“Occupying Chinatown” by Paul Wong
Vancouver artist Paul Wong's new book Occupying Chinatown – produced in partnership with Vancouver's Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden and the On Main Gallery – will be released at a free book launch in the garden on Sept. 11. Tickets are available here.
The book, illustrated with images of Wong's work about Chinese-Canadian identity, follows his year-long artist residency at the garden.
Garden director Lorraine Lowe says Wong's residency “gave people a gateway into learning about our ancestors’ experiences while living in Chinatown.”
The book, written in both English and Simplified Chinese, was influenced by 900 letters sent to Suk-Fong Wong, the artist's mother, over 65 years.
“Above all, I have approached this out of curiosity about what has been lost through silence,” says Wong. “Occupying Chinatown has provided a conceptual frame for inspiring a prolific outpouring of artworks combining fragments of memory, language and ephemeral histories.”
“It has continued, and will continue, to allow me to look at everyday things as anything but ordinary.”
Source: On Main Gallery
