McCord 2023: Karen Tam-Swallowing Mountains

 

Swallowing Mountains

A tribute to Montreal’s Chinatown Women

from 19th-20th centuries

Exhibition by Karen Tam, artist in residence

February 17 - August 13, 2023

The McCord Stewart Museum presents – as part of its Artist-in-Residence program – the exhibition Swallowing Mountains by multidisciplinary artist Karen Tam. This immersive installation is made up of objects from the McCord Stewart Museum’s collection, works created by the artist, objects belonging to members of the Chinatown community, and photographs. The exhibition explores the relative silence in public records and historical accounts of women in Montreal’s Chinatown in the 19th and 20th centuries. It also explores the discrepancy between the historical attraction to the Chinese and Japanese artifacts and the reality of Chinese women living in Canada since the late 19th century.

2023 marks the 100th anniversary of the passage of the Chinese Immigration Act, which banned virtually all forms of Chinese immigration to Canada. This policy, combined with a head tax, led to a strong imbalance in the proportion of women within Chinese Canadian communities, who were prohibited from joining their husbands there. Despite their under-representation in the early 19th and 20th centuries, Chinese women’s contribution to Chinatown’s vitality and economy was considerable. Swallowing Mountains pays homage to many contributions of women who lived and worked in the neighborhood over the past century and a half.

Swallowing Mountains

The title of the exhibition refers to the name that the first waves of immigrants from China gave to Canada, Gold Mountain, in reference to the gold rush and the opportunity to make a fortune in Canada. Over time, the gold mountains of Canada’s El Dorado also became synonymous with the separation of families. Swallowing Mountains becomes a metaphor symbolizing the need to swallow, one kilometer at a time, the immense distance that separated family members in order to reunite them.

The exhibition displays sculptures, Chinese shadow puppets, drawings and textile works, and small installations reminiscent of the displays and decorations in Chinatown shop windows. The integration of Cantonese opera recordings, collected treasures, and photographs loaned by families, elders and people close to the Chinatown community aims to spark dialogue about the collections and to lay the groundwork for a future collection of Chinese archives in Montreal.

Karen Tam is a Montreal-based artist and curator whose research focuses on the constructions and imaginations of cultures and communities through her installations in which 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 at the Victoria and Albert Museum, He Xiangning Art Museum, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. 

Clique on Images to enlarge them

All photos @ Nadia Slejskova

For more information about current exhibitions and activities, visit the McCord Museum website.