Thanksgiving in Tin Wan was the first work that I conceived since moving back to Hong Kong. It was a farewell to my formative years in Canada, my grandparent’s home, where my father grew up and also the home where I adopted my first Canadian tradition, a thanksgiving dinner. My immigrant grandparents adapted to the local tradition and celebrated annually but our versions and reasons for expressing gratitude felt different than others. Their table was served with turkey, some pre-packaged salad, pumpkin pie with canned whip cream, fried rice and Chinese soup with substitute ingredients because it was impossible to find in local stores. KFC and thick-crusted pizza would make the occasional feature.
For this work, I transformed the office and meeting room of the gallery turn into a kitchen, a dining area, a domestic space for hosting. Participants would enter into a socially constructed environment, where I was re-heating the food, and they can choose to get acquainted with others, and wait. It was important that I had cooked everything myself as much as possible and that the preparation and production were made visible because it reflected the invisible domestic labor that often happened only in the kitchen, behind the scene. Hospitality, display of care, and being a guest were something I experienced a lot in Canada.
In the main area, I had two different videos playing on television. One was a Canadian football game from the 2013 Grey Cup final (Riders vs Winnipeg), a proud sport of the people of Saskatchewan. In a separate room, it was a documentary video of my aunt teaching me how to prepare and marinate a turkey.
Eventually, the anticipation and smell of the food took over and the participants were eager to help because they were very hungry. Once the food was ready, we started eating.
Through cooking, anticipating, observing, chatting, sharing and dining, the hosted event at Mur Nomade as a sensory and social experience that offered a deeper contemplation on diasporic experiences and cultures, as well as the subtle politics on labor and hospitality.
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Review written by Henrietta Wilson, ArtAsiaPacific
For this work, I transformed the office and meeting room of the gallery turn into a kitchen, a dining area, a domestic space for hosting. Participants would enter into a socially constructed environment, where I was re-heating the food, and they can choose to get acquainted with others, and wait. It was important that I had cooked everything myself as much as possible and that the preparation and production were made visible because it reflected the invisible domestic labor that often happened only in the kitchen, behind the scene. Hospitality, display of care, and being a guest were something I experienced a lot in Canada.
In the main area, I had two different videos playing on television. One was a Canadian football game from the 2013 Grey Cup final (Riders vs Winnipeg), a proud sport of the people of Saskatchewan. In a separate room, it was a documentary video of my aunt teaching me how to prepare and marinate a turkey.
Eventually, the anticipation and smell of the food took over and the participants were eager to help because they were very hungry. Once the food was ready, we started eating.
Through cooking, anticipating, observing, chatting, sharing and dining, the hosted event at Mur Nomade as a sensory and social experience that offered a deeper contemplation on diasporic experiences and cultures, as well as the subtle politics on labor and hospitality.
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Review written by Henrietta Wilson, ArtAsiaPacific
