Down the Rabbit Hole

By Sharne Wolff

Sydney’s White Rabbit Gallery contemporary Chinese art collection has around 600 works. Several years after the Gallery first appeared on the Sydney scene it’s time for the gallery to hit the refresh button for a new hang of many previously unseen pieces. Down the Rabbit Hole is an absorbing Wonderland adventure into some of the more imaginative pieces.

Down the Rabbit Hole includes a surprising mix of works that use colour, style and skill to comment on universal themes. Michael Lin’s ‘Untitled Gathering’ features the generic red floral fabric seen everywhere from the pillowcases of cheap Chinese hotels to the upholstered seats of Hoi An cyclo and more recently as a feature of Philippe Starck’s ‘Mademoiselle Armchair’. Here the fabric is used by Lin for his large-scale ‘furniture art’ where he’s covered the surface of over 300 stools in an installation arranged on the top floor of the Gallery. Young artist Wang Duo has made a video installation entitled ‘Old Brands Made New 2011’ where she appears as a Shanghai seductress from the 1930’s in advertisements that endorse 21st century products. Others represented in this show including Wu Daxin (China) LuxuryLogico and Chen Chun-Hao (both from Taiwan) make up some of the 200 artists whose work is held in the White Rabbit collection.

Until early August 2012

White Rabbit Gallery, Chippendale.

http://www.whiterabbitcollection.org/

Pic: Courtesy Michael Lin and White Rabbit.