Kev Liang

INTERVIEW:

Through means of digital photo and video, Liang creates mixed media narratives which utilize print as well as digital media, put into a contextual space that encapsulates his grasp of a queer, diasporic, second generation Chinese-Canadian identity. By taking into consideration the generational, cultural, and philosophical Chinese expectation of continuing your blood lineage and Liang’s inability to do so as a queer body, as well as the idea of Chinese-Canadian immigrants relying on labor and prosperity as a means of survival and presence, he asks himself and others: How much is at stake in terms of ensuring wealth and a settled lineage for queer and diasporic identities like himself? How can he, or will he ever, find his own sense of kinship or family? Where do individuals like Kev lie within an incredibly labor and wealth focused reality and how do they become “prosperous”?

About the Works

The four print pieces I have for Schmoozy are part of a conceptual body of work dealing with my diasporic 2nd-gen Chinese-Canadian identity, specifically within the context of being a queer/gay man in our fast-paced, contemporary, anthropocentric, labour-focused reality. Through digital experimentation, the Chinese design motif was derived from photographs I took of Chinatown structures and was then later transformed into silkscreen printmaking with a non-conventional material as a very direct and graphic visual communication of my own grasp of my identity, lineage, and future kinship. Throughout my work, I think about what is at stake for me in terms of continuing my lineage and achieving prosperity as a queer/gay body and the child of 1st-gen immigrants who have made the life sacrifice to see their offspring succeed.