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一百鬼 / 100 Ghosts / The New Gallery

 

 

一百鬼 / 100 Ghosts, Annie Wong, April 10th - Mayth, 2021

 

一百鬼 / 100 Ghosts is a visual reimagining of the one hundred female spirits, who are typically depicted on joss papers intended to be burned in offering during Chinese ancestral worship rituals. Burned as gifts, the one hundred female spirits are believed to be born into an afterlife of eternal servitude to gods and ancestors.

 

 

In this exhibition, the female spirits take on new faces and identities as if a community of “hungry ghosts,” destitute spirits erased from human memory that must wander a Chinese limbo. Misguiding the medium and process of print as material and ritual for invocation, the work becomes the product of an obsessive hunt for new ghosts in the errata of intentional misprints. What manifests are unforeseen faces of accidental design, surfacing as spirits liberated from servitude yet wretched in purgatory.A series of red feminine faces printed on gold paper with a white border. The features on the faces are disorganized, obscured, and appear as if misprinted. A series of red feminine faces printed on gold paper with a white border. The features on the faces are disorganized, obscured, and appear as if misprinted. In front of these prints sitting on a ledge is a bunch of plastic fruits including 2 apples, 8 mandarine oranges, and 2 bananas.

A photo of the storefront of the gallery. The vinyl on the front window reads: "100 Ghosts, Annie Wong". Inside the window we can see A series of red feminine faces printed on gold paper with a white border. The features on the faces are disorganized, obscured, and appear as if misprinted.

 

 In this space, situated between history and prophecy, is where Wong seeks new ghosts.

 

 This exhibition is part of the artist’s practice in collaborating with and making art for 餓鬼 hungry ghosts and spirits. Her practice re-imagines rituals rooted in Chinese ancestral worship as meditations of eternal feminist kinship with spirits and post-memory in the diaspora. 一百鬼 / 100 Ghosts was printed at Open Studio by Meggan Winsley under the auspices of the Visiting Artist Program. Annie Wong acknowledges the support of the Ontario Art Council.

A series of red feminine faces printed on gold paper with a white border. The features on the faces are disorganized, obscured, and appear as if misprinted.

beyond the door, a poem by Steph Wong Ken, beyond the door all summer in long term care Aunty is quiet, lying in the congested room would you like some water? wrapped in a red curtain if she closes her eyes, she won’t feel not yet mind your back her neighbour tells us about riding horses the tubes brushing her bare feet please, no more Eric Clapton the nurses laugh while they dispense her pills calling us her beloveds wave to the camera does that hurt? your beloveds are here to see you today excuse me, can I get in here, beloveds yes only 50 miles from the bungalow, the oriental rugs, the vanity, the mountain painting the long table where we eat no more we can’t go outside sliding our arms under to massage her legs the beloveds make sure her blood still flows there are snakes there are snakes redder than red by sisters frozen in matching suits she can’t speak my language anymore where are the good sheets? the garden is gone but the home is white orchids baby’s breath carnations in the same basket she speaks the language of the dead now I walk past the rooms of others blooming bad until I reach herA series of red feminine faces printed on gold paper with a white border. The features on the faces are disorganized, obscured, and appear as if misprinted.

A series of red feminine faces printed on gold paper with a white border. The features on the faces are disorganized, obscured, and appear as if misprinted.

One of the red feminine faces printed on gold paper with a white border. This particular face is printed so that the colours and patterns line up.

 

 

 The New Gallery gratefully acknowledges its home on the traditional territories of the people of Treaty 7 region, including the Blackfoot Confederacy (Kainai, Piikani and Siksika, Métis Nation of Alberta Region III, Stoney Nakoda First Nation (Chiniki, Bearspaw, Wesley), and Tsuu T'ina First Nation. TNG would also like to acknowledge the many other First Nations, Métis and Inuit who have crossed this land for generations. The artist would like to acknowledge the support of the Ontario Arts Council.

 

 

 Ontario Art Council Logo

Detail of 一百鬼 / 100 Ghosts by Annie Wong at Open Studio. Image courtesy of Open Studio (2020).