Art Metropole

#15946

Notes on the Minor Character

Writer

Bopha Chhay

Date

2024

Publisher

Hildegard Press

Format

Artists' Books

Genre

Arts Writing, Asian Art & Artists, Canadian, Zines

In Notes on the Minor Character Bopha Chhay meditates on “the minor” – those secondary characters or objects that populate the background and seemingly only serve to support or surround the area of focus. Through a series of fragments we encounter the minor characters from paintings and novels; the minor anecdotes appended to the overarching ideology of state-hood; and the minor details, usually overlooked, that can become a great revealer of falsehood. Ranging from Bruegel The Elder to Jane Eyre, Y-Dang Troeung to Dostoevsky, we see ‘the minor’ played out in multiple ways out of the corner of our eye. Here Chhay proposes ‘the minor’ to be that which quietly disrupts the main narrative, and as we re-orient our focus to the outskirts we are given the opportunity to think through a different set of stories: the fan fictions, the non-player characters, and the un-heroic gestures.

Bopha Chhay is a writer, arts worker, and curator of contemporary art. Her research and writing interests are guided by transnational and diasporic histories, collective practice, artistic labour, and artists’ publishing practices. She grew up in New Zealand, and lives and works in Vancouver, Canada.