Chinamans Peak Walking the Mountain

The images seem to suggest a traditional Chinese funeral ceremony associated with ancestor worship though Wong has remarked they do not represent any particular ritual The work deals with death remembrance and history and was conceived as a memorial to the Chinese workers who died building the Canadian railway through the Rocky Mountains It is also dedicated to the artists father Hoy Ming Wong and to two friends and collaborators who committed suicide Ken Fletcher 19541978 and Paul Speed 19671991 Wong created the work while artistinresidence at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Alberta Chinamans Peak is the name of a mountain near Banff where according to legend a Chinese worker killed himself The work was first performed at Tunnel Mountain Banff in 1992 before being exhibited as an installation at the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver for the Chinese New Year in 1993