1. Monumental Labour

Augmented Reality monument

 

From a gold pit in the ground (referring to the Gum San, Gold Mountain, as Chinese immigrants

called North America) as well as to early migration for the Gold Rush, emerges an iron. This iron, a humble tool representing domestic labour, is monumentalized through scale and through action. The viewer can use a pinching motion to make the iron appear and disappear.

 

2. Worker

Augmented Reality monument

 

This sculpture uses a pick axe head to elevate a 3-D model of a Chinese man. I created a 3-D

figure with my life drawing model, Guy Lang, dressed in clothing from the Irving House costume closet. The figure looks out to a near future with a hopeful gaze, standing high upon the labour of previous generations of Chinese settlers.

 

"Visitors can find the placards describing each monument on the east and west lawns of the

Irving House grounds. I chose to use augmented reality as the ‘sculptures’ which would have minimal impact on the heritage site and would underscore the less visible presence of Chinese labourers in the history of the house. For each sculpture, I created a 3-D model of an object form the Irving House through photogrammetry, a process of taking photos of an object around its X, Y and Z axis. These photos are fed into a software that stitches the images together to create a 3-D model. These AR effects will open in Instagram, either via the QR code or through the provided website link on the signs."

 

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 xʷməθkʷəy̓ əm (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.