The Polyphony of Migrant Archives: The Curating and Art-making of “Our Journeys, Our Stories” (2022)

Abstract

<p>The article takes the exhibition “Our Journeys, Our Stories” as an example to investigate to which extent the curatorial and art practices can produce a synergy in reconfiguring migrant archives. Focusing on the exhibition’s critical engagement with official and counter archives, I analyze how it unveils the making of a racialized Chinese migrant history and retraces migrant resistance. On this basis, I turn to two commissioned artworks by Guan Wei (b. 1957) and Lindy Lee (b. 1954) to examine their dialogic relationship with the curatorial narrative. While the artworks are based on the same document on display, the former deconstructs the racializing mechanism embedded in the White Australian archiving system and the latter revitalizes migrant resilience. I claim that Guan adds institutional critique to the exhibition and Lee uses family history to enrich the curatorial concept of micro-history. The artists and curators stimulate the polyphony of migrant archives, which challenges the monolithic historiography of Chinese migration and enables a self-reflexive paradigm in curating archives and archive art.</p>