Bitter and Pithy | Liane Chan
"My practice encapsulates the joys of cultural and familial connection, illustrated through
memories of food and cultural Objects to articulate diasporic identity, dis/comfort, and nostalgia. Indulging the sinophilic appetite, I reveal the interwoven connections between Chinese/Cantonese culture and growing up in Canada. Responding to lived experiences of Sinophobia, gender-based violence, and anti-queerness, this body of work uses a range of media, including sculptural installation, painting, and textile embroidery, as tools of self-expression and resistance to the oppressive nature of “Tradition.” Through processes of intensive textile Labour, I bear witness to the unseen Labours of Chinese Women in canada by portraying the sinicized and feminized Object empathetically as an homage to the role of Chinese women within and beyond the scope of motherhood and/or creation. Informed by a culture of feminine self-sacrifice, and considering the racialized and gendered nature of the canadian Labour market, I deny the dehumanizing practices of female objectification that relegates Chinese Women as objects of domestic Labour and sexual desire."
Instagram: @lichan_art
