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(RE)Collections of the East: A Visual Journey of a Changing Asia by Manon Cousin
Art Opening - (RE)Collections of the East: A Visual Journey of a Changing Asia" by Manon Cousin
The Segal Centre for Performing Arts is pleased to invite you to the opening of Montreal photographer Manon Cousin’s show "(RE)Collections of the East: A Visual Journey of a Changing Asia" in ArtLounge, the new café and art space downstairs at the Segal Centre.
Opening event: Tuesday, November 24th, 2009, 6pm-8pm
The exhibition will remain until February 12, 2010
ArtLounge at The Segal Centre, 5170 Côte St. Catherine Rd., corner Westbury. 2 blocks West of Métro Côte-Sainte-Catherine
FREE. Open to the Public. Refreshments and snacks will be served.
(RE)Collections of the East: A Visual Journey of a Changing Asia
The five years I spent in Asia during the 1990's coincided with the distinctly new era that our world entered at the turn of the millennium.
My photographs bear witness to the rise of Western ideals and the ethos of consumption in Asia at the time, and to the inevitable clash of Western and Eastern cultures as they face each other.
My work is also greatly inspired by the American street photographers of the 1950's and 60's. The fast growing economy in North America was making people optimistic about their upcoming future. Everything was possible. Wandering the streets and alleys of the mega-cities of Asia opened my eyes to the drastic cultural and environmental changes that were starting then, and that continue to the present day. The Asians could well become the new "Americans".
-Manon Cousin
Montréal, November, 2009
Artist’s Biography
Manon Cousin is a Montreal-based photographer and visual artist. From 1991 to 1992 she traveled intensively in Asia and produced a series of photographs in China, India, Nepal, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong-Kong and Macao. From 1994 to 1998 she settled in Beijing, China to study Mandarin and photographed the people of Beijing in their emerging city. During her four-year stay in Beijing, she traveled throughout the country and continued her visual exploration of China’s Han Majority, the Tibetan monks and nuns and the Naxi minority people she encountered in the Himalayan Mountains.
Her visual work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions in the USA, Canada and Asia. In February 2009, she presented Gong Xing Yu Ge Xing, a mixed-media installation at the Contemporary Art Festival TEMPS d’IMAGES at Usine C in Montreal.
