Artwork by Joshua van Gestel

After completing the Children of conflict and In Bloom (Memorial) series, the Artist was left feeling disenchanted and worn down, in need of new challenges and discoveries, both personally and creatively. 

The works of Impressions of China reflect the personal and stylistic rediscovery and reinvigoration that Joshua found on his journey through China in 2001. 

The series portrays China's people, its society, culture and struggle to find itself in a new world that seems as foreign to them as their world often seems to us. 

"At a time when our world was becoming increasingly closed in, its societies increasingly prejudiced towards each other, I felt that the series (and the exhibition that it became) should make a very different stand: to show a beautiful world outside of the one we can isolate ourselves within, a world which although foreign and threatening to us is also extremely inspiring; It shows a world that we are often blinded to by our prejudices and fears... Most importantly it shows the world that I found - one that was so different to the one I thought I would discover."

These works formed the basis for the Impressions of China Exhibition held at the SideOnGallery in Sydney in 2003.