The China Project

107 Three Decades: The Contemporary Chinese Collection Kate BEYNON Kate Beynon draws on the two disparate cultures constituting her background: born in Hong Kong in 1970, Beynon has lived in Australia since 1974 and cites both Celtic and Chinese origins. In 1994, she attended the Beijing University of Technology, where she majored in Chinese studies, and her work reflects both her situation in contemporary Australia and her mixed cultural heritage. Representations of women and changing ideals of female beauty are often addressed through the stories she tells. In recounting ancient folk tales and parables, Beynon uses media that accentuate their translation and re-telling in a contemporary, urban context. In a series of drawings first exhibited as part of a solo exhibition titled ‘Hope/Wish’ at Bellas Gallery, Brisbane in 1999 she details aspects of motherhood and pregnancy in a highly charged and graphically powerful manner. The young woman’s intense, confronting expression challenges conventional romantic depictions of pregnancy as a passive state. We can see the foetus inside the woman’s body, like a view through a ship’s porthole. The muted presence of the fully formed foetus, placid and contained, contrasts with the demeanour of the woman, whose wildly flying hair denotes her inner rage. As Beynon comments: ‘Hope/Wish’ . . . happened when I was pregnant with my son Rali. The female figure is not directly a self-portrait but based on the image of ‘Li Ji’, the warrior girl of an old Chinese fable, whose image I developed to embody a strong, female Asian–Australian representation. Her depicted pregnancy was naturally based on my own feelings of anticipation for the birth and hope for a healthy baby. The drawings also reflect my appreciation of cartoon, comic book and graffiti art styles, and continued to explore my interest in Chinese calligraphic text; particularly in the way that words and phrases have been used traditionally as ‘good luck’ symbols. 1 Beynon first began to use the character of Li Ji in 1996, and allowed the reincarnated heroine to move between ancient times and contemporary culture. While the fabled Li Ji confronted a deadly python, the contemporary Li Ji confronts issues of identity, racism, politics and class. Beynon uses the visual vocabulary of popular culture, which she transforms into her own style. These images are intended to be read as a sequence resembling a comic book and, as such, invoke the graphic qualities of illustrative drawing. The Chinese characters — boldly inscribed in red (which lends them ‘authenticity’) — are difficult to decipher, even for readers of Chinese, which frustrates an attempt to understand the visual narrative through the text. On the reverse side of the drawings are inscriptions offering a translation for Chinese words, expressed first in Chinese characters, then in Roman script and, finally, the English translation. Through these works, Beynon reminds us of her own transience — between Celtic and Chinese cultural heritages — and her location in an English-speaking contemporary Australian society. endnote 1 Kate Beynon, artist statement, March 2001, Queensland Art Gallery Research Library artist file. opposite Expecting 1999 Gouache and ink / 76 x 56.3cm / Purchased 1999 under the Contemporary Art Acquisition Program with funds from John Dimitriou Architects Pty Ltd through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation above Baby 1999 Gouache and ink / 76 x 56.3cm / Purchased 1999 under the Contemporary Art Acquisition Program with funds from John Dimitriou Architects Pty Ltd through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation