Shifting Perspectives

Bathurst Regional Art Gallery (BRAG) presents Shifting Perspectives by Si Yi Shen.

Shifting Perspectives is a playful, moving collage that explores the "Australian" terrain in the context of navigating the diasporic identity and placemaking. Framed through the themes of journeys and discovery, it reflects on the tension between belonging and adaptation.

Inspired by my walks through unfamiliar landscapes, this eight-panel moving image, displayed on the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery TAFE screens, reimagines the environment as an inverted world—a reflection of upheaval, change, and wonder. Video clips from these walks are layered into the scene, inviting viewers to navigate this evolving, dreamlike space alongside me.

The work is constructed from an extensive archive of digital fragments, including video clips, still images, and 3D scans captured during these walks. By deconstructing, reconstructing, and reassembling these fragments, I created a landscape where the real and the imagined blur together. This process mirrors the experience of living between cultures, where familiar and foreign elements overlap—sometimes clashing and harmonising.

At its heart, Shifting Perspectives is about movement and transformation. It offers us a moment of quiet to consider how we adapt to change and connect to new environments.

Image: Si Yi Shen, Shifting Perspectives (still), 2025, 8 channel video, 2 minutes. Courtesy the artist.