Work | Chinese Whispers | Pamela So
CHINESE WHISPERS
In collaboration with
Brighton Museum and Art Gallery
Chinese Whispers floor light, 2008
Pamela So, born in Britain and of Chinese descent, has based much of her recent work on investigation into Chinese patterns appearing on porcelain, textiles and artefacts found in British museums and country houses. Last year she exhibited at Hove Museum & Art Gallery with her wall-covering paper cuts based on Chinese blue and white porcelain patterns. So’s work has also included large scale floor installations using rice and tea leaves and her work has recently evolved to include light and stencils as a way of presenting pattern.
As part of the Chinese Whispers; Chinoiserie in Britain, 1650 – 1930 exhibition at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, Pamela So has been commissioned to respond to the themes and objects within the exhibition and the Royal Pavilion.
In the Royal Pavilion Gardens, she has converted the existing lamps into lanterns by the addition of hybrid Chinese/British patterns similar to those found in the lanterns of the Royal Pavilion, designed in about 1804 by the Crace Firm. This work comments on the use of Chinese-style pattern within British-designed objects of the period.
The imaginative and playful aspect of Chinoiserie is reflected at the museum entrance where the floor lights reveal images in which the artist has used both her own paper cuts and the birds, flowers and insects of Chinoiserie wallpaper in a series of imaginative photo collages.
Pamela So’s use of pattern is not merely decorative but intended as a reflection on British and Chinese cultural histories and the patterns that weave them together.
Saturday 10 May 2008, 2pm,
Brighton Museum and Art Gallery
Artists talk
