Exhibition

Acute Actions: Responses to I Am Not a Virus, Part 1

<p>Acute Actions: Responses to I Am Not a Virus, Part 1</p>

When

15 April 2021 -
15 May 2021

Location

4A @ Darlinghurst

101-111 William St, Darlinghurst, Sydney, NSW

Open Thursday to Saturdays, 10am – 4pm

Curatorial Assistant: Dylan Goh

View Roomsheet

View Wall Labels

Access the podcast & transcript for Art, craft, collective solidarity and fandom culture: Sophia Cai

Access the Let's unpack Acute Acts panel podcast & transcript

Watch the live performance of (qi) by Amy Zhang and MaggZ

Acute Actions: Responses to I Am Not A Virus is an artist-led exhibition series that seeks to unpack the hidden injuries of racism through the lived experience of Asian Australian artists and Asian artists living in Australia. By utilising experimental material and physical practices, the eight artists in Acute Actions part 1 illustrate poetically how the diverse futures for Australia might look. Through performative actions, material assemblage and sharing cultural food, their practices act as both archives of past traumas and sites of collective diasporic consciousness.

A woman with long black hair in a white blouse and yellow full-length skirt stands on a street outside a gallery glass front, looking at a yellow knitted sweater with sleeves knitted to be 1.5 metres long. The decal sign on the glass front reads 'Acute Actions: Responses to I Am Not A Virus. 15 April - 15 May'
A yellow knitted sweater with sleeves knitted to be 1.5 metres long, hanging in front of a glass wall. The end of the sleeves are knitted with layered patterns of stripes, arrows and checkered boxes. The collar and hem are knitted with short vertical black stripes.
A male-presenting figure and a female-presenting figure sit back to back on white stools in a gallery space against a white curtain wall. The male figure is dressed in a black hoodie, black shorts and black socks and sneakers, with headphones over his ears as he watches a video work on a wall-mounted television screen. The female figure, dressed in a white blouse and a long cadmium yellow skirt, also has headphones over her ears and is watching a video work on a wall-mounted television screen.
A colourful spread of earthenware sculptures imitating a spread of fruit, savoury snacks and East or Southeast Asian-inspired desserts. The spread features multicoloured fortune cookies, glutinous rice cakes, cakes rolled in shredded coconut and green, pink and red sticky rice cakes cut in the shapes of diamonds. Above this spread is a blue wall hanging embroidered with a fictional pink logogram.
Close-up of 12 textile dumplings arranged in rows on a white plinth. The dumplings are embroidered with Asian-focused racial slurs such as Yellow Peril, Fresh off the Boat, Chink and Ching Chong
View from outside a gallery glass front of four photographic prints in white frames. The first shows a figure in a white hazmat suit and goggles standing against a blank white wall. Their palms are pressed together in prayer-like fashion front of their body, as a traditional Thai greeting. The second and third photograph show bright yellow paint being poured over the figure's head and splashing the wall behind them. The last photograph shows a female-presenting figure with the hazmat suit, now splashed with yellow paint, pulled down past her bare shoulders. Her palms are still pressed together as she looks at the camera.
  

Photos: Kai Wasikowski

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