Samson Young: It's a heaven over there
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Centre A: Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art 205-268 Keefer Street (Sun Wah Centre), Vancouver, British Columbia V6A 1X5
Samson Young, "Da Da Company," 2019
animated video still
Last chance to see Samson Young: It's a heaven over there and Thomas Lin and George Ho: Intersection - Two Cities before they close Tuesday, June 4! To ensure everyone has a chance to see the shows, we are offering extended hours and a series of guided tours next week: Thursday, May 30 / 12-8pm
Friday, May 31 / 12-8pm
Saturday, June 1 / 12- 5pm*
Visit on Saturday, June 1 for a guided tour of both exhibitions, as well as a special artist-led tour of Healing Brush by Katharine Meng-Yuan Yi at Canton-Sardine. *Guided tours at 12pm, 2pm, and 4pm (register now)
It's a heaven over there is the first solo exhibition in Canada by celebrated Hong Kong artist Samson Young.
Situated in a cavernous gallery in the pink walled, neon-lit, 1980s era shopping mall in Vancouver's ever gentrifying Chinatown It's a heaven over there originates from Young's archival research on Won Alexander Cumyow, the first person of Chinese descent born in Canada, and mobilizes Centre A's new site, in the former retail mall Sun Wah Centre, to stage a double vision of contemporary global retrotopianism.
In this exhibition, the contemporary retrotopian impulse that remembers once-vibrant mall fountain courts as town squares becomes an entryway into the poetics of the diasporic imagination. It's a heaven over there continues Young’s interest in shifting topologies, the modern nation-state, and cosmopolitan social imaginaries, and will feature a new body of works on paper, an animated music video, and archival materials.
About the Artist
Samson Young is a highly regarded composer, sound and media artist based in Hong Kong, holding a PhD in Music Composition from Princeton University. With a formal cross-cultural training in music composition, he draws from multicultural paradigms to weave a symphony of image and sound, touching upon the recurring topics of identity, war and literature. Young is the member of multiple bands and has collaborated with orchestras worldwide. He has had solo exhibitions at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Centre for Contemporary Chinese Art in Manchester, M+ Pavilion in Hong Kong, and Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, among others. In 2017, he represented Hong Kong in the 57th Venice Biennale. Group exhibitions include Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Biennale of Sydney; National Museum of Art, Osaka; National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul; and documenta 14: documenta radio. Furthermore, he has participated in multiple festivals, as well as been the recipient of several prizes, including the 2015 BMW Art Journey Award and 2018 Hong Kong Art Centre Honorary Fellowship. Further awards include Artist of the Year (Hong Kong Arts Development Council), Prix Ars Electronica, and the Bloomberg Emerging Artist Award.