The first show for Para Site this year features, four Asian artists hailing from various parts of the Asian diaspora under the theme of ‘housewarming’. Using the past identity of Para Site, a shophouse before its incarnation as an alternative arts space, Housewarming reinvents the Para Site space into a ‘domestic home’, in which the works of each artist reflect various aspects of spaces found in conventional homes, such as a bedroom, a kitchen or hallway. Housewarming is also a continuous cultural investigation of the domestic space following on from the Ghost Encounter (1997), Home: A Mixed Media Art Exhibition Exploring the Concept of Home and City (1999), and Kem Zeg Fen Seg: An Exhibition of the Visual Thinking on Material Life (1999) at Para Site Art Space.
Hong Kong native ’s house-like structures take on the role of the foyer and its emphasis on putting up the proverbial ‘good front’ to the outside world, while Sydney video artist will present an artwork depicting deeply recessed spaces that act as a metaphor for the hallway. In turn, this ‘hallway’ finds its conclusion in San Francisco-based’s explosion of fantasy creatures from her Naabee series. Recalling creatures from Japanese animation, these motorized installations are intended to fly about the gallery space. Finally, Seoul-based ’s surreal featherscapes will fill the entire second floor, thus alluding to the nature of the ‘bedroom’ as a site for dreaming and resting.
Housewarming is accompanied by an exhibition catalogue, containing an essay by the curator and four interviews with the artists conducted by editor-in-chief of the California art journal Artweek a curator and writer working for the 2004 Sydney Biennale, and , an independent curator based in Vancouver and New York. This exhibition is curated by , Visiting Scholar at the Centre for the Study of Globalization and Culture at the University of Hong Kong, and a frequent contributor to Art Asia Pacific, Tema Celeste, Afterimage, Art Journal, and Third Text.
