February 26 – May 22, 2018
@ Makom – 402 College St
In a striking new neon light installation, Toronto-based and Beijing-born multidisciplinary artist Shellie Zhang reimagines marquee signage to represent two significant cultural institutions established by Chinese and Jewish newcomers to Toronto in the same building at the corner of Dundas and Spadina. First known as the Standard Theatre, the venue opened as a Yiddish theatre in 1922 and five decades later hosted Chinese cinema as the Golden Harvest Theatre. The artist considers how one building served as a locus for cultural expression and cohesion for two different communities. Accompanied by a detailed overview of the building’s colourful history and reproductions of archival materials, the exhibition surfaces immigrant narratives embedded in the architecture of the Kensington Market-Chinatown neighbourhood, revealing little-known points of connection and breaking down siloed conversations about our city’s past.
Presented by FENTSTER and the Ontario Jewish Archives, Blankenstein Family Heritage Centre as part of the 2018 Myseum Intersections city-wide festival
Curated by Donna Bernardo-Ceriz, Dara Solomon and Evelyn Tauben