Orientity – HK (2005)

• Jan. 18-29, 2005
• Economist and Fringe Gallery
• Lisa Cheung, Adel Gouillon, Raymond Hahn, Jemma Han, Jane Jin Kaisen, Mihee-Nathalie Lemoine, Naomi K. Long, Oh Haji.
• Artist talk : St. 22 jan. 2005
• The Fringe Club (2 Lower Albert Road, Central 25217251, Hong Kong)
• Thank you to Catherine Lau, Bennie Chia, The Danish State Art Foundation

Orientity is a made-up word from the words “oriental’ and ‘identity’.

The artists try to turn the dodgy associations of these words on their heads-  in particular ethnic Asian artists working in the West being stereotyped as a ‘kitsch hybrid of East and West’ or having “oriental sensibility.”

All eight of the artists in the exhibition are in their late 20s and mid 30s. Five of them were born in Korea, but three of them were adopted by European families and raised in distant foreign countries. That happened at a time when a rural population in Korea was experiencing extreme poverty. All eight participants have lived ‘diasporic’ lives, each in a different context.