In an exclusive Film Club event, Director James Bradley and Artist's Jaiwei Shen and Lan Wang sit down with Georgia Wallace-Crabbe and Gregory Miller for an insightful Q&A about Bradley's film Welcome to Babel.
The film follows Shen as he undertakes an extraordinary and monumental artwork that he says gives meaning to his whole life. Epic in concept and scale and painted over 7 years, his ‘Tower of Babel’ masterpiece is an enormous 4 panel work of 130 square meters and 7.5 meters in height. It depicts over 400 famous and infamous characters including politicians, soldiers, scientists,artists, writers and filmmakers who were won over by the utopian vision of the Communist movement, as well as many forgotten people who tragically lost their lives to Revolution. It also includes remixes of over 100 iconic artworks by left wing artists including Picasso, Matisse, Léger, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in an immersive artwork that totally surrounds the viewer in his vast 3-story studio in Bundeena.
As his masterpiece progresses, Shen and his artist wife Lan Wang tell their own stories of lives shared with millions of others in Mao’s China through the Great Famine and the Cultural Revolution, before the traumatic events of June 1989 in Tiananmen Square saw them settle in Australia.
Welcome To Babel puts an intimate and human face to an extraordinary couple and the story of their generation in China and Australia. And asks whether the present can learn from the past.
This event is open to Film Club members only. To become a member call us on 02 8536 5700, or visit Arts Centre Reception.
You'll need to show your membership card on entry, and seats allocated on a first come, first serve basis, so be early!
Annual membership is $75.00 or $70.00 for Friends of Hazelhurst members, and you need be aged 18+ to join.
Image courtesy James Bradley.
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