STUDIO 12 | KATE BEYNON: CHINESE CALLIGRAFFITI
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Studio 12 Exhibition

Kate Beynon’s paintings featured in Chinese Calligraffiti continued the artist’s longstanding use of traditional and contemporary signs of identity — Chinese calligraphy, graffiti, comics and tattoos — to explore issues concerning immigration, racism and cultural identity. In long, lateral paintings, Beynon’s Chinese Calligraffiti brought together image and text in decorative, animated compositions which functioned between language and ornament. In this exhibition, the seemingly innocent phrases — Where are you from? What is your name? — became an interrogation of foreign and alien culture. Chinese Calligraffiti continued Beynon’s exploration of the subtle ways images are used to mark identity and language to encapsulate difference.