the queen, the chairman and i

The exhibition THE QUEEN, THE CHAIRMAN AND I refers to Tong's personal experience with migration, and reflects the cultural up-rootedness that pull wires back to his family's longstanding quest for cultural and national anchoring.
Tong's family originally comes from Mainland China. His great-grandfather on his father's side fled to the well functioning British colony Hong Kong in 1911, in the hope of work and a better life. After World War II his grandparents on his mother's side left Mao's China, also in favour of a life in Hong Kong. In 1977, five years before the UK started a negotiation about the handover of the colony to China, Kurt Tong was born. The future in Hong Kong was very uncertain so Tong’s parents send him to England to study.  
Tong’s life has been determined by various cultural, historical and political events that have labelled him as a migrant, and meant that he in many respects has been regarded as an outsider. The consequences of being caught in the borderland between two very different nations and cultures have motivated Tong to go back to his roots. This quest resulted in a book for his two daughters, and forms the basis for the exhibition THE QUEEN, THE CHAIRMAN AND I, in which the book will play a central part.  
The exhibition is a total installation where photographic works by Tong, a number of old family photos and various documents, letters and personal artefacts are presented in an environment staged as a Chinese tea house. In China, the teahouse was originally seen as a haven where ideas and thoughts could be shared across cultural background, social rank and political beliefs. The brewing of tea was regarded as an aesthetic act, and to drink tea was understood to be a reflection of the individual's life approach. In the teahouse it was possible to develop and cultivate oneself and reflect on one’s own position in - and attitude towards - the world. With flashbacks to the lives of Tong’s family in China, reports about life as a migrant in Hong Kong and Tong’s rootless existence in England as well as pictures of today’s society in Hong Kong, the exhibition can be seen as a quiet interference with the reality that exists by virtue of the notion of cultural, national and historical boundaries. In the exhibition space visitors are encouraged to spend some time with the book over some Chinese tea and share their own stories.  

Kurt Tong has an MA in photojournalism from London College of Communication. He has exhibited in various countries in America, Asia and Europe. The exhibition at Galleri Image is Tong’s first exhibition in Scandinavia.  

For more information please visit the artist’s website: www.kurttong.co.uk  

Opening: Friday, October 11 at 4 – 6 pm. Thorsten Budde Haensel, Deputy Director at Confucius Institute for Innovation and Learning, Aalborg University, will open the exhibition.  

Artist talk: Saturday, October 12 at 2 pm. During the exhibition period we will hold a number of events in collaboration with Aarhus University, Aalborg University and Confucius Institute for Innovation and Learning.
We will announce on Facebook and Galleri Image’s web site.    

The exhibition is supported by:

Statens Kunstråd
Confucius Institute for Innovation & Learning at Aalborg University

Kinesiske Møbler, 4600 Køge