2020 Exhibition - Tcheu Siong - Elevations Laos | contemporary art initiatives in Laos

Tcheu Siong

Niagara Galleries | 4-29 February 2020

245 Punt Road Richmond
opened by John McDonald

Tcheu Siong’s exhibition was the first Australian solo show for the acclaimed artist from Laos. Renowned for her unique, large scale textile works, Tcheu Siong was one of three artists chosen to represent her country for the first time at the prestigious QAGOMA Asia Pacific Triennial in 2018. Her exhibition at Niagara Galleries coincided with the exhibition of new work by the contemporary Laos born artist, Savandary Vongpoothorn, recognised as one of Australia’s most distinctive mid career artists.

Born in 1968, Tcheu Siong lives and works in Luang Prabang, Laos. She describes the characters in her artworks as emerging from dreams and visions, the zones between consciousness and dreaming. Her artworks explore the connections between a woman, her imagination, her world, her demons and her aspirations.

Tcheu Siong is an ethnic Hmong artist whose unique, large-scale textile works capture her own dreams and visions in connection to her Hmong ancestry and spirituality. Like many Hmong people, Siong had to leave her homelands in northern Laos and move to the city of Luang Prabang in the late 1990s, where she began to make traditional embroideries to sell in the tourist-frequented markets.

She gradually developed her own hand-stitched appliqué style, creating colourful pieces more than four metres long that feature elaborate imagery and patterning. Her work depicts a range of figures and creatures that are identified within the Hmong spiritual world by her shaman husband, Phasao Lao. While the Lao Hmong are known for both their decorative and narrative textiles, Siong demonstrates a unique approach, departing from traditional design to create an experimental form of contemporary art.

Recent exhibitions: APT9 (Queensland Art Gallery, 2018), Elevations Laos-Ventiane (i:cat Gallery, 2018), Singapore Biennale: An Atlas of Mirrors (2016) The Art of Tcheu Siong (Chapman Gallery, 2016), Spirit Works: Concordia University, 2016)