EITHER / OR reports on any topic that may invoke was reduced significantly. Canada has media labelled the city’s changing EITHER / OR anti-Asian sentiment. In person, they since become more cosmopolitan and demographics “Hongcouver,” and locals are whispered, or expressed aloud if the globally connected. People move more derisively referred to the University of speaker deems their social environment freely between countries, as can their as the “University of sympathetic to their concerns. money, especially if it is invested in real a Billion Chinese.” After 1997, Mainland Tendrils of text climb up the stone wall on estate. This was not always the case; in China replaced Hong Kong as the Theirs is a voicing of displeasure and the east side of the Art Gallery, 1884, the provincial government enacted largest source of immigrants, and distrust of others, those perceived to be like English ivy, an aesthetic common legislation denying Chinese people the through the Federal Immigrant Investor invading this land. These voices reflect in British architecture. Hedera helix can right to buy, lease, or preempt Crown Program, significant numbers of wealthy the values of those who wrote legislation climb up to thirty metres, as the organic lands. Race-based covenants were new nouveau riche Canadians. to keep out Asians and Blacks, and the forms in Tsang Kin-Wah’s site-specific common, excluding Asians, Blacks and Indigenous peoples apart from their land, Since 2001, the price of a detached installation, EITHER / OR, do. An invasive Jews from owning or renting a home resulting in their disenfranchisement. house in Vancouver has more than species, ivy came here from perhaps in many towns and cities across the They echo those that sparked the first quadrupled, facilitated by historic low northern Africa or western Asia, but more province until they were nullified in an anti-Chinese riot in Vancouver of 1887, interest rates, accelerated movement likely the British Isles, along with those amendment to the BC Land Titles months after the city’s incorporation, as of offshore capital and the city’s who came to colonize and settle in this Act in 1978. part of the “white Canada” movement transformation into a playground for the part of the world. The building the artwork that preceded British Columbia’s entry This is the cultural and institutional international elite. It is no wonder that has attached itself to was constructed into Canadian confederation. They legacy invoked by these voices when issues of affordability, foreign ownership to house the Vancouver Courthouse. enacted the Chinese Head Tax from 1885 they continue to rail against those who and the spectre of yet another wave Neoclassical design motifs such as this to 1923, and the Chinese Exclusion Act buy our homes, or come to also settle of “Asian invasion” are subjects of have been popular in Western societies to from 1926 to 1947. These voices incited on our land. They did not decry the constant debate. The writing on the represent authority and power, conjuring the 1907 Anti-Asian riot organized purchase of lands by the British, Irish, walls in Tsang’s two-part installation act the ancient empires of the Greeks and by the Asiatic Exclusion League that Germans and “white” Americans from as a very public reminder of this city’s Romans in association with institutions attacked Chinatown and Powell Street/ the time of Vancouver’s incorporation struggle with its colonial past. such as banking, higher education, and in Japantown, followed by the Hayashi- until present. But they did after 1982, this case, the judiciary. Lemieux Agreement of 1908 which limited when Hong Kong emigration to Henry Tsang September, 2017 Three blocks to the west is Tsang’s the number of Japanese migrants. They Canada increased dramatically, with Vancouver receiving the majority of the complementary EITHER / OR, at Offsite, drafted the 1908 “continuous journey located in the plaza of the Shangri-La regulation,” prohibiting the arrival of newcomers. This was the year Margaret Hotel, Vancouver’s tallest building. Here, migrants from India as the law required Thatcher was televised falling down the his texts take on the forms of floral, one to travel directly from their country steps of the Great Hall of the People butterfly and dragon patterns, common of citizenship. In 1914, the SS Komagata in Beijing during her visit with Deng Xiaoping. Interpreted as a sign that the Henry Tsang is a visual and media artist themes in Chinese decorative arts. It is Maru was denied entry to Vancouver based in Vancouver, BC. His artworks fitting then, that the luxury brand hotel because it carried passengers of Indian British Empire’s power and influence incorporate digital media, video, photography, chain is based in Hong Kong, named descent, all British subjects, who were was waning and China’s was on the rise, language and sculptural elements that follow the relationship between the public, after the utopian lamasery in James attempting to immigrate to Canada. They apprehension, anxiety and fear of Hong Kong’s return to China in 1997 rose. The community and identity through global flows Hilton’s 1933 novel, Lost Horizon. If one is passed a federal Order-in-Council to ban of people, culture and capital. Henry is an predisposed towards comparing East and Blacks in 1911. These voices dispossessed, initial local backlash was swift but more Associate Professor at University West, then the two installations can be forcibly relocated and interned Japanese verbal than violent; the mainstream of Art + Design. considered—as the buildings are and their Canadians from their homes from 1942 functions as well—as yin and yang. But to 1949. they are not opposite, nor opposing; they are more either and or, neither and nor. In 1967, a “points” system was incorporated Although distinct and different, both into Canada’s Immigration Act—now share a similar historical antecedent for known as the Comprehensive Ranking the land on which they sit, that of System—that was used to assess potential British colonization. immigrants for eligibility. Nationality and race were no longer factors as main The texts at both sites also display considerations were based on education a dialectical process that exposes a levels, work skills and language fluency nervosity that borders on distress. They in English or French. With the emphasis have been mined from online forums such shifting towards those with more skills as Reddit and in commentary following and capital, direct racial discrimination IMAGES: OFFSITE May 4 to October 15, 2017 Tsang Kin-Wah Tsang Kin-Wah ONSITE Late Summer to Early Winter EITHER / OR, 2017, EITHER / OR, 2017 site-specific installation Vancouver Art Gallery Offsite

EITHER / OR, 2017 site-specific installation Offsite is the Vancouver Art Gallery’s Melville St W Pender St on the Vancouver Art Gallery outdoor public art space in the heart Howe Street façade of the city. Presenting an innovative Bute St PHOTOGRAPHY: program of temporary projects Offsite Alberni St Rachel Topham, Vancouver Art Gallery Thurlow St twice a year, it is a site for local and D un W Georgia St sm international contemporary artists u ISBN: 978-1-927656-35-8 Robson St ir S © 2017 Vancouver Art Gallery, to exhibit works related to the t the artist and author surrounding urban context. Featured Burrard St artists consider the site-specific Hornby St potential of art within the public realm and respond to the changing LOCATED in Vancouver on West social and cultural conditions of our , between Thurlow contemporary world. and Bute Streets

Onsite is a temporary outdoor installation on the Howe Street side About of the Vancouver Art Gallery’s the Artist building façade.

Tsang Kin-Wah (㧟㇛膫) was born in Tsang’s immersive vinyl text installations 1976 in Shantou, Guangdong Province have covered the walls and floors of in China, and moved with his family to galleries and museums around the Hong Kong in 1984. While pursuing a world. In the early 2000s his work BA Honours in Fine Arts at the Chinese evolved from static vinyl installations to Offsite / Onsite is organized by the Vancouver CURATOR: Diana Freundl, Associate Curator, Art Gallery and funded by the City of Vancouver Asian Art, Vancouver Art Gallery University of Hong Kong, he became multimedia video projections that would through the Public Art Program. fascinated with the book form and the reverberate with philosophical concepts relationships between text, image and and religious symbolism, covering walls, narration. In 2003, he travelled to the floors and visitors with moving texts.

United Kingdom to pursue a master’s in Book Arts at Camberwell College of He has participated in numerous solo The Gallery recognizes Ian Gillespie, President, Arts in London. His interest in creating and group exhibitions throughout Westbank; Ben Yeung, President, Peterson Investment Group; and residents at the floral-patterned paintings and wallpaper Europe, Asia and the United States, Shangri-La for their support of this space. designs began during these years. He including representing Hong Kong at made his first wallpaper installation by the 2015 Venice Biennale, and a major The Vancouver Art Gallery is a not-for-profit organization supported by its members, individual covering a public floor with pages from solo exhibition that launched the M+ donors, corporate funders, foundations, the City of Pavilion in Hong Kong in 2016. This is a book. This was also the beginning of Vancouver, the Province of British Columbia through 750 Hornby Street his ongoing interest in the relationship his first exhibition in Canada. the British Columbia Arts Council, and the Canada Vancouver BC V6Z 2H7 Canada between public art and its audience. Council for the Arts. 604 662 4700 www.vanartgallery.bc.ca