Vancouver Special Landlord
Image-sculpture of foamboard, print on plexiglass, vinyl, plaster, cigarettes, tangerines, led bulb,
70x40x35cm,
2021

( Installation view )

In the coastal regions of Southern China—such as Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, and Taiwan—the worship of the “Earth God” or “Landlord God” is a foundational practice, a tradition carried across oceans by generations of the Chinese diaspora. This work reimagines that ancestral shrine through the architectural silhouette of a “Vancouver Special,” the city’s most iconic immigrant housing style and a symbol of mid-century aspiration.

By merging a traditional Chinese spiritual habit with the Canadian monarchical authority that governs the land, the piece explores the paradoxical nature of the “settler” identity. It investigates a new, hybridized ritual: the adaptation of ancestral customs to a landscape defined by Western property law and the enduring shadow of the Crown, questioning how diaspora communities negotiate belonging and ownership in a colonial reality.