Vinyl Prints
Mother’s Cupboard – Miracle Whip Jar
Paul Wong, 2019
58” x 74”
digital print on vinyl
Mother’s Cupboard – Aylmer Jar
Paul Wong, 2019
58” x 74”
digital print on vinyl
Mother’s Cupboard – Nalley Jar side
Paul Wong, 2019
58” x 74”
digital print on vinyl
Mother’s Cupboard – Red Lid Jars
Paul Wong, 2019
58” x 74”
digital print on vinyl
Video
Mother’s Cupboard
Paul Wong, 2019
10 minutes 23 seconds, colour, sound, in Toisan with English and Chinese subtitles
video
Artifacts
Mother’s Cupboard
Paul Wong, 2019
Suk-Fong’s jars displayed in vitrine
87” x 18” x 35”
Mother’s Cupboard was presented in three variations as part of the exhibition 淑芳你好嘛 (Suk-Fong Nay Ho Mah) / Suk-Fong, How Are You?. The exhibition was the final instalment of Paul Wong’s year-long 身在唐人街 / OCCUPYING CHINATOWN residency and took place in the Garden’s Hall of One Hundred Rivers. Upon entering the exhibition space, visitors immediately noticed four larger-than-life prints of Mother’s Cupboard. These prints featured Suk-Fong’s treasured jars of elixirs and ingredients.
Exhibited in a vitrine were four dozen jars from Suk-Fong’s cupboards. Viewers were able to appreciate Suk-Fong’s meticulous organization, labelling, and categorization of her herbs and elixirs contained in recycled western -brand jars, ie. Nabob Coffee, Classico, Miracle Whip, and Taster’s Choice jars.
The exhibition also included the Mother’s Cupboard video. Recorded in 2012 in her kitchen, Suk-Fong takes her son through her collection of Chinese medicines, herbs, and ingredients. She speaks in her first language, Toisanese, and describes what her homemade compounds are used for. This includes “loik doy dew,” a deer-antler, alcohol-based elixir that she adds to soups. Most of her ingredients can be readily found in Chinese herbal stores.
There were two workshops as part of this exhibition exploring the herbal and medicinal contents within these jars: a Mother’s Cupboard Chinese Medicine Workshop with Mr. Lau, and a Chinese Medicinal Soup Making Workshop with Marilynne Wong Jackson.
Related Links
Family history: Paul Wong exhibition inspired by 700 letters written to his mother, Vancouver Sun, Kevin Griffin, January 11 2019
淑芳你好嘛？百封家書紀錄中加移民史, Ming Pao Canada, January 17 2019
Family history through art, CTV Morning Live, aired: January 17 2019
Paul Wong: Suk-Fong, How Are You?, Preview, Michael Turner, Vol. 33. No. 1, February-March, 2019