Lives of 3 Canners: New York’s Chinese Elderly Immigrants-OPENING RECEPTION

Lives of Three Canners: New York’s Chinese Elderly Immigrants presents Siyan Wong’s nine new oil paintings of today’s elderly Chinese immigrants who collect cans and bottles for redemption. These oil paintings visually situate the viewers in the past and present moments lived by each of the three canners – as young adults in 1960s to 1980s China, as middle-age low-wage immigrant workers in 1990s to 2000s New York City, and as elderly canners today. Her subjects represent recent Chinese immigrants in Chinatown and the Lower East Side whose lives were defined by their employment in garment factories, restaurants, and home care – work that often make these non-English speakers vulnerable to various labor law violations but which they must accept in order to make a living.