Tatton Park Biennial: Sited Commissions
GAYLE CHONG KWAN has developed new work for the Conservatory, which houses an Orangery by the construction of a 'mask' that references both the history of the building and the effects of increasing extreme weather patterns on the fluctuating global prices for citrus crops.
Stellar Dentrite
photographic vinyl print on to conservatory windows
Stellar Dentrite references climate change and our reliance on the global trade of foods. It also reflects on the Conservatory, now an Orangery, as place in which climates from other countries are constructed to allow the ‘exotic’ to thrive where it would not naturally. The work takes as its inspiration recent extreme weather, which decimated parts of the global trade in citrus fruit, and the particular sensitivity of the citrus market in relation to fluctuations in weather patterns.
The continuous wrap-around photographic landscape depicts dried, fresh and frozen citrus peels. It is a fantastical landscape, the outline of which is based upon fluctuations in the global share price of citrus fruit, specifically in China, which is one of the fastest developing markets and producers.
The work is printed on the lower half of Conservatory, designed by Lewis Wyatt and built in 1818, and is secured to the window frames, facing outwards. It features a mirror reverse at the centre, referencing a reversal of climates and weather, with the frozen citrus landscape a reversed landscape, a mirror weather system, with seasons altered during the summer.
The title of the work, Stellar Dentrite, relates to the branching instability of a growing snow crystal. It is expanded to encapsulate the complexity and interconnectedness of global food markets as well as the context of Tatton Park itself.
Details
Biography
Gayle Chong Kwan is a London-based artist, working with photography, video, sound, installation, and performance. Her work is often context specific or involves people in rituals of exchange, such as food or trade, to explore ideas of history, the senses and memory. The personal and global politics of food, planning and tourism have been a major focus of Chong Kwan’s work to date.
Chong Kwan has shown extensively in the United Kingdom and abroad. Recent projects include: Conversations, Tate Britain, London; Different Worlds, National Portrait Gallery, London; UNIDEE at Fondazione Pistoletto, Italy; Cockaigne, Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester; Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Platform for Art, London; The Land of Peach Blossoms, Graves Gallery, Sheffield; Green Flash, Great Eastern Hotel, London; Macroproyecto de Moravia, Colombia; Venice Printmaking, Italy; Veduta Romantica, MAC, Birmingham; COAST Residency, A Foundation, Liverpool; Adventure Ecology, London; European Forum Emerging Creation, Neumünster Abbey, Luxembourg. She received a Pepinieres Europeenes Pour Jeunes Artistes Award and an Arts Council England Award and Touring Award.