Chun Yin Rainbow Chan
PROJECT
The centrepiece of musician and visual artist Chun Yin Rainbow Chan’s installation is the video work Three days after. The video is based on a bridal lament of Weitou women, the population indigenous to Hong Kong, to which Chan is connected on her mother’s side. The music video featuring Chan tells the story of a bride who runs away from her arranged marriage, choosing to die in the canola fields of her childhood rather than return to the groom. The textiles in the space represent a traditional gift often exchanged by married and soon-to-be married women. The paper installed in the cases represents what is lost, misquoted and apprehended in the communication of ritual and knowledge.
ABOUT
Combining pop music with storytelling, Rainbow Chan’s work spans performance, installation and video to excavate matrilineal histories and diasporic heritage. In 2022, Chan was recognised in the ‘40 Under 40 Most Influential Asian Australians Awards’ for her contribution to arts and culture. Her critically acclaimed solo song cycle ‘The Bridal Lament’ has been presented as part of Australian multi-arts festivals such as Sydney Festival; Liveworks Festival, Sydney; OzAsia, Adelaide; and Arts House, Melbourne. Her work has been shown in several group exhibitions, most recently at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (Australia); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (Australia); and in the 8th Yokohama Triennale (Japan). In 2020, Chan was part of Artspace Sydney’s One Year Studio Program and was selected as the Performance Space x West Kowloon Exchange resident artist. Chan also composes for film, television and theatre. Her work is held in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.