EMBODIED TERRAIN

Haq, Jenny Ham, Mae Leong, Mona Kamal, Cindy Mochizuki

Five Asian and South Asian Canadian artists contest the personal and collective traumas of migration through interventions within shifting cultural landscapes.

Jenny Ham | Streetscape with Deer & Cityscape with Bird | 2005 | Digital C-Prints | 40″ x 58″
There are many dichotomies that exist within my work, landscape and urban(scape), the natural and the artificial, the center and the periphery. More specifically however, I am interested in how these parallel representations are read historically in relation to Modernism and contemporary art practices. The physical location of one’s place serves to transform one’s identity. Social and cultural alienation are some of the ramifications of contemporary existence. As such, I am interested in exploring the underside of the American vernacular by combining everyday life and theatricality.

Farheen Haq | Retreat | 2004 | Series of 15 Light Boxes, Backlit Digital Prints | Various Sizes
Retreat investigates how space and the urban landscape changes when a spiritual or reflective action takes place in the public environment. www.farheenhaq.com

Mona Kamal | Home | 2000 | Handspun & Hand woven Cotton | 1m x 3m
My artwork is an exploration of my ancestral history, culture, and language and how it has changed through generations due to migration. Through large, monumental installations, I explore my heritage within a modern Canadian construct.  I create intimate spaces that investigate the traditional art practices, language and architecture found within my cultural background.  With considerations of strong cultural customs, I create modern installations.  These installations help me to understand my heritage and culture, the political events that have formed this history and how it relates to my life in Canada.

Mae Leong | I?m Chinese but Need to Speak English Everyday | 2007 | 10 digital photos on poster film | 22″x 28″
I?m Chinese but Need to Speak English Everyday is Mae Leong?s statement on her irreconcilable conflict that she wants to express to others anonymously. Leong secretly placed tiny black and white text in various unnoticeable locations: pockets of clothing in a store, between pages of a library book, in a menu at a restaurant, in a public phone booth, on the bark of a tree, etched into the facade of an abandoned building, and scribbled on money notes and change. Such discrete ways of conveying messages initiates the viewer?s curiosity to learn who and why. www.maeleong.com

Cindy Mochizuki | Wake | 2006 | Sound Installation & Sound Walk | 23min
Wake is a 24min Audio Story that narrates a fictional murder mystery on the New Brighton Shoreline. The history and memory of the Japanese Canadian internment is called up through the dialogue of a Witness and a Detective that begin to interrogate each other on questions of ‘truth’ and the impossibility of articulating traumatic memories.

Opening | Sept 7 | 7pm-1am | Free

Join us for a late-night opening reception during SWARM8, Vancouver?s annual celebration of artist-run culture. www.paarc.ca/swarm

www.anniversaries07.ca

(NOTE: due to Fearless TV on-site recording, the show will close one day early).