Mending Roots

SNAP is pleased to present Mending Roots, featuring new work by Edward Fu-Chen Juan. The exhibition will be in the gallery June 24 – July 29, 2023.

Opening Reception: Jun 24, 2023 at 7pm – 9pm

Artist Talk: Jun 25, 2023, 10am-12pm

Mending Roots is an exhibition by Edward Fu-Chen Juan that reflects his experience as a Taiwanese Canadian artist and an immigrant to Canada. The work explores his connections to his homeland of Taiwan through traditional techniques of printmaking and papermaking using indigenous plants.

In 2019, Edward received an invitation to create an exhibition at the SUHO Paper Memorial Museum in Taipei for 2024. His concept was to collaborate with aboriginal Taiwanese knowledge keepers to bond traditional skill with contemporary art practice. Due to the pandemic, Edward is unable to travel to Taiwan and pivot to work within British Columbia and his local artist community. With guidance from Indigenous cultural workers, Edward developed the techniques of extracting ink paste from native plants for printmaking and papermaking. 

Each of the calligraphy prints highlights a plant specimen: the Chinese oracle script describes its attribute and characteristic. The paper and images are dyed and printed with the selected plant ink of different mordant. The lanterns are an extension to the concept. Edward is working with a Taiwanese Hakka family with generational skill of lantern fabrication. The lanterns are traditionally hand painted and hung to decorate Taiwanese Confucius and Taoist temples. 

The “spirit money” paper concept originates to Edward’s 2021 collaborative residency with Damian John, a Tl’azt’en First Nation artist based in interior BC. In the shadow of the discovery of unmarked graves at the Kamloops Residential School, they decided to create art pieces to take part in the grieving response. Edward introduced to Damian the Asian tradition of burning paper charms in spiritual ceremonies to memorialize ancestors. Since then, Edward has created stacks of spirit money from culturally significant trees such as the western cedar and black cottonwood.

Edward Fu-Chen Juan is a contemporary visual artist based in Vancouver, BC, the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. I identify as a queer Taiwanese Canadian with ethnic roots from the Hakka and the Plains First Nation People of Taiwan. My art practice is printmaking on paper with water-based ink extracted from plant and insect ingredients. Presently, I have expanded my process to papermaking with unconventional plant fibres of significant cultural importance.

As a queer BIPOC person with indigenous ancestry, I am developing my art practice to cultivate a connection between traditional craftsmanship and contemporary issues. I am continuing my research of plant material for printmaking and papermaking techniques, with the objective to create a mind of ecologically sustainable art production. This concept is cultivated from my ongoing cultural exchanges with artists I previously worked with nationally and abroad. From each experience, I am shared with the perspective and knowledge to create works in support of decolonization of contemporary art spaces.

www.edjuan.com
Instagram: @edjuandraws

This work is supported by: