Coming up on November 21, Bitten Peach 分桃, the latest exhibition from Owen Leong, is opening at the Institute for Australian and Chinese Arts and Culture (IAC). Having seen some of the works appearing in this show, I’m so excited about it. Sydney-siders, you’re in for such a treat!
I’m excited about my own role in this show too. Years after I commissioned Owen to take the cover photo for Look Who’s Morphing, Owen commissioned me to write a fiction piece in response to the works appearing in this show. The title of my piece is “The Whole Cannot Be Understood without Reference to Its Holes 無缺 亦 無圓.” It will be published in the exhibition catalogue (it also appears in the current issue of HEAT magazine: Series 3, Number 16.). In addition, a video featuring a reading I did of the piece will be played on a big screen at the launch. And in what’s truly an honour, the video will even be played on a loop in a space adjoining the exhibition.
More details of the opening follow, adapted from Owen’s e-news posting:
Owen Leong
Bitten Peach 分桃21 November 2024 to 14 February 2025
Institute for Australian and Chinese Arts and Culture
Western Sydney University, Building EA, Parramatta South Campus, Victoria Rd, RydalmereOpening event: Thursday 21 November, 5:00 to 6:30 pm
Guest speaker: Dr Guan Wei
Professor Jing Han in conversation with the artistBitten Peach 分桃 is inspired by a queer reading of Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio 聊齋志異, a collection of classical Chinese stories by Qing dynasty writer Pu Songling (1640 to 1715). In these tales, the boundaries between the supernatural and everyday reality are fluid, with fox spirits, ghosts, and demons inhabiting both worlds.
The studio, as a physical and symbolic space, functions as a gestalt—a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. In this exhibition, the studio embodies an aesthetic, cultural and sensual universe where historical narratives intertwine with contemporary queer identity.
The erotic as an expression of human desire in all its extraordinary intensity and richness, explores the complexities of human nature and consciousness. By fusing historical materials with contemporary forms, I have created a body of work that navigates the delicate interplay between past and present, desire and fantasy, self and world.
For this project, award-winning author Tom Cho was commissioned to write a piece of creative fiction as a looking glass into the exhibition. “The Whole Cannot be Understood Without Reference to its Holes” 無缺亦無圓 is the story of a young scholar who makes love to an ink spirit that springs forth from his imagination, and reflects the theme of art making as an intimate encounter with the self.
From Pu Songling’s Qing dynasty scholar’s studio to Tom’s writing space and my own artist’s studio, this exhibition is a collaboration between artists and writers that unfolds through visual and literary mediums, connecting studios across time and place.
My thanks to IAC Director Prof. Jing Han for her Chinese translations and additional support, Gilleen Pearce for her video captioning, and Tzu-Hao Hsu for her Chinese language coaching.
And of course, my thanks to Owen for inviting me to be part of this project. What a joy, to be collaborators again.