The China Project

In Sydney I visited the Museum of Contemporary Art at which one of Ah Xian's Porcelain Busts is being featured among the museum's New Acquisitions. I am fascinated by Ah Xian's work not only because it is beautiful but reclaims the traditional Chinese patterns stolen and distributed among European dinner tables by the likes of Spode and literally gives them a human face. His work is a statement about the value of tradition and culture to both society and the person in a post-colonial context.

Another of Ah Xian's porcelain casts will be shown as part of the Three Decades: The Contemporary Chinese Collection exhibition at Brisbane's Gallery of Modern Art. While you're there, GoMA is already home to to the lotus flower decorated 'Human human' figure as pictured below. The exhibition opens on 28 March and features a number of contemporary Chinese artists who are more than likely to give the term 'made in China' a whole new meaning.

China China - Bust No. 3 1998

Human Human - Lotus Cloisonne Figure 1 2000-01