Henry Tsang Works Spotlighted in Events Across Vancouver
(Photo courtesy Henry Tsang)
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Exhibitions, catalogues, award nominations, public tours and food tastings all focus on the recent output of the artist and ECU faculty member.
Works by artist and Emily Carr University of Art + Design (ECU) faculty member Henry Tsang exploring anti-Asian and anti-Indigenous racism in local and regional history are being spotlighted in several events across Vancouver.
On Friday, Aug. 23, Centre A: Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art is hosting the Surrey Art Gallery’s launch of a new catalogue that combines Henry’s two projects, Hastings Park and Tansy Point.
Hastings Park comprises a series of colour photos “depicting the four remaining buildings in Vancouver where over 8000 Japanese Canadians were temporarily located and processed prior to being sent off to labour and internment camps during World War II.” The Tansy Point video installation features a photographic panorama depicting the eponymous peninsula where the Anson Dart Treaties, which were never ratified by US Congress, were signed in 1851 between the Indigenous Chinook peoples and the US government.
From Henry Tsang’s Tansy Point, 2019. Double projection, DCI 4k video, 5 min. (Image courtesy Henry Tsang)
Organized in partnership with the Surrey Art Gallery and Powell Street Festival, the event will feature Henry in conversation with curator Jordan Strom and special guests Judy Hanazawa and Dan Tokawa from the Japanese Canadian Hastings Park Interpretive Centre Society.
The catalogue includes essays examining Henry’s works “through the lens of history, memory, built environment and landscape.” The Hastings Park photos were also recently exhibited at Centre A as part of the 48th annual Powell Street Festival.
Meanwhile, Henry’s lauded book White Riot: The 1907 Anti-Asian Riots in Vancouver is a finalist for the City of Vancouver Book Award. The winner will be announced on Oct. 25 at an award ceremony during Vancouver Writer’s Festival.
The book is based on Henry’s 360 Riot Walk audio-visual artwork, which will offer its final 2024 public guided tour on Sept. 8, as part of the Powell Street Festival.
Henry Tsang, Hastings Park: Building A – Livestock Building North, East Entrance, 2021. Pigment ink on metallic paper. (Image courtesy Henry Tsang)
Additionally, Henry will launch the third edition of RIOT FOOD HERE at the Chinese Canadian Museum on Sept. 7, the anniversary of the 1907 Anti-Asian Riots in Vancouver. With a menu interpreted by Chef Karima Chellouf, participants will be invited to taste foods reflecting five cuisines locals would have eaten at the time of the riot: European, Chinese, Japanese, Aboriginal and Punjabi.
“RIOT FOOD HERE stimulates dialogue and awareness of this historic event as a way to reflect upon the ongoing struggle since colonial times about who has the right to live and eat here,” Henry writes.
Visit Henry’s website to learn more about his work.
Visit ECU online to learn more about Critical + Cultural Studies at Emily Carr University.
