Hopefully, I’ll Remember

The Blue Building Gallery, 2022 | Halifax, Nova Scotia

Hopefully, I’ll remember was the latest iteration in Shi’s multifaceted exploration of memory and immigration. Using repeated figures and a growing vocabulary of marks and materials, Shi’s works explore how the act of remembering changes our relationship to place and the past.

Shi uses transparent materials and a wide-range of layering techniques to approximate the texture of memory—how it shifts in and out of focus; how it degrades; or reappears in flashes of clarity. For Shi, the past is fragmented and subjective. Each time we try to remember it, it changes— as if being seen from a new perspective, or a new narrator, everytime. Multiplicity and repetition in Shi’s works reflect this experience.

Shi’s experience of living in Canada on various temporary visas before receiving permanent resident status in 2019 was also reflected in these works. Her figures often appear to be traveling in groups or posing individually for official photos. She often gives these figures the evocative title, “Portraits of Those in Limbo,” to suggest that these are individuals experiencing impermanence of many kinds. The lightness and fragility of impermanence is reflected in the materials of Shi’s work.

Image and exhibition text courtesy of The Blue Building Gallery. Photo: Ryan Josey