Crystal City

Crystal City brings together the work of Asian artists alongside New Zealand artists of Asian descent. The works range from photography and video to installation and performance, showcasing recent developments in contemporary art. The artists are: Kim Beom (Korea), Pak Shueng Chuen (HK), Jin Jiangbo (China), Hye Rim Lee (US), Kerry Ann Lee (NZ), Tiffany Singh (NZ) and Cheng-Ta Yu (Taiwan)

Pak has taken the photographs in this work while blindfolded. He asks us to think about how we privilege sight over our other senses by requiring the images to be viewed only with the flash of a camera. In his video Breathing in a House, Pak rented a small apartment in Busan, ‘Although I lived my daily life as usual there, I collected all my breaths in transparent plastic bags until they filled up the entire apartment. The process took ten days to complete and I felt as if part of my life was absorbed by this apartment.’

A central theme of Crystal City is what it means to live in a built-up urban environment, yet remain connected to the natural world and the world of imagination. It reveals the city as a site for wandering and exploring, but also as a place of meaningful connections. Many of the works discuss what it is to be a traveller. Strangers see the landscape with fresh eyes, but Crystal City shows that when we travel we bring our own experiences and viewpoint with us, reinterpreting the world we find ourselves in. Sensual and humorous, spiritual and philosophical, these works chart a geography of both familiar and unknown terrain.

Includes Tiffany Singh

16 July – 2 October

The Dowse, Lower Hutt