- Venue
- White Conduit Projects
- Starts
- Monday, June 15, 2015
- Ends
- Sunday, June 21, 2015
- Address
- 1 White Conduit Street Islington London N1 9EL
- Location
- London
- Organiser
- White Conduit Projects
‘Nostalgia (from nostos-return home, and algia-longing) is a longing for a home that no longer exists or has never existed. Nostalgia is a sentiment of loss and displacement, but it is also a romance with one’s own fantasy [1]’.
The stage sets I paint evoke the ideology of the traditional Chinese Shan Shui painting and reference a range of Far Eastern imagery – from mother-of-pearl lacquerware to pop music videos.
Their names are English translations of the titles of Canto-pop songs I grew up listening to in Hong Kong. Echoes of Chinoiserie reference notions of authenticity, simulacra and Chinese identity. This traditional style of romanticising the East by the West is a metaphor for the experience of many of the Chinese Diaspora.
Being of joint Chinese-British parentage, my work reflects my personal relationship with Hong Kong and the ambivalence at the heart of my dual heritage identity, at once foreigner and native in both cultures.
