Retellings: Rainbow Chan x Sin Wai Kin
14 + 15 August 2024
Co-presented by Phoenix Central Park and Cement Fondu, "Retellings" is a new collaborative performance by Sin Wai Kin (London, UK) and Rainbow Chan (Naarm/Melbourne).
Underscored by an evocative soundscape, this performance delves into the porous nature of storytelling. The artists will retell semi-autobiographical prose multiple times, with each version subtly shifting and blending into the next. As the stories evolve, the lines between the storytellers and their iterations blur, creating a narrative that questions the notion of authenticity and origins. "Retellings" invites you to enjoy an evening of dynamic and evolving tales, immersing you in the creative synergy of these two innovative voices.
Preceding the collaborative performance, Rainbow Chan will perform new songs from her upcoming album 'The Bridal Lament' along with earlier, celebrated musical pieces.
"Retellings" is presented in conjunction with an exhibition at Cement Fondu, which will feature newly commissioned artworks by Rainbow Chan alongside recent works by Sin Wai Kin previously not seen in Australia.
Sin Wai Kin (b. 1991, Toronto, CA) brings fantasy to life through storytelling in performance, moving image, writing, and print. Drawing on experiences of existing between binary categories, their work realizes alternate worlds to describe lived experiences of desire, identification and consciousness.
Rainbow Chan (b. 1990, Hong Kong, lives and works in Naarm/Melbourne) is a singer, music producer and visual artist who works across sound, painting, performance and installation. Her practice is interested in notions of authenticity, imperfect translations and matrilineal histories.
Header images: Abdela Igmirien, Dan Wilton
10 August—29 September 2024
Cement Fondu, 36 Gosbell St Paddington NSW 2021
Gallery Hours: Thurs-Sun 11am-5pm
For Cement Fondu’s 6th annual pairing of an esteemed international artist with a rising local star, Turner Prize nominated Sin Wai Kin is teamed with award-winning multidisciplinary artist Rainbow Chan in Retellings, a gallery exhibition and live performance co-presented with Phoenix Central Park.
Exhibited at Cement Fondu, Retellings (Revisions) combines the two artists’ world-building practices to envelop audiences in an estranged environment that weaves together newly commissioned artwork by Chan with film works by UK-based Sin, which have previously not been seen in Australia before.
Working across video, performance and installation, the artists create speculative narratives that blur the real and imagined and confront limiting categorisations, such as East and West; past, present and future; and gender binaries. They similarly intersect the visual arts with broader creative and embodied practices, such as pop music, club culture, opera and drag, artisanal craft and costume.
In Retellings(Revisited), new silk painting, sculpture and a short film by Chan continue her exploration of bittersweet bridal laments passed down via matrilineal storytelling through the Weitou women indigenous to Hong Kong, with whom she has ancestral ties. While full of despair, Chan reinvests these laments with hope, celebrating them as fierce moments of public protest and affecting, metaphorical meditations on the diasporic experience of transitioning between homes.
Interwoven with Chan’s works, Sin’s video series Portraits and film work The Story Cycle foreground the cycles of listening, embodying and telling that construct our experience of human nature, featuring recurring characters that personify traditional roles in Chinese opera.
Sin Wai Kin, Wai King, 2023, single-channel video, film still. Courtesy the artist and Soft Opening, London. Photography by Mark Blower.
Performances
PerformancesWednesday 14 + Thursday 15 August 2024, 6:30pm & 8:15pm
LocationPhoenix Central Park
49 O'Connor St, Chippendale
TicketsFree, by ballot only
Ballot closed
Ballot draw date: Monday 5 August 2024
Ticketing FAQs
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All performances at Phoenix Central Park are free.
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Phoenix Central Park is an intimate performance space and tickets are limited. Due to high demand, tickets will be issued at random to those who have entered each ticket ballot. Each performance has a separate ballot, so if you would like to attend multiple performances, you will need to enter each ballot separately.
We advise you to listen to the artist you are entering the ballot for, and consider which shows you’d really like to attend. Entering more ballots does not increase your chances of attending.
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If you are successful you will receive an email up to ten days prior to the performance with instructions on how to claim your tickets.
This offer is only valid for a limited time. Unclaimed tickets may be forfeited. You will have the option of confirming up to two tickets for a performance.
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No, your tickets will be valid for a specific performance only. If you are unable to attend, please pass the ticket onto a friend or contact us at tickets@phoenixcentralpark.com.au to allow someone else the opportunity to attend.
You can enter ticket ballots for your chance to attend another performance.