The comforting promise comprises a bunch of soft banana sculptures made of the plastic sheets that are used to make cheap travel packing bags, and cotton fillings. This work underlines the tradition of consuming imported food in Australian society, inspired by some histories which record that bananas were first brought to Australia by Chinese migrants in the mid-1800s. Zhou fashions her ‘bananas’ from the travel bag material that has cultural associations with Asian migrants, prompting us to consider the Asian influence in Australia’s food industry.
Zhou is a Chinese-born artist who migrated to Australian in the mid-2000s. A previous resident of Darwin, she now resides in Melbourne where she is undertaking a Masters in Visual Arts at Victorian College of the Arts. Zhou’s Box Set installation is presented with support from The Australian Artists’ Grant, a NAVA (National Association for the Visual Arts) initiative, made possible through the generous sponsorship of Mrs Janet Homes à Court, and the support of the Visual Arts Board, Australia Council for the Arts.