From Yiwu to you (detail), 2015–present

This close-up view illustrates the intricate details that comprise From Yiwu to you, 2015–present (see previous work), a large-scale installation of faux Delftware tiles made from sheets of cyanotype (a type of photographic print that is cyan blue). The surreal imagery blends together different time periods as well as Chinese and Western painting techniques and perspectives. In the centre is a Tang dynasty (618–907) lion enclosed in a circle, seemingly leaping from the side of a mountain into the sky. To the right is a horse and exhausted rider based on a painting by the eighteenth-century Italian Jesuit Giuseppe Castiglione (1688–1766), the official court painter to three Qing dynasty (1644–1912) emperors. Alongside this historical imagery are such contemporary scenes as a wind farm in the lower right foreground and a high-speed train winding its way across the mountainous landscape. From Yiwu to you reveals how Chinese Canadian communities are situated within the broader context of global trade, travel, and consumerism and the rich history of intercultural exchange between the East and West.