“Where you from?”
Chris Ng
28 Oct → 16 Dec 2023
Gallery

An installation shot - int he foreground a blue and white painted vase on an abstract oval plinth. There is text to the right hand side of the image and in the background, faint wall painted illustrations and objects on wooden floating shelves.
Chris Ng ‘Where you from?’, installation view, West Space, Collingwood Yards, 2023. Photography by Janelle Low.

West Space presents a new body of work by Chris Ng, as part of a partnership with Watch This Space, Northern Territory, and Situate, Tasmania.

"Where you from?" is a question often asked in Mparntwe/Alice Springs, where the artist resides. It is a colloquial phrase but given the context – spoken on land where local Indigenous cultures and languages are still commonly practiced – it can also hold deep ancestral meaning.

The population of Mparntwe is a melting pot of people, from Central, Eastern and Western Arrernte, Pitintjara, Walpiri and Luritja peoples, to non-Indigenous people "born and bred in Alice”, to national and international migrants who have relocated for work opportunities and to escape city life.

Where you from? is born from the artist's experience of living in such a place, as a person of colour and first-generation 'Australian'. It is a project for the culturally ambiguous by the culturally ambiguous, for whom the term “culturally diverse” is complex.

Realised across ceramics and installation, Where you from? looks to reimagine cultural identities and histories, to redefine an understanding of multiculturalism in so-called 'Australia' by presenting it in intimate and individual scale. Where you from? is about voicing the unique insights that people of layered cultural backgrounds have to share, and focussing on the diverse cultures that we know rather than what we have lost.

Presented in partnership with Watch This Space (NT) and Situate (Tas), as part of Craft Contemporary. This project is supported by Arts Northern Territory and the City of Yarra.

Program

Batik making workshop, Sun 29 Oct, 11am → 3pm

Chris Ng led a group through the practice and processes of making batik, a dying technique using wax resist.

A mural painted in blue paint on a white wall. The image depicts a location known as "the gap" in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia. Two rocky mountain peaks coverge at a low point where a road and train track pass through the middle. There is text that says "there mparntwe". Above there are two birds in flight with text above them that says "always was, always will be". In front of the mural, a woman in red poses smiling
A mural painted in blue paint on a white wall. The image depicts a location known as "the gap" in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia. Two rocky mountain peaks coverge at a low point where a road and train track pass through the middle. There is text that says "there mparntwe". Above there are two birds in flight with text above them that says "always was, always will be"
Two figures stand glaring downward toward a hovering, suspended flat circular plane in colours of red, deep brown and a warm yellow.
Two figures standing beside a hand painted, intricate vase on a rounded plinth, smiling widely in close proximity to the install.
An installation shot of an exhibition. In the foreground, a flat circle plane suspended lowly from the ceiling, hovering above the ground. In the backdrop you can recognise a large blue wall mural, 3 ceramic plates installed vertically on the distant wall and a suspended hand painted vase on a rounded plinth.
A hand painted ceramic plate in blue on white. The outer rim of the plate is a thick checkered pattern. The inner of the plate is of intricate, detailed subject matter that faintly depicts segments of a landscape.
blue and white delicately and intricately painted vase on a round plinth. In the background there are 3 painted ceramic plates on the wall.
A hand painted plate hung on white wall in vibrant colours of deep red, yellow, hints of blue and green. The subject matter combines historic technique of intricate painted patterns with modern symbols of MacDonalds and KFC.
large wall painting in blue on white. The painting depicts the crevis of 2 mountains joining . At their base there is a road and above the connecting mountains two large birds flying together. In the foreground on a different wall there is a large body of text in blue print.
Close up of a blue on white painted teacup, ahead of another 4, on a wooden surface.
Close up of a red and green painted tea-cup, ahead of another 4, presented on a wooden surface. On the cup read KFC amongst repetitive floral patterns.
5 small ceramic-like blue and cream coloured cups presented on a floating wooden shelf.
A wall painting in blue - 4 houses in the same neighbourhood with long drive ways that connect at the front. The illustration is simple and in singular line-work.
A wall painting in blue, onto a white wall. The subject matter depicts 4 figures carrying a boat in a line. Ahead of them a figure is in a pelican floaty and the figure out the front of the line standing in a boat, both with their arms in the air.
One person speaking to the microphone while the other person is looking.
the hand of a figure applying a mark making tool to a red and yellow squiggly work or cloth, on top a covered table.
Two figures stand up at a table dipping a brush each into a pot, ready to apply to a surface on the table. They are both wearing hats outdoors, and the table is covered in cloth.
A female figure leans downward holding a paintbrush. In the other hand a purple cloth covered in stars on top of a cardboard piece, outdoors. There is beside them, a tub of tinted orange water on gravel.
A woman handles a work int he process of pegging it to along string of accompanying vibrant works or cloths. There is a trolley in the foreground and another figure sitting on a brick bench in the backdrop watching what the first figure is doing.

Chris Ng is an emerging artist living and working in Mparntwe/Alice Springs. A first-generation born “Australian” of South-East Asian/Chinese family background, Chris grew up in the suburbs of Sydney. Their art practice is informed by their experiences and identity as well as their immediate surroundings and natural, political and socio-economic landscape.

Related

A crafted blue and white plate on the ground.

Chris Ng, Where you from?
2023