Dominique Fung

The Weight of Water

- Jessica Ross

Western art history, as a whole, can be an unreliable vision. For centuries, European painters have heralded systems of imperialism through their works and, for the average art viewer, it’s difficult to untangle colonial context while perusing the halls of a major museum. Western depictions of the East are littered with tropes of the exotic, the fetishized and the voyeuristic. Painters like Delacroix, Jean Leon Gerome, and Rousseau have shaped a binary view of the world with patronizing depictions of snake charmers, geishas and bathhouses. Second generation Chinese-Canadian painter Dominique Fung collects these problematic notions and recasts them through her own lens, refiguring art history to give her subjects real agency.

Her work is luscious, refined and inviting. Warmly lit, melodically composed and exuding sensual energy, Fung’s paintings don’t appear critical at first glance, but upon closer inspection, her subjects protest, laugh and make absurd gestures, posturing themselves politically in Fung’s world. By subverting the narrative and utilizing the imagery of Western art history’s own design, Fung is able to present a more genuine view of identity, one unique to her own personal history and shared experience.

I sat down with the Brooklyn-based painter this summer to chat about her creative upbringing in Ottawa, the theoretical writings that have influenced her work, and what it means to create a new narrative with paint, one stroke at a time.

Jessica Ross: Your paintings are warm and inviting. They draw you in with sensuous tones and glossy finish. Do you think this polished aesthetic allows exploration of less gentle themes in your work under a welcoming veneer?