Grace Lau's Portraits In a Chinese Studio
I walked into the gallery a couple of days ago. One singular painting caught my eye immediately. There were two dogs. They were sat on chairs. They were looking directly into the camera as if they were little divas who wanted to be seen. They were placed on these two seats with an entire traditional Chinese portrait background behind them. I couldn't look away.
During the Victorian times, western people would often include Chinese people in their portraits, presenting them as 'exotic beings' and unusual creatures. Lau's project Portraits In a Chinese Studio is something that portrays the narrative, but also reverses the roles for 21st Century subjects.
The project has been something of major interest to Lau for years. It all began in the turn of the 21st Century where Lau was studying archival images and documents of a variation of different cultures in East Asia as well as the West to figure out the way in which people communicated with each other through images during the 19th Century as well as the early 20th Century. Lau teamed up with art historian Lynn Pan to publish the book Picturing The Chinese: Early Western Photographs and Postcards of China.
Below are two images taken from Lau's website, highlighting some of the images she found in the archives.
In terms of times when the camera was first invented, many Westerners would travel to the East, places such as Shanghai, Beijing and Nanjing where they would take photos of these people, displaying them as exotic creatures. These photographers did not capture someone from the East the same way that a painting of the Royal Family would portray. Instead they hyperfocused on elements such as bound feet, opium smokers, beggars' things that would make these people appear different and exotic.
The photographic project launched in the summer of 2005 when Lau arrived in Hastings, setting up a backdrop and inviting people to come along to have their portrait made. It blended all of the research created for the book and put everything on a practical scale. It brought in a huge selection of people. Families, friends, lovers, all who have walked the planet and created so many of their own stories. It was made like a celebration of culture, but asked so many questions simultaneously. What were we all doing in these images posing in front of very traditional Chinese backdrops? The whole project is essentially parodying how ethnic minorities were captured in historic paintings and wanted this to be shown the other way in these portraits. The way in which people don't really think about things unless the role is directly reversed and suddenly they are the people finding themselves in that particular place. The studio space is created as a 'mock' which features a selection of traditional Chinese furniture from its choice of chairs to the stuffed panda toy which is later replaced with a cow print rug on its rerun of the project. The original project was named '21st Century Types' in which it was focused mainly on the artists research into 19th Century and early 20th Century photographers.
In 2023 Lau once again set up a reboot of the project, this time basing it in Southampton. She once again had people book in to have their free portrait made and that everyone would have their image emailed to them. She encouraged people partaking in the project to bring their modern contemporary items with them into the space such as their iPhones or Prime fidget spinners. In one of the images, a bubble tea was perfectly placed in the centre of the table to add a layer of confusion over initial first look.
The project itself is also something that feels personal to her. Lau frequently speaks of her past and how people find it unbelievable that she speaks English and how many of these people will ask her where she learned the language. She studied at a girls grammar school in Highgate. It was these situations that also influenced Lau to create the mockup of a Chinese studio, in which she would be able to spin it the other way round, that it would be a concept which would make for conversation among others.
The project went live to the public for the Lunar New Year with a new collection on show at John Hansard Gallery in Southampton. I think the project is fantastic and a deeper dive into the history of it is even better. It's something which is easy to understand, but can easily be enjoyed from every aspect. I really love this set of work, I love the rich colours of the studio used for the 2023 images. The second I saw them on what would otherwise be a dull gallery wall, I couldn't look away. I wanted to be stood there for hours viewing the images across that wall.
As an extra little footnote for this piece, I found a really interesting interview with Lau where she discusses that project, but also some of her background in more detail here