Programming
(aka Joni Cheung)
Songs to my Ancestors
Songs to my Ancestors, a collective musical compilation produced following a call for participation, is an audio piece that explores how radio broadcasts connect - through sound waves - members of the diaspora to family, friends and others, now separated by land and water.
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Growing up on unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, Stó:lō, and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh, on land colonially known as Vancouver, Snack Witch remembers how their parents would regularly tune into Cantonese radio shows while dropping them off at school or during late evening drives home. Songs to my Ancestors is an audio piece that explores how radio shows connect members of the diaspora with their family, friends and strangers, now separated by land and water, through the crests and fall of sound.
Accompanying the sound work now being hosted on DARE-DARE’s website, you will find a call for participation on flyers scattered across digital spaces. The collected songs and notes then become a publicly accessible playlist and collection that will live on and grow as this project continues to percolate in our airwaves.
You can find the imaginary radio show at the core of the project right here: https://www.jonicheung.com/portfolio/songs-to-my-ancestors/
SONGS AND NOTES COLLECTION ✨
Following the call for participation, the artist gathered the songs and messages submitted by the public.
TO READ : See all songs and messages that were collected ✎
TO LISTEN : Let yourself be carried away by the airwaves of the collective playlist ♫
Joni Cheung
🔮 Snack Witch Joni Cheung 🍡 is a Canadian-born Hong Kong-Chinese queer woman and grateful, uninvited guest on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, Stó:lō, and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh peoples. They are currently toiling over their MFA on the stolen lands of the Kanien’kehá:ka peoples to become a Certified Sculpture Witch at Concordia University. A wicked #magicalgirl ✨ eating art + making snacks 🌈, their interdisciplinary, sculptural practice investigates the relationship between objects↔place↔identity; navigates discourses of transnationalism, migration, and diasporas; and uses food and humour to draw people in with the familiar, to confront the uncomfortable histories embedded in the everyday.
Cheung is a part of DARE-DARE's 2022-23 programming. They will be producing a participatory multi-site installation involving radio waves and creating a collection of songs and dedications with the help of those who live in Tiohti:áke - Mooniyang, in the neighbourhoods known as Little Burgundy and St. Henri.