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A project developed through a series of short residency periods in the south China city of Guangzhou, and Sydney - courtesy of 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art (Sydney), and Observation Society (Guangzhou).
In Guangzhou, I explored the geographical and social dimensions of the Pearl River Delta, the defining waterway of this region.
I produced a set of five screenprints showing climate change induced sea level rise scenarios for the Pearl River Delta.
I also created a set of "Haiku Couplets" generated from small everyday experiences on the ground in Guangzhou.
A series of blog posts – featuring stories, haiku, and photographs – were published as an integral part of the project. Read the blog here.
A summary of sorts, including images of the screenprints produced during the project, is here.
At the end of my visit to Guangzhou, I visited an excellent rice farming enterprise in a village in Northern Guangdong. You can read about that here. This developed into a work of its own, entitled Talking about rice while eating rice.
More info about Guangzhou Delta Haiku:
The project was an initiative of 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, in Sydney, and Observation Society (OS), in Guangzhou, as part of the 30th anniversary celebration of the sister city relationship between these two cities.4A and OS invited two artists – Trevor Yeung (Hong Kong) and Lucas Ihlein (Wollongong/Sydney) to spend time in Guangzhou, as a cultural exchange experience.
The project was punctuated by two exhibitions, both under the banner SEA PEARL/WHITE CLOUD: in Guangzhou and Sydney.
In November 2017, the Guangzhou Delta Haiku Sea Level Rise Maps were exhibited in Beijing as part of the exhibition Stir: Social Art Lab curated by the Gingko Foundation. See exhibition catalogue here.
Media:
SEA PEARL/WHITE CLOUD at Observation Society's website.SEA PEARL/WHITE CLOUD at 4a Centre for Contemporary Asian Art website.
Clover Moore, Sydney Guangzhou: Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the Sydney-Guangzhou sister-city Relationship.
Claire Wilson. Sea Pearl White Cloud: Urban waterways in a Guangzhou-Sydney collaboration at Art Radar Journal, June 2016.
Minerva Inwald, Fragile Environments: The Sea Pearl White Cloud Project, in Art Monthly Australia, Issue 292, September 2016.
Minerva Inwald, Cities, neighbourhoods, spaces: conversations with Anthony Yung, Lucas Ihlein and Trevor Yeung, in 4A Papers, Issue 1, November 2016.
Ran Dian Art Magazine, Lucas Ihlein & Trevor Yeung's Sea Pearl White Cloud at Observation Society, Guangzhou, June 2016.
Tai Mitsuji, Tale of two cities as artists bridge cultural divide between Australia and China, August 4, 2016.
Georgia Moody, Fluid collaborations between Guangzhou and Sydney, ABC Books and Arts Daily, August 10, 2016.
Trevor Yeung interviewed on SBS radio, 3 August 2016 (in Mandarin).
The Foundation for Australian Studies in China (FASIC) used one of the sea-level rise screenprints from Guangzhou Delta Haiku for the program of their conference entitled Sustainability: Social and Environmental Issues, held in Guangzhou in November 2016. View the conference program here.
Sea Pearl White Cloud project credits:
Artists: Trevor Yeung and Lucas IhleinCurators: Pedro de Almeida and Mikala Tai (4A), Anthony Yung (OS)
Artist support: Hanting Feng
Visiting writer: Minerva Inwald
Guangzhou Delta Haiku project credits:
Graphic design and animation: John Causley (Big Fag Press, Sydney)
Screenprinting: Liang Yonghao and Han Xueyi (Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts)
Project support: Feng Hanting, Huáng Hé, Pedro de Almeida, Anthony Yung and Trevor Yeung
Lucas Ihlein acknowledges the support of the Australia Council for the Arts. During 2016-17 Lucas is an Australia Council Fellow (Emerging and Experimental Arts).
Lucas Ihlein’s work in Guangzhou is a co-production with designer John Causley at Big Fag Press; printing technicians: artists Liang and Cherie at Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts.
This work was produced with the assistance of an ARC DECRA Research Fellowship at University of Wollongong.