Solo Exhibition by Karin Lee at SUM Gallery

Press release by SD Holman and SUM Gallery

SUM presents its first solo exhibition by Karin Lee, curated by Paul Wong and SD Holman:

QUEER-SUM

SUM [Gallery] is in the [Vancouver] Downtown Eastside, a neighborhood which has been the locus for many racialized communities, Coast Salish, Chinese, Black, Japanese. Paul Wong and I are the co-curators of the inaugural exhibition queer-sum queer 心, We wanted the first solo exhibition be Chinese female identified. We wanted an artist with deep links to Vancouver’s Chinese and queer communities both, we wanted a woman whose work was challenging and transgressive and very queer – in other words, we wanted Karin Lee, a local artist who is 4th generation Chinese Canadian

Queer-sum a “Chinglish” translation and play on the words Queer Love, alludes to queer attraction that people experience, even though they believe themselves to be straight identified – or queer-sum (sum=love).

Filmmaker Karin Lee

presents three of her film/media works: a 2-channel remix of her classic 16mm film My Sweet Peony, a fantastical drama shot in the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Gardens; Portrait of a Girl, a documentary shot in Beijing, and Small Pleasures, a period drama set in Barkerville BC.

The three works not only investigate sentiments of being “Queer-sum”, but pays tribute to Chinatown, where Lee spent her childhood – and the underlying racism which contributed to the very creation of “Chinatowns” amidst the colonization of First Nations people.

Join us for the Queer-sum opening reception at SUM on May 12, 2018, 2-4pm.