Photo: Liang Xu Photography

Exhibition: (Re)Borrowing Arrows with Thatched Boats,"草船借箭"

Opening remarks by Hon Stephen Pratt (South Metropolitan region minister)

Venue: Moores Contemporary Space (Fremantle Arts Centre)

Dates: 9 – 24 Jun 2023

The exhibition ‘(Re)Borrowing Arrows with Thatched Boats’ centres around the Chinese idiom or chengyu "草船借箭". This chengyu was coined from a military strategy developed by Zhuge Liang during the Three Kingdoms Period in China. The strategy involved using decoy boats filled with straw to trick the enemy into wasting their arrows, which were later retrieved and used to launch a successful attack.

Chengyu are idiomatic expressions in the Chinese language that encapsulate cultural, historical, and philosophical concepts in a concise and memorable way. They have been used in literature, poetry, and everyday conversation for centuries. However, despite the presence of Chinese Diaspora in Western Australia, this aspect of Chinese culture is not visible to the broader public.

The artists will use 草船借箭 as a catalyst to navigate their worlds, and process their personal histories, experiences and memories. These Boorloo-based artists will produce their body of works collectively as a poetic metaphor.

*exhibition review by Sam Beard, Dispatch Review

Curator

Desmond Mah

Participating artists

Patricia Amorim

Shanti Gelmi

Desmond Mah

Deborah Worthy-Collins

Tami Xiang