Liyen Chong - Enkyklios (or Pedagogical Experiments)

Liyen Chong - Enkyklios (or Pedagogical Experiments) opening Tuesday

LISTING INFORMATION:

Liyen Chong: Enkyklios (or Pedagogical Experiments)

Blue Oyster Art Project Space, 24b Moray Place, Dunedin

Exhibition runs: Wednesday 27 March - Saturday 20 April 2013

Exhibition Preview: Tuesday 26 March at 5.30pm

“…the purpose of an encyclopedia is to collect knowledge disseminated around the globe; to set forth its general system to the men with whom we live, and transmit it to those who will come after us, so that the work of preceding centuries will not become useless to the centuries to come; and so that our offspring, becoming better instructed, will at the same time become more virtuous and happy,”

Diderot on the purpose of encyclopedias.

A woman, a man, twin bullocks and sheep, groups of men, patients and clients, amateur photographers… a constellation of images from the not too recent past informing the mythology of a region.

Selected and appropriated from an encyclopedia published in 1970s on Australia and New Zealand (& Papua New Guinea), these found images, scanned and enlarged, have been interrupted by explorations into their mythic, visual and iconic qualities.

Inherent in these explorations is the questioning of both the founding statement of the purpose of encyclopedias by Diderot and the cultural/historical backdrop on which the images in this encyclopedia were published.

Liyen Chong is an Auckland based artist, with works in major public collections such as The Chartwell Collection and the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Since 2006, Chong has built up a multi-faceted practice dealing with cultural tropes. Her art practice typically involves in-depth engagement with diverse disciplines and media, including text-based graphic design work, embroidery with hair, printing on ceramics and photography.

A discussion workshop, Back Pocket Myths will be held at the Blue Oyster on Wednesday 27 March at 5.30pm. In this workshop Liyen will facilitate a discussion around the myths and stories of migration that willing participants have and may like to share, how these myths and stories have been framed within their family lore as voyages of discovery, pilgrimage or exile, and perhaps formulate ways of seeing how these myths and stories affect how we see ourselves and relate to each other.

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