Karen Tam, Sea of Clouds

Sea of Clouds explores the theatricality of North American China-towns and their architectural links to world’s fairs, investigating their role in community revitalization. The exhibition focuses on how China was represented from the 1851 Great Exhibition in London to Expo 2010 in Shanghai, and how these representations connect to Chinese diasporas in North America.

The China-themed pavilions of these fairs, featuring replicas of landmarks like Beijing’s Hall of Supreme Harmony, facilitated cross-cultural dialogue. Smaller events, such as Vancouver’s 1936 Golden Jubilee, also showcased Chinese culture, sometimes even displaying individuals as part of the exhibits. These fairs were often the first introduction to the Chinese community for many, deeply influencing perceptions.

Karen Tam has always been intrigued by the concept of China and how it is perceived in North America and Europe, and her recent exhibition furthers this theme. Through an immersive installation combining sculptures, cyanotypes, textiles, sound, architectural models, archival objects and photographic reproductions, Tam questions how these historical representations shaped perceptions and cultural exchanges. She also considers how to address the colonial and racialized legacies in these cultural perceptions moving forward.

Tam explores how certain ideas and images of Chinese cultural communities are shaped and spread through popular culture, racial stereotypes and exoticizing the East. For example, From Yiwu to You is an ongoing large-scale installation of faux Delftware tiles made from sheets of cyanotype to resemble European porcelain rooms inspired by a period of increasing trade with China. The invention of Delft pottery in the mid-1600s was a response to the popularity of Chinese blue-and-white porcelain. As in other works by Tam, these Eastern-influenced aesthetics and commercial ventures become an appropriated or an exotic version of China.

A deep engagement with archival and collections research has led Tam to ask how we remember, represent, support and simultaneously deny the erasures of our stories, spaces and communities.

Opening reception Sep 26, 5–8pm

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