In Conversation with They Chose China (2010)

In Conversation with They Chose China, a film by Shuibo Wang took place at Pickled Art Centre, Unit One in the 798 Art District, Beijing. On short notice, Shuibo Wang agreed to the project concept and provided invaluable input. The work was made up of two large, fabric panel texts placed on either side of a monitor displaying the documentary, They Chose China. One panel described how I happened to find this film and its story of 21 American prisoners’ of war who chose to live in China following the Korean War. The other panel described my maternal grandfather (Dr. Robert McClure) and great-grandfathers’ lives in China as medical missionaries. 

This exhibition took place simultaneously with Garry Kennedy’s, The Colours of Citizen Arar (A Continuation). Kennedy painted six rectangles in the size of the walls, floor and ceiling of the tiny cell where Canadian citizen Mayer Arar was detained for 10 months in 2002-03.