September 21 – December 1
Scent of Thunderbolts (2024) is a newly commissioned multimedia installation addressing Chinese diasporic sonic memory in the form of a Cantonese opera. Drawing inspiration from archival materials held in the Beatrice and Raymond Jai Cantonese Opera Collection at the University of Toronto, the Cantonese opera collection at the University of British Columbia’s Museum of Anthropology, the collection of May’s Studio photographs at the University of California Berkeley, and from conversations with performers and community members, the installation integrates reimagined elements from Cantonese opera, including props, stage settings, backdrops, furniture, and other components.
Visitors are invited to traverse the stage and meander amidst a variety of printed, painted, embroidered, or sequined fabric banners and curtains that serve as both backdrops and space dividers. Shadows created from gobo light fixtures enhance the visual dynamism, while certain backdrops evoke the ambiance of early Chinese Canadian photography studios reminiscent of Yucho Chow, Vancouver’s first and most prolific Chinese photographer.
Karen Tam is an artist and curator whose research focuses on the constructions and imaginations of cultures and communities. In her installations, she recreates Chinese restaurants, karaoke lounges, opium dens, curio shops, and other sites of cultural engagement. Her work explores how tangible encounters with spaces and objects can offer profound insights into particular locales, historical narratives, and communities, suggesting how such encounters actively influence the portrayal of Chinese identity in North America.
Commissioned by the Toronto Biennial of Art and made possible with the generous support of Power Corporation of Canada, Eleanor and Francis Shen, Galerie Hugues Charbonneau, and the Women Leading Initiative. The artist would like to acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.
Bio
Karen Tam (she/her) is a Tiohtià:ke/Montréal-based artist and curator whose research focuses on the constructions and imaginations of cultures and communities. In her installations, she recreates Chinese restaurants, karaoke lounges, opium dens, curio shops and other sites of cultural encounters. Since 2000, she has exhibited her work and participated in residencies in North America, Europe, and China, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, He Xiangning Art Museum, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, McCord Stewart Museum, and the Deutsche Börse Residency at the Frankfurter Kunstverein. She has received grants and fellowships from the Canada Council for the Arts, Conseil des Arts du Québec, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Tam was the winner of the 2021 Giverny Capital Prize awarded by the Fondation Giverny pour l’art contemporain, a finalist for the 2017 Louis-Comtois Prize, a finalist for the 2016 Prix en art actuel from the Musée National des beaux-arts de Québec, and long-listed for the 2010 and 2016 Sobey Art Awards.
Tam holds an MFA in Sculpture (School of the Art Institute of Chicago) and a PhD in Cultural Studies (Goldsmiths, University of London). She is the Adjunct Curator at Griffin Art Projects and a contributor to ‘Asia Collections Outside Asia: Questioning Artefacts, Cultures and Identities in the Museum’ (2020), edited by Iside Carbone and Helen Wang, and ‘The Changing Landscape of China’s Consumerism’ (2014), edited by Alison Hulme. Her work is in museum and corporate collections such as the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Musée national des Beaux-arts du Québec, Global Affairs Canada (Embassy of Canada in London), Hydro-Québec Art Collection, La Caisse de dépôt du Québec, Collection of the Royal Bank of Canada, TD Group, Microsoft Art Collection, and in private collections in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. She is represented by Galerie Hugues Charbonneau.
Location
- Accessibility
32 Lisgar St and Park
Accessible entrance
Washrooms
Elevator
AODA compliant building
Parking: Limited Street, Underground Parking (Paid)
There is ample paid parking nearby, including a Green P lot in the building, a lot accessible from the alley between Dovercourt and Lisgar off Sudbury, and street parking on both Lisgar Street and Abell Street.
- Getting There
32 Lisgar St and Park
By subway: Line 1 – From St. Andrew Station, take the 504 King streetcar west to Abell Street, walk 2 minutes. Line 2 – From Dufferin Station: take the 29 Bus south to Queen Street West, walk 7 minutes
By streetcar: Take the 501 Queen streetcar and get off at Abell Street, just east of Gladstone. Or, take the 504 King streetcar. Get off at Sudbury Street, and walk north/west along Sudbury to Lisgar Street.
Donors & Supporters
