Chinese Arts Centre is proud to present the first major solo exhibition by visual artist and former medical doctor Eric Fong.

Eric Fong is a London-based visual artist working in video and photography. His art practice is informed by his former profession as a medical doctor. His work sensitively explores individual experiences of health and the body as well as examining different medical approaches and wider social attitudes. Fong works closely with people of diverse ages, abilities and cultural backgrounds, adopting a sympathetic yet objective perspective. From these encounters Fong creates video and photography works that seek to open up a dialogue about the way we perceive and treat issues related to the body, medicine and disability.

For Seeing Beyond, Fong is presenting two bodies of work. The first body of work, developed during a British Council Artist Links residency in Shanghai, presents a video of local people’s exercise habits and intimate photographic portraits of individuals and their personal medicine collections. In this era of globalisation and rapid change in China, attitudes there towards traditional Chinese medicine and western health practices are shifting. Advertisements for western medicines and treatments have become more prevalent and traditional treatments are starting to be treated with less trust. This said, many older people still maintain traditional practices by gathering in the park to do early morning synchronised tai chi exercises. By examining exercise routines and home collections of different generations, the works in this series present a fascinating insight into the changing attitudes towards health in China today.

The second is a new work developed from a collaboration with Henshaws Society for Blind People. Fong is working with a group of blind and visually impaired people to create a video installation that explores their perceptual experience when visiting an art exhibition. Louise Houlder from Henshaws Society for Blind People says, “We feel honoured to play such an important role in the project. The blind and visually impaired members of our Art Galleries and Museums Group are certainly no strangers to art, and they’re sure to add a unique dimension to this unique exhibition.”

Seeing Beyond follows Fong’s Breathe residency at Chinese Arts Centre in 2005 in which he developed work exploring the increasing popularity of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in the west and collaborated with TCM practitioners to conduct Chinese Tongue Diagnosis for members of the public in Selfridges and his Open Studio. Fong is also one of the featured artists in the publication 21 : Discussions with artists of Chinese descent in the UK.

Preview Thursday 22 January 2009 5.30pm – 7.30pm

Artist Talk 5.30 – 6pm

Refreshments served After show drinks at Apotheca