The trace is not a presence but is rather the simulacrum of a presence that dislocates, displaces, and refers beyond itself.
Louise Zhang is included in The trace is not a presence... at Chau Chak Wing Museum in the University of Sydney.
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.
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.
Curator: Shuxia Chen
Artwork:
