UK based artist Dinu Li’s work often delved into his own history, culture and identity. Home featured his three screen video installation, Transformer (after Lou Reed), which highlighted society’s growing curiosity in other people’s private lives and how voyeurism was becoming a form of entertainment. The work explored the lives of three fictitious characters, played by the artist, within the privacy and comfort of their own homes. Viewers could watch the protagonists performing ordinary tasks in their home as if they were looking through a window in their lives.
UK based photographic artist, Anthony Lam’s practice was concerned with interrogating, exploring, and expanding his own relationship with the photographic image. Headspace processed the artist’s own feelings and responses to living in Hong Kong, mirroring in reverse his father’s journey to UK. The work reflected his physical and emotional journeyings within Hong Kong society and his feelings of detachment and cultural anxiety in postcolonial times, namely his struggle to reconcile with cultural recognition and reconnect with his own sense of home, both in the UK and Hong Kong. The work featured 2 large scale prints with 2 mechanical slide projections.
Vancouver based artist, Ellinda Siu’s practice explored the tension between reality and fiction. Inspired by cinema, the artist utilized light and darkness to trigger emotional responses. Her installation for the exhibition, Room Tone, was inspired by the film production term for the ambient sound of a room. The work comprised a set of illuminated photographic visuals of domestic scenes, accompanied by an atmospheric soundtrack. Familiar domestic scenes were shown with sounds to create a status of uncertainty and create tension with a dark space.
Liu Xiao Xian was brought up in China during the Cultural Revolution but moved to Australia following the Tienanmen Square incident in 1989. His practice explored issues of culture, politics, and religion through a comparative study of East and West. In Home-London, the artist photographed Chinese immigrants in front of painted back drops of Chinese landmarks at various tourist sites in western cities. The work considered an ever-changing modern society in response to the idea of ‘Home’ without it becoming blurred with that of nationality. The large scale photographic prints suggested the need to adapt to a new ‘home’ while regaining a degree of affiliation to our cultural heritage.
A third generation Australian-Chinese, William Yang’s practice examines retelling of the personal histories of his family, stories of friends through performance-based pieces which incorporate text, photography, projections and music scores. My Family In North Queensland was a result of the artist’s attempt to reconnect with his family history through cataloguing his family photographs. The work was a journey of self-atonement for his early life of attempt to be more ‘Australian’ as opposed to being an ‘outsider’
Initially the exhibition was schedule for January 2003 and was due to be first show at the Centre’s new venue. However, due to overrunning building works, the exhibition was postpone until January 2004. The exhibition also visited: Derby Museum & Gallery (2004 Mar 6 – Apr 18), Peterborough Museum and Gallery (2004 Sep 11 – Nov 7), and artsdepot, London (2005 Jan 27-Feb 22).