“[Mythology] offers an alternative way to interpret what’s happening and offer perspectives that are outside of the prescribed mindset or temporal and spatial order,” Wang says. “Even social orders [of time and space] are reimagined.”

An online artist talk will take place on July 16; a public critique of Wang’s curation is scheduled for Aug. 5 with Vancouver Art Gallery interim director of collections and senior curator Diana Freundl.

A Canadian premiere

Wang’s interest in Qiu and Tsui arose from her fascination with “fantastical escapist narratives.” Both artists engage with references from the Song dynasty (960–1279) – a highly productive artistic period of Chinese history.

“It was also a period marked by political upheaval and very traumatic dynastic transitions,” Wang adds. “Because of these transitions, themes of exile, refuge, and searching for sanctuary would show up in different ways in both artists’ works.”

The exhibit’s title reflects these themes as both artists directly or indirectly reference the term “peach blossom spring” from a fifth-century fable regarding “an unreachable utopia.” The curator adds that the mythological text referenced by these artists – titled The Classic of Mountains and Seas – can be traced to 400 BCE.

“Nowadays, it is commonly regarded as a collection of mythological tales,” Wang notes. “It was actually once regarded as a repository of true knowledge in geography, flora, fauna, strange creatures and rituals and customs of peoples far beyond ancient Chinese civilization.”

Qiu’s film trilogy, The New Book of Mountains and Seas (2006–2017), directly engages with this text. The first two parts of the film were mostly composed of stop-motion techniques; the third part – a 3D animation – introduces 3D model building. Associated with the trilogy’s first part is his New Classic of Mountains and Seas (2008), a set of woodblock prints.

“He reimagines the sacred creatures or these beast deities in the original text as these mechanical, hybrid creatures that are used by humans for our own ambitions,” Wang adds, noting Qiu’s reflections on modernity.

The presentation of these three films together is a first for a Canadian audience. Tsui has also contributed “two lenticular light boxes,” creating what Wang refers to as “an old-fashioned animation effect” that responds to viewer’s gaze.

“When you move in front of the light box, there is a sequence change,” she explains. “You’ll see the figure move, change their gestures.”

Tsui’s Spectral Residue (2025), an on-site mural with “traces of acrylic paint and ink through mulberry paper” is also on display. Wang adds that matches were used to create “smoke stains,” leaving “a very haunting presence.”

Finding home in myths

Wang sees both artists invoking traditional genres as storytelling tools. These tools provide conceptual frameworks for interpreting personal experiences or contemporary events. She argues their critique of modernity is related to their engagement with the “dialectical nature of utopia and dystopia.”

“Whenever you speak of one, you are inevitably evoking the other, especially in our current state of the world,” she explains. “It’s interesting to have a space to imagine and escape to a parallel universe or reinterpret what is happening around us.”

Tsui’s critique happens through references to wuxia or martial arts fiction. The genre dates to roughly the same period as The Classic of Mountains and Seas.

The stories focus on “chivalric figures” helping those in need, offering frameworks for justice beyond government-sanctioned methods. Wang says Tsui offers the genre “as an insurgent possibility” for the Hong Kong diaspora.

“He transposes these martial arts worlds into vanished sites or displaced sites in Hong Kong, giving these marginalized spaces or subjects more narrative, depth and agency,” she explains.

Wang says another link between the artists is their desire to reclaim cultural heritage. The curator also felt a strong desire to engage with her heritage after leaving her hometown of Hangzhou. She adds that mythologies offer a way to let “our guards down.”

“You don’t have to know a lot of historical context just to read this short mythological or folklore story,” Wang concludes. “It leads you to nuanced and interesting entry points of a culture or an even broader historical consciousness.”

For more information, see: www.richmondartgallery.org/roaming-peach-blossom-spring