Jo Rankine

In China and Tibet, formal public sitting places like the ones we have in Australia are hard to find. Locals make use of worn-out armchairs to create their own sitting places and they can often be found around the perimeter of monasteries and decaying into the landscape under a stand of trees. While I was in Tibet, these chairs became a metaphor for the Tibetan people and all they have lost under their "peaceful liberation" by China. These days, not much is said about the ongoing occupation of Tibet. My images invite you to look more closely, to think more deeply, and to ask more questions about what is really at the heart of occupied territories. Can we, the ordinary people, ever really know? It is never black and white.