Vtape co-sponsors a retrospective on the work of Richard Fung, the renowned Toronto-based video artist, writer, cultural theorist, activist, and educator. Fung’s videos have been screened and archived throughout the world and he has been widely recognized with awards such as the Bell Canada Award for Lifetime Achievement in Video and the Toronto Arts Award for Media Art. In addition to his artistic work and writing, Fung teaches at OCAD University. Beginning in 1985 with Orientations – his pioneering video on queer sexuality and its intersections with race and class – Fung’s creative and often highly experimental works have questioned normative understandings of history and memory, temporality, sexuality, identity, colonialism, empires, racism, classism, labour, authenticity, diasporic communities, the body, illness, trauma, food, writing, and so much more. Tracing diasporic movements and communities as well as the complex and constantly changing identities of Asians and others in places across the globe – most especially North America and the Caribbean – Fung’s works inspire us to “reorient” ourselves toward both the future and the past.
Presented by The Dr. David Chu Program in Asia Pacific Studies at the Asian Institute.
Schedule: ReOrientations Program (pdf)
Still credit: Dal Puri Diaspora, Richard Fung.