11 July 2020 | 2:00 p.m.
Presenters: Irene Hung and Lien Chao
“This Spring Is Not Normal”
In the chilly, gloomy spring of 2020, deadly COVID-19 rapidly spread out in the world. Two Canadian artists, Lien Chao and Irene Hung, started their multi-media artistic collaboration as their way to fight COVID-19 during at-home quarantine and practising social distancing. They chose brush painting and bilingual poetry in English and Chinese. On 11 July 2020, they successfully delivered their live-streaming virtual presentation of the finished project to the public.
Irene Hung is an abstract painter with ink, oil and acrylics. She exhibits her artwork with Asian Heritage Month, local and international art events. Irene’s paintings embodied a deep joy of a creative artist who is always fascinated with vibrant, ever-changing movements in the world within and beyond the visions of our naked eyes.
Lien Chao/趙廉 is a bilingual poet and an award-winning Canadian author. Her publications include Beyond Silence: Chinese Canadian Literature in English (1997), winner of the Gabrielle Roy Prize for Canadian Criticism; Tiger Girl: Hu Nü (2001); The Chinese Knot and Other Stories (2008); and three collections of bilingual poetry: Maples and the Stream (1999), More Than Skin Deep (2004), and Salt in My Life (2019). She has also published bilingual art books on sculpture and Chinese brush painting.
As interdisciplinary artists, Irene and Lien will bring an artistic feast they have been working for months to the audience on the AHM digital platform. This virtual gathering will also be an end-of-year rendezvous and celebration for all AHM artists and friends before the holiday season.
Co-Organizers: Asian Heritage Month—Canadian Foundation for Asian Culture (Central Ontario) Inc.; Toronto Public Library; York Centre for Asian Research, York University; Asian Institute at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto; Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies, York University; Richard Charles Lee Canada Hong Kong Library, University of Toronto; Chinese Canadian Photography Society of Toronto; WE Artists’ Group; Social Services Network; Cambridge Food and Wine Society
Asian Heritage Month Festival is partially funded by the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Asian Canadian Artists in Digital Age is funded by Canada Council for the Arts Digital Strategy Fund
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