As part of Centre A’s new exhibit Gonj! Being Brown in Chinatown, one artist is asking for people to donate jeans.  Lots of them.
Yule Ken Lum, graphic designer, plans to create a massive denim patchwork portrait of a Sikh man, who is well-known cyanotype of the aftermath of the anti-Asian riots of 1907. He plans to collaborate with the community to make this piece a reality.
Lum, Jagdeep Raina and Nisha Sembi are re-imagining South Asian activism in history through their respective artistic expressions in the exhibit Gonj! Being Brown in Chinatown. This exhibit will be featured at Centre A. It opens July 18.
Curated by Naveen Girn of Digital Handloom, the exhibit will showcase Sembi’s reconnection with the histories of the Pacific Coast Gadhar movements through pop art and graffiti, Raina’s charcoal and paint drawings to refashion archival photos of South Asians as palimpsests of history and memory and Lum’s stitching of old blue jeans to reconstruct a blue cyanotype photograph taken after the 1907 Chinatown Race Riot.
South Asians have a rich oral history – they are not just a funny anecdote that reaffirms a racial stereotype. Often, their history is not reflected in the official archives. This exhibit brings to light how South Asians redefine Vancouver – something other than “White Man’s Country.”
Jeans can be dropped off at Centre A (229 E. Georgia Street). Jeans not used for the project will be donated to a local charity.