Introduction
The artist-in-residence program of Lal Lal Estate was co-founded by art collector Tony Wen and Star Gallery in 2017. During the short two years since its establishment, the program has invited 11 contemporary Chinese artists to Lal Lal, an Australian farm about 100 kilometers away from Melbourne. Chen Ke, Chen Yu, Ju Ting, Lou Shenyi, Tong Tianqing, Qin Guanwei, Xu Maomao, Wen Ling, Yan Heng, Yan Yan and Zhang Hui have participated in this program and got tremendously inspired by getting away from their daily routine to be immersed in the great nature and local culture of this strange land. A heritage stable built in 1865 has been used as the space to host the following exhibitions on the farm: Back to the Pastoral, Keep Walking, Lakeside Scenery, Cooking and Kangaroo Watching, Once upon a Hill, and Would You Rather Swim from Melbourne to Tasmania or Walk Brisbane to Perth?
As the biggest gold rush town of Australia, Ballarat was the destination of a great number of miners coming from China in the mid-19th century, who named it “Xin Jin Shan” (the new gold mountain) after San Francisco as the old gold mountain. As part of the exhibition, Tong Tianqing’s woodblock prints of the same title, which was inspired by his encounters in the gold-themed park Sovereign Hill and around Melbourne, will meet the audience in Beijing for the first time. With the progress of the industrial and capital globalization, the Chinese population in Australia has kept growing rapidly in the following centuries. It’s likely that what the Chinese artists have experienced on the farm of Lal Lal Estate will continue the story of “the new gold mountain” to a certain extent.
As the biggest gold rush town of Australia, Ballarat was the destination of a great number of miners coming from China in the mid-19th century, who named it “Xin Jin Shan” (the new gold mountain) after San Francisco as the old gold mountain. As part of the exhibition, Tong Tianqing’s woodblock prints of the same title, which was inspired by his encounters in the gold-themed park Sovereign Hill and around Melbourne, will meet the audience in Beijing for the first time. With the progress of the industrial and capital globalization, the Chinese population in Australia has kept growing rapidly in the following centuries. It’s likely that what the Chinese artists have experienced on the farm of Lal Lal Estate will continue the story of “the new gold mountain” to a certain extent.