Damien Shen is a South Australian man of Ngarrindjeri and Chinese descent. As an artist he draws on both of these powerful cultural influences to create works of intense personal meaning.

For his 2020 exhibition, 'A Stone From Another Mountain', Damien Shen discovered archival images of paintings from various Dynasty periods and discovered that the Shen family name harks from China’s Song Dynasty period. Damien indicates his Chinese ancestry in this series, as he created a self-portrait, placing himself onto the image of the emperor on a horse and then placing the figure onto the Coorong (Ngarrindjeri homelands) alongside portraits of his immediate Ngarrindjeri family, to indicate his immediate Indigenous background. The resulting black and white works reveal a rich cultural tapestry of Ngarrindjeri/Chinese culture.

Shen takes this process even further, creating stunningly elaborate Oriental-style red frames and graphically scratching into the surface of the works in order to add a further level of complexity and drawing skills. The results suggest a pride in a rich ancestral background, while also acknowledging the complexities of cultural heritage.

Courtesy of Ashley Crawford's essay for Damien Shen's 2020 exhibition, 'A Stone From Another Mountain'.