Xiyadie
Butterfly Dream
Mar 26 – May 11, 2024
Opening: Saturday, Mar 23, 4pm – 6.30pm
Artist will be present
Artist talk: Xiyadie in conversation with Hera Chan
Saturday, Mar 23, 3pm – 4pm (conducted in English and Mandarin)
Blindspot Gallery
15/F Po Chai Industrial Building
28 Wong Chuk Hang Road
Wong Chuk Hang, Hong Kong
+852 2517 6238
Tuesday – Saturday, 10.30am – 6.30pm
Special opening hours on Monday, Mar 25, 12pm – 6pm
Butterfly Dream is Xiyadie’s debut solo exhibition at Blindspot Gallery. Presenting over thirty works including unseen works from the early 1980s to the present, it is the largest exhibition of Xiyadie ever presented.
Born in 1963 in Weinan, Shaanxi province, Xiyadie is a self-taught traditional Chinese papercut artist who uses a medium with origins dating back to the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 CE) to narrate his journey of coming out from rural China as a homosexual person. His autobiographical papercuts chronicle his transformation through an environment that does not lend political agency to queer identifying people, while also reflecting the struggle of a marginalized individual as a migrant worker in the big city. The exhibition titled Butterfly Dream alludes to the artist’s pseudonym Xiyadie, meaning the Siberian Butterfly, emblematic of resilience and its flamboyant beauty. It signifies the artist’s determined pursuit of freedom and endurance in the harshest conditions.
Before the opening reception (4pm – 6.30pm on March 23), there will be an artist talk at 3pm – 4pm, moderated by Hera Chan. Chan is Adjunct Curator, Asia-Pacific, supported by Asymmetry Art Foundation, at Tate. The talk will be conducted in English and Mandarin.
