Red Inc. is both an exhibition and collective, featuring the work of eight East-Asian Australian artists – Casey Chen, Chris Chew, Rosemary Lee, Tya Tey, Yu Xin Jia, Morus Quin, Alicia Zhao, and Richard Chaohsi Wu – whose practices imagine what emerges from diversely hybridised cultural experiences.
Across many East Asian cultures, from China, Japan, North and South Korea, Mongolia, and Taiwan, the use of red ink has manifold meaning. In ancient China, to write the name of a living person in red ink was to wish them death, a taboo often associated with death rites and rituals; conversely, the decorative use of the colour red in a celebratory context, such as in weddings and other auspicious events, could convey prosperity and fortune.
From this context emerges Red Inc., which, in appropriating the abbreviated ‘incorporated’ (signifying the unity of its individual members), speaks punningly of their collective ambivalence towards their inherited diasporic origins. As well as Asia-specific imaginings, Red Inc. explores ideas and experiences that arise from 'reworlding' in hegemonic systems of the West – what remains, and what is lost. The exhibition represents contemporary interpretations of traditional mediums – including porcelain, pigment, clay, paper, and ink – and a broad array of experimental material practices.
