Glass scraps to cultural masterpieces
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Nancy Yu is not just looking for empty coke bottles and spaghetti jars when she raids the recycle bin at Sydney Glass in Bankstown – she’s looking for large offcuts of glass that can be transformed into cultural masterpieces!
The Earlwood artist is sculpting discarded glass remnants into ancient Chinese armour and battle artefacts in her artwork series Phantom of Ego, to explore her relationship with traditional Chinese mythologies.
“The glass armour piece is about the concept of pride and the idea of familial honour,” Yu said.
“When these objects are stripped of their function through their forming with glass, they are unable to fulfil what they were intended for: protection and battle.”
In the future, Yu’s pieces will culminate into being a full suit of armour.
“I plan on wearing it in a performance until I collapse from fatigue, an image of that armour being a burden as much the symbol,” she said.
You can see Yu’s incredible artworks in Bankstown Arts Centre’s latest exhibition Cultural Cartography: Creating Art at the Intersection of Cultures.
With a line up of five Asian-Australian Artists: NC Qin, Chris Yee, Cindy Yuen-Zhe Chen, Christina Huynh and Anney Bounpraseuth, the exhibition adds to the conversation of traditional cultural identities in contemporary society.
“I feel really honoured to be part of such a strong team of young Asian-Australian artists led by the cultural icon that is Guan Wei, and to see how their work is adding to the conversation is really inspiring,” Yu said.
Canterbury-Bankstown Mayor Khal Asfour said he is proud to see locals express and celebrate their cultural identity through art.
“I encourage everyone to go down to the Bankstown Arts Centre and experience the different perspectives of Asian-Australian culture that the five artists colour,” he said.
“And what a perfect time to observe and learn about these cultures, during Lunar New Year!”
Cultural Cartography is running online and at Bankstown Arts Centre from Tuesday-Sunday, 10am-4pm, until 20 February 2022.
For more information, visit cb.city/CulturalCartography