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Andy Patton
Dissent, 2011 69" × 39"
oil on canvas 

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The poster for the show acknowledges the great efforts of a few famous dissent-ers. The use of the sign is an homage to the Causeway Bay booksellers, who were arrested and disappeared for selling books. Photo credit (right): Brian Glucroft
不應有恨,何事長向別時圓?

Bearing no grudge,
Why does the moon tend to be full when people are apart?


Su Shi 蘇軾 / Dongpo 東坡(1037-1101)

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Dissent can be (and has been) expressed in the form of unlawful gatherings, attendance of banned vigils, smuggling of illicit literature, overt acts of sedition and encouraging subversion amongst youth. Dissent can be (and has been) expressed through the fight for political and cultural sovereignty, gathering and mourning for lives lost, selling books, exercising freedom of speech and the intentioned fight for democracy. 


In this group exhibition, objects and gestures seek to enact the possibility of alternatives - to differ in feeling and sentiment from powerful minorities and elites. The works interrogate a status quo that exists in environments bound by both red tape and white cubes. The works explore un-official currency and an end to capital, visual dissent within art and the art historical, quiet performances in place of national vigils and the rendering of identity by autonomous participation. Within the space, the public is invited to contribute to a Lennon Wall - once conceived in Prague, and adopted by Hong Kong as a way of anonymously sharing overt political messages. 


The idea for this physical exhibition began with Andy Patton’s 2011 painting entitled “Dissent”, which he emailed to me as a response to the event series Sleepwalking: Embassy Cultural House stands with Hong Kong in which the show To Dissent takes place. Through his act of solidarity, the support of recognized and anonymous artists in Canada and Hong Kong, and the support of the broader Embassy Cultural House community, this project would not have been possible. Exhibiting artists include Bob Black, Chun Hua Catherine Dong, Jamelie Hassan, Yam Lau, Petrina Ng, Andy Patton and two very important, anonymous artists/organizers. Singer-songwriter Frank Ridsdale will also be performing his single “Hold on Hong Kong” live at Support Project Space on November 17, 2021. 

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It is across boundary lines and fraught political spheres that we have all come together to reflect on Hong Kong - to consider its past, present and future. 

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​Support is located at 260B Clarence Street in London, Ontario. 

The exhibition is open by appointment-only from,November 8 t0 November 21, 2021. For appointments, please email 
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[email protected].

​An in-person event will take place on Wednesday, November 17, 2021 from 3-6 PM. 

Installation view: 
All photo and video documentation courtesy of Anahí González. ​

Anonymous artist
Nobody knows what the red lines are, 2021
Dimensions variable
Sewing thread and video

Authorities refused to admit that censorship of certain movies and creation was a "crackdown" on civil society. They asserted the rights and freedoms stated in Basic Law remained and practiced as promised. National security, however, is the "red line". The Foreign Correspondents’ Club has conducted a membership survey.  One interesting response suggested that “nobody knows what the red lines are”. My work referenced his/her response. The video was an introduction on how the National Security Law was enacted and applied across the globe. 

Being installed subtly at the entrance facilitates the discussion of significance / importance of the red line. On one hand it inevitably interfered with people getting in and out of the space; on the other hand it was hardly visible only when the audience were looking close enough. It also suggested the ambiguity and uncertainty nature of National Security Law. 
As the audience noticed, questioned, and discussed the red line, the work was also the subject of experiment about what should be done to it and how that might work out. My work was allowed stepping onto, breaking it intentionally or by accident, and to be dismantled at the end of the exhibition.

Nobody knows what the red lines are - 複製.mp4 from Annonymous on Vimeo.

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Installation instructions: 

A common red sewing thread, the one for sewing buttons, so particularly maybe around 0.2mm thin, was running around the indoor perimeter of the entrance. The red colour is similar to the Chinese national flag. If being particular, it is Pantone 186/ RGB: R238,G28,B37/ CMYK: C0,M88,Y84,K7. Length therefore varied according to the exhibition venue. At this venue the length might be around 10m-15m.  
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​Yam Lau
ghost, red, black, 2021
Dimensions variable
Mixed media 
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Andy Patton
Dissent, 2011
69" × 39"
Oil on canvas 
​The rigours of dissent
discarded without shame
like a fan. Outside the
implements of war creak
and clatter. Countries
are passed like pots
across a table that
groans with plates of
hummingbird tongue. Day
and night, heaven and
earth are split. But
in this rushing stream, I
hear a spinning wheel.
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Chun Hua Catherine Dong
I Have Been There - Beijing, 2018 13.3” x 20”
Performance photograph 
Chun Hua Catherine Dong
I Have Been There - Beijing, 2018 13.3” x 20”
Performance photograph 
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Petrina Ng
Five t-shirts from the project Distant water will not quench a nearby fire, 2020
Dimensions variable
Commissioned by the Textile Museum of Canada 
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Bob Black
DUALITY: A Hirshfield Intervention, 2021
Dimensions variable
Poetry in teal vinyl 
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A day is vast,
Until noon,
Then it renews itself like a roaming god--
broken in half, bewildering and
a new

日月無邊
一天的時間是廣闊的
直到中午。
然後,他就像一個遊蕩的神一樣更新自己 --
四分五裂
新的


​Jamelie Hassan
Seek Knowledge Even Onto China, 1993-2013
Dimensions variable
Chinese calligraphy box, colour Xerox, mouse pad souvenir from Xian Art Museum, Chinese folding book (miniature), original Persian hairpin in coin envelope, souvenir hairpin in coin envelope & collection of old Chinese coins 


​(Left) Seek Knowledge Even Onto China, 1993
Installed at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York.

The New Museum originally commissioned the coin souvenir and this work was a format for exchange with the public. 
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Jamelie Hassan
Seek Knowledge Even Onto China, 1993/2009
Dimensions variable
Chinese folding book, photography & text in pencil 
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Anonymous artist
What is the Shape of Solidarity?
, 2021
Dimensions variable
Lennon wall with post-it notes 

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Reading List: 


Hong Kong 2019 by Takehiko Nakafuji

​Tiananmen 1989 - Our Shattered Hopes by Lun Zhang and Adrien Gombeaud

A Portrait of Hong Kong by Fan Ho

Foodscapes by Lee Ka-sing and Leung Ping-kwan

West Coast Line  - Transporting the Emporium: Hong Kong Art & Writing Through the Ends of Time (Volume 30.3)

City on Fire: The Fight for Hong Kong by Anthony Dapiran

Crashing the Party by Scott Savitt

Renditions: A Chinese-English Translation Magazine (Number 38)

City at the End of Time: Hong Kong 1997


hong kong, 2019-2020 by Hotam Press

Hong Kong: Culture and the Politics of Disappearance by Ackbar Abbas
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Photo credit:  Jamelie Hassan

alas, poor country!  
almost afraid to know itself. it cannot
be called our mother, but our grave, where nothing,
but who knows nothing, is once seen to smile;
where sighs & groans & shrieks that rend the air
are made, not marked; where violent sorrow seems
a modern ecstasy.

4.3. macbeth
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Thank you to all of the contributing artists and writers in this exhibition.
​A special thanks to angel investors Ron Benner, Jamelie Hassan and Franca Mossuto who supported this curatorial initiative. 
​


EDITORIAL TEAM

ONLINE FOUNDER
Tariq Hassan Gordon

COFOUNDERS & CURATORIAL ADVISORS 
 
Jamelie Hassan 
& Ron Benner

ADVISORY CIRCLE
Samer Abdelnour, Marnie Fleming, Wyn Geleynse, Fern Helfand, S F Ho, Lorraine Klaasen, Judith Rodger, Ruth Skinner, Mary Lou Smoke, and Lucas Stenning 

COORDINATING EDITORS
Tariq Hassan Gordon & 
Olivia Mossuto

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Blessy Augustine, Anahí González, Jared Hendricks-Polack, Jessica Irene Joyce, Ira Kazi, 
Shelley Kopp, Jenna Rose Sands, Mireya Seymour, Venus Tsao, Diana Tamblyn, and Michelle Wilson. 

VIRTUAL TOUR
Andreas Buchwaldt

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OUR STORY
Artists Jamelie Hassan and Ron Benner and jazz musician Eric Stach founded the Embassy Cultural House (1983-1990) located in the restaurant portion of the Embassy Hotel at 732 Dundas Street in East London. In 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Embassy Cultural House was re-envisioned as a virtual artist-run space and website. 

The Embassy Cultural House gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the London Arts Council through the City of London's Community Arts Investment Program.
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The Embassy Cultural House is thankful for the mentorship program established by Western University's Visual Arts department and the continued support of the students and Faculty of Arts & Humanities.
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Our Partners

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E M B A S S Y  C U L T U R A L  H O U S E . C A

The Embassy Cultural House (ECH) is located on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, Lūnaapéewak, and Chonnonton peoples, at the forks of Deshkan Ziibi (Antler River), an area subject to the Dish with One Spoon Covenant Wampum and other treaties, colonized as London, Ontario. The ECH strives to create meaningful relationships between the Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island and our contributors. The ECH honours the stewardship of the many Indigenous peoples who have resided on these lands since time immemorial.

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