Richmond BC, Canada #richmondartgallerybc
Presented in partnership with the Capture Festival, City of Richmond Public Art and the Canada Line Public Art Program.
Empty Spaces that Fill My Heart is a photographic diptych connecting Richmond and Vancouver’s Chinatowns. In this work, Chad Wong presents abstracted fragments of the awnings and hallways of the Hong Kong-style cafes and Chinese Canadian malls he grew up visiting. The images contemplate how various modes of representation in architecture and shared cultural spaces shape the narrative and identity of a community.
Wong is a second-generation Canadian whose family immigrated to Richmond from Hong Kong. Since the 1990s, a steady stream of Chinese newcomers has arrived to the Lower Mainland, initially from Hong Kong and now more predominantly from Mainland China. This body of work explores the fading signs and symbols of the Hong Kongese/Cantonese Chinese Canadian cultural urbanscapes of both Richmond and Vancouver. The uniqueness of these malls and restaurants – which have become visible icons in the Lower Mainland – exists in their blend of Eastern and Western influences. These spaces are now slowly disappearing, and the artist views them as a last vestige of his connection to Hong Kong. He felt an urgency to document and preserve these Chinese Canadian sites that are on the precipice of gentrification as demographics shift. Sited at Aberdeen Station, the works occupy a location that is a significant space for Chinese Canadian businesses and cultural manifestation.
翻譯：盧恆
承辦合作：列治文市公共藝術部門 與 捷運加拿大線公共藝術專案InTransit BC
《填滿我心的空曠空間》是一幅連接列治文和溫哥華唐人街的雙聯攝影作品。在這件作品中，藝術家王卓文呈現了他成長歷程中的港式茶餐廳和加拿大華人購物中心的遮陽篷和走廊的抽象片段。這些圖像思考了建築和共享文化空間中的各種表現模式是如何塑造社區的敘事和身份的。
王卓文是第一代加拿大人，他的家人從香港移民到列治文。自1990年代以來，源源不斷的華人新移民來到大溫哥華地區；最初主要來自香港，現在大部分來自中國大陸。這件展出的作品探索了列治文和溫哥華的香港/廣東華裔加拿大文化城市景觀中的漸漸消失的標識和象徵。多年以來，這些購物中心和餐廳已成為了大溫地區的標誌性建築。它們的獨特之處在於它們融合了東西方的影響。然後，如今這些空間現在正在慢慢消失。王卓文將它們視為他與香港之間聯繫的最後痕跡。他感到迫切需要記錄和保護這些隨著人口結構變化而處於土地士紳化邊緣的加拿大華裔空間。本次的展覽地點，時代坊天車站，作為一個加拿大華裔商業和文化的重要空間，也和王卓文的作品產生呼應。
