If the earth is not curvature, our eastern tune would have collided with yours: Siying Zhou
1 December 2023 - 21 January 2024
Curator:
Artist(s): Siying Zhou
Location: Boadle Hall
Siying invites visitors to explore the dynamic intersection of tradition and modernity in this exhibition, which contrasts video performances from Melbourne’s Beijing Opera Club with documentation of the Peking Opera costume collection at the Arts Centre Melbourne.
Unravelling diverse cultural preservation methods, it illuminates their impact on narratives surrounding Australia’s colonial and migrant history. Challenging the separation of folk and contemporary art, the exhibition blurs the lines between performance and visual arts expression. Through video, sound, and text, it delves into local representations of Chinese culture in Naarm/Melbourne, prompting reflection on how cultural identity is framed within the context of Australian history.
With thanks to Ai Yamamoto (Sound); Takeshi Kondo & Jonathan Orrell (Videographers); 汪依章 Wang I-chang, 许敏 Hsü Min, 黄介东 Huang Chieh-tung, 孙守义 Sun Shou-I, 陈淑玲 Che’en Shu-ling, 郑秀娟 Cheng Hsiu-chuan, 刘京泉 Liu Ching-ch’üan, 冯雷 Feng Lei (Performers); Carmela Lonetti (Conservator, Arts Centre Melbourne).
Siying Zhou is a China-born Australian artist. Her practice is mostly identified within the visual art discipline and drawn upon a self-reflection on her Chinese heritage and the examination on her social status as an Asian female immigrant in the West. By producing predominantly installation works, she uses permutation of multiple objects in various media at exhibition spaces to explore a hybrid way of storytelling and to challenge understandings about truth. In her works, humour, contradiction and fragmentation are employed to underline the slippages of different conceptions about the reality. Zhou obtained the Master of Fine Art, at the Victorian College of the Arts, the University of Melbourne in 2018. She is the recipient of Linden Art Prize 2019. Her works has been exhibited at Buxton Contemporary Art (VIC), Newcastle Art Gallery (NSW), Ararat Art Gallery TAMA (VIC), Northern Centre for Contemporary Art (NT), and Meinblau Projektraum (Germany).
The formal exhibition opening and awards presentation will be held at 6pm on Friday, 1 December 2023.
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