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Richmond Art Gallery hosts online artist talk about issues of gender and culture

Artist of Aberdeen Station installation challenges Chinese traditional symbols representing genders

The Richmond Art Gallery and Richmond Public Art Program is hosting a virtual session with a local artist who will talk about the issues of gender and culture explored in her artwork.

Digital artist and photographer Chun Hua Catherine Dong will be speaking and answering questions from the public about her art pieces that have been installed at the Aberdeen Canada Line station as part of the Capture Photography Festival.

The virtual session will take place on Zoom with a live English transcription on April 17 at 2 p.m.

Dong suggests a contemporary perspective on Chinese traditions in her work by using popular symbols of Chinese culture and the symbolic meaning of Chinese textiles to explore the issues of gender.

The phoenix and dragon symbols are represent auspiciousness and the relationship between a husband and a wife in Chinese culture.

And while the dragon is associated with Chinese emperors and the phoenix associated with female identities, “Dong envisions the phoenix and the dragon not as opposites but as mirrors of each other,” reads the Richmond Art Gallery website.

The artist uses the addition of art elements to “return” masculinity to the phoenix and femininity to the dragon in her work.

Each image in Dong’s art installation in Richmond is animated with augmented reality through a mobile app. The images and sound are viewed via the app, the graphic elements move or “dance” along with traditional Chinese music.

To register for the artist talk session, visit https://bit.ly/3dY42oH