Meet the Artist

Joshua

Lue Chee Kong

Digital Media, Sculpture, Graphic Design

“Melting Pot: Casting a Caribbean Chinese Body was created for my 2020 master’s degree at Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto. This body of work for me is a celebration of my family, ancestors and their stories. Being away from home in Trinidad, I have gained a better sense of myself and the importance of the home as part of the Caribbean diaspora in Toronto. I am reminded of the narrative of migration that began with my ancestors in China, my family in Trinidad and now my own body in Toronto. It is my pleasure as an artist and maker that I honour the roots of my ancestors who have travelled along with me. In the context of making my work, home is not easily defined when considering the history of the migration of my family. As part of the Caribbean diaspora, movement on land has a profound meaning as my body moves across each space I encounter. My art practice allows me to take authorship of my work in centering ancestral and familial knowledge by working with bronze, resin and wax I honour their memory. ”

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As a process-based artist, I use the theoretical framework of creolization to interrogate the representation of becoming and being Trinidadian-Chinese-Hakka. A fluid identity, inhabiting and flowing within the hyphens between cultures, through the construction of my memories, fantasy, narrative and myth of family dinners, childhood memories behind the shop counter and the voices of my ancestors. Stuart Hall uses words like “blends”, “cross-overs” and “cut and mix” to describe the endless potential for the formation of the West Indian identity through creolization. As an artist, I explore these ideas of translation and transformation through bronze casting, mould-making, 3D printing to cast a Caribbean Chinese body. Wax, resin and bronze become the personification of creolization and the forging of multiple identities. I am making space for my body, family, ancestors and the diaspora to become part of this ongoing process of identity production.
OCAD U - Graduate Studies
Interdisciplinary Master's in Art, Media and Design (MA, MDes and MFA)
Major Completed, 2020
Savannah College of Art and Design
Bachelor Degree in Graphic Design
Major Completed, 2011

Graphic Design, Bronze Casting, 3D Printing, Ceramics, Mould Making

2018, Beyond Boundaries
The National Museum and Art Gallery, Trinidad and Tobago, WI
2018, 6x6 Tile Ceramic Tile Exhibition
IDB Staff Association Art Gallery, 1300 New York Ave. NW
2017, Recollection: Collecting as Practice
Defina Foundation, London, UK
2017, Circle and Circuits: Chinese Caribbean Art for the Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA
Chinese American Museum, Los Angles, USA
2017, Open House in collaboration with Royal College of Art
Delfina Foundation, London, UK
2016, Paradise
Medulla Art Gallery, Trinidad and Tobago, WI.
2017, Trans-Atlantic Artist Residency
British Art Council
2017, Vermont Studio Center Fellowship
Reed Foundation
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