Ocean Pounds

OP zine, 22-November-2020

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If I have a pair of jet-boots

Lee Ka-sing
If I have a pair of jet-boots (2017)

Mixed media: Archival inkjet print mounted on spruce wood, acrylic medium
Size: 255x125x39 mm

Henry Steiner, work on paper

Henry Steiner
Work on paper (1992)
145mm x 162mm
Original, signed

A Day in the Trailing of an Ant (for Kai)

Poem by Holly Lee

I saw a bamboo forest yesterday
in one National Park
there were no pandas
but tiny bamboo lemurs
once lived all over Madagascar
eons ago
your childhood days in Sichuan
did you watch panda bears
munching away leaves and shoots?

Rattans and bamboos
stems, limbs, branches, twigs
I spotted you gather
trims from your garden
from across the park
finely manicured bundles
silk threads cotton threads linen threads
nylon threads mixed threads
in ceramic pots and wicker baskets
ruly put or randomly scattered
under the staircase
on working tables
You weave waterfall
world wide web
map of a giant’s heart
you are commander
running an invincible army
creating floods and mountains
sending nails and toothpicks
to their battle fields
your blood and theirs
unroll a carpet
a cardinal’s road map

雨過夜塘秋水深
Rain Passing Night Pond Autumn Water Deep
white light black light
the tragic venture
of an ant
naked, in your bathtub
what inside what outside
see things beyond
that are not there
five notes framed
your east west Queen Street walk
does weight equal to gravity
in myriad ways
the silk threads drop

Who lets the genies out
shards of bottles
who saves and graces
the little plastic disposables
crowns them
king and queen
names them
Charotte Helena Emily and Lily
wire bronze or grey
intricately entangled
wildly embraced

What it is I came for, I turn and turn
traveled full circle
my incense sticks burnt
dissipate fragrance
shavings of memories
passing rain
last night’s hangover
once, before Aurora
you were asked
scarlet, chilli red or
the rainbow colour
you fill up a glass
raising a toast
to Siddhartha, Lucifer and Cain
to all doomed wanderers

Tracing scent and remnants
tightroping the rim of your glass
a small visitor
detected soughs of
thousand rapids
a theatre
of falling rain
breathing silver
splendrous
inconsequential
transcendent beyond grasp

(November 6, 2020)

Image on right:
Happily Together, 2017 by Kai Chan

This work is available at OCEANPOUNDS online shop

A line in the sand

Gaye Jackson

November 15-29, 2020

Hissing Rain, written by Holly Lee

Kai never settles on one medium. He’s constantly looking and probing materials around him, excited at the possibility of some new found substance that might tie-in with the project on his mind. Kai’s touch of genius is, no matter how he does it, the signature of the finished piece, or pieces, or the group of work, is unmistakably his own. In the on-line exhibition Facing East Facing West, we present Kai Chan’s rare, small prints from a group of unique silkscreens in various sizes he did in 2016. The inspiration was, as the artist put it, from the practice of Chinese calligraphy. But what we can also find are strokes from his previous large scale installations, two-dimensionalized and compressed into a flat space. We can hear instrumental music, orchestrated amiably, interwreathed into tense and delicate textures, like hissings of the Summer rain.

......................

(Kai Chan has exhibited his work across Canada, the United States, Japan, Australia and Europe. His solo exhibition, ”Rainbow Lakes” began in 2002 traveled to 8 public galleries across Canada. “Kai Chan: Spider's Logic”, a 35 years retrospective exhibition beginning in 2010 is touring to 6 cities. He has received numerous grants from the Canada Council and the Ontario Arts Council as well as several prestigious awards including the Jean A. Chalmers National Crafts Award [1998], and the Prix Saidye Bronfman Award for Excellence in the Crafts [2002]. His work is in the following collections: Musée d’art de Joliette, Québec; Musée d’art de Baie-Saint-Paul, Québec; Museum London, London, Ontario; Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon, SK; The Art ;Gallery of Sudbury, Ontario; Musée des Arts Decoratifs de Montréal; The Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull, Québec; The Library and Gallery, Cambridge, Ontario; Mississauga Living Arts Centre, Ontario; and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Canada.)

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20% OFF for online exhibits
Valid only for ORDERS for exhibits at the OCEANPOUNDS online exhibition, "Facing East Facing West". Offer valid through November 29, 2020 (11:59 p.m. eastern time).

Use this CODE: k1115-1129

Untitled #1

Kai Chan
Unique silk-screen print, on rice paper
5x7 inches, in borderless frame

Untitled #2

Kai Chan
Unique silk-screen print, on rice paper
5x7 inches, in borderless frame

Untitled #3

Kai Chan
Unique silk-screen print, on rice paper
5x7 inches, in borderless frame

$100.00
buy-it-now (enjoy 20% discount between Nov 15-29, 2020)

Untitled #4

Kai Chan
Unique silk-screen print, on rice paper
5x7 inches, in borderless frame

Untitled #5

Kai Chan
Unique silk-screen print, on rice paper
5x7 inches, in borderless frame

$100.00
buy-it-now (enjoy 20% discount between Nov 15-29, 2020)

November 15-29, 2020

The Hero and the Heroine
written by Holly Lee

In one portrait, Elaine Ling, the Hong Kong born Canadian photographer stood beside a Mongolian general holding the same twelve foot spear with the intimidating warrior. She appeared so tiny beside this colossal figure, measuring merely up to his waist. Yet within this woman’s petite physique she possessed immense spirit, great strength and a beautiful soul. During her life-long travels to many remote parts of the world, she brought back picture after picture of extraordinary beauty of the otherwise little visited lands. Places where ancient monolithic stones and sculptures still stand, houses once lived, occupied now only by desert sand, sites where baobabs reside peacefully with human neighbours and treated as great friends. Her photographs are not just aesthetic still-lifes, they tell us stories. Sometimes through her subtle journalistic approach we are able to peep into the profuse culture and spiritual lives of other peoples - the Cubans, Burmese, Mongolians and Tibetans.

To the richness of her large format black and whites, to the serenity of the natural, or cultural monumental landscapes and the footprints of the peoples she so tirelessly pursued and embraced, we salute her outstanding achievement.

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(Elaine Ling (1946-2016) immigrated to Canada from Hong Kong in the 1950s. She was a family physician but pursued passionately on the side, a life-long career as a photographer, traveled extensively to remote places creating a vast body of documentary work. She had four monographs published and her work is collected in museums in Canada and worldwide.)

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25% OFF for online exhibits
Valid only for ORDERS for exhibits at the OCEANPOUNDS online exhibition, “Some Stones”. Offer valid through November 29, 2020 (11:59 p.m. eastern time).

Use this CODE: ss1115-1129

Africa Stones #1

Elaine Ling
Africa Stones #1, 1994
8 x 10 inch, gelatin silver photograph, on fiber-based paper
Edition 3/28