Chen Qiulin: One Hundred Names
Prominent Chinese photographer Chen Qiulin will be holding an exhibition, One Hundred Names at the 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art. The exhibition includes over a decade of work focusing on the central issues of migration, displacement, ancestry, urban development and its disruption of traditional culture and way of life.
All of these issues and themes are close to Qiulin’s heart as she has been greatly affected by them over the years. To portray these themes she uses a combination of video installments, photography and other imagery.
Her favourite piece is the installation ‘One Hundred Names for Kwong Wah Chong’, it’s the latest iteration of her ongoing video works documenting the decaying process of one hundred common Chinese family names carved from tofu.
Qiulin said she found fifteen surnames that are not included in her previous works so she looked for people of these surnames on the Internet and invited fifteen individuals to participate in the work.
She started taking photos in 2001 when the construction of the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River forced mass migration from her hometown. As a result she lost many friends, so to counteract that she became interested in making documentaries to keep alive the memory of her friends and hometown.
Her future plans include going to Guizhou to photograph a village where the Dong ethnic minority live. (AMal)
Jan 16–Feb 27. 11am-6pm. 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, 181-187 Hay Street, Sydney. Info: 4a.com.au
BY ATHINA MALLIS
