Artist Statement

People's Park
(Guangzhou Zoo II)

Looking through my family photographs, apart from the customary family portraits in front of Christmas trees and behind birthday cakes, most of the photos of my brother, sisters and me were taken during our daytrips out at various parks. I vividly recall these parks. The penguin bins, the bumper cars, the trains and the ice cream stalls are so clear in my mind: these are the little snippets that make up my childhood.

Inspired by my family snapshots, these photographs are taken from a project that explores recreational spaces found in China. In 1958, at the beginning of The Great Leap Forward, when private ownership was banned, many existing parks were renovated and new parks were built all across China, many were renamed People’s Parks. Over the years, they became main focal points of cities, where families have outings and couples meet.

China is changing at a staggering pace. The economic miracle means that the Chinese are enjoying a much more affluent lifestyle. Shopping and the Internet have replaced bumper cars and Ferris wheels. With disuse, many of the People’s Parks have fallen into disarray. Millions of older Chinese grew up with these parks and have memories of time spent in them. Just like the parks, their memories are slowly fading away with time.

Farewell in Labrador
(Yetman Enterprises, and Nascopi Road)

Farewell in Labrador is a visual journey along the coast of Labrador, one of the most isolated places on earth. Situated on the East Coast of Canada, the Flat Earth Society believes it to be one of the four corners of the world. A dwindling population of 12,000 inhabits 670 miles of coastline, which is frozen solid for six months a year.

"Life was hard when the waters around here was full of fish, now that all the fish has gone, life is almost impossible."

The Cod Moratorium in 1992 pretty much killed the fishing industry, forcing many young people to leave and find jobs elsewhere. A government settlement program brought the Inuit and Innu nomadic cultures to the brink of extinction and alcoholism is killing what remaining hope there is. The departure of NATO forces spelled the end of the Air Base and the town that built up around it.

The Labrador coast provided a backdrop in which I explored and captured my own feelings for the landscape, its people and the memories they left behind. The connection between the images—landscapes, portraits, interiors and still-lifes—is emotional, eliciting feelings of isolation, longing and loss.