(RE)Collections of the East: A Visual Journey of a Changing Asia bears witness to the rise of Western ideals and the ethos of consumption in Asia in the early 1990s, and to the inevitable clash of Western and Eastern cultures that would take place.

“My work is also greatly inspired by the American street photographers of the 1950's and ‘60s,” explains Cousin. “The fast growing economy in North America was making people optimistic about their upcoming future. Everything was possible. Wandering the streets and alleys of the mega-cities of Asia opened my eyes to the drastic cultural and environmental changes that were starting then, and that continue to the present day. The Asians could well become the new "Americans".

Manon Cousin traveled intensively in Asia in 1991 and 1992 and produced a series of photographs in China, India, Nepal, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong-Kong and Macao. From 1994 to 1998 she settled in Beijing, China to study Mandarin and photographed the people of Beijing in their emerging city. During her four-year stay in Beijing, she traveled throughout the country and continued her visual exploration of China’s Han Majority, the Tibetan monks and nuns and the Naxi minority people she encountered in the Himalayan Mountains.

Her visual work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions in the USA, Canada and Asia. In February 2009, she presented Gong Xing Yu Ge Xing, a mixed-media installation at the Contemporary Art Festival TEMPS d’IMAGES at Usine C in Montreal.

For more on her work, you can log on to : www.mcousin.com

ArtLounge at The Segal Centre, 5170 Côte St. Catherine Rd., corner Westbury. 2 blocks West of Métro Côte-Sainte-Catherine. The exhibition is free and open to the public. Refreshments and snacks will be served at the opening.