Made in Québec – 2015

29 inkjet prints

The project involved exporting myself to China to work for workers, framing myself as a Canadian commodity at work in a Chinese context. This gesture can be understood as a giving back of some of the time that Chinese products have saved Westerners. Considering that China is the largest exporter of goods in the world and that it is emerging as a superpower built on the labor of its workforce, my project engages directly with the power dynamics at play in a global context. Our relationship to the commodities we consume often remains limited to the words marked on labels. Working in different environments in China, these photographs focus on the context I found myself in and provide a human dimension to our abstract relationship to production and consumption.

Acknowledgments: Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Canada Council for the Arts, the Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Family Foundation, Jean-Michel Ross, Thomas Henry Ross, Margot Eleanor Ross, CEAC, Ineke Gudmundsson, May Lee, Li Li, Youqi Ouyang, Shichen Zhang, Yasi Glass Factory, the Library of the Art College at Xiamen University, Xiamen Kangsi Art Limited, Mr. Zhang Yougui, Dingyi Art Scupture Factory, Mr. Zhang Mingwei, Di Jin Sculpture, Xinyinghang Concrete Firm, Fuzhen Restaurant, Xilai Biological Technical Company, An’hui Restaurant, Jia Yu Preschool Group, Lu Wenhai, Huang Aixiu, Lianningse Jidi Art School, Mr. Yang Quitai, Mr. Guo Qiuqi, Qixing Industry and Trade Limited, Xiamen, Mrs. Ye, Yongsheng Cloth, Mr. Zheng Feiqun, Shanyuan Printing, Manyi Laundry, Xiamen Bindong Primary School, Mr. Guo Guoming, Yunyao Porcelain Factory Dehua, Tian Mu Casting, Red Gate Residency, Brian Wallace, Emma Karasz, Xinru Hu, Liao Shengxiang, Eugenia Leavitt.