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Chau Chak Wing Museum

The trace is not a presence ...

Where
Chau Chak Wing Museum
Chau Chak Wing Museum
University Place, University of Sydney, Camperdown NSW 2006
When

Weekdays, 10am to 5pm Weekends, 12pm to 4pm Saturday 24 August 2024 to Sunday 3 August

"The trace is not a presence but is rather the simulacrum of a presence that dislocates, displaces, and refers beyond itself." – Jacques Derrida

Through the hands of five Australian artists from different Chinese diasporic communities, The trace is not a presence… highlights both the active process of making, and the experience of transcending the past towards a present that is not immediately identifiable and complete.

A trace is a materialised passage of time, history, and memory. The exhibition includes historical documents and cultural objects to suggest traces of the past, as well as contemporary artworks by:

  • Dongwang Fan 

  • Jenna Lee

  • Cyrus Tang

  • John Young

  • Louise Zhang

The paintings, sculptures, installations, videos and prints exhibited illustrate how traces can be fabricated, replicated and threaded into the present.

Here, the process of fabrication and reproduction is a positive act, destabilising staid notions of authenticity. The differences artists create potently distinguish them from being static copies or “doubles” of the so-called origin.

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Chau Chak Wing Museum

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