This exhibition focuses on the Yangzi River in China and the Fraser River in British Columbia.
It addresses issues around hybrid culture and its relationship to place, migration, boundary and transformation in the 21st century. It examines global dialogues by bringing together social processes, mobility of place and cultural interaction to connect with migration, identity and memory. The two rivers are positioned as metaphors for hybrid identity and culture and are aligned with concepts of flux and transition as an effect of globalization. Gu Xiong combines visual arts practices with critical approaches to the ideas of ‘place’ and ‘migrant’ in cultural geography and postcolonial cultural studies. Waterscapes examines the role of the waterways – oceans, lakes and rivers – in shaping specific migration flows, including individual experiences of displacement, dispossession and adaptation.
