Opening:Jan 5,2008,20:00
Exhibition Duration:Jan 5, 2008 –Mar 6, 2008
Address:TCG Nordica,xibalu 101,Kunming,Yunnan,China
Tel:0871-4114692,4114961
www.tcgnordica.com
TCG Nordica Gallery
The Finnish artist Kaarina Ormio is spending 5 months in Kunming.
artist statement:
I work with the theme “chinoiserie”. This historical art style from the rococo time means European eager for the Chinese based on exotic fantasies. The Finnish Chinese-translator Pertti Nieminen has said about “chinoiserie”: “The fairytale “The Nightingale” of H.C. Andersen was as good an information as decorative pictures on English porcelain plates.
In Kunming I sew “Chinese princess dresses” that are based on my European fantasies, they are a mixture of the European and the Chinese. They are also real, wearable dresses.
I have worked with different media like performance, book, film,installation, dresses, but mostly for the same theme, where the traveling fairytale princess always appears in one way or another. She is like a western explorer and imperialist, but in a mild and a bit playful sense. I try to sew the “Chinese princess dresses” on the basis of the local taste with a wish to conform with an unfamiliar culture. When conquering a country I also become conquered myself. By sewing a dress in a strange country and dressing up in it I try to get inside the strangeness.
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