18 May – 21 August 2013
Open for Light Night 17.00 – 21.00
Join the artist at 17.00 — 17.45 for a special tour and the chance to try some Chinese tea.
Part of LOOK/13 Photography Festival
The VG&M presents The Queen, the Chairman and I, a new body of work by Kurt Tong that explores his heritage through new photographs, historical family photographs and writing. Inspired by the tradition of the tea house, visitors can share their own family stories while being served Chinese tea.
Begun as a visual storybook to share his roots with his daughters, Tong considers questions of individuality, identity, nationality, and country. His father’s grandfather was a deckhand who came to Hong Kong from Shanghai after the fall of the Empire in 1911, his mother’s family were landlords in Southern China. Tong was born in Hong Kong but has spent two thirds of his life in England. Growing up between three different cultures he asked himself ‘How Chinese am I or indeed, who am I?’
Tong trained as a health visitor at the University of Liverpool but became a full-time photographer in 2003, and has since won the Luis Valtuena International Humanitarian Photography Award, and the Jerwood Photography Award.
Art & Heritage Collections,Victoria Gallery & Museum, Ashton Street, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 3DR
+44 (0)151 794 2348