First showcased as part of a Stride Gallery Fundraiser followed by being part of Syzygy on a Budget: An Alternate Universe Tour, Our Heart’s Delight Capsules feature custom-made pins and keychains. Not knowing what you’ll get once the capsules fall into the prize cabinet, opening a capsule brings a delight or disappointment reminiscent of eating foods you love and are familiar with. Possible objects in the capsules: “Universe Rock 7” keychain, “Century Egg – Glowing” keychain, “Century Egg – Standard” keychain, “Squishy Tofu” keychain, “Poking Mochi” enamel pin, Dried dates wrapped in wax paper, Chili oil in tiny jars

2 cents cart is a mobile installation and performative artwork modeled after Asian street food and tea carts. Setting up shop over 4 days front of CommunityWise Resource Centre and in Calgary Chinatown, tea and handmade rice cakes were served. Visitors can receive refreshments in exchange for their “two cents” or a monetary donation.

“an ordinary hole-in-the-wall along macleod before the railway underpass” (AOHITWAMBTRU) was a temporary food stall specializing in house-made tofu, rice cakes, noodles and preserved foods. The food stall menu is inspired by the act of using hands to form food into vessels. Here, identity and authenticity are characterized through labour and technique, rather than flavour. Cooking and eating translates that which has no words or cannot be said, becoming a method of communication in the absence of literal voices – ones which can’t be heard from the lack of knowledge/understanding, lack of ability of the one trying to speak/hear, and the contexts which do not allow for voices to be heard. Cooking and eating become the source of pleasure, livelihood, anchors of identity, that weathers distances, time, generations and East Asian diasporas. During this exhibition, I undertook the labour of making food and sharing as an offer of experience that doesn’t require too many words, only in the visitor’s indulgence in comforting food.

PSEUDO CAFÉ was a temporary resting space that was attempting to revitalize a former coffee shop by serving tea – with handmade digital and analogue memory keepers available to order. In this café, everything was manufactured as a way to preserve what was dying or to build an imitation of a happy life. Opened only when downtown Calgary was closed. Opened Tuesday to Sunday from 6 pm to 9 pm, July 27th ~ August 12, 2018. This project was developed out of the 2018 WRECK CITY residency.

Perfect Memory: Authentic Gift Shop is a store where you buy Asian guilt with your identity. In the reality of global cultural intertwining, there is a struggle with defining personal identities. This struggle forms from the differences of expectations and social conditions, between the lived experience and what everything else tells us what we ought to be. Many are questioned of who they are (what kind are you, where are you really from, do you speak your mother tongue, go back home), bringing doubts as to how one can belong in a society that still struggles with understanding its own differences. Asian guilt could be found in this conflict: the fear of abandonment from being too different; retribution from wanting to please our various expected selves. This gift shop is an attempt at creating a culture we want to belong in, but one that is a space formed for exploring conflicting ideals rather than discarding them. The shop is open for cultural clarity and conversations, and we ask that visitors take insecurities, failings, traumas and sufferings with kindness and give back understanding and acceptance. Visitors are welcome to buy the products available in the store. Products come in the form of DVDs, books, keychains, lucky charms, clothing, lapel pins, various food cans, and more. Items in the store cater to and carry different styles, based on what someone is capable of giving. In collaboration with Michel Samiadji-Heer.

[net.café] was a functioning internet café open to anyone who needed access to the internet. Each computer station contained basic software and a small selection of web browsers. This project was intended to bring to the fore a sense of community and unfettered access to computing needs. Internet café’s (along with public libraries) help to tether people together, physically and digitally, even if it is temporary.