Kiosk for the Silent Traveller 哑行者的亭子 (2018)
As installed at He Xiangning Art Museum (Shenzhen, China)
3.05 x 3.05 x 2.90 m / 10 x 10 x 9.5 ft
The title of this piece references the Chinese kiosks at World Expositions in the 19th and 20th centuries, such as
the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition or the smaller cultural booths for fundraisers in Chinatowns. As
well, the ‘Silent Traveller’ was the pen-name of poet and artist, Chiang Yee 蔣彝 (1903-1977) who wrote a series of
books, based on his life and travels in England and America between 1933 to 1975. With moon gates on all four sides
and taking the form of chinoiserie follies and cabinets of curiosities built in Europe and America since the 17th
century, the structure of this installation also brings to mind the curio shops found throughout the Chinese
diaspora, in Chinatowns around the world. These types of spaces are created fantasies — the former two constructed
by Europeans and Americans playing out their desires for an imagined China, while the latter were Chinese businesses
in the West that employ exoticism as a strategy for economic survival. The interior is populated by several of my sculptures and artworks, in addition to furniture and
artifacts sourced locally in Shenzhen.
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