Then and Now.

Proposal - September 2003

Call Outs - October 2003

At the beginning of this project I had 3 main objectives for British Born Chinese Lesbian:

1) To set up a network in the form of a website

2) To set up a group

3) From that group bring women together to collaboratively produce artworks about the British Chinese       

    lesbian experience.

The first objective of creating a website has obviously, and happily, been met, and the ever growing number of women responding to it never ceases to amaze me! 

However, since the creation of this website I have revised my initial aims for the project.  I have realised that whilst my aims are well and good, the reality of them means a longer lifespan to put into practise than previously anticipated.

Fundamentally too, it is also difficult to form a collective group of women to produce work when we are so spread out throughout the country (and even the world!), and for the time being this project is lacking external financial support to be able to organise an official gathering.

I mainly realised that the most important aspect about this project was the creation of a space that was lacking.  To create an empowering environment where women can come together to share their  experiences, network, become aware of each other, and perhaps the only way this can happen is to let a project such as this grow organically from the website outwards.

I also began to realise that there were several threads that I wanted to follow that have grown from my own personal experiences with British Born Chinese Lesbian.  These include a collaboration with Alice Tang called Chix Stix and Big Sister which is an installation that I shall be working on in a residency at the Chinese Arts Centre.

So whilst the initial aims are by no means revised completely, for the moment I believe that for this project to be truly successful it must be allowed to breathe and have its own space to grow organically.

Amy Cham, May 2004.