Echo
(2022-2024)

The 11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

at the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), Australia, 

from 30 November 2024 to 27 April 2025.

​

​

Continuing the narrative from the lacquer series of 39 zithers about leaving ones’ home, The Doors grapple with ideas about a safe haven, a refuge. The function of the door is defense and protection from the elements, from threats. Every war, every invasion, every wave of refugees are driven by the desire for something better, security, refuge.

In this installation, The Doors has a practical function that connects the outside to the inside but also more symbolic meaning of imprisonment or protection from wars, pollution, climate change and particularly relevant collective experience of being locked up during the Covid years…. and raises questions about where is the real safe haven? Are we being locked in or locked out?

The waves of refugees seeking safe haven are endless. Victims of war, illegal migrant workers or legal marriages, international students, export labor, etc. They are the voiceless and powerless people of little significance, victims in the way of the power struggle and machinations of the powerful.

We all want to have a safe place, doors that open to that safe place. The doors also open to thousands of stories, painful lives in their search for their safe harbour.

The work is arranged by placing the nine antique timber doors, rescued from a junk yard, within the structure of an imaginary traditional house. The doors are closed and locked on the outside. This is intentional to accentuate the idea of control outside the grasp of those within. The people on the inside do not have a right to choose their fates. Maybe, they got out and can no longer return to their memories and their past. May be, they are on the inside wishing to be free of captivity.

Wooden doors are easy to break, or burn. You don't know if you can be kept safe in the night? But you also cannot break free. Because the true bondage is not in the closing or the locking of the doors. It's the powers that surround it.

There is a separation of two spaces, outside looking in and inside looking out. The work is a recreation of a ruined house. The doors are the only remnant. The walls are recreated using silk paintings portraying traces of life, such as certificates of merit, old calendars, memorabilia, and souvenir photos... fragile and vulnerable memories.

On each front door are images of the story of life, breakdown, danger and danger – the side that is visible to outsiders. Inside are landscapes, dreams, religions to build faith and despair.