Redress Express comes to Centre A – bringing art and examination about Canada's racist past
What is the Redress Express, and what does it have to do with racism?
2007 is a significant year for anniversaries in Asian-Canadian history:
1907 – 100 year anniversary of the Chinatown riots by the Anti-Asiatic League
1947 – the end of the Chinese Exclusion Act and the beginning of franchise rights including voting for Canadians of Chinese ancestry.
1957 – Canada's first Chinese-Canadian MP elected to Parliament – Douglas Jung
1967 – Changes in immigration law, making it more fair and accessible for Chinese immigrants.
1997 – Hong Kong turnover to China
1996 – 1st year anniversary of federal apology and promise of redress payments for the Chinese Head Tax.
Centre A, brings together an exciting program working with community groups and artists. Here is what Ron Mah had to say about the weekend's events.
– Sid Chow Tan is now an “Artist”
after his brief 5 minute talk & 10 minute video presentatsion of the journey of Head Tax Redress; Hank Bull (curator plus) stated that “If Sid's video isn't art, then I don't know what is!”– Victor Wong had an excellent talk on Head Tax & Redress
titled “True Grits, Kwan Gung and Luck: The Inside Stories of the Head Tax Redress Campaign”
– Many excellent national speakers of academia and the arts provided
varied views from many perspectives providing an
interesting program.
– filming of the first day was done by both ACCESS, FEARLESS TV
and also by the Symposium.
-Henry Yu, graciously, organized a delicious 10 course Retro period
Chinese Canadian Restaurant Dinner. Fortunately, I was sitting next to Henry and Karin Tam who were also at the same table. They had both researched and provided the chefs with the specific customized dishes that is not normally on their menus. It was fun, filling and informative.
-Centre A is now transformed into a retro Chinese Canadian Restaurant for
the next 5 weeks by Karen Tam but no food is served. This is a must see
free installation.
-Karin Lee's Friday evening outdoor showing at the Chinese Night Market was just
starting and I saw myself for a brief second in the short produced by
the women's dragon boat team Genesis.
-Sean & I networked and partied till 2am and 3am until Karen Tam had to
catch her 6am flight back home to Montreal. The Saturday night party was
great: lots of fun and jamming and all round opportunity for future collaboration with the whole group.
-Thanks to Alice Ming Wai Jim, Henry Yu and Victor Wong for making this happen for us.
from the Centre A website:
REDRESS EXPRESS
In conjunction with:
2007 Anniversaries of Change (http://www.anniversaries07.ca)
Powell Street Festival (August 4-5, 2007, http://powellstfestival.shinnova.com)
explorASIAN (Vancouver Asian Heritage Month, http://www.explorasian.org).
Patron: Anndraya T. Luui
EXHIBITION
Date: August 3 to September 1, 2007
Venue: Centre A, 2 West Hastings Street
Opening: Friday, August 3, 7pm, Centre A, 2 West Hastings Street
SYMPOSIUM
Date: August 2-3, 2007, 10am to 5pm
Location: Chinese Cultural Centre, 555 Columbia Street
Co-sponsors:
Gail & Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art
at the Department of Art History, Concordia University, the University
of British Columbia, and Emily Carr Institute for Art + Design + Media
(Click here to download the symposium program and abstracts)
Free admission
The
exhibition “REDRESS EXPRESS: Chinese Restaurants and the Head Tax Issue
in Canadian Art” features recent photography, video and installations
by five Chinese-Canadian artists: Gu Xiong (Vancouver), Shelly Low
(Montreal), Ho Tam (Victoria, BC), Karen Tam (Montreal), and Kira Wu
(Vancouver). It is held in conjunction with the two-day symposium
“REDRESS EXPRESS: Current Directions in Asian Canadian Art and Culture”
which brings together over twenty scholars, community activists,
cultural organizers, and artists from many disciplines to consider
current and future directions in Asian Canadian art and culture. The
REDRESS EXPRESS project is curated by Alice Ming Wai Jim and
accompanied by a colour catalogue with additional graphic illustrations
by Joanne Hui (Montreal).
As a whole, the REDRESS EXPRESS
project is an attempt to examine the current politics of
representation, redress and recognition in Canada as they relate to
art, activism, identity and geography. The call for redress has long
been the bookends for Asian Canadian critiques of Canada's racist past.
The recent victory of the redress campaign for surviving Chinese head
tax payers and their spouses and its inevitable effects on the current
politics of reparation and representation in this country, however,
presents another challenge: to ensure an ongoing, rigorous treatment
these issues demand in political, cultural and educational sectors.
With the host of 2007 anniversaries of historical dates significant to
Canadians and Asian Canadian communities in particular celebrated this
year, this provision of critical texts in contemporary discourse and
practice and the broadening of understanding to address cross-cultural
perspectives and realities remains imperative.