MANCHESTER, UK.- The Chinese Arts Centre presents Cockaigne by Gayle Chong Kwan from 14th July - 24th September 2006. Cockaigne was a 14th Century fictional glutton’s paradise island, a land made entirely of food, where all wants and needs are met. Hams and cheeses grow on trees, fountains run with beer, houses are roofed with pies. Ambivalent and multi-layered, Cockaigne explores utopian ideals of paradise.

At Disney’s Epcot Centre in Florida idealised representations of world cities and cultures have been built around a circular lake, most at two-thirds scale. The day can be spent walking from China to Morocco via Venice, perhaps stopping off in Mexico for tortillas and Japan for green tea, before returning to your starting point. In the same way Cockaigne brings together geographical, historical monuments and landscapes in one impossible and ultimately overbearing paradise island made out of food. The various scenes share similar horizons, visually linking up into a fantastical landscape reminiscent of the exotic scenarios created by Dufour in 19th Century hand-printed French panorama wallpapers. The twelve landscape prints echo the European tradition of depicting idealised representations of the twelve months of the year or the four seasons.