Exposure 2022 Photographer of the Year Award: Raeann Cheung
Contemporary Calgary
February 3 - February 16
WE ARE IMMIGRANTS celebrates the resilience of early Chinese Canadian immigrants whose perseverance and hard work helped solidify the geographic boundaries, armed forces, and economic capacity of this country. The first wave of economic migrants from the mid-19th century were predominantly men, and their employment opportunities were so restricted that they could only work as labourers, servants, or merchants. Most notable are those who built the Rocky Mountains section of the Canadian Pacific Railway.
Obligated to support their families, young boys soon followed their predecessors in pursuing the gold-mountain dream. To dodge discriminatory immigration laws, many of the boys (and eventually girls) purchased identities of friends or relatives. In fear of being discovered by authorities, these paper sons and paper daughters had no choice but to maintain their assumed identities for the rest of their lives while in Canada. To protect future generations, the migrants also concealed their birth identities from their descendants.
Chinese women also contributed to Canada in significant ways. Though granted entry much later than men, many women joined forces with local communities in raising funds for the Pacific War effort, mending socks and sweaters, and replenishing first-aid kits for front-line soldiers. Equally important and perhaps least acknowledged in the fabric of Chinese Canadian history are the countless grass widows, young brides left behind in China to care for their in-laws and children, enabling their husbands to work abroad indefinitely. Notwithstanding their daunting predicaments, history indicates that with financial help from their overseas husbands, grass widows often heeded their calling by becoming prosperous entrepreneurs, caring for their families while managing businesses in their own community. Similarly, wives who eventually immigrated to Canada shouldered the responsibilities of running family businesses with their husbands. Often being much younger than their spouses, these wives would become primary business operators as their husbands approached retirement.
Early Chinese Canadian communities were segregated because of social and institutional biases, yet these communities thrived despite severe constraints. The Chinese Immigration Act (1923) separated over twenty thousand families. With 2023 marking the legislation’s centennial anniversary, there is renewed opportunity to reflect not only on the hardships, but also on the contributions and the resilience of early Chinese Canadian families. Furthermore, the centenary presents an opportunity for wider and continued discourse, emphasizing the futility in racism as it can never succeed in quashing a people despite its relentless endeavor in doing so.
BIOGRAPHY
Born in Hong Kong and raised in Canada, Raeann Kit-Yee Cheung (張傑儀) is a photographer who leans on a dual heritage to create work that is both personal and universal. Having immigrated almost five decades ago, Raeann has come to accept that she is neither Chinese nor Canadian, but rather someone who embodies an ambiguity and a richness that neither ethnicity can possess alone. It is this duality that informs Raeann’s work, a form that accentuates a common yet subdued theme among many Chinese Canadians. Preferring to work through long slow processes, Raeann finds refuge in her methods that act as an anchor on which she contemplates melded identities to resolve inner complexities. She holds a Master of Arts in contemporary photography from Falmouth University (2021) and currently resides in the traditional territories of the Treaty 7 region in Southern Alberta, which includes the Blackfoot Confederacy as well as the Tsuut’ina First Nation, and the Stoney Nakoda.
2022 Emerging photographer of the yeaR
Each year one artist who has exhibited in the Exposure Emerging Photographers Showcase is selected by the juror to win the Emerging Photographer of the Year Award. The recipient of this prestigious award is given the opportunity to present a solo show at the following year’s Exposure Photography Festival. The award provides the emerging artist with a platform to show their work while furthering their professional practice and building their career within photography. Exposure mentors and supports the artist in developing their vision in the best possible way. Our 2022 juror, Hana Kaluznick, Assistant Curator in the Department of Photography at the Victoria and Albert Museum (London, UK), selected Raeann Cheung as the 2022 Emerging Photographer of the Year.
Open: Wed - Sat: 12:00 - 19:00 & Sun: 12:00 - 17:00
Access: Location is wheelchair accessible. Exhibition is child friendly.
Contemporary Calgary, 701 11 St SW, Calgary, AB T2P 2C4