In the Project Space: Angeline Simon: take more

Saturday, September 23rd, 2023
In the Project Space until 4 February, 2024. Angeline Simon’s artistic practice considers her family’s diasporic experience, and the capacity of food and other everyday items to serve as conduits to her ancestral past. In this new site-specific installation, Simon layers together large-scale photo-collage with a collection of hand-built ceramics that reference foods shared with her maternal family while on summer trips to Malaysia – plates heaped with fiddleheads or skewers of beef satay, a gleaming cross-section of durian, or a batch of pineapple tarts. These ceramic sculptures offer glimmers of insight into the artist’s childhood, the specificity of her familial traditions, and, more broadly, the significance of food and shared meals within Chinese-Malaysian culture. At the same time, the sculptures evoke larger histories of colonialism, capitalism, and the circulation of consumer goods. For instance, a Ribena juice box – a British soft drink that has been popularized across Asia – gestures toward histories of British colonialism in Malaysia, and the reverberation of colonial legacies within Simon’s family. Behind the ceramics is a large photographic mural of Simon’s grandmother’s kitchen in Kuching, Malaysia. Within this mural, Simon has digitally collaged material fragments from older family photos. Angeline Simon is a multidisciplinary artist based in Lethbridge, AB/Treaty 7 Territory. She graduated from the University of Lethbridge in 2018 with a BFA in Art Studio. As a second generation biracial Canadian, Simon explores familial narratives and the dynamics within contrasting cultures. The physical distance from family members and a lack of participation in both German and Chinese-Malaysian cultural traditions motivated Simon to investigate her ancestral past.  

Web Resolution Images

Installation view of Angeline Simon's exhibition take more, 2023. Esker Project Space. Courtesy of the artist.
Installation view of Angeline Simon's exhibition take more, 2023. Esker Project Space. Courtesy of the artist.
Installation view of Angeline Simon's exhibition take more, 2023. Esker Project Space. Courtesy of the artist.
Installation view of Angeline Simon's exhibition take more, 2023. Esker Project Space. Courtesy of the artist.
Angeline Simon, pineapple tarts, 2023. Courtesy of the artist.
Angeline Simon, mango and noodles, 2023. Courtesy of the artist.
Angeline Simon, beef satay, rice, ribena, and midin, 2023. Courtesy of the artist.