Continuum: Chun Yin Rainbow Chan
Opening Thursday, May 21st 6-8pm.
Continuum brings together a selection of works that reimagine the bridal laments of Hong Kong’s 圍頭/Weitou women, to whom Chan has deep ancestral ties. Through silk paintings, experimental calligraphy and audiovisual works, she translates these culturally endangered songs into contemporary forms that preserve their subversive feminist voices while reflecting on loss, resilience and solidarity.
Symbolic imagery and ritual gestures recur as motifs, evoking resistance, grief, and love within women’s histories. Lyrics are transcribed through perforations on silk. Burned holes suggest loss, while faint traces of words hint at continuity and survival. The porous silk surface becomes a field where language, light, and song interact, forming portals between past and present. Chan’s work engages deeply with language and memory, situating personal histories within broader sociopolitical contexts. She is particularly interested in the power of ritual, song and performance in postcolonial contexts – both as a means of reclaiming agency and a living archive.
Chun Yin Rainbow Chan (陳雋然) holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from the University of Sydney and a Master of Fine Arts (Research) from the University of NSW. As a highly acclaimed visual artist and musician, she has exhibited and performed widely across Australia and internationally at art institutions and festivals, including the Sydney Opera House, Phoenix Central Park, Carriageworks, Melbourne Music Week, Iceland Airwaves, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Tai Kwun Contemporary, M+ in Hong Kong, SXSW, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Firstdraft, Art Gallery of NSW, Cement Fondu, Blindside, Queensland University Art Museum, Australian National University, and I-Project Space in Beijing.
Chan’s work has garnered significant recognition through major commissions and presentations. She is the inaugural artist behind ABC Bullion’s Arts Series Coin Program (2026). In 2024 she was commissioned by both the Yokohama Triennale (Japan) and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia for Primavera: Young Australian Artists. Her installation “Fruit Song” is in the Art Gallery of New South Wales collection.
