A new exhibition with an oriental flavour has just landed at UCLan’s PR1 Gallery. ‘Wind Birds’ is an exhibition of Chinese kites and papercuts that has been organised by UCLan’s Confucius Institute.
The Confucius Institute was founded in 2008 as a partnership between UCLan and Beijing International Studies University to further strengthen the long established ties between UCLan and China. The Institute was set up to highlight Chinese culture through a range of activities and events including language classes, culture workshops, exhibitions and performances. The Institute also works closely with local schools and businesses to promote an appreciation and understanding of Chinese culture, and its exchange programme has enabled hundreds of students and teachers to visit China to experience the country at first hand.
The ‘Wind Birds’ exhibition features a colourful array of beautifully crafted kites and papercuts that have been sourced from all over China, alongside photographic prints produced by members of the Northern Kite Group. The exhibition has been created in collaboration with post graduate students studying textiles. The two storey exhibition space provides the perfect backdrop for the eye-catching bamboo and paper creations which are invisibly suspended from the ceiling while being tethered to a central group of papercut figures on the ground floor. The traditional kite forms depict dragons, birds and insects while the delicate papercuts are superbly detailed examples of an age old Chinese art form.
The ‘Wind Birds’ exhibition is only on for a week, so if you fancy immersing yourself in a bit of Chinese culture, then PR1 is the place to be. The exhibition is open to the public and can be seen at the PR1 Gallery in the Victoria Building at Uclan until the 20th of March. The gallery is open Monday to Friday between 10am and 5pm.
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