Visitors to the Irving House will find Janet Wang's stereograph card in the front parlour among a stack of Victorian era cards.

 

"I was originally taken with the stereographs that create an illusion of 3-D imagery. The existing

stereographs in the collection present a nostalgic view of the Victorian era. As an act of

intervention, I created my own stereographic cards from the archival photos of Chinese servants at the Irving House, as well as two staged self-portraits, as a means of reinserting the Chinese body into this space. I was conscious of how I had previously viewed heritage houses such as the Irving House – at a remove, without seeing myself or my heritage in these sites – and as a visitor, who is asked to envision themselves living as the occupants would have.

 

For my self-portraits, I chose to enact my ambivalent position through staged poses: I am serving a role here as the artist, doing labour to decolonize the historical script of the heritage site, while simultaneously a guest and a ‘resident.’ My hope was to create a playful intervention that would amplify the histories of the Chinese servants while also highlighting the artist’s negotiations with the space."

Janet Wang is a visual artist and educator with a multidisciplinary studio practice, exploring the construction of identity through the appropriation and disruption of social patterns. A second-generation settler of Chinese heritage, she is based in Vancouver, Canada, the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱ wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. The artist received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of British Columbia and her Master of Arts in Studio Practice from the University of Leeds in England. She is an Associate Professor at Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Residencies have included the Arts Council of England, ArtStarts, Artscape Gibraltar, Deer Lake AIR, Artist for Kids with the North Vancouver School District and the Wassaic Project. The artist has created public art for the City of Richmond, Public Art Vancouver and the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation.