the chrysanthemum has opened twelve times (Banner), 2020
Karen Tam, the chrysanthemum has opened twelve times (Banner), 2020, velvet, glitter on canvas, fringe tassels, 59 x 142 cm, Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Hugues Charbonneau, Montreal. Photo credit: Toni Hafkenscheid.
the chrysanthemum has opened twelve times (Banner), 2020, contains a line from a letter written by a wife left behind in China to her husband, who was working in Canada in the 1930s. In Chinese culture, chrysanthemums, which open only once a year, denote the passage of time. The text on the banner reminds this man that it has been twelve years since the couple has seen each other. In inscribing this deeply personal sentiment, Karen Tam draws attention to how this family’s story of sacrifice, separation, and longing was common among those experiencing political and economic turmoil in China who sought a better life abroad in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Gallery
Refuse to eat our bitterness, 2021
金山夢 Gold Mountain Dreams (Flag), 2021
Marquis of Lorne Arch, 1882
A good reputation endures forever 流芳百世, 2021
C.S. Wing Studio, 2020
Unidentified Chinese Man Lighting a Cigarette, pre-1929
the chrysanthemum has opened twelve times (Banner), 2020
Le Parc de la Pagode (Montréal), 1978, 2020
the chrysanthemum has opened twelve times (Audio), 2020
Coin-Suit, 2021
Armour Vest for female warrior, 2012
Wood slat and rod body armour, 2012
Ruinscape (Wallpaper), 2020
After the 1907 Chinatown Riots in Vancouver, 2020
Chinese Arch on Pender St. (Vancouver), 1912, 2020
Victoria Chinese Public School, June 5, 2020, 2020
56-58 Elizabeth St., Toronto, 1937, 2020
March 30, 2020 Attack, 2020
Longevity to Our Elders, 2020
Celebration in Nanaimo Chinatown, n.d.
Success to the Revolution, 2021
From Yiwu to you, 2015–present
From Yiwu to you (detail), 2015–present