The Horse Kicks Off Creative Spirits in 2014

Cities across Australia celebrate Chinese New Year with a race of events themed to the Year of the Horse.

Some say the Chinese zodiac animals derive from an ancient tale of Buddha holding a race and asking all the animals to participate. The first twelve were given a place in the calendar. Well cities across Australia are racing to get their programs in place for the beginning of this year’s Lunar Calendar on 31 January, and ensuing 15 days of celebration to follow.

2014 is the Year of the Horse or, more specifically, the Wood Green Horse, being that wood is the element of spring and verdant growth. According to folklore, the Year of the Horse will be one full of energy and excitement, following the horse’s freedom and speedy success – think more racecourse than Trojan horse.  So why not join the take a chance at your luck and join fun. 

We have surveyed the course and come up with our Horse Highlights for this year’s Lunar festivities:

Sydney

Sydney’s Chinese New Year festivities have become renowned, and in more recent years have been conscious to expand their program to other Asian communities that equally celebrate the Lunar calendar: Korean, Taiwanese, Vietnamese, Thai, Malaysian, Indonesia and Filipino Chinese, and Singaporean.

It's a rich pool of cultural creativity and exchange, one that curator Catherine Croll picks up on in her exhibition Crossing Boundaries, the city’s key cultural event, which will be presented at Sydney Town Hall (22 January–9 February, 12-8pm daily).

Croll curated the most successful Snake Snake Snake for last year’s festival, setting the bar for a diverse exploration across Asian Australian contemporary art. Just look at the bounce between Hu Ming’s painting Safety & Peace in Four Seasons (pictured top),used for the festival’s marketing, to Greg Leong’s satire, The Asian Century (pictured below). It is a star-studded list of artists and punters will not be disappointed.

Greg Leong's work in Crossing Boundaries at City of Sydney Town Hall

Croll has included daily floor talks and artist forums, as well as a dedicated children’s program featuring Festival Ambassador William Yang’s Australia Now, on loan from QAGOMA, and Pamela See’s Horsing Around.

On the edges of Sydney’s Chinatown is 4A, the Centre for Contemporary Asian Art. Its greatly anticipated project Beijing Silvermine is a highlight of this Chinese New Year. Since 2009 Beijing based French collector Thomas Sauvin has amassed, edited and archived more than half a million photographic negatives destined for destruction in a recycling plant on the edge of Beijing where they’d been sent to be melted for their silver nitrate content. This salvaged ‘silvermine’ gives witness to modern China from the perspective of its citizens who have captured ordinary and extraordinary moments in everyday life.  

4A presents Up Late for CNY Festival market nights with curator talks on 24 and 25 January, 6-9pm. The gallery also offers Chinese language tours of the exhibition on 18 January and 15 February. 4A is located on 181 Hay Street. The exhibition continues until 22 February.

Other exhibitions to catch as part of Sydney’s celebrations:

• Private foundation and gallery of contemporary Chinese art, White Rabbit in Sydney’s Chippendale, wraps up the closing days of its exhibition Serve the People, curated by Edmond Capon. Taking the infamous slogan of the 1966–76 Cultural Revolution, the exhibition’s last day is Sunday 2 February. Why not join the gallery’s educator Phyl Rowlinson for a free tour at 11am and 2pm daily.
• Nancy Ma’s Woman Horse opens for CNY at Hong Kong House at 80 Druitt Street in the CBD(25 January – 2 February), and then moves to the gallery of respected Chinese dealer Simon Chan, Art Atrium in Bellevue Hill, opening 4 February.
• Artists from the Australia China Art Gallery present eleven stunning artworks at Customs House at Circular Quay (20 January – 21 February).
• Craft NSW has curated Art & The Horse – A Craft Exhibition on All Things Equine at their Rocks headquarters, 104 George Street (28 January – 16 February).
• The Art Gallery of New South Wales presents the significant collection of Chinese ceramics, stone and bronze sculptures, textiles and paintings: Connoisseur and Philanthropist: 30 Years of the Sternberg Collection (31 January – 30 April), a must see!
• Contemporary rice paper works by Lilian Lai in Australia Through Chinese Windows at Culture at Work Accelerator Gallery at 6 Scott Street, Pyrmont opens Saturday 1 February at 2.30pm followed by talk by Dr Richard Wu at 3pm, titled ‘Between Likeness and Un-likeness’ from a quotation by Qi Baishi (1864–1957) held at the neighbouring Culture at Work Collider Project Space.

And there is plenty traditional CNY activities: The hub for Sydney’s Festival is Belmore Park with markets, food and performance. The Festival Launch will be held there on 24 January, with further highlights the Twilight Parade on 2 February, Dragon boat raceson the weekend of 8-9 February at Darling Harbour and my personal favourite, aChinese history bike tour picking up where the Nimrod landed in Sydney Harbour in 1848.

Check out City of Sydney’s fantastic festival website for details. Most events are free.

Melbourne

There will be celebrations over 7 days at various venues showcasing over 50 performances, 25 stalls, lion dances, dragon dances and lots of fire crackers. Not only does Melbourne’s Chinese Precinct of Little Bourke Street come alive, but you can join the crowds at Federation Square to welcome in the Year of the Horse with a program curated for the Big Screen counting down the year (31 January).

Activities continue in the square on the 1st with the dynamic and flamboyant lion troupe Hong de Lion, performances by Melbourne’s Chinese Choir, mass Tai Chi and drop-in exhibition Mah Jong games.

Millennium Dragon in Melbourne's streets for CNY

The City’s New Year Parade will head down Little Bourke Street on Sunday 2 February, with the world’s largest professional Chinese Dragon – the Millennium Dragon – parading the streets in a day-long celebration (10am–10pm). 

The Chinese Museum will throw open its door for free that day, a perfect opportunity to catch its exhibition Literati: Re-presentations of Chinese literature and language through art. Artists Marynes Avila, Nicholas Chin, Jane Creenaune and Denise Keele-Bedford draw inspiration from recurring motifs in Chinese literature and the ideographic nature of the Chinese language.

The Chinese Museum is located at 22 Cohen Place (off Little Bourke St between Exhibition and Russell Streets), and is open from 10am-5pm.

Across the city, there are a range of local events that speak about community and celebration:

• Sunday 26 January (9am – 9pm): Buckingham Avenue, Springvale, Melbourne’s largest Asian shopping precinct becomes festival centre.
• 30 January (8pm): The Quang Buddhist Temple in Braybrook offers a unique festival of traditional chants and vegetarian food, as the spiritual heart of the new year’s festivities. (18 Burke Street Braybrook)
• Weekend 1-2 February: Box Hill is transformed by as the Asian Business Association of Whitehorse (ABAW) leads their lunar festival with Choi Sun (Chinese God of Fortune) Parade, Buddha display, SBS broadcasting, food, lions and the mandatory firecrackers. Why not join their Midnight Countdown!
• Sunday 9 February (11am-8pm): Head to the Kingsway for Glen Waverley Chinese Lantern Festival.

Brisbane

In Brisbane Fortitude Valley’s Chinatown Mall again comes alive for three days of non-stop musical performances, firecrackers, cooking, Tai Chi, drumming and markets. Head there to bring in the new year on Friday, 31 January (5-10pm).

The city’s celebrations in the mall are just one element of the BrisAsia Festival which runs from 31 January through 1 March. Highlights of the festival include:

• Cai Guo-Qiang: Falling Back to Earth at QAGOMA
• Pop-Up Encounters: Brisbane’s streets will be enlivened with 3D art illusions as part of BrisAsia Festival, with locations directed by social media.
• Friday night laneways – Hot Shanghai Nights (1-9 February): Wander down Burnett Lane with its lanterns and music and traditional fan dances – you might be mistaken you in 1940s Shanghai.
• Musical performances at the Clem Jones City Hall throughout BrisAsia with an appropriately Asian tone.
• Bands in Parks (2 February, 2-4pm): Brisbane Symphonic Band for a program of Asian inspired music arranged for concert band. See local Taiko drum collective Toko-Ton for a set of high energy Japanese percussion
• Art Bites: everything from contemporary jewellery, lantern making and origami workshops throughout the festival

Be sure to check out the BrisAsia Festival program for times and locations.

And if you don’t want to head out and join the festivities then why not welcome the good spirits into the coming year at home. Here are a few tips from the experts:

1. Place mandarins in bowls throughout the house. Mandarins with their leaves still intact are the fruits of happiness for the New Year, but remember to keep their numbers even as uneven numbers bring unhappiness.

2. Wear new clothes on the first day of the New Year – it sets the tone for the year to come.

3. Celebrate New Year with a family dinner. Traditional dishes include uncut noodle, a symbol of longevity, and fish and chicken, both symbols of prosperity.

4. Or take to the skies with a kite, a popular New Year tradition in Korea.

5. Refrain from uttering words relating to misfortune, such as ‘death’, ‘broken’, ‘killing’, and ‘illness’ as this may bring bad luck for the year to come.

6. Make sure your pantry is well stocked with rice at New Year to ensure prosperity and abundance in the year ahead.

The Year of the Horse is from 31 January and ending 18 February 2015.