Reconfigure(d)
24.05.19-24.07.19
Artist residency (May 2019) and solo exhibition
Making Space, Guangzhou, China
Article by Xiang, artist in residence at Making Space, about our field trip to my paternal ancestor's hometown in Huiyang, Houzhou:
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/embujjH9GnOVu5_-hX3w6A
At Making Space artist residency, I created two large scale fabric works and a video. At the exhibition, I presented the fabric works along dual-channel video: one screen is playing an existing video work 'Adzan' (2018), of call to prayer during the sunset coastal scene of my hometown in Aceh, Indonesia and the other screen is playing the sunset scene of Pearl river where the artist residency is located. As the two screens meet, the two horizons (of Indonesia and China) converge as one continuous line, connecting the two countries I am affiliated with together. Guangdong is the province where my ancestors and the first recorded Chinese New Zealanders immigrated from (mid-1800s). Located along the South China sea, Guangzhou was an important hub for maritime transportation and trades connecting China and the West from the early Tang Dynasty until the 17th and 18th centuries where textiles, tea, and ceramics were brought into Europe as luxurious goods.
For the drawing on the fabrics, I used a mixture of bees’ wax sourced from Indonesia and China. Using Tjanting, a 12th century pen-like tool for traditional Indonesian Batik drawing, each repetition of the pattern contains small differences or displacements.
Photos courtesy of Making Space
24.05.19-24.07.19
Artist residency (May 2019) and solo exhibition
Making Space, Guangzhou, China
Article by Xiang, artist in residence at Making Space, about our field trip to my paternal ancestor's hometown in Huiyang, Houzhou:
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/embujjH9GnOVu5_-hX3w6A
At Making Space artist residency, I created two large scale fabric works and a video. At the exhibition, I presented the fabric works along dual-channel video: one screen is playing an existing video work 'Adzan' (2018), of call to prayer during the sunset coastal scene of my hometown in Aceh, Indonesia and the other screen is playing the sunset scene of Pearl river where the artist residency is located. As the two screens meet, the two horizons (of Indonesia and China) converge as one continuous line, connecting the two countries I am affiliated with together. Guangdong is the province where my ancestors and the first recorded Chinese New Zealanders immigrated from (mid-1800s). Located along the South China sea, Guangzhou was an important hub for maritime transportation and trades connecting China and the West from the early Tang Dynasty until the 17th and 18th centuries where textiles, tea, and ceramics were brought into Europe as luxurious goods.
For the drawing on the fabrics, I used a mixture of bees’ wax sourced from Indonesia and China. Using Tjanting, a 12th century pen-like tool for traditional Indonesian Batik drawing, each repetition of the pattern contains small differences or displacements.
Photos courtesy of Making Space
