13 November 2006 – 9 February 2007
Karen Tam works in the fields of installation and video that looks at narration, memory, identity, and migration. She has been interested in the history of the Chinese diasporas, and how it is closely connected to the emergence of Chinese restaurants and cuisine in the West.
The research comes out of a family history in the business. The Sino-restaurant can be used as a metaphor for Cathay, or the idea of China in the minds of Westerners. Karen will create interior spaces of typical Chinese restaurants to evoke a mythical China, yet at the same time presenting the history of Chinese restaurants.
Open Studio
Have you ever dreamt of lands faraway where chattering monkeys, weeping maidens, terrifying dragons, and rickety bridges co-exist peacefully with fantastic phoenixes, wandering mandarins, and fighting fish?
Recent years have seen the return of the exotic, of the Far East, in Western popular culture. This is not something new; there has been a fascination with the East since the days of the China export trade and Silk Road, in travel journals, ships laden with spices, silk, tea and other exotic ware. Even at that time, as the market was being flooded by products made in China and produced for the Western taste, overseas Chinese were targeted by racist laws and deemed inassimilable aliens.
Do you have Chinese Fever? Do you want to create your own Pagoda Pad? Come join us for a cup of poppy tea at the Opium Den, or soothe your soul in our Zen in Ten Bathroom with music inspired by ‘ching-chongery.’ Learn how to bring a bit of the exotic East into your home with the Pagoda Pads series of videos.
Pagoda Pads include a series of small modern-day chinoiserie rooms and walls that explore Western notions and reconstructions of China and the Chinese in current popular culture. Taking cues from interior décor, fashion, and television shows, each space will be decorated with the must-have exotic accessories and furnishings as well as photographs, paper-cutouts, music, text, and other objects that have a more critical and racist slant.
Opium Den
House of vice, associated with sexual fantasies, exoticism at its most decadent, opulence and luxury. This room is inspired by old Hollywood movies such as “Bitter Tea of General Yen”, Fu Manchu series, and movie star Anna May Wong, against a musical backdrop of 19th and 20th century racist tunes. Within this room, I would like to explore how stereotypes of Dragon Ladies, harems of fallen women and geisha girls, effeminate gambling and drug-addicted Asian men are still being perpetuated.
Zen in Ten Bathroom
Bare essentials are the highlight of this redecorated bathroom. A local Mancunian opens up his flat for a mini-chinoiserie transformation. Bamboo groves and a Japanesque rock garden will lead you on the path of rejuvenation.
