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Conversations with Spaces

4Hands Collaborations
 

Christian Nicolay & Ya-chu Kang collaborated on several projects, residencies, exhibitions and performances from 2010 - 2016. They started collaborating in 2010 at the Playwrights Theatre Centre (Candahar Bar Project, Clamour and Toll) in Vancouver BC Canada with a sound performance based on morning rituals and habits from Western and Eastern cultures.  Nicolay and Kang’s art field have included sculpture, installation, video, sound recording, performance and site-specific projects.  Their research examined the shifting polarities between Western and Eastern cultural landscapes which they define as “portable walls”; a temporary or nomadic shift serving to enclose, divide, protect or change ones identity.  Issues of memory, process, space and time revolve around their portable walls explorations and how these constructions become part of their own experiences and spatial relationships. 

 

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portable walls

1, a temporary or nomadic shift serving to enclose, divide, protect or change ones identity
(i.e.: your identity shifts depending on where you are).  2, To adapt to ones surroundings. 
3, What is destroyed is reborn (i.e.: A wall is meant to set a barrier from one area to another, but making it portable means you have to set it up and take it down each time).  4, Fluctuating re-occurrences.  5, Paradigm shift.  6, A person who creates more than one identity, traces of digital footprints, profiles and usernames.  7, Cultural landscapes that become crisscrossed and blurred from globalization, shifting borders, war, geo-politics, digital revolution, travel, re-location, etc. 
8, paying attention to the constant flux of rules, regulations, definitions, checks and changes on privacy laws and the ability to relearn what is learned.





 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4HANDS

Exhibitions

2016

Absolute Space for the Arts, Tainan City Taiwan

2015

Convergence, National Art Gallery, Bangkok Thailand

Yuejin Lantern Festival, Yuejingang Riverside, Yanshui District, Tainan Taiwan

2014

Upside Down Fire, Initial Gallery, Vancouver BC Canada

2013

Boom and Bust 澎呀派, Art Experience Gallery, Hong Kong

Duppini LIKE: The Old Post Office and modern means of communication, Veliko Tarnovo Bulgaria

Carry an Object with you, Kimoto Gallery, Vancouver BC Canada

Portable Walls, Maple Ridge Art Gallery, Maple Ridge BC Canada

The Dying Eye, Community Art Space, Hangzhou China  

2012

Portable Walls, Elliott Louis Gallery, Vancouver BC Canada

The Dying Eye, Museum of Medical Humanities, Taipei Taiwan   

Taipei Original Festival, Songshan Culture and Creative Park, Taipei Taiwan, collaboration with S.H.E.

Schmiede Art Festival, Hallein Austria

Valcellina Award International Contemporary Textile/Fiber, Manlago Italy  

2011

Wind Heaped Up, CAMP Talganie Museum, Okinawa, Japan

House Games, Äkkigalleria, Jyväskylä Finland

2010

A.I.R. Group Show, Taipei Artists Village,TAV, Taipei Taiwan

Clamour and Toll - Candahar Bar Project, Playwrights Theatre Centre, Vancouver BC Canada (Performance)

 

Video Screenings

2017

Kunst Film Festval #3, Berlin Germany

2015

7th Cairo Video Festival, Juried, Cairo Egypt 

2014

VAEFF, Video Art and Experimental Film Festival, Juried, Tribeca Cinemas, New York City NY USA

Wayfinding Film Festival, Juried, Traveling festival screening at Force Field Festival, Philadelphia PA & Wassaic Project, Wassaic NY USA

2013

SESIFF: The 5th Seoul International Extreme-Short Image and Film Festival, Juried, Seoul Korea

2012

Portland International Film Festival, Portland OR USA

Make it Short, Juried, NW Film Center, Portland OR USA, Judges Award Winner

 

Awards and Residencies

2015         

Artist Residency, Äkkigalleria, Jyväskylä Finland

2012

Judges Award Winner for Recoil, Make it Short, NW Film Center, Portland OR, USA

2010

Artist Residency, Taipei Artist Village (TAV), Taipei Taiwan

 

Artist Talks / Presentations

2016

Absolute Space for the Arts, Tainan Taiwan

2015

Äkkigalleria, Jyväskylä Finland

2012

Museum of Medical Humanities, Taipei Taiwan

Elliott Louis Gallery, Vancouver BC Canada

2010

Treasure Hill Artist Village, Taipei Taiwan

 

Selected Bibliography

Keskisuomalainen, Central Finland, “Äkkigallerian näyttely syntyi roskista”, Riikka Mahlamäki-Kaistinen, Oct 29, 2015, pg. 21

​Oriental Daily News, Hong Kong, “Boom and Bust 澎呀派”, Po-ying Tai, Nov 3, 2013, pg. E5

Maple Ridge News, Maple Ridge BC, “Artist Duo creates “Portable Walls”, Feb 13, 2013, pg. 19 & 20

Preview Magazine, Vancouver BC, “Portable Walls: Christian Nicolay & Ya-chu Kang, Mia Johnson, February/ March 2013, pg. 30

 

Collections

Maple Ridge Art Gallery

Äkkigalleria

Private Collections

 

 

 

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