Rainbow Chan | From Grief to Light: Reflections on a Multidisciplinary Practice

Chun Yin Rainbow Chan (b.1990, Hong Kong, lives and works in Melbourne/Naarm, Victoria, Australia) is a multidisciplinary artist who works across sound, visual art, performance and installation. Born in Hong Kong and raised in Sydney, she is interested in mistranslations, matrilineal knowledge, and the diasporic psyche of connection/disconnection. Chan often evokes traditional Chinese methods or styles and represents them in uncanny ways. Her research engages with the authentic and the copy, exploring sites of exchange and desire which complicate Western notions of originality and “appropriate” consumption. In 2022, Chan was recognised in the "40 Under 40: Most Influential Asian Australians Award" for her contribution to arts and culture. She won "Artist of the Year" in the 2022 FBi SMAC Awards. Both heartbreaking and tender, her idiosyncratic brand of pop music reflects deeply personal tales of love and loss.

Chan is one of eight Hong Kong-born artists from different generations of the diaspora brought together for the exhibition Assembly (12 February - 24 May 2024) at the Australian Centre on China in the World Gallery, curated by Dr Olivier Krischer. An ‘assembly’ can be a temporary collective with a shared sense of purpose, or a creative, resilient (and sometimes precarious) construction. Amid the current wave of migration, Assembly explores the act of ‘making sense’ of layers and fragments, of memories and stories, told or untold. Assembly embraces the resonance and dissonance between the diverse creative practices of these artists, questioning readymade notions of diasporic identity.

This event will be held both on-campus and online via Zoom (a link to the online stream will be sent to registered attendees).

The School of Art & Design Seminar series will continue weekly on Tuesdays from 1-2pm, between 13 February and 14 May 2024. To see information about upcoming speakers and to register to attend please follow this link https://rb.gy/v923bn

The School of Art & Design Seminar Series is co-convened by Dr Alex Burchmore, Alia Parker, and Elisa Crossing.

Image: Fruit Song 生果文, 2022. Habotai silk, silk dye, freshwater pearls, 花带 patterned braids, linocut print, polyamide thread, cotton, vinyl lettering, wall paint, multichannel audio (5:20 minutes), dimensions variable. Art Gallery of New South Wales collection.