ART, RESISTANCE AND THE MAKING OF MODERN CHINA
Book Launch | In Conversation | Author- Madeleine O’Dea & Artist- Guo Jian

For the closing weekend of the Refugees exhibition at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre we are delighted to present an opportunity to hear Madeleine O’Dea, author of the new publication The Phoenix Years in conversation with the artist Guo Gian, who is featured in the book and whose work is included in Refugees. This will followed by a Q & A session and book signing.

In The Phoenix Years, journalist and foreign correspondent Madeleine O’Dea illuminates forty remarkable years of history by entwining China’s economic story with an account of the country’s emerging artistic avant-garde and the Chinese people’s ongoing struggle for freedom of expression.

She follows the personal stories of nine contemporary Chinese artists – Huang Rui, Guo Jian, Sheng Qi, Aniwar, Gonkar Gyatso, Zhang Xiaogang, Cao Fei, Jia Aili, and Pei Li – and shows how China’s rise unleashed creativity, thwarted hopes and sparked tensions between the individual and the state that continue to this day.

The artist Guo Jian was an active participant in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing, initially undertaking a hunger strike and later helping to carry dead and injured people to safety. Guo Jian and his practice are products of the last fifty years of violence and cultural change in China. In 1992, Guo Jian immigrated to Australia. Arriving in Sydney, labouring jobs financed his practice; his artwork gained the attention of curators and critics and his reputation grew.