This workshop is co-presented by Centre[3] for Artistic and Social Practice and Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival.

At 公公’s kitchen table, there were always scraps of paper ready to be written on. We keep writing in order to know, to remember. What if you forget a word: how it looks or how it sounds? How do we read and write between Chinese writing and with the alphabet? This is an undisciplined writing workshop where we will play with Chinese characters to make connections between art, usefulness, and memory. We will experiment with different materials and techniques, and explore where words come from, how we learn and use them where we are now. Connecting Chinese writing to the shapes of kites and martial arts, we will play with forms of balance as “moving in-between.”

The workshop is part of the exhibition on view now at Centre[3] Main Gallery titled “Serena Lee: Playing the Mountain” from August 26 to October 8, 2022 — and the opening reception will take place on September 9 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. To learn more about the exhibition, please visit http://centre3.com/exhibition/serena-lee/

About the Artist

Serena Lee works with polyphony as a way of mapping how things come together and apart. She plays with movement, language, cinema, textures, space, and voice, tracing embodied knowledge through aesthetic, martial, and sonic practices. Born and raised in tkaronto/Toronto, Serena is currently based in Vienna, doing practice-based PhD research through the Akademie der bildenden künste Wien. Serena holds an MFA from the Piet Zwart Institute (NL), and an Associate Diploma in Piano Performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music (CA); she collaborates and practices close to home and internationally.

About the Workshop Co-facilitator

Fan Wu is caught between the blue of noon and the blue of bruise. His current life project looks at how Zhuangzi and Bataille subvert the foundational ideologies of post-Christological capitalism, the former from without, the latter from within. Send him correspondences of any sort at fanwu4u@gmail.com.

About the Curator

Lesley Loksi Chan is a multidisciplinary artist and the artistic director of Centre[3] for Artistic and Social Practice. Her work has been exhibited internationally including at the Images Festival (Toronto), Vancouver International Film Festival, Festival International of Films on Art (Montreal), the British Film Institute (London, UK), Museo de Cine Autobiográfico (Vigo, Spain) and Anthology Film Archives (NYC). As artistic director of Centre[3], she oversees exhibitions, residencies and arts-based projects with a focus on experimental, collaborative, and anti-oppressive practices.