Shaping the Orbit

Featuring work by artists: Li Chai, Ying-Yueh Chuang and Karen Tam
Curated by Doris Ha Lin Sung

June 16 - July 22, 2006

Opening Friday June 16, with Artist talks, 7 PM
followed by Reception until 9 PM

Traditionally, craft has been a social practice, in which women negotiate
their relationship in the familial and social spheres. Following this
tradition, the artists in Shaping the Orbit use ceramic, textile, paper
cutting and assemblages to articulate the transient nature of their own
experience of cultural crossing and displacement as Chinese-Canadian women.

Li Chai, M Body Watch series (2003), Jacquard weaving, installation view

Notions of passages are seen in the computerized weaving of Li Chai which
detail her own experiences of both childbirth and migration. The ceramic
pieces of Ying-Yueh Chuang create an artificial ideal of a paradise, in
which memories are emerging and submerging.

Ying-Yueh Chuang, It blooms on the day...(2004), ceramics, acrylic rods

Karen Tam’s paper cutting and fabricated artifacts of North American Chinese
restaurants interrogate the notion of hybridity in the orbit of postmodern
life. Through their works, the artists shape the orbits of their lives with
hands that elicit crossings of time, place, culture, and personal memory.

Karen Tam, MSG and Buddha Health Food & Vegetarian Delight, from Chef Lee’s
First Wok ’n’ Roll Garden series (2004-present), paper cutting

Li Chai was born in Inner Mongolia, China. She completed a MFA program in
textiles at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 2003. Chai recently
held a solo exhibition of her work at the Mary E. Black Gallery in Halifax
and currently lives in Toronto.

Ying-Yueh Chuang received a diploma in fine arts from Langara College in
1997, a BFA from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in 1999, and a
master’s degree with a major in ceramics from the Nova Scotia College of Art
and Design in 2001. She has exhibited in Taiwan, Canada, the U.S., Korea,
Hungary, and Australia and her work is found in public and private
collections including the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, the Canada Council Art
Bank, and the WOCEK Icheon World Ceramic Centre in Korea. She is currently
working as a studio ceramist in Toronto.

Montréal-based artist Karen Tam holds a MFA in sculpture from the School of
the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA from Concordia University. She has
participated in exhibitions and artist residencies across Canada, in
Ireland, and in the United States.

Doris Sung is a Toronto-based visual artist and curator. Sung graduated with
a MFA in 2004 and is currently a PhD candidate in the Social and Political
Thought program at York University. Her research focuses on contemporary
Chinese visual culture and her artwork investigates the relationship between
Daoism and visuality.

A Space Gallery
401 Richmond Street West, Suite #110
Toronto, ON
M5V 3A8

Gallery hours are Tuesday to Friday 11 AM – 6 PM, Saturday 12 noon – 5 PM
e-mail info@aspacegallery.org

All events are are free to attend. For further information contact the
gallery at info@aspacegallery.org or call 416-979-9633.