Artist Statement
Like a Fish Out of Water
To be a fish out of water means to be in an unfamiliar and foreign space. To be a fish out of water means to be my immigrant parents who moved across the world to start anew. My dad fled Vietnam to Canada by way of Hong Kong due to the aftermath of war. My mom, who met my dad while he was visiting China, chose to accompany him to Canada. Together, they forged a new life.
This series utilizes the visual representation of a fish in different environments to portray my parents’ experience as new immigrants in Canada. My work captures a sense of isolation and impermanence that one might feel when navigating through a new country. From my perspective, immigration is a journey of entanglement, suspension, assimilation, and sacrifice. I chose to showcase the fish through the lens of food because the recognition of fish as an ingredient is universal. To eat a whole fish in Chinese culture symbolizes abundance and prosperity, a wish that many immigrant parents have for their family.
Like a Fish Out of Water combines oil paint, coloured pencil, and mixed media on wood panels. The Chinese newspaper used as the foundation of each work represents the linguistic barrier between my parents and I. Other paper media makes reference to life in Canada and ways of adjusting. Viewers are invited to complete the story by piecing together the different layers of meaning and material presented in the work.