Presented by Salamanca Arts Centre
Curated by Greg Leong
Salamanca Arts Centre’s
Major Curated Exhibition for 2012
Salamanca Arts Centre is proud to present Made in China, Australia, a multi-generational exploration of the Chinese Australian diaspora through the works of 16 artists.
Different and individual processes of acculturation have impacted on the work of Chinese Australian artists in diverse ways. Made in China, Australia presents works by Chinese Australian artists that reveal a range of particular Chinese Australian pathways and lived experiences.
Australian-born, William Yang and Lindy Lee assert vastly different approaches in their practice. Yang relentlessly pursues the roots of his ‘Chineseness’ in deeply personal and powerful ways, while for many years Lee made work recognisable only for its engagement with international postmodernism.
John Young came to Australia as a child. His early work Manchurian Snow Walk examined the diasporic phenomenon in conceptual ways. A more recent work, Danger Zone, explores how moral codes of behaviour can be unique to specific circumstances (the Nanjing Massacre of 1937) when two cultures meet.
Liu Xiao Xian migrated to Australia in the early 1990s under the shadow of a post-Tiananmen ethos that was hostile to independent thought. He arrived with his brother Ah Xian and Guan Wei, artists already established as practitioners. Liu studied art in Australia and his work light-handedly explores the seemingly insignificant, yet often profound, differences and similarities between the East and the West.
Another important contributor to the shifting states of subtly-complex difference and assimilation is generational change. The work of ‘second’ generation Chinese Australian artists, such as Owen Leong and Aaron Seeto, has a different engagement with ‘White Australia’, free of a convention of victimisation often associated with the work of older Australian born artists. And yet, because they grew up here, their views differ again from more recent arrivals likeTianli Zu and Clara Chow.
Other complexities also permeate the exhibition, mixed and indigenous cultural heritage, sexuality. It is the difference within difference that informs Made in China, Australia.
Featured Artists
Tony Ayres
Shuxia Chen
lara Chow
Lindy Lee
Kevin Leong
Owen Leong
Chen Ping
Jane Quon
Pamela Mei-Leng See
Aaron Seeto
Jason Wing
Zhou Xiaoping
Liu Xiao Xian
William Yang
John Young
Tianli Zu.
EXHIBITION DATES:
Saturday 4 August – Sunday 2 September 2012
OFFICIAL OPENING:
Sunday 5 August 2012 @ 1:00pm
Exhibition to be opened by Senator Lisa Singh
CURATOR’S TALK:
Saturday 4 August 2012 @ 3:00pm
On Tour
Burnie Regional Gallery (TAS) 1 February – 1 March 2013
McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park (VIC) 17 March – 9 June 2013
Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery (NSW) 21 June – 28 July 2013
Adelaide Festival Centre (SA) 6 August – 22 October 2013
Ararat Regional Art Gallery (VIC) 27 March – 18 May 2014
Kickarts Contemporary Arts, Cairns (QLD) 2 June – 5 July 2014
Artspace Mackay (QLD) 5 September – 18 October 2014
Grafton Regional Gallery (NSW) 10 December 2014 – 1 February 2015
Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery (TAS) 21 February – 3 May 2015
READ the review by Thomas Connelly
Image Credits: Owen Leong. Budi (from the series Birthmark). Courtesy of the artist and Dianne Tanzer Gallery + Projects, Melbourne