I arrive first at Richard Fung’s third floor office in the Ontario College of Art and Design, where he teaches integrated media. He shows up a moment later, smiling and apologetic, he’s holding a handful of flyers in one hand and a stapler in the other. “Sorry, I was putting up ads for an art show on Friday, it took longer than I thought it would, I’m Richard, nice to meet you!” His voice is quiet and carries a hard-to-trace accent. It takes a while to begin the interview since Richard is so intrigued by my family and educational background that it is hard to steer the conversation towards him. He is the perfect combination of a curious child and a worldly gentleman.
Richard was born in Trinidad, of Chinese ancestry. He moved to China halfway through his childhood, and finally to Canada for his teenage and adult years. This eclectic background accounts for the motivation behind much of his earlier artwork. Two of his earliest pieces of video art, The Way to My Father’s Village, and Chinese Characters, were inspired by Fung’s longing to learn more about his family background.
Other pieces created by the artist cover a vast range of topics from the struggles of 19th century Chinese railway workers, to the experiences of Canadian men living with HIV, and even Central American refugee camps. With a repertoire of subjects like this, it is easily understood why Richard is often seen as a champion of the underdog. When I ask him how he feels about being viewed in this way he laughs nervously; “I’m only one of a large group of people doing what they can to open up dialogue and help others, those people at the front of picket lines, or organizing church charity events are doing more than I am. I suppose I’ve always had an interest in community organization.”
One of Fung’s more touching and recognized pieces, Sea in the Blood was inspired by a personal struggle. In this film Fung addresses the death of his favourite sister Nan, who suffered from a rare blood disorder, (Thalassemia), as well as the relationship shared by the siblings. Sea in the Blood is a meditation on issues of family, migration, illness, and gay identity formation. One of his most recent installations, Jehad in Motion, strays from the family microcosm and focuses on larger cultural and political discourses. Jehad in Motion is displayed in the York Quay Centre Gallery in the Toronto Harbourfront Centre. The installation features a Palestinian Canadian who lives in Toronto but regularly returns to visit his family in Hebron. He is shown on two different screens in the two different cities, representing how one person can exist is two different cultural spaces at once.
It’s difficult to imagine that the same person who can generate such conscientious and subtle artistic endeavours can have a cheeky side as well. However, Richard Fung is nothing short of a walking paradox. He once made a serious safe-sex video for homosexual males but cast art stars John Greyson and Colin Campbell as cruisey bathhouse extras. Contrarily, today the teacher feels the pressures of a society that seems to feel that as he gets older, he should stop being a risk-taking maverick and become more conservative. He laughs and tells me that perhaps he actually is becoming more conventional with age, or at least he is getting better at self censorship. I wonder to myself why someone so well spoken would ever need self-censorship.
Although almost all of the discourse regarding Fung and his artwork is positive, critics have questioned whether his documentary-style narratives constitute actual art. When asked how people usually respond to his work, Richard shares his view that, “once you put something out there, it’s not really yours anymore”. He elaborates to explain that the purpose behind all of his creations is to generate discussion, to have people challenge and build off of his work. Richard shares that he is always amazed at how people tend to relate emotionally to his videos internationally. “There are common human struggles that people all across the globe understand, such as the relationship between child and parent, death and illness.” In this sense, his art has the ability to bridge the gaps between people from different cultures, races and religions.
The present art piece that Fung is working on is a statement about the modeling of Southern Ontario after parts of England in terms of the settlement of people, as well as the cultivation of the land. It squeezes areas of Ontario into a video screen set in the middle of paintings of places in England. Fung is finding it challenging to find time to work on the exhibit due to his other true passion in life, teaching, “I’m fascinated by how the human mind can learn new skills,” Richard says of his day job. As if on cue there is a knock on the office door. It’s a student from one of his classes seeking advice for her final project. I say goodbye and leave Richard Fung right where he should be; helping shape the minds of the art worlds next Mavericks.
