Fall Exhibition Talk and Tour with Curator Su-Ying Lee

Join curator Su-Ying Lee for a talk and tour about her fall 2024 exhibition, Constellations: Racial myths, land, and labour.

Carl Beam, David Blandy, Andrea Chung, Minerva Cuevas, Aria Dean, Inyang Essien, Andil Gosine, Deborah Jack, Dinh Q. Lê, Candice Lin, Daniela Ortiz, Chanell Stone, Hank Willis Thomas, Jeff Thomas, Bo Wang & Lu Pan, Carrie Mae Weems, Connie Zheng

Constellations: Racial myths, land, and labour begins with the flows of people and plants circulated through the routes of early European colonialism. Plants, which were valuable as food, medicine and for other industries were a key driver for colonial exploration and occupation. Under the long shadows of racial and plantation capitalism and unfreedom, how do we conceive of racial identity? How can racialized people relate to place, land and nature under this legacy of trafficking, forced labour and displacement? Constellations: Racial myths, land, and labour brings together work by artists who look at the connected nature of race-making, colonialism, and land.

About the curator:

Su-Ying Lee is an independent curator and has also worked in institutions including the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art and the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery (University of Toronto). Recent exhibitions include Amy Ching-Yan Lam with HaeAhn Woo Kwon: A small but comfy house and maybe a dog at Richmond Art Gallery (2023) and Overseeding: Botany, Cultural Knowledge and Attribution at the Blackwood Gallery (2024). Her projects have taken place across Canada, in Hong Kong, Mexico City, and Quezon City (Metro Manila, Philippines). She writes creative non-fiction and social criticism.

Image Credits:

Candice Lin, La Charada China, 2018. Installation view, Candice Lin, Hospitality for ghosts, 2023. Almeida & Dale, São Paulo. Courtesy of the Artist and Almeida & Dale.

Carl Beam, New World, 1990. Image courtesy of Moose Jaw Museum & Art Gallery.

Still from Dal Puri Diaspora by Richard Fung. Courtesy of the artist and V-Tape, Toronto.

Connie Zheng, Routes/Roots, 2021. Photography by Jenna Garrett and the Minnesota Street Project.

Aria Dean, Dead Zone (4), 2019. Courtesy of the artist. KADIST Collection.

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