Being Chinese and a woman is as important to Josephine Do as being a New Zealander and an academic. She occupies the space between two cultures, between ‘self’ and ‘other’, between ‘us here’ and ‘them over there’.
It means constantly confronting issues of identity and difference. For the artist, the concept of identity is bound up with the process of contrasting the ideas and values of one culture with another, and the need to negotiate the meeting place where exchange can occur.
Do’s work asks viewers to consider issue of cultural difference and nationality. Through questioning her own identity as Chinese, as a New Zealander, she asks that visitors question and analyse their own position, and that they celebrate that difference and sameness.
Download
→ Josephine Do: China Today, 2002, publication
Press
→ East west divide, Art News New Zealand, Winter 2002