Sinopticon: Contemporary chinoiserie in contemporary art

28 April to 7 July 2012
At Saltram House, National Trust, Plymouth Arts Centre, Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery and Plymouth College of Art

Artists include: Suki Chan (UK), Gayle Chong Kwan (UK), Stephanie Douet (UK), Christian Jankowski (Germany), Isaac Julien (UK), WESSIELING (UK), Grayson Perry (UK), Ed Pien (Canada), Meekyoung Shin (Korea), Karen Tam (Canada), Erika Tan (UK), Tsang KinWah (HK/China) and Laura White (UK)

A new exhibition supported by Arts Council England and the National Trust's 'Trust New Art' programme, featuring the work of 13 international artists that investigates Chinese influence in contemporary art. The exhibition includes six new commissions from Erika Tan, Laura White, Gayle Chong Kwan, Tsang Kin-wah, Ed Pien and Stephanie Douet and new works by Meekyoung Shin and Karen Tam.

Sinopticon (from ‘sino’ meaning Chinese and ‘optic’ meaning ‘ways of seeing’) has been developed by London-based curator, Eliza Gluckman and will culminate in a multi-sited exhibition across the city of Plymouth in late Spring/early Summer 2012. Four of the City’s major cultural venues, including Saltram House, will be joining forces to create new avenues, experiences and engagement with contemporary art in the city and across the South West.

Chinoiserie is a French term describing the Western commodification and impact of Chinese aesthetics on European decorative arts, architecture and garden design from the late seventeenth century onwards, an impact that is today undergoing a significant resurgence as China emerges as the most influential economy of the twenty-first century.

As a result, the exhibition will present the work of a variety of contemporary artists, all of whom draw inspiration from the wealth of chinoiserie in its many forms.

Work by high-profile artists such as Grayson Perry and Erika Tan will be included in the exhibition, which will also feature:

•    Exquisite porcelain pots that on closer inspection turn out to be perfectly made replicas modelled from soap (Meekyoung Shin)
•    An Opium Den where reclining visitors begin to realise that all is not as it seems; images of mass-produced goods ‘made in China’ (Karen Tam)
•    A film made on-site at Saltram House with scenes staged from Sense and Sensibility with Chinese actors asking what happens to symbols of cultural dominance when the world order shifts? (Erika Tan)
•    A ‘living wallpaper’ and a 9ft papercut (Ed Pien)

The works will be displayed at Saltram in Plymouth, a National Trust house with a remarkable collection of early Chinese wallpapers and mirror paintings as well as chinoiserie furniture. Works will also be exhibited at Plymouth Arts Centre, Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery and Plymouth College of Art Gallery.

The partners offer a programme of related events, all of which are designed to engage people with the exhibition as well as explore and reinforce its underlying theme of reassessing perceptions of Chinese culture and its influence on contemporary art.

“Sinopticon looks at chinoiserie afresh and a range of issues including politics and trade, authorship, interpretation, cultural misunderstanding, racism, fantasy and fiction will all be brought to the fore by the exhibition,” says curator, Eliza Gluckman.

“Chinoiserie is never straightforward and always intriguing," adds Emile de Bruijn, National Trust Registrar and chinoiserie expert, "as the British attitudes towards China were always shifting between admiration and condescension, between wanting Chinese goods and dreaming about an escapist fantasy world. Sinopticon is a long-term project that has included extensive research and development, a symposium at London’s Victoria + Albert Museum, residencies and new commissions. It’s exciting to be touring an exhibition resulting from all this work and to be working in partnership with the National Trust and all the Plymouth venues involved.”

www.sinopticon.org

For press enquiries contact: Hannah Prothero, Marketing & Communications Manager, Plymouth Arts Centre, phone: 0794 127 0246, email: hannah@plymouthartscentre.org 

Images (top to bottom): 1) Tsang KinWah, You Are Extremely Terrified Of Them But You Are Definitely Not A Racist, 2012.
2) Meekyoung Shin, Translation, 2010, photographer Peter Mallet, copyright the artist courtesy Haunch of Venison, London.
3) Wessieling, National Dress, V&A installation, 2011
4) Ed Pien, Blue Vine (detail), 2008