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Serve the people/White Rabbit Gallery
The White Rabbit Collection is one of the world’s largest and most significant collections of contemporary Chinese art. Founded by Kerr Neilson and Judith Neilson, it focuses on works produced after year 2000.
A slogan of the 1966/76 Cultural Revolution “Serve the People” meant serving the great cause of socialism. Artists were crucial to that effort, but they had to make the right kinds of art: Soviet-style socialist realism or ink painting on revolutionary themes. All other art forms, Western or Chinese were banned and those who dared to practise them were vilified as capitalist-roaders and traitors. The opening up that began in the 80’s led to a more expansive view of artists’ role : now they would serve the people by boosting China’s national image and income. This gallery is now an essential cultural point of Sydney where most of the impressive chinese art is showing but also a quiet place to discover and taste a wide range of the finest Chinese teas.
Photos by Manon Gorgé