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Offering: Cindy Huang

201 Eastbourne St East, Hastings

Offering reflects Cindy Huang’s research into the Tauiwi Chinese New Zealand community in Te Matau-a-Māui, both past and present, with a focus on the region's market gardens, gardeners, and grocers. Due to a notable absence of recorded accounts in local and national museums and repositories, she has primarily relied on oral histories from within the community to piece together a picture of their lives, contributions, and labours. Her installation explores the ephemeral nature of this knowledge, highlighting both presence and absence.

The installation features handcrafted incense made from sandalwood blended with dried fruit powder, along with bronze casts of citrus peels and apple cores that serve as incense holders. All of these elements are produced from fruit sourced from Onekawa Fruit Shop, a local Chinese New Zealand family business. They are carefully arranged, evoking the forms associated with ancestral shrines—a reflection of the traditional Chinese custom of filial piety, which encompasses acts of remembrance and respect for both the living and the deceased. Typically accompanied with offerings of fresh fruit, the ritual of burning incense creates a sanctified and cleansed space that bridges the past with the present, allowing one to connect with their ancestors and memories.

While the artist doesn’t consider her work as a shrine in itself, she nevertheless sees it both as an act of tribute and a tableau vivant, a living still life, gesturing towards some specific accounts of hardship and stories which remain guarded within communities. Huang considers Offering as an elegy to those who are remembered, alongside those who have been forgotten over time.

Cindy Huang (born in Rotorua in 1997) currently lives and works in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. In 2023-24 she was based in Heretaunga Hastings. She holds a Master of Heritage Conservation in Museums and Cultural Heritage (2022), and a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) (2019), from the University of Auckland. Her work has been exhibited across Aotearoa in recent years, with recent solo and collaborative projects presented at Sumer, Te Atamira, Satellites, Chez Derriere, Studio One Toi Tū, and Meanwhile.

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When

Tue 24th Dec 2024, 10:00am

Fri 27th Dec 2024, 10:00am

Sat 28th Dec 2024, 10:00am

Fri 3rd Jan 2025, 10:00am

Sat 4th Jan 2025, 10:00am

Tue 7th Jan 2025, 10:00am

Wed 8th Jan 2025, 10:00am

Thu 9th Jan 2025, 10:00am

Fri 10th Jan 2025, 10:00am

Sat 11th Jan 2025, 10:00am

Tue 14th Jan 2025, 10:00am

Wed 15th Jan 2025, 10:00am

Thu 16th Jan 2025, 10:00am

Fri 17th Jan 2025, 10:00am

Sat 18th Jan 2025, 10:00am

Tue 21st Jan 2025, 10:00am

Wed 22nd Jan 2025, 10:00am

Thu 23rd Jan 2025, 10:00am

Fri 24th Jan 2025, 10:00am

Sat 25th Jan 2025, 10:00am

Tue 28th Jan 2025, 10:00am

Wed 29th Jan 2025, 10:00am

Thu 30th Jan 2025, 10:00am

Fri 31st Jan 2025, 10:00am

Sat 1st Feb 2025, 10:00am

Where

Hastings Art Gallery, Hastings, Hawke's Bay / Gisborne

201 Eastbourne St East, Hastings