Love Stories

Marie-Claude Langevin — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 02:25:45 +0000

Artwork identification

Artwork creator(s):

Tsang, Henry

Artwork creator(s):

Tsang, Henry

Text author(s):

Tsang, Henry

Text author(s):

Tsang, Henry

Installation year:

1992

Remarks on location:

On one of the sides of Burrard Inlet

Artwork description

Source: Tsang, Henry (1992), Henry Tsang : Love Stories, Toronto: Gallery 44

Description:

Billboard poster installed at the seabus terminal.

Mention(s) légale(s) des illustrations:

Photo credits:

Remarks on image:

Image 1: Panel without full text (version presented at Gallery 44, Toronto, 1992). Image 2: detail. Left side (version presented in North Vancouver, 2001). Picture 3: detail. Left side (version presented in North Vancouver, 2001).

Text of the artwork:

She doesn’t desire White Boys

over anyone else. But they keep

gravitating towards her.

Other men just can’t

Turn Her On

in the same way.

Her skin was Silky Smooth

to the touch. So is yours, she said :

From then on, I began looking

at Asian women,

something I never

before could do.

Text theme:

Anecdotes of interacial desire

Artwork theme:

Racial identity, sexual identity, desire, sexual (inter)racial preference.

History

History:

Poster on a billboard (2001), installed at the seabus terminal, North Vancouver. Order Presentation House Gallery.
Event: Facing History Poster Project, Presentation House Gallery, North Vancouver, BC. Curator: Karen Love.
September 8-October 28, 2001.

Also presented in Toronto in 1992

Event date(s):

2001

Dimensions

Other information

Note(s):

Text version of the work presented at Gallery 44, Toronto, 1992:

I commented on how difficult it

seemed for some men of

Chinese ancestry to

consider Chinese

women as

beautiful,

or if

beautiful,

then as desirable.

Martin, whose wife is

of German descent, admitted

that he still had that problem.

Cornelio was surprised. In Hawaii,

where he grew up, Asians were

always thought of as

more beautiful.

He said

this with a

certain sadness,

for although he was a

good-looking guy, it was never

Asians who found him attractive.

The very

thought disgusted her.

Why would she ever want to

do anything like that, she demanded.

Kissing one would be like kissing her

brother. And going out with

a Chinese guy would

feel, simply put,

incestuous.

I caught her

staring at me. She

looked so Chinese to me, too.

I was surprised by the touch of her

skin-it was true, it was so smooth. So

was mine, she said. And after awhile I

began to look at Asian women,

something that I never before

could bring myself

to do.

I asked her about her preferences.

She said that although she didn’t

exactly prefer white men over

anybody else, they seemed

to gravitate towards her.

Besides, she couldn’t

find any other men

who could turn

her on in the

same way.

He was relatively open-minded, he

said, for someone who grew up in

Winnipeg 50 years ago. For

instance, he didn’t mind

his daughter going out

with anyone non-

Chinese, as

long as he

wasn’t

white.

Artist's biography:

Henry Tsang

Document(s):

Facing History. Portraits from Vancouver

Henry Tsang : Love Stories

Présences du littéraire dans l’espace public canadien - Facing History Poster Project

Love Stories