Love Intersections is a media arts collective made up of queer artists of colour dedicated to using collaborative art making and relational storytelling to address systemic racism in our communities. We produce intersectional and intergenerational stories from underrepresented communities of colour – centering the invisible, the spiritual, the metaphysical and the imaginary. We believe in deep and meaningful relationships, that intersectionality is a verb and a call to action, that we must cultivate social trust through collective care and community responsibility. Our desire is to provoke (he)artful social change through a lens of love.
HOUSE of 9 DRAGONS
“The House of 9 Dragons: Community, Family, Heritage” grows from an intergenerational collaboration between Love Intersections and the Lim Sai Hor Kow Mock Benevolent Association. With a reciprocal interest in the future of Chinatown and preservation of benevolent associations, this exhibit invites audiences to be in conversation with living oral histories of the Lim (林) clan, whose still-beating heart and spirit flow through the veins of Chinatown. Our aim is to foster a collective vision of Chinatown’s future, rooted in the wisdom of our ancestors and the shared dreams of generations yet to come.
In dialogue with the oral histories are double sided archi/texture monoprint banners imprinted from the Lim building located at 531 Carrall St. Led by Sylvan Hamburger, we workshopped with Lim elders through calligraphy and participatory artmaking to explore memory, place, and meaning. The creative direction of these prints is also culturally and architecturally inspired by the Lim (林) surname (which loosely translates to “forest”, as pictography made up of 2 trees/wood), all while poignantly nestled in the BC landscape.
EXHIBITION EVENTS
🐉 House of 9 Dragons Opening Reception
FRI. DEC 8 | 6pm-8pm
📍 Massy Arts Gallery (23 East Pender St.)
RSVP HERE
Lion dance 6:15pm
Opening remarks 6:30pm
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🥟 DIMSUM TALKS: A relaxed afternoon of conversation over dimsum
SAT. JAN 20 | 2pm-4pm
📍 Massy Arts Gallery (23 East Pender St.)
RSVP HERE
Join Love Intersections (David Ng & Jen Sungshine), Sylvan Hamburger, and Orville Lim over free dimsum in conversation about their collaboration and inspiration behind House of 9 Dragons. This exhibit grows from a 5+ year partnership between Love Intersections, the Lim Sai Hor Kow Mock Association, and visual artist Sylvan Hamburger. This will be a relaxed and casual setting that encourages people to slow down, reflect on the past year, and gather in a nourishing environment.
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📽️ Elements Unite x Honouring Our Grandmothers Healing Journey
SAT. JAN 27 | 1pm-2pm
📍 Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art (639 Hornby St.)
RSVP HERE
You’re invited to a special double bill film screening of “Elements Unite” and “Honouring our Grandmothers Healing Journey”, two short docs produced by Love Intersections, in collaboration with Nlaka’pamux/Secwepemc artist, Nadine Spence. The screening will be followed by a short panel conversation. Refreshments provided.
Elements Unite (8:08min)
Inspired by a desire to build cross cultural solidarity between different racialized communities in the Downtown Eastside and Chinatown, a group of artists from the nations of the Medicine Wheel (Black, Indigenous, Chinese, and white), collaborated on a community cedar chest called “Elements Unite” as a community offshoot of Nadine Spence’s Honouring Our Grandmothers Healing Journey. This community chest calls upon the fire, water, air, and earth to unite us always.
Honouring Our Grandmothers Healing Journey (4:53min)
Founded by artist Nadine Spence, “Honouring Our Grandmothers Healing Journey” is a four year project that involves 14 painted cedar chests, bringing together people from her community of Nlaka’pamux and Secwepemc to others across BC, that carry memories of Downtown Eastside ancestors.
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🎨 Community Printing Workshop with Sylvan Hamburger
SUN. JAN 28 | 2pm-4pm
📍 Massy Arts Gallery (23 East Pender St.)
RSVP HERE
Come learn how to create texture monoprints with Sylvan and Love Intersections. All ages, no experience necessary!
Sylvan Hamburger is a visual artist working in printmaking, installation and public art. His practice often engages community collaboration, discarded objects and demolished architecture to explore notions of belonging, memory and placemaking amidst changing landscapes and cultures. Sylvan’s work is shaped by specificities of place, notably his community of East Vancouver. sylvanhamburger.com
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🐉 Heritage Building Tour with Orville Lim
SAT. FEB 3 | 11am-12pm
📍 Lim Sai Hor Kow Mock Benevolent Association Building (531 Carrall St.)
RSVP HERE
A tour around the historic Lim Sai Hor Kow Mock Benevolent Association building led by Orville Lim on the history of the building, of the Lim clan and of Chinatown. Orville will share the significance of the building, being the first built in Canada by the Chinese Empire Reform Association in 1903. Participants will have an opportunity to visit the building that was the inspiration behind the House of 9 Dragons exhibit.
🐉 Cooking with Laura Lim
SAT. FEB 3 | 1pm-2:30pm
📍 Lim Sai Hor Kow Mock Benevolent Association Building (531 Carrall St.)
RSVP HERE
Lim Association elder, Laura Lim, is hosting a dim sum making workshop! Laura will be teaching a few of her secret recipes, and will be in conversation with Love Intersections founders David Ng and Jen Sungshine, sharing stories of the role of food in her family and community. Laura’s oral history interview is featured in the House of 9 Dragons exhibit at Massy Art Gallery.
🐉 Martial Arts Workshop with Cheuk Lam
SAT. FEB 3 | 3pm-4pm
📍 Lim Sai Hor Kow Mock Benevolent Association Building (531 Carrall St.)
RSVP HERE
Come learn martial arts basics with Lim Association elder Cheuk! Trained in Choy Lee Fut 蔡李佛 Martial Arts, Cheuk will share foundational knowledge about this discipline of Chinese martial arts, and participants will have an opportunity to learn basic skills. Laura’s oral history interview is featured in the House of 9 Dragons exhibit at Massy Art Gallery. Don’t miss this special opportunity to connect with and learn from the elders at the Lim Sai Hor Kow Mock Association!
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🎉 Under the Gallery: A Love Intersections Salon 沙龍
SAT. FEB 10 | 5pm-9pm
🈲 Secret Location: enter via 23 E. Pender St.
TICKETS
Come celebrate Love Intersections’ 10 year anniversary – a decade of queer love and hotpot liberation – as we ring in the Year of the (Wood) Dragon. Party with us in a new clandestine underground venue, partake in exquisite libations, and dance through ghostly mazes and mystical realms in an evening celebration of food, performance, and installation.
Secret password & entry instructions will be sent upon RSVP 😉
Doors 5pm
Remarks 5:30pm
Performance, food art & installation 5:30pm-7:30pm
TICKETS: underthegallery.eventbrite.ca
$10: entry + 1 drink ticket
$25: entry + 4 drink tickets
Door prizes + giveaways
FEATURING:
♡ Lion dance
♡ Interactive food + specialty cocktails
♡ Hotpot edible arrangement
♡ Drag performances: Maiden China, Rose Butch
♡ Live activations
♡ Music: Which Nancy
♡ Live visuals and more
This is our way of thanking you for a decade of support. Let’s raise our glasses to each other in an evening of feasting, community nourishment, and queer joy.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
“The House of 9 Dragons” takes place on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. This collaboration is rooted in the historical context of Chinatown, shaped by Chinese railroad labourers who were brought to settle Indigenous territories as part of the ongoing colonial project.
We wish to acknowledge Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, BC Arts Council, City of Vancouver, and the Lim Sai Hor Kow Mock Benevolent Association for supporting this ongoing project.
ACCESSIBILITY
Massy Gallery Accessibility info here.
Hot Pot Talks
“Hot Pot Talks” is a virtual talk show series hosted by David Ng and Jen Sungshine, founding members of the Vancouver Artist Labour Union Co-Operative (VALU CO-OP), which is an artist-run worker co-operative whose goal is to provide flexible, living wage income to artists. VALU CO-OP’s studio is in Chinatown, and the organization has a mandate to do collaborative projects that are accountable to the Chinatown community. “Hot Pot Talks” invites artists, activists, and other cultural workers to share stories and strategies for doing intersectional, anti-racist social justice work through the labour movement, through the co-op model, and through art and culture.
Love Intersections 