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Nanjing centre stage in Art Asylum at University of Queensland

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A new exhibition at the University of Queensland in Australia that recounts some of Nanjing’s tragic past is providing a rare opportunity to discover the human face behind the asylum seeker.

“John Young: Safety Zone” and two other exhibitions are the result of a collaboration between the UQ Art Museum, the UQ Library and researchers in the School of English, Media Studies and Art History (EMSAH).

The exhibition inhabits a space suspended between personal ode, poetic allegory and straight historical record and is named after the Safety Zone that was established by German businessman John Rabe and 20 other foreigners in Nanjing during the 1937 Nanjing Massacre that was to help save countless thousands of lives. Hong Kong born Australian artist John Young travelled to China and Germany to conduct first-hand interviews and research, and has incorporated historical photographs and documents in works that speak to these events.

John’s relationship with Nanjing began back in 2005, when he was commissioned to design a tapestry entitled ‘Open World’, a gift from the State Government of Victoria that is now permanently housed in the Nanjing Library. In 2008, whilst travelling to Berlin, John witnessed a perfectly circular rainbow through the window of his airplane (known in Chinese as “Buddha’s ray”) which ultimately led him to develop a project that explored the deeds of John Rabe, who is known by the survivors of the Nanjing Massacre as the “Living Buddha”.

Extracts of reviews for Safety Zone:-

“The work is conceptually and aesthetically well resolved, the layering within the work creating a holistic narrative that engulfs and enfolds the viewer

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