The Power Plant

Howie Tsui’s animation Retainers of Anarchy (2017) is set in the Kowloon Walled City (1898–1994)—a tenement once situated on the fringes of British-occupied Hong Kong that housed at least 33,000 people on its 2.6-hectare footprint, though unofficial estimates suggest closer to 50,000 inhabitants. Rarely patrolled by police, it was known by locals as “the city of darkness.” During this program, Tsui is joined by Greg Girard, renowned Canadian photographer, who spent considerable time in the Kowloon Walled City, before it was demolished, documenting daily life. The program will end with questions from the audience.

Howie Tsui (Tsui Ho Yan / 徐浩恩, b. 1978 in Hong Kong and raised in Lagos, Nigeria and Thunder Bay) currently lives and works in Vancouver, Canada. Recent solo exhibitions include the Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida (2020); Burrard Arts Foundation, Vancouver (2020); Ottawa Art Gallery (2019); OCAT Museum, Xi’an, China (2018); and Vancouver Art Gallery (2017). Select Group exhibitions include the Asian Art Fair, Paris (2019); Ottawa Art Gallery (2018); Art Labor, Shanghai (2015); Dalhousie Art Gallery, Nova Scotia (2015); Para Site, Hong Kong (2014); and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (2014). Tsui received Canada Council's Joseph Stauffer Prize in 2005 and was long-listed for the Sobey Art Award in 2018. He holds a BFA (2002) from the University of Waterloo.

Greg Girard is a Canadian photographer who has spent much of his career in Asia. Based in Shanghai between 1998 and 2011, his work has examined the social and physical transformations in the region, especially in its largest cities, for more than three decades. Girard published with co-author Ian Lambot the books City of Darkness: Life in Kowloon Walled City and City of Darkness: Revisited (2014) documenting the final years of the Kowloon Walled City, a Hong Kong high-rise complex that was home to 35,000 people and dozens of businesses. His photographs have appeared in publications including Time, Newsweek, Fortune, Forbes, Elle, Paris-Match, Stern, and the New York Times Magazine. His work has been exhibited in galleries in South Korea, London, Germany, Helsinki, and New York. Girard's work is in the collection of National Gallery of Canada, Art Gallery of Ontario, Vancouver Art Gallery, M+ Museum Hong Kong, and other public and private collections. He is represented by Monte Clark Gallery, Vancouver, and is a contributing photographer to National Geographic Magazine.