Riding Fences
Exhibition dates: Tue 8 to Sat 26 November 2011
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View Riding Fences catalogue here
The solo exhibition. ‘Riding Fences ‘ had its beginnings in 2010 when China de la Vega, along with six other selected Australian artists, where immersed into Chinese art and culture with a tour on ‘hard sleeper’ provincial trains that culminated in a residency and exhibition at the Red Gate Gallery in Beijing. She stayed on and set up her own studio space.
China de la Vega has exhibited at the Damien Minton Gallery since 2008 and is known for her mixed media assemblages created from found material whilst an arts project officer in the remote Australian indigenous community of Epenarra, Northern Territory.Using the same eye for sourcing aesthetically interesting material, she visited the city of Jingdezhen – the ceramic capital of China. “It was heaven”, she says. ” I stopped the taxi on the way in from the terminal, bought a shovel and a red bucket and some gloves, stole some hessian bags, and spent the following fast six days in the old, though still very much in use, sculpture and ceramic factory areas.The ceramic pieces were dug up from the ground and picked over in tips. The broken bits have been washed wrapped filed re-fitted and fixed – pulled in and out of countless boxes, of boots and bags, slow trains and planes.”
The result is a mature step forward in her art practice showcasing the development of her unique visual language. The title for the exhibition, ‘Riding Fences’, she explains, comes from the song ‘Desperado’, which has been… “sung to me on several uncanny occasions, and therefore the lyric to this latest period of time. As in the song, at times I feel I would like to be a cowboy – a demonstration of the actual meaning of my christian name, which comes from the Argentine ’la china’ as apposed to the country or the material. The name China is given to the companions of the Argentine Gauchos, the traditional cattlemen who ride the Pampas and who they say are neither loved nor ruled by anyone – as in the song. La China rides horses, mends clothes and looks after the children. She grinds the corn and enjoys smoking like the men.”