Howie Tsui: Retainers of Anarchy

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Trevor Mills, Vancouver Art Gall

Howie Tsui, "Retainers of Anarchy (poison purge)," 2015

animation key frame drawings. Courtesy of the Artist

Vancouver-based artist Howie Tsui’s solo exhibition Retainers of Anarchy is an amalgamation of martial arts characters and techniques woven together with threads of social and political realities of present-day Hong Kong. Presented as a non-linear counter narrative in the form of a twenty-five metre hand-drawn animation, this unique artwork offers an opportunity to reflect on notions of identity and nationhood given Hong Kong’s political past and its more recent surge of political unrest.

Born in Hong Kong and raised in Lagos, Nigeria and Thunder Bay, Ontario, Howie Tsui, like so many Canadians, straddles many worlds. For more than a decade, he has chosen to explore Asian history and pop culture, creating ironic cross-references that bring unexplainable contradictions to the fore. In the spirit of previous work, the artist addresses ideas of resistance, this time using the narrative tool of wuxia, a popular genre of Chinese fantasy fiction and film depicting martial arts battles in ancient China. Wuxia often constructs stories around warrior heroes from lower social classes who uphold chivalric ideals against oppressive forces during unstable times.

In Retainers of Anarchy, Howie Tsui uses the genre as a tool of pointed critique, reflecting his particular interest in the paradox of how self-governed harmony can exist in places of lawlessness, such as the controversial Walled City settlement in Hong Kong, and conversely, how rampant corruption may flourish in governed states.

For Howie Tsui, wuxia provides not only a connection to a distant culture; it also offers multiple points of entry for a diverse audience. The result of the artist’s careful weaving of multifaceted source material is a visually complex, richly textured landscape of personal imagination, cultural appropriation and historical reference. As a crowning achievement, Retainers of Anarchy dismantles geographical divisions and historic timelines, offering encounters with both legend and reality.

Howie Tsui: Retainers of Anarchy is collaboratively organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery, Ottawa Art Gallery and Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. The Vancouver iteration is curated by Diana Freundl, Associate Curator, Asian Art.