The Asian Simon Kaan

For his work The Asian, Simon Kaan invites visitors to the Blue Oyster to have lunch with him via Skype. For the month of the exhibition, the upper gallery of Blue Oyster will become a virtual and literal extension of The Asian, a restaurant located across the road from the Blue Oyster. Kaan uses The Asian as a site for cultural archeology, where everything from the food to the paintings on the walls reference the artist's past and provoke self exploration. Kaan asks: “am I at home here?” By involving visitors in a physical, performative way Kaan aims to reinstate the importance of the daily ritual of sitting together at a table, eating and talking. Communication is at the center of this work, both with the new and fractured avenues introduced by technology and as the substance of the artwork.

Listen to Simon Kaan speaking with Lynn Freeman on Radio NZ

Click to download the exhibition text (PDF)

Presented alongside Anna Muirhead Polytears, Bryce Galloway Same Same (Incredibly Hot Sex with Hideous People) and a new public artwork Displacement by James Voller. Concerned at different levels with the multifarious construction and performance of identity Kaan, Muirhead and Galloway, through very different mediums, explore the histories, domestic and public circumstances and politics that impact on the construction our lives.

Blue Oyster Discussion Session 10: Tuesday 4 May, 5:30pm

For this discussion we will be looking at the debates which have arisen around Nicolas Bourriaud’s treatise Relational Aesthetics, in which he offers a theory for characterising and evaluating post-nineties art works based on the social exchanges which they represent, produce or prompt.

Simon Kaan, Bryce Galloway and Ali Bramwell will be joining us to ask how useful this debate is for understanding Simon and Bryce's work and the experiences of the visitors to the Blue Oyster.