Art Metropole

#16877

Do Weeds Still Grow in Heaven?

Writers

Emi Takahashi and Michelle Kuan

Designers

Catherine Barnabé and Catherine Barnabé

Artists

Casey Mecija and Lan "Florence" Yee

Lan “Florence” Yee

Price

$20.00

Date

2025

Publisher

Lan “Florence” Yee and Southern Alberta Art Gallery

Format

Catalogues

ISBN

978-1-989523-10-0

Size

13 × 21 × 2 cm

Length

80 pp

Genre

Contemporary Art, Textile, Painting, Installation Art, Asian Art & Artists, Queer Art & Artists

Description

This publication accompanies the exhibitions Do Weeds Still Grow in Heaven? at Gallery 101, Ottawa and the Southern Alberta Art Gallery Maansiksikaitsitapiitsinikssin, Lethbridge. The bilingual booklet (English and French) features an essay written by Casey Mecija alongside images of the exhibitions.

Curator Adam Whitford writes: “Text is often a starting point for the works as Lan allows text to ferment and unfurl into individual works that utilize photography, painting, textiles, and installation. Throughout the exhibition, Lan links the sprouting of weeds to the often unacknowledged abuse within queer relationships but also for those who persist in spite of existing in the cracks. Within the exhibition, architectural structures of walls, glass brick, and room dividers are impediments to sight and movement that mirror one’s complex navigation of the private interiors of self-hood, relationships, and queer presence.”

The notion of weeds serves as a structuring concept that coheres a narrative about the persistence of survival, especially for those who have been too easily disregarded, isolated and undermined. Ultimately, what underpins this work is a hope for renewal that is borne from reorienting our relations to what we might presume needs to be “weeded out” of our lives. The insistence of “survivorship” infused in Lan’s work harnesses the energy and drive that has also necessitated their creation.

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