I Love my Grandparents! Even though I have never really talked to them. My mother's parents both passed away by the time she was twenty and so my relationship to them is through her memories. My Father’s parents immigrated to Canada in the 1950s from small southern Chinese villages and spoke in an obscure local dialect. When my paternal grandparents were alive me and my sister would have your dad translate their stories only to end up listening to sentence after sentence of “I’m not exactly sure what that means”. Most of the time we would communicate through expressions of smiling and laughing and lots of shrugs. I am interested in the beautiful place between awkwardly stumbling through interactions of imprecise communication and understanding by feeling.
Isaak Fong explores familial relationships through drawing, video, and performance practices. He grew up on the prairies and foothills of Alberta, and now lives and works in Tkaronto/Toronto Ontario. He is currently working towards a Bachelors in Fine Arts at OCAD University in the Drawing and Painting program. Isaak's video work Lunch Time 紅鰻魚 was featured by Screen Gallery (2020) a student-run project at the Alberta University of the Arts. He is apart of an ongoing artist collaboration with Gracie Elbel called 'Crock9901'.