Li Yuan-chia's Cupboard of Slides Culturally Migrating Objects in Curatorial and Contemporary Art Historical Practice

This article seeks to elaborate on the immanent aspects of the slide as an object that - due to its ‘thingness’ in different cultural realms - was able to ‘migrate’ transculturally. The example I would like to present for this approach is the work of the British Chinese artist, curator, and poet Li Yuan-chia (1929-1994), who took a number of astonishing slides, which were found in his house after he died. My research focuses on the different practices applied to these polydimensional objects - especially when selected for retrospective exhibitions, and presented in an altered form. This article seeks to respond to and examine the idea that meaning is attributed to (Western) objects in exhibitions of a (Western) cultural background, and that objects like slides, traditionally seen as an achievement of Western culture and communication, can also propose processes that question the contextual framings of our exhibition practices. © 2018 Third Text.