2022 Festival Artwork Reveal

As the 26th edition of the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival nears on November 9 — 20, we’re ecstatic to share #ReelAsian26’s official Festival Creative Artist, Brian Jiang!

By commissioning a local Asian Canadian artist to illustrate the identity of our 26th year, we strive to uplift and showcase Asian Canadian voices, stories, creativity, and art by providing support and a consistent platform. Read more about Brian and their work, as well as the animation they’ve conceptualized for this year’s festival.

Who is Brian Jiang?

Brian Jiang (they/them) is a queer interdisciplinary artist of Chinese descent based in Tkaronto aka Toronto. Their multidisciplinary arts practice comprises of painting, illustration, animation and design. Brian’s work explores topics such as speculative worlds, the natural world, identity and community-building. They hold a Bachelors of Design (Major in Illustration) from OCAD University. Brian has created work for clients such as LinkedIn, the City of Toronto, Toronto Fringe Festival, UofT Med Magazine, Xpace Cultural Centre, Pride Toronto, and more. Brian and their work can be found on Instagram @ _brianjiang.

Official #ReelAsian26 Festival Animation

Brian’s animation titled Consonance is entirely their own conceptualized storyline. The lush, vibrant colours of forest green and orange-red Brian has chosen for the carps and the dragon – the characters of Consonance that depict the storyline of individual versus community – extend our identity beyond our year-round red, charcoal and beige to pave way for our 26th year as a film festival.

Artist Statement

Consonance is an animation inspired by the collective power of community organizing and activism. This animation reinterprets the Chinese mythological tale that states, if a carp swam upstream and made the final leap over the waterfall to reach Dragon’s gate, it would be rewarded by being transformed into a dragon. In this reconstructed narrative, a single carp struggles to swim upstream a waterfall and falls to the bottom. However, through the support of it’s fellow carp friends, they’re able to swim and push together to reach the top of the falls where they merge to become a single powerful dragon. This reinterpretation of the ancient tale encapsulates how the whole (community) is greater than the sum of its parts (individuals).

Process Work