Ed Pien, Haven, installation, 2007 – 08
1 July – 1 September 2008
Ed Pien is a Canada based installation artist interested in belief systems and ways of seeing the world. For his residency at Chinese Arts Centre, Pien will explore his interest in beliefs and perceptions of reality with particular reference to Manchester’s Chinese community.
Through research into the history of the city’s Chinese community and interviews which reveal personal stories of immigration, Pien will work towards creating an installation to be exhibited at the centre in 2009 which combines diverse media to explore depictions and shifts in attitudes towards the Chinese in this specific locale.
Pien will use his residency to examine the history of the relationship between the inhabitants of the city and the new settlers by uncovering individual experiences of immigration and researching visual representations of the Chinese, particularly caricatures that appeared when the relationship was most volatile.
The extensive research will inform an installation work to be exhibited at the centre in 2009. The installation will combine drawing, sound, video, paper cutting and the play of light to create a walk through environment, inviting the viewer to physically engage with a work that explores the concept of normality, preconceived notions of difference and the ways in which these perceptions can shift.
