HERE AND THERE is a collection based on ancestral land in China and brief memories about NZ childhood.

HERE AND THERE

Tristan Jun Song Zhang

Paintings and illustrations of familiar structures and spaces

September 18 – October 18.

Exhibiting at Artspost, Hamilton.

HERE AND THERE is a collection based on ancestral land in China and brief memories about NZ childhood. Although these works are personally influenced and based on historic events, there is great room for different perspectives.

Fujian “tulou”, the large rounded structures, are a main subject in this project. They were built between the 15th and 20th century by the Hakka people, migrants from conflict in Northern China. Tulou housed up to 800 people at its peak and hosted large extended families for protection against bandits, wild animals and conflict. Built from sand, red soil, wood, stone, sticky rice paste and bamboo support, these impenetrable fortresses have stood the test of time. Other structures seen are traditional Chinese courtyard houses called Siheyuan which consist of a central courtyard, and are also located in the mountainous regions of Fujian.

Featured in this collection are also a couple paintings that depict a small town dairy takeaway located in Waitoa which my dad owned and worked for 7 and a half years from 2005 to 2012. Everyone has a place, somewhere they will remember forever. Was it a restaurant? Or the local bar downtown, a playground in some park? In my paintings, I have added elements to give a subtle sense of the everyday including gardening tools, food, clothes, powerlines and familiar signs in the Waitoa dairy paintings. In a way “here and there” is a literal reference to the two locations depicted in the artworks, though there is a further emphasis on the past and present, and time.