Siying Zhou

Chan Contemporary Art Space

Artists: J9, Rupert Betheras, Simon Cooper, Sia Cox, Bill Davies, Trevor Jenkins, Ian Hance, Franck Gohier, Colin Holt, Suzi Lyon, Chips MacKinolty, Rod Moss, Henry Smith, Ben Ward, Leanne Waterhouse, Hayley West, Browyn Wright & Siying Zhou.

At the Opening of the MAGNT exhibition Activate-Cultivate in 2011, Chips MacKinolty made an introductory speech, in that speech he touched on the ideas around Territory Nomads - artist who come back and forth from the Territory or may have only lived in the Territory for a period of time but have contribute to its art history.

Six curators have come together to challenge our perceptions of nomads and define who is or isnt a real Territorian Artist.

The exhibition will include paintings, sculptures, fibre work, digital media and installations.

Thinking about nomads

Siying Zhou

Nomad: a member of a people that travels from place to place to find fresh pasture for its animals and has no permanent home. (Oxford English Dictionary)

To consider the subject of nomad seems an invitation to query who we are. Nomads can be any nationality, any age, be any race and work in any area in society. The title of nomad projects a sense of equality. Newly arrived nomads are equally considered strangers in their ‘new’ community. Nomads are recognized and judged by the way they live. Besides the traveling, what else do people know about nomads? Taking three common activities of nomadic life: packing, re-structuring and praying as the entre points, we may perceive the philosophy of nomads and gain the understanding about our lives.   

1, Packing

The action of packing generally is to transfer objects into containers that vary in forms. For travelers and nomads packing contains a purpose that is to make packed objects move with them and used at next destinations. With this purpose, packing becomes a relatively complex human activity that involves serials of physical movements led by thousands and hundreds of brain exercises.  It is a process of making decisions and judgment.  When the material, size, the producer and functionality of luggage are considered, in return, luggage becomes a platform that reveals are people’s economic status, social positions, attitude towards the life and cultural background.

In Cooper’s work Luggage Limit, four ‘refugee bags’ made of plastic with the blue and white stripe pattern are shaped in disfigured human bodies. A limb is missing on each body bag.  Body image is understood as a form of cultural baggage and transient populations. Embedded the message of a disadvantaged and vulnerable people, the refugee bag becomes a cultural icon. Sealed by zips, the bags are hollowed and filled with the air. A cultural body bag that imposes and limits what aspects of the self you must and can bring with you to different societies, whether as a tourist, immigrant or refugee.

2, dis-construction:

In the process of packing the complex and confusing life is materialized and simply summarized as a bag full of objects. Every object in the life is revisited, evaluated and selected.  It is like reshuffle the whole life. Some objects survive, others are left behind.

West’s soft sculpture So Far projects all kinds of questions about this reshuffle process. What to keep? What is the meaning of everything you have? Should we be loyal to the objects? Turning a table cloth that West bought in Paris and her wedding dress that she bought in Jogjakarta into an organic shaped artwork, West recreates a new object that is injected a new meaning to herself at the new stage of her life. Through the mediational process of cutting and sewing, West psychologically moves on and makes her currently ‘so far so good’ .

3, Praying:

Nomads offer the rest of the world a strong ritual culture to pray for a better life and prosperous future and to discover the unseen or unknown. This wish for wealth and happiness flows along all the stops that nomads visit.  When nomads travel, they carry not only physical luggage, but also a package of their spiritual beliefs. Temples for all kinds of religions are built onto various landscapes to provide a ghetto for nomads where they find a peaceful mind, connect to the past and future, refill the strength and obtain a sense of security.

In Temple Export Zhou builds a praying room inside a huge wood shipping crate. Simulating the function of a temple, the crate is decorated the image of Ma Zhu, the goddess who has the power of controlling the ocean and whom Chinese sailors pray before taking a long journey and a cushion for people to kneel down. Directing the visitors to perform a praying ceremony in the work, Zhou intends to draw out hopes and positive energy from them.

Under the surface of the travelling lifestyle, nomads have drawn together, sliced up by the force of continental drift, politic boundaries and hatred. Their journeys are not mechanical and physical, but very emotional and organic. Nomads connect through their very personal journeys and stories. Their lives shift to a ‘new’ stage when they move to a new place.