Blood and Tears (2018)
Commissioned and curated by Dunlop Art Gallery as part of the "Roadside Attractions" public art project
As installed at Birch Hills Town Office and Library (Birch Hills, Canada)
2.02 x 3.59 x 1.14 m / 6.63 x 11.77 x 3.75 ft, 3 engraved and laser-cut steel panels, powder-coated
Similar to a folding screen, this 3-panel cutout metal structure looks at the Chinese restaurants and cafés that
dotted the Saskatchewan landscape between the 1930s and 1950s. In thinking about the history of a place, I have
been researching city directories and a ledger kept by a prominent Chinese businessman in Victoria’s Chinatown in
the 1930s who listed his restaurant contacts in the Prairies, many in Saskatchewan. They may have settled in those
towns permanently or may have moved on, but the only trace of their existence may be in ledgers such as this one,
in listings or ads in the phone directories. This sculpture is my small contribution to collecting and creating
an archive of the Chinese Canadian restaurant community, and perhaps in doing so may be seen as a counter-archive
and an act of resistance to what has been erased, left, out, and interpreted in public and dominant histories.
Photo credits: Carey Shaw
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