Artist Talk: Toronto Public Library Artist-in-Residence Project Cocoon

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About

Meet Zhu Dandan and Wang Zi, a mother-and-daughter artist collective, who is one of the Resident Artists of Toronto Public Library 2024. Join them for a 1-hour artist talk where they will share how this unique duo was formed, and how their immigrant experience shaped their artistic practice. Dandan is a popular children's book illustrator and designer in China. Before moving to Canada in 2017, she never considered publishing her family memoir through interdisciplinary artistic practice (music, spoken word performance, zines, etc). Her daughter Wang Zi is a visual artist based in Toronto. She moved back to Canada from Italy in 2022 and started reexamining the overlapping part of her artistic practice and Dandan's old and new personal works. They started Project Cocoon together in 2022.

回箱 · 绞丝旁计划

Homecoming - Project Cocoon:

Based on the artwork “Homecoming 回箱", “Project Cocoon绞丝旁计划” is an experimental community outreach project created by a mother-daughter artist collective Zhu Dandan and Wang Zi. By going deep into communities in various regions of Canada, Dandan and Zi host collective storytelling workshops based on objects. They introduce printmaking, photography, collage and bookbinding techniques to guide each participant in making a mixed-media artist book. Participants listen to each other’s family stories and gain valuable art-making techniques in a household environment with accessible mediums.

This artist talk is hybrid, both in-person at the Toronto Public Library Albert Campbell bRanch, and it will be live streamed on Zi's Instagram and the TPL platform.

回箱 · 绞丝旁计划

“绞丝旁计划” 是母女艺术家组合——朱丹丹和王紫，以“Homecoming 回箱”作品为蓝本，打造的实验性社区拓展项目。该计划通过深入加拿大各个地区的小社区，以家族故事为题材，以物品为线索，用图文并茂的形式，创作家族历史相关的综合媒介艺术家书。各族裔参与者通过面对面的教学活动，尝试用艺术的手法记录情感，讲述一段故事。在分享和聆听家族故事中，增进彼此了解，创造包容性的文化。“绞丝旁计划”旨在鼓励人们关注自己家族的迁徙和变迁，进而深度探索自我身份认同。

This program is made possible thanks to Toronto Arts Council Strategic Funding.

Photo : Alex Haochuan Xu

Links

• Wang Zi website wangzi.format.com
• Wang Zi instagram instagram.com
• Toronto Public Library Albert Campbell branch page torontopubliclibrary.ca

Organizer

Zhu Dandan x Wang Zi

Wang Zi 王紫 (born in Nanjing, China) is an artist-educator based in Toronto. She has a Bachelor's degree in Printmaking (OCAD) and a Master's in Arts Management and Administration (SDA Bocconi, Milan). She is currently pursuing an MFA in Visual Arts at York University. Wang has shown works in the Ontario Legislative Assembly, Métis Space (HK), Art Bank Canada, and Richmond Hill Public Library. She has facilitated arts and cultural programs in various institutions, including the Royal Ontario Museum, CAMH, the City of Ottawa and the City of Richmond Hill.

Zhu Dandan 朱丹丹 is an award-winning children’s book illustrator and designer with over 100 publications across Asia. Born in the late 50s, Zhu studied traditional silk pattern design at Soochow University from 1978-1982; She worked as the art director of the Magazine “Mo Chou” from 1985 until her retirement in 2014. Her design won “Best in Art Direction” and “Best in Cover Design” awards multiple times in Chinese national competitions. She is also a prolific children’s book illustrator. Some best-selling picture books include “One Magic Box” and “ How Wonderful!” “One-minute Detective,” “Monkey Gets the Moon,” “Bear and Her Lucky Flower,” and “Busy Bear Baby.” Her clients include Jiangsu Ministry of Education, Phoenix Publishing & Media Group, and Hsin Yi Publications. Since she moved to Canada in 2017, she has been working on her book and oral history project based on her family history. She loves tomato planting and singing.