Benjamin Li - Choice(2013), C-print. Detail
These two artists both explore concepts of perceived identity; borrowed, multiplied, self-sustained, or otherwise. Both take autobiographical elements and experiences transforming them into distinct, poetic and thoughtful responses to unanswered questions about how much influence we have over the identities we represent.
We will show Hou's latest Installation conceived on the basis of his freshly published novel Green (Publication Studio Rotterdam, 2016), the second part of the trilogy he is currently writing for his PhD at KASK school of Arts in Ghent. Over the past few years Hou has taken his personal experience as an outsider as the basis for auto-fictional trilogy of novels. Brown, about a Caucasian immigrant in the heart of Flanders was published last year. Over the past year he has researched and immersed himself in the world of transgender as agents of borrowed identities.
Benjamin Li will present a number of photographs from his series 'Being Yellow' and 'Official Identity'. The conflicting identity of being raised 'Dutch' by foster parents, while simultaneously knowing his biological ascendants has clearly left a mark on the work of this young artist. The confrontation between chosen identities and those given to us by nature result in uncomfortably confrontational photographs.
The exhibition wil run until July 17th.