NEW EXHIBITION DREAMS CIRCLES MOONS FICTIONS (AND FRAGMENTS FOUND ON THE FOREST FLOOR OF DISQUIETUDE) PAPAKURA ART GALLERY 10.30am to noon Saturday 1 February EXHIBITION DATES : 01.02.2014 to 15.03.2014 How should I know what Ill be, I, who dont know what I am? Be what I think? But I think of being so many things! - Fernando Pessoa Dreams Circles Moons Fictions (and fragments found on the forest floor of disquietude) is a survey exhibition of artist Liyen Chong’s work, opening on 1 February at Papakura Art Gallery. Chong’s exhibition is the first in the gallery’s 2014 schedule and spans the works of her career so far. Mixed cultural experiences are a recurring subtext of the practice of Chong, an artist of Malaysian-Chinese descent. She negotiates various art motifs and languages to create works that are “conceptually rich and visually immaculate”[1] to build an eclectic body of work that explores ideas of displacement. Chong’s survey show, her first, features works of diverse forms and mediums. The starting point is a cloth-bound book of concrete poems she submitted for her graduation exhibition at Ilam in 2001. It then picks up on and includes selected works from every body of work produced since that point: The Humid Day series she produced for her Master of Fine Arts submission 2003 (and later reshown at the Gus Fisher Gallery); meticulous embroideries made from human hair; ceramic bowls with photographic transfers and hand painting (called Exportware); self portraits presented as hand painted photographic prints and lightboxes; acrylic and gold leaf drawings of ‘magical ordinary objects’ on paper; and hand painted found images sourced from old encyclopedias. Chong said that the exhibition has given her a chance to reevaluate her practice, which has shifted through many phases since she finished her studies twelve years ago. “The movements have been, in part, a response to having migrated in my mid-teens to New Zealand, where the sense of being emotionally attached to two different places at once brings on the tendency to adapt to different contexts, in different guises, often almost losing sight of oneself in the process”, she said. The survey of Chong’s work commences immediately subsequent to the start of Chinese New Year (31 January) and the commemoration of Waitangi Day (6 February), offering an opportunity for a unique perspective and conversation regarding the notion of cultural identity in a New Zealand context – in line with the topics Chong has explored through her work.[2] She said she hopes audiences will find her subject matter relevant “given the post-colonial and increasingly multi-racial society in New Zealand”. DREAMS CIRCLES MOONS FICTIONS (AND FRAGMENTS FOUND ON THE FOREST FLOOR OF DISQUIETUDE) Liyen Chong With thanks to Asia New Zealand Foundation, Melanie Roger Gallery, Page Blackie Gallery, Martin Browne Contemporary, Sue Upritchard, Kriselle Baker and the Chong family. EXHIBITION DATES : 01.02.2014 to 15.03.2014 OPENING EVENT: 10.30am to noon Saturday 1 February FREE | ALL WELCOME
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 06:37:54 +0000
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