Local artist explores Chinese-Canadian immigration as LAC's new creator in residence
Eric Chan uses computer code and data points to create art
Library and Archives Canada (LAC) has hired Eric Chan, a born-and-raised Ottawa artist who blends art and technology, as its first creator in residence.
The new position, open to artists, researchers, academics, musicians and people in other disciplines, grants access to the LAC collection to create works that are inspired by its contents, Chan explained.
"[LAC] is a national institution and, interestingly, not many people [know], myself [included], what's going on there," he told CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning.
"They have such a rich collection of pretty much anything you could think of."
Chan's work will dive into the history of Chinese immigration to Canada, using the millions of records of Chinese-Canadians stored in the archives.
Chan is known professionally as eepmon and has established a large body of work, using code and data to create art.
One series of artworks he developed, called CityLights, was inspired by the cityscapes of Japan and generated entirely with computer code.
The pieces are non-fungible tokens (NFTs), meaning they are entirely digital and their authenticity and ownership can be certified by a blockchain. Because the CityLights NFTs are created with code, they can be stored exclusively on the blockchain, without existing anywhere else.
But when he created a digital art mural for the Canadian Museum of History, it was a shift from his usual work, Chan said.
The mural was focused on the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1923, which banned Chinese immigration to Canada until 1947 and forced Chinese people in the country to carry identification.
"For the first time, my art was not just art for art's sake, but really an opportunity to create intergenerational healing within the Chinese community," he said, adding that that ultimately inspired the work he is now doing at LAC.
'Dig deeper'
LAC has millions of records and the names of Chinese immigrants going back to the 19th century, Chan said.
"The Chinese immigrants coming to Canada were probably one of the most documented peoples coming in," Chan said, adding that the Canadian government assigned them special identification numbers, known as Chinese immigration (CI) certificates, to track them.
Chan said he hasn't found any of his relatives' names among the documents, but he knows people who had family members with CI certificates and has been engaging with the Chinese community as part of his work.
"It's a part of a Canadian history that we don't talk about," he said, noting that Canadian students read one paragraph about it in a textbook, "if you're lucky."
"So I feel that I have, as an artist, a moral obligation to really dig deeper in my own lens," he said.
Chan is using computer code and algorithms to create animated "generative pieces" that reflect the totality, or the enormity, of the archival information. One of his pieces speeds through the names of Chinese people from the records on a timeline, showing the year they immigrated.
Some of the work he's been doing will be on display soon, on June 7 and 8 at LAC's building in downtown Ottawa. Chan will be there to talk about his work and give a demo. He'll also host a public showcase of his pieces in October after his residency comes to an end.
A look at Chan's other work:
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With files from CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning and Maude Lipsett