Montreal-based artists, Hua Jin and Jinyoung Kim both use photography to reflect upon complex modern relationships with notions of home.
In Hua Jin’s My Big Family, what began as a documentation of the artist’s extended family is transformed into a study of the effects of the China’s one-child policy on contemporary families. In Jinyoung Kim’s Jugong Apartments, the abolished architecture of the artist’s childhood home in South Korea speak equally to loss of a once-familiar place and the country’s rapid urbanization in recent decades.
On Sunday, February 11, we invite these two artists to discuss their works in photography, the relationship between personal and social narratives in art, and their understandings of notions of diaspora, homeland, and return.
The event will include brief presentations by each artist to introduce their works, followed by a casual roundtable discussion with attendees, moderated by Muhan Zhang and Edel Yang.
Please note: Our host venue, Milton B, has kindly requested attendees purchase a drink or snack. The event itself is free for all to attend, some free snacks will be provided.
[Artists]
Jinyoung Kim uses time-based media to create her works. Her photographs and videos combine documentary and fiction in order to form metaphorical narratives that deal with questions of identity, sense of belonging, and the relationship between place and self-perception. Born in South Korea and raised in Canada, Kim’s works often draw from her personal experience of growing roots in two places. She continues to look for stories in her life and the lives of others to investigate how a sense of place relates to one's identity formation.
Kim has a BFA from OCAD University in Toronto and MFA from Concordia University.
Jinyoung Kim's website: http://www.jinyoungkim.net/index.php?/
Hua Jin works primarily in photography and installation. Her photography series My Big Family (2010-) is an ongoing project in which the artist documents her own extended family and by extension examines the changes of family structure and values in relation to China’s birth control policy. The project has covered over 40 of the artist’s extended family across four generations and ten cities in China. My Big Family has been exhibited both in China and Canada.
Jin has a BFA from Emily Carr University in Vancouver, and an MFA from Concordia University.
Hua Jin's website: http://huajinart.com/
[Moderators]
Muhan Zhang is a fourth-year honours student in Art History and East Asian Studies at McGill University; her ongoing thesis examines diasporic elements of several contemporary Chinese Canadian artists. Her writing has been published in The Fine Print Magazine, Canvas, Orientations, The McGill Daily, and The McGill Tribune.
Edel Yang graduated from McGill with a B.A. in Art History, East Asian Studies, and Philosophy. Originally from China mainland, she is interested in exploring in the dynamic cultural outlooks on Asia amongst old and new members of diaspora. She has worked on curatorial projects about contemporary Canadian artists. In her free time, she is an avid writer of art, poetry, and short fiction.
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