and Settle she uses the same materials to represent Mount Nicholson and the facade of the new Clubhouse building.

The mountain forms are reminiscent of the scholar rocks that the Chinese literati used to contemplate the vastness of nature, which are then put into a contemporary conversation with the powerful yet delicate tracery of stainless steel structures that may on one hand evoke man’s ability to transform nature and build our own monumental forms through architecture and engineering, while on the other may suggest the forms of clouds which may envelop mountains or the heavy pelting rain that they bring with every monsoon.“

Small New Sculptures – 3 person exhibition, Utopia Art Sydney

January 2020 at Utopia Art Sydney

In January/February 2020 I exhibited with my friends Physsa Koshland and Christopher Hodges in a 3 person show, ‘Small New Sculptures’ showing our new sculpture work. I made 2 paper works titled “Thekla 1” and “Thekla 2”, based on Italo Calvino’s ‘Invisible Cities’ book, chapter ‘Cities and the Sky.3’.

‘What’s On Paper’ exhibition at Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre

In December 2019 I was very happy to be included in this excellent group exhibition of Hong Kong artists. The works had to be ‘on paper’ and as a sculptor I chose to make sculptural pieces from paper I had ‘made’ in the studio. 

Here is the press release:

“On December 11th (6:00pm) the reception of the exhibit ‘What’s on Paper’ in the Visual Art Center (Admiralty, Hong Kong Park) is destined to be a shining gala. It has gathered 36 crème de la crème local artists in presenting their recent works on paper. Quite a few extremely influential teachers from various universities including Siu Kee Ho, David Clarke, Lukas Tam, Jane Liu, Cornelia Erdmann, Chun Fei Chow etc. will be presented. Works of Frog King Kwok and Shirley Tse, who had represented Hong Kong in the Venice Biennale 2011 and 2019 respectively, will be shown. Furthermore multi-discipline artists’ works, for instance Zunzi, Night Fung, Poon san, Gerard Henry and Tim Li, will meet the public. Last but not least Uncle Chim and Aries Lee, both have coined their names in the Hong Kong art history are taking part, which makes the exhibition a ‘Not to miss’. All art lovers are warmly invited to come and cheer for this artist self-motivated and organized party! “

Elysian Cirrus – Cathay Pacific Business Class Lounge at Shanghai Pudong Airport

In June 2019 my aluminium wall sculpture “Elysian Cirrus” was installed at the entrance to Cathay Pacific Business Class Lounge in Shanghai Pudong Airport.  

“Elysian Cirrus” takes its impetus from the timeless treatment of landscape painting in China, most notably the tradition of Shan Shui painting which uses motifs such as mountain peaks, cloud, twisted pine trees and the crane bird.

“Elysian Cirrus” attempts to capture the atmosphere of these paintings in a contemporary way; to bring the ‘language’ of the artwork into an awareness of the modern experience of flight which presents the opportunity for contemplation of an immense landscape.

Untitled – Raffles Hotel, Shenzhen Bay, China

I’ve recently installed two wall sculptures at Raffles Hotel Shenzhen Bay, China. The images below are of the sculptures on the beautiful concrete factory floor.

Details of the wall sculptures are:
1. Untitled, 2016, stainless steel, 100 x 50 x 9cm
2. Untitled, 2016, stainless steel, 220 x 80 x 12.5cm

Clouds Peak – Cathay Pacific Business Class Lounge / HKIA

My wall sculpture “Cloud’s Peak” was recently installed in the reception space in Cathay Pacific’s newly refurbished Business Class Lounge, The Pier, at Hong Kong International Airport. This work responds to the mountains skirting the airport’s location and is a continuation of my recent practice.

Chinese landscape painting, scholar stones and contemporary pre-fabricated engineering are the inspiration for this sculpture. The Shan-shui (“mountain-water”) school of Chinese landscape painting depicts natural mountainous landscapes traditionally painted enshrouded in mist and cloud. This wall sculpture seeks to capture the essence of the mountains and the cloud. It is intended for the work to be somewhere in the middle, neither mountain nor cloud, but it could be both.

Since ancient times the scholar stone has been considered a spiritual condensation of the vital essence of the landscape, representing a world in miniature. With stones in their studios, Eastern scholars can get intimately close to nature and wander through the mountains in their minds. It is the intension of this wall sculpture to encourage the viewer to do a similar thing, but to wander through the landscape as it is, now.

World Sculpture News – Summer 2015

My latest work is featured in World Sculpture News!

“Kirsteen Pieterse makes sculptures that are deeply felt contemplative expressions of the ephemeral qualities of the world. Whether she is realizing a cloud formation or a precarious structure, there is an uncanny tautness at play. Her art is as far from the remorseless presence of metropolitan commerce and conflict as one can get, which is one of its subtle pleasures…”

Read the full article here…