Conny Zhao: A Place to Land

February 5-26, 2021
Conny Zhao: A Place to Land
Opening reception: Friday, February 5, 5:00-8:00 PM
Gallery hours: Monday-Friday 9 AM – 5 PM

A Place to Land focuses on the relationships between indigenous peoples of China, Palestine, and Mongolia and their historic and cultural ties to land. I explore how marginalized groups, such as Southern or Inner Mongols, Kam (Dong), Buryats, Tibetans, and Palestinians can navigate and negotiate their identities through the passing down of cultural artifacts to younger generations, mundane daily rituals, and active acts of resistance. My series of photographs from 2018-2019 specifically concentrates on each group’s historical connection to land and the types of landscapes they inhabit, looking at how these various landscapes can impact and shape ethnic identity. I also examine what oppressive government policies, urbanization, or environmental damage might mean for the future of these groups.

Conny Zhao is a multimedia artist, musician, and ethnomusicologist from Knoxville. After graduating from the University of Tennessee with a degree in Music and Culture, she spent a year at Inner Mongolia Arts University in Hohhot, China as a Fulbright scholar learning, researching, and documenting Mongolian long-song (urtyn duu). Although Zhao started her work as a musician and researcher, she began to delve into multimedia during her senior year of college as she realized the importance of increasing visibility and representation for traditional Asian music in the United States. Her work as a multimedia artist focuses on underrepresented peoples, how they interact with and exist within their surroundings, and how they perform their identities through various mediums. She especially enjoys exploring musical communities throughout the world, and hopes to combine photography, videography, and audio to create accessible platforms for folk musicians to demonstrate their own traditions. For more information: Instagram @connyzphoto.