Event Info
MoCL Presents: "Transmutations & The Water Story of Reflections" by Ann K. Chou
Join us for this vibrant opening at MoCL Thursday September 10th!
5:00pm - 8:00pm
By Donation
Artists
Public Arts (lanterns, puppet), disablity, chinese from Victoria BC
Event Description
We welcome you to join MoCL this Thursday for Ann K. Chou's opening of "Transmutations & The Water Story of Reflections"!
Opening Reception: Thursday, June 10th, 5-8PM
Gallery Hours: Thursdays (5-8PM) & Saturdays (1-4PM) until September 26th.
750 Fairfield Rd., wheelchair accessible through East Entrance
Entry: Free/By donation.
About The Exhibition:
Transmutations & The Water Story of Reflections is an exhibition of modular animal-shaped lanterns by Victoria-based interdisciplinary artist Ann K. Chou. Made from mulberry paper, reclaimed and translucent fabrics, plastics, organic debris, and remnants of unfinished works, the lanterns explore transformation, memory, water, movement, and communication beyond spoken language.
The lanterns are made to travel. Turtle, Owl, and Dragon Head characters have accompanied Ann by ferry and transit, along the seawall, and on foot. Some have been reassembled into different forms for different lantern festivals and places.
Other works are made from materials or unfinished pieces that have found another life. The new Pony, Feminist Dragon Boat, and Storytelling Rabbit Mother continue this evolving collection of characters.
The exhibition grows from Eco-Illuminescence, Ann’s 2025 exhibition at Xchanges Gallery, where she first brought visual art and performance into conversation. Transmutations continues this exploration through an exhibition that can shift between sculpture, sensing, and performance.
During the second week, two intermittent light and shadow play activations will be performed by the artist and/or participants. Rather than presenting a fixed story, these are improvised, poetic moments of revealing. Through Reverse Captioning, illustrated visual cues can suggest wind, rain, and other environmental sounds, creating a bridge between different ways of sensing.
As a d/Deaf and neurodivergent artist, Ann asks how visual art and performance can create meaningful forms of communication without assuming spoken language as the starting point.
About The Artist:
Ann K. Chou is an interdisciplinary artist and scientist working between Victoria and Vancouver. Her practice brings together lantern-making, shadow play, painting, puppetry, and interactive installation, exploring how light, movement, materials, and participation can create forms of storytelling and communication beyond spoken language.
After years working in medical laboratory science and Health IT, Ann completed a Master of Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon Fraser University. Her Master’s research explored drawing as a way of making lived health experiences visible and supporting patient agency. She continues to explore visual and non-verbal ways of communicating experience through professional training in behavioural insights, where she is developing and experimentally testing multimodal elicitation methods.
As a d/Deaf and neurodivergent artist with a Cantonese diasporic background, Ann’s work is informed by sensory experience, non-verbal communication, memory, and how people encounter place across different ways of sensing and knowing. Her lantern-making draws from traditional Chinese forms while experimenting with reclaimed and upcycled materials—including mulberry paper, translucent fabrics, plastics, organic remnants, and unfinished work. Through this process, materials are transformed into portable, reconfigurable characters that travel, change, and gather new meanings in public spaces.
Her exploration of non-verbal performance includes the Non-Verbal Artist Co-Learning Engagement at Grunt Gallery, alongside recent work such as Eco-Illuminescence at Xchanges Gallery (2025). Across her practice, she continues to explore how art can create bridges between different ways of sensing, communicating, and connecting with place.
Production Credits
750 Fairfield Rd. Victoria BC
Open / Operational
Venue
The Ministry of Casual Living (MoCL) is a registered non-pro...
750 Fairfield Rd. Victoria BC
Open / Operational
Event Poster
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In-Person Event
Thu. September 10th + Add to Calendar
The Ministry of Casual Living
