Brendon Leung

Self Portrait with Houseboy (Encounter-Silence-Disappear), 2024

The Houseboy series was inspired by Brendon Leung’s encounter with archival photographs of Chinese Houseboys—immigrants who worked as domestic labourers for white BC families in the 19th and early 20th Centuries. In family photographs that the artist uncovered in provincial archives, houseboys often stood out as incongruous spectral figures with stoic faces. In his own photographic series, Leung contemplates his connection to these early Chinese immigrants and seeks to honour them as consequential ancestors.

“I made photographs to conjure these figures into the present day, outside the context of the originating pictures, mediated through the computer screen as I found them, and as most people see images today. I think of myself as living within a lineage of Chinese people who have lived in Canada and contributed to the progress of this country through the centuries. Though my family immigrated to Canada much later, I would not be here if early Chinese immigrants had not paved the way, which is why it is important for me to highlight these under-represented narratives.”