BILLBOARD 208 /
Qian Cheng – What are your weekend plans?, 2021.
What are your weekend plans? 你的周末计划是什么？
Qian Cheng
February 23–May 23, 2021
本次展览将在2021年2月13日-4月30日新画廊外部店面的广告牌208展出。
Exhibition Description /
What are your weekend plans? is a participatory project by Qian Cheng, created in consultation with the Calgary Chinatown Business Improvement Area. The project is a response to the ongoing global pandemic and its adverse effects on the socio-political and economic sectors experienced within the Chinese diasporic community in Calgary Chinatown.
Acting as a visual directory of participating Calgary Chinatown businesses, Billboard 208 becomes a guidepost, redirecting public attention back into the surrounding community. Offering a simple idea based on the spirit of mutual aid, What are your weekend plans? encourages community support, dialogue, and public engagement within these businesses that have been particularly affected by economic constraints and xenophobic prejudices — heightened in the wake of COVID-19.
Consisting of two components, local businesses were encouraged to advertise their shop names and logos on Billboard 208. Pamphlets have been produced in conjunction with the exhibition to connect audiences to additional information about the businesses. The second component encourages folks to safely support at least 3 businesses in Calgary Chinatown in exchange for a free, What are your weekend plans? limited-edition tote bag designed by Qian Cheng.
This support can be demonstrated in several ways: you can leave positive reviews on Google, Yelp, etc; share photos of your purchase or the business storefront with the hashtag #YYCChinatownWeekend; or DM photos to The New Gallery’s Instagram! Be sure to tag @calgarychinatown and @the_new_gallery in your stories and posts. You can find a comprehensive list of Calgary Chinatown businesses here.
Thank you to the participating businesses, the Calgary Chinatown Business Improvement Area, Christina Dongqi Yao, Victoria, Dodo, and Megan Kirk for their support of this project.
Writer and anti-artist oualie frost wrote a generous and reflective review of What are your weekend plans? for Akimblog’s 2021 Critic’s Picks for Calgary. You can read it here.
“你的周末计划是什么？”该项目是由程倩与卡尔加里华埠商业促进区协商后创建的。“你的周末计划是什么？”项目是针对目前的全球疫情，以及疫情对唐人街卡尔加里华侨社区的社会、经济和政治方面产生的不利影响而做出的回应。
作为卡尔加里唐人街商铺的视觉指南，Billboard 208成为一个“热点”，将公众的注意力重新回归到社区。基于社区互助精神，“你的周末计划是什么？”这一创意，希望能够让在COVID-19疫情中遭受经济、偏见、仇外严重影响的商家得到社区群体的共鸣、支持与参与。
该项目由两个部分组成，其一是建立顾客与商家的联系。本地商家可在Billboard 208上宣传其店铺名称和Logo，并附上宣传册和二维码。
另一部分是通过以下方式参与支持卡尔加里唐人街至少3家商铺，则可免费换取“你的周末计划是什么？”负责人程倩设计的限量版手提袋。参与方式如下（可选其中一种或多种）：
1）您可以在Google、Yelp等平台留下好评；
2）分享您购物的照片或商铺店面的照片并加上 #YYCChinatownWeekend 的标签；
3）将照片私信发送到The New Gallery的Instagram。请确保在您的story或帖子中提及@calgarychinatown和@the_new_gallery。
感谢所有参与活动的商铺、卡尔加里华埠商业促进区、Christina Dongqi Yao、Victoria、Dodo、和Megan Kirk对这个项目的大力支持。
Biography /
Qian Cheng is an emerging, first-generation, Chinese immigrant artist and organizer based on the unceded territories of xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She is interested in alternative organizational structuring, experimental ways of being together, and dreaming of better modes of living and working. Recently, Cheng co-founded gnome, a garden project in collaboration with her uncle, and is currently a Research Fellow with M:ST and the Black Empowerment Fund, focussing on mutual aid and resource distribution practices outside of the non-profit sphere.
程倩是新一代华裔移民艺术家和组织者中崭露头角的新星，生活在富有xʷməθkwəy̓əm（Musqueam），Skwxwú7mesh（Squamish）和 Səl̓ílwətaʔ/ Selilwitulh（Tsleil-Waututh）原住民传统文化的土地上。她将自己对美好生活和工作的向往融入到对艺术的追求和对创新团队的组织实践中。最近，她与舅舅共同创立了“gnome”花园项目，目前作为M:ST Performative Art和Black Empowerment基金会的研究员，致力于非营利性领域之外的互助和资源分配实践。
Territorial Acknowledgments
TNG gratefully acknowledges its home on the traditional territories of the people of the Treaty 7 region, including the Blackfoot Confederacy (Kainai, Piikani and Siksika), Métis Nation of Alberta Region III, Stoney Nakoda First Nation (Chiniki, Bearspaw, and 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.