jayal chung

Art coordinated by Jayal Chung, SAGE Equity Worker, Thunder Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre and support of CO.LAB GALLERY + ARTS CENTRE Goods & Co. Market

-REBUILDING THE CIRCLE- Group Exhibit | 2024

See the group exhibit this Saturday and Sunday 10am-4pm at CO.LAB Gallery and Arts Centre at Goods & Co. Market. And then again during gallery hours until the 29th. Visit me--likely afternoons there! Book a tour. Watch for drop-in programming etc.

Anemki wequedong | where the Thunder bird hugs the land in its wings. Thunder Bay is a community with a lineage of Indigenous grassroots activism, rad artists, feminism, labour union rights, HIV/2SLGBTQ+ organizing, and one of the original founding Indigenous Friendship Centres.

Each artist helps tell our local queer story. Colonization and settler-colonialism's operations impacts are ongoing. Let us rebuild the broken part of the circle with our fierce love and protection.

Arts and culture are places of self-expression. We can challenge restricting and harmful norms. We can advocate for safety and rights to housing, education, work, walking the street, and sacred spaces.

Some artists include:

Ma-Nee Chacaby Erin Stewart Alynne Peacock Lou Atlookan Tracy Pollard Rachel Mishenene + SO Many others

Shout-out to Lora Northway for years of artist-run love labour over years and saying yes to ideas + Nathan Pakka for coordinating musicians, sound, and performing!

And Thunder Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre and the team especially Logan, Payton, and the Friendship Centre movement for helping make this possible.

If anyone wants to hear my perspectives or love to talk more about queer parenting and family-making, mental health, healing and parenting; culture and parenting etc.-- I'd love to.

The format of my project was a zine but for now it's available on a website. I hope you enjoy it! 🍓

Title: Gingko leaf impressions

Medium: Original block-print carving and acrylic paint

Size: 8.5 x 11 Year: 2025

Last year, my aunt Lily continued a battle with cancer which she survived previously. She died quietly, with support and love of close friends and family. I visited her in hospital and when she was transferred to Yee Hong Peter K. Kwok Hospice in Scarborough. In between these moments of being present with her, with family, and her friends-- I walked grocery stores, neighborhoods, reading, and sketching. On a walk, I came across a gingko tree and picked up and pressed two gingko leaves in my sketchbook. As part of processing grief, I made a carving to experiment printing impressions of this beautiful tree that is part of traditional Chinese medicine- a helper for remembering, learning, and representing resilience. Shamans would carve on the wood of gingko to communicate with the spirit world. Gingko trees demonstrate new growth, despite facing atomic bomb radiation.

A few details of the illustrations I was invited to create recently. Please check out this incredicle resource Parents Like Us: An Unofficial Guide to Caring for a Young Person Who Uses Substances created by parents, caregivers, youth and families, artists including @ckajorin @mindful_makers_collective @ardelleshegotaway @creactioncollective and various supportive community partners on the @tbdhealthunit website. Connected to an organization? You can order 10 free print copies. You are not alone ❤️🍓Healing is non-linear. Your hurts that you carry deserve tending and care. https://www.tbdhu.com/parentslikeus

I am ready to open to the weather.

When I rest, my bones fold up compact and my skin is like a fish.

When I open, I care for those that need relief from the hot sun or cool rain. It's time.

Underneath me are many footsteps. The people are gathered. From light -- a rainbow is revealed.

Spinning, playful expression. The air is electric with song, and bodies readying for collective movement.

In this periphery my offering is protection.

A step forward, another and another.

In front, behind, beside me -- we walk together.

---

Listen to the most recent episode of my podcast: Yum Cha Everyone - We Resist. We Persist. We Love. https://anchor.fm/yumchaeveryone/episodes/Yum-Cha-Everyone---We-Resist--We-Persist--We-Love-e26idqa

You will hear from my parents, Carly Forbes, Céline Mundinger, Sheila Wilson, Lora Northway, Cornelius Beaver, and Ma-Nee Chacaby. Plus, the lil' baby with a big voice.

Stay tuned for a followup episode that continues to build on this prompt.

On episode 10 of Yum-cha dai-ga - 飲茶大家 (let's have tea/dim-sum together) I catch up with a lovely friend, Blake Evans, who moved to China during the pandemic. Though a twelve hour time-difference exists between us-- our chat feels luscious, expansive, and reflective about how we are in relation to our environment. We chat about practicing language, growth, queerness, and more.

Photo credit 📸 Linda Ye

On episode 9 of Yum-cha dai-ga - 飲茶大家 (let's have tea/dim-sum together), I shoot the breeze with Eric Taylor aka @the_breastfeeding_father on Instagram. We chat parenting, nerd out about a TV show, and talk about the ultimate snack.