Gathering Momentum will be the final exhibition at Chinese Arts Centres present location before its move to its new purpose built venue in Manchesters Northern Quarter, following a £2.4 million award from the Arts Council of England. Bringing together a selection of artists who began their careers through the 'New Commissions' programme, with each artist presenting a new work, this exhibition will establish each of these artists as a force in British Art.
Suki Chans work is concerned with the play of dualities, light and dark. Creating and manipulating infuse spaces with a sense of place. For her, the shadow is a metaphor for the unknown, and allows her to explore the boundaries between the past and present, public and private, the real and imaginary.
The questioning of Tsai-Wei Chens self-imposed exile forms an integral part of her work. Believing her self-exile would lead to the typical experiences of an overseas artist, the reality seems to be more than a romantic ideal. Travelling the field of west and the east, physical and mental, present and past and sound and silence, Tsai-Wei presents a sound installation that attempts to locate and identify her-self in between.
Chun-Chao Chius work is deeply influenced by Chinese thought, particularly by Zen and Taoist philosophy, as he produces a circular Chinese prayer on both sides of the windows at Chinese Arts Centre. Zen teachings emphasize direct communication through the heart. Attention can be focused upon the spirit in which things are done, rather than upon words and ideas alone.
The act of severing images from their source and then relocating them has become a metaphor for Jenny Chongs own displacement. Being cut off from her Chinese origins, she is continuously searching for places where thereís a possibility of reinvention.
Gayle Chong Kwans installation, Cockaigne, is based on the 14th Century concept of a glutton paradise. Cockaigne is a fictional island, where visitors can experience every geographical and historical landscape in one place; from Disneyworld to Babel to the Garden of Eden. The Island and its landmarks are created out of food and drink. Cockaigne is an installation in the form of a heightened simulation of a tourist agency, which will promote the island using elements of a promotional tourist agency featuring glossy posters of the varied and beautiful landscapes offering an overbearing abundance and created out of food and drink.
Anna Lee feels that her activities as an artist identify her position of being poised between two cultures, exploring her Eastern and Western origins. Selections of Malaysian and Chinese artefacts are transformed and morphed into precious magical relics, where the resulting artworks are turned into an integral whole.
IMAGE:
Chun-Chao Chiu
Heart Sutra, May 2001
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