La Centrale galerie Powerhouse is proud to present the exhibition Meet Me Halfway by the artist Chun Hua Catherine Dong from July 23 to August 29, 2021 as part of its summer window exhibition.

Meet Me Halfway is a multi-channel video installation that explores the perception of time and space in virtual reality (VR) and the inability to return to the present from searching the inner world. Dong brought their new passion toward abstraction and their vivid childhood memories into virtual space, creating imaginary worlds that can be experienced both in virtual and in real life. The inner worlds Dong created in VR shifts between concrete and ephemeral, abstract and realistic, 3D to 2D, organic and inorganic with speed, forming temporary structures that constantly expand and collapse in time and space.

Dong looks for ways to integrate diversity on our planet into everyday considerations, envisioning different possible futures that are utopian, inclusive and sustainable. In this work, Dong travels digitally, aimlessly drifting from one space to another, hurtling through the vast unknown to search the long-lost freedom, Dancing alone at the edge of the physical and virtual world, Dong often finds themselves lost in time and space and unable to return to reality because the sensation of VR experience is so real that reality itself becomes merely the mode of a choice.

Meet Me Halfway also reflects the current unsettling situation which we are living in: the uncertainty, the isolation, the frustration of being confined in our own inner worlds, not being able to “meet” because the “halfway” is always in process and cannot be measured by time and space. This multi-channel video installation brings people into a virtual but real experience, presenting an alternative way to look beyond our digital screens.

Chun Hua Catherine Dong is a Chinese-born Montreal-based artist working with performance, photography, video, and AR and VR. Dong received an MFA from Concordia University and BFA from Emily Carr University Art & Design. Dong has exhibited their work in multiple national and international venues, such as Quebec City Biennial, MOMENTA | Biennale de l’image, MAC VAL in France, Museo de la Cancillería in Mexico City, Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris and so on. Dong was the recipient of the Franklin Furnace Award for contemporary avant-garde art in New York in 2014 and listed the “10 Artists Who Are Reinventing History” by Canadian Art in 2017. Dong was awarded with Cultural Diversity in Visual Arts by the Conseil des arts de Montréal in 2020, and a finalist for Prix en art actuel du MNBAQ 2020.

More information: chunhuacatherinedong.com

READ THE INTERVIEW WITH CHUN HUA CATHERINE DONG

The artist wishes to thank the Canada Council for the Arts for its contribution.

Picture : Meet Me Halfway, Chun Hua Catherine Dong, 2021. Video still. Photo : courtesy of the artist.

Please note that the gallery space is not open to the public during window exhibitions.