Introduction
Reading the Self, Reading the Others invites Chinese and Irish participants to construct visual images of themselves to be read by others and/ or visualise the ‘other’ as objects of their gaze. It hopes to open up discussions on cross-cultural readings of the ‘self’ and ‘other’; draw out embedded feelings and cross social boundaries.
Binbin and Billy 'Reading the Self, Reading the Other (Dublin, 2009) Photo: Thomas O'Connor
Background
The Ni Hao – Dia Duit (Hallo-Hallo) was a cross-cultural project, in which Irish artists worked with Jay Koh to research on and interact with members of the Chinese community around Parnell Street. This led to the formation of the Irish Chinese Culture and Sport Association in 2008. Following that, “Reading the Self, Reading the Other” was conceived to engage with members of the Chinese community to create visualisations of themselves and others through photography and to work with Irish artists to interpret and artistically re-present certain issues identified in the Ni Hao – Dia Duit project, to be ambiguously sited as interventions to prevalent perceptions of self and others. These visualisations are cultural constructions that will open up and reveal various “readings”, perceptions and concepts of the “self” and the “others”. Exhibitions, commentaries and public discussions will be facilitated by artists/ cultural specialists and will take place in shopping malls, Chinese restaurants, Chinese and Irish newspapers, web sites and gallery spaces.
Project participants
The participants will be members of the Chinese community in Dublin aged between 18 and 50 years old, from various backgrounds, who have been living in Dublin over the past 2 to10 years, and invited Irish artists and cultural specialists who will be selected based on their skills and experience in working on cross-cultural and participatory projects.
Changing perceptions changing relationships
We hope that the images and art works created with the participants will open up discussions and challenge pre-defined notions of Chinese and Irish communities in Ireland today; and to possibly reveal embedded tensions so that they can be addressed; and to overcome prejudices and stereotypes.
The project activities are comprehensive, wide ranging, accessible and inclusive and can open up new possibilities for sustainable exchanges and engagements across the communities contributing to the development of public participative arts.
We hope to establish a social space for cross community interactions. By connecting with and involving meta- and relational structures on site (key positions in the communities, social networks, popular social spaces and establishments, local organisations, local media, etc.) we hope to create new sustainable relationships so that when the artists leave, the activities will continue to be carried on by the local communities as a sustainable project, facilitated by the Irish Chinese Culture and Sport Association.
The regular discussion columns and features in the Chinese newspaper (print and website) will become a form of information sharing to generate new interests within the community. We hope that the interest and knowledge generated can become a form of active communal learning. We will conduct deeper dialogue to look into the participants’ readings and concept of looking at themselves within the Irish social and cultural environments, as well as how they perceive the Irish. These documented findings and body of visual material will become valuable resource materials for artists and researchers engaged in future related projects.
News
March 20th 2010
The winners of the Photography competition were presented with their prizes by Sarah Tuck of Create and lively discussion and food followed.
Left to right: 1st Prize Fungsee Young, 2nd Prize Ziyi Liu, 3rd Prize Kaka
March 20th 2010
Sarah Tuck director of Create, the national development agency for collaborative arts in Ireland will present the winners of the Reading the Self, Reading the Others photography competition at a prize giving ceremony this coming Tuesday 23th March at 6.30pm. The venue is the Sunshine House Chinese Restaurant, 139 Parnell Street, Dublin 1.
March 2010
We are currently trying to contact the winner of the photography competition Fungsee Young before we present the prizes. Please contact either Thomas or Jay if you know who it is at info@readingselfreadingothers.com
Winners of Photography Competition
1st Prize Title: Bray and Powerscourt by Fungsee Young
2ndPrize Title: Love Im by Ziyi Liu
3rdPrize Title: Untitled by Kaka
February 2010
Reading the Self, Reading the Others
Photography exhibition and Cross Community Conversations
Exhibition Photos
Sharing Stories of Struggle and Achievement Themed conversation facilitated by Tom O'Connor
Youth Day Supported by Stoneybatter Youth Service and Dublin 7 School Completion Programme
Dating Chinese Style Themed conversation facilitated by Ziyi Liu and Binbin Li
Style and Beauty of the Chinese Themed conversation facilitated by Emily Guo and supported by Charming Hair Beauty
January 2010
Call to all members of the Chinese Community to submit photographs of their experiences and life in Ireland for the upcoming photography exhibition being held as part of the celebrations of the Chinese New Year in Febuary. Deadline 30th of January.Contact Thomas or Jay at info@readingselfreadingothers.com
October-December 2009
Workshop Articles
Between October and December this year, articles will be published in the Sun Emerald news paper and will function as informal workshops informing the Chinese community of the use of images in society in general and art in particular. The purpose of this series of articles is to create an awareness of and interest in Public Art, specifically inspiring potential participants to take part in this project by taking photographs of their experience and life in Ireland. These photographs will form an exhibition planned for the Chinese New Year.
Invitation to submit Proposal for Reading Self, Reading Other Project
We would like to invite Artists to submit a very short proposal (150 – 250 words) that would indicate the type of process and approach you would have to making a piece of art-work in response to a photographic image/s produced by a member/s of the Chinese Community looking at their life and activities in Ireland. The images should be available from December 2009 onwards. An alternative would be your work looking at activities of members of the Chinese community living in Ireland
Background information to the Project.
This project will begin in Oct 2009 with a series of articles written specifically for the Chinese community in Ireland about images and their use in representation in their national weekly newspaper The Sun Emerald Chinese Newspaper. These articles will function as a series of informal workshops to inform and inspire participants to take part in producing photographic images about their time/position in Ireland and Irish society. As participants come on board technical workshops on the symbolic and practical production of these images will be provided by Jay Koh and Thomas O’Connor. The resulting images will be exhibited in a city centre location in Dublin at the time of the Chinese New Year (February 2010).
What we would like you to do is come up with a simple proposal that is a response to this work that goes beyond a response to the work itself but on some level creates a dialogue with the creator of the work you are responding to. An alternative will be for you to create a work in response to your perception or through your research, an Irish perception of how members of the Chinese community lead their lives in Ireland.
This proposal should be quick and straight forward without a huge amount of thought at this stage. Then we would like to have a chat about it to see where it would take us. We want to keep this process open and light so that if what you propose is not what we are looking for, no one feels bad about having invested too much time in this endeavor. As the fee for the final piece is €500. It is planned to be exhibited at a city centre location alongside images from the Chinese Community (from the Reading the Self, Reading the Others photographic exhibition that form part of the Dublin City Chinese New Year Celebrations) in May 2010.
Supported by the Arts Council's Artist in the Community Scheme, managed by Create the national development agency for collaborative arts.
