Bestiary
Acrylic on hand-cut plywood, ceramics, mirror, found objects, shelf bracket, hardware. Reel Asian International Film Festival, 2024.
Bestiary summons creatures from classic chinese myth (phoenix, crane, stone lion), cultural motifs (bottle gourd, gingko leaf), chinese hell, and mypersonal visual lexicon, into a suspended moment of flight. As the beasts flowacross the ceiling between two opposite walls, they occupy a liminal space, aportal toward or from, a spotlight on the unsettling, the unknowable, the intriguing.The creatures invite challenge and play: catch their changing forms as youangle your way through the room, duck your head below a low-flying beast,listen for the sound of bells, look into the mirror for what is reflected.
The pieces cross theceiling of The Commons at 401 Richmond at varying heights, including thosewhere viewers can touch - sometimes collide into - the work. The room is intended as a gathering place for community and activity, at various times gallery, reading room, waiting room, tea ceremony room.
The VR viewing space forms a secondary room of the show, displaying an additional 4 ceramic sculptural pieces, which stand as guardians over a VR viewing platform, recalling statuary found within Chinese Buddhist temples.
This project is supported by the Ontario Arts Council