Marlene Yuen: Cheap! Diligent! Faithful!

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Marlene Yuen, "Cheap! Diligent! Faithful!," 2020

Cheap! Diligent! Faithful!

by Marlene Yuen

We can only truly imagine what the future will look like if we pause to consider our pasts. As our urban, cultural, technological and political landscapes rapidly shift, Vancouver-based printmaker Marlene Yuen delves into Chinese Canadian labour histories through stories both known and forgotten. The histories of immigrant labour in Canada are utterly intertwined with Canada’s colonial legacy and our contemporary concerns; Yuen weaves texts and imagery to tell these stories.

Through ‘zines, comics, lovingly crafted artists books and – new for this exhibition – site-specific artworks, Yuen’s body of work comes off the pages and onto the walls. In precise and attentive craftsmanship, Yuen brings dimension to both the known and the overlooked histories of immigrant labour. Drawing from oral histories and archival research inspired by Yuen’s own family history, Cheap! Diligent! Faithful! acknowledges the complexities of labour and immigration in this country – and lifts up the small, remarkable details of lived experience. Yuen’s works take us to Cumberland’s small but thriving Chinatown in 1888, a Chinese grocery store in 1880s Yale, the first workers’ unions in Vancouver’s Chinatown, and introduces us to fascinating but nearly forgotten figures along the way.

The exhibition includes the launch of Yuen’s new publication that explores the graphic and cultural history of Ho Sun Hing Printers, which closed in 2014 after 106 years of business in Vancouver’s Chinatown.

grunt gallery will be presenting an online artist talk by Marlene Yuen in partnership with Vancouver Art Book Fair, details to be announced soon.

Marlene Yuen is a Vancouver-based artist who received her Bachelor’s of Studio Arts in 1998 from the University of British Columbia. Marlene has exhibited at galleries, artist-run centres, and cultural events in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Japan. Although she is a multidisciplinary artist, her current focus is on handmade books; her artist books have been retained in special collections nationally and internationally. Currently, Marlene is focusing her subject matters on Chinese Canadian labour history and preservation of Vancouver’s historic Chinatown.