Bagua originates from the void and is the potential of all things; it is not gendered, but represents complementary forces; it roams from the vulgarity of popular culture to the manifestations of philosophical ideas; it transgresses the boundaries of profanity and the spiritual.

Bagua is the vulgar and unspeakable physiological needs: defecation and consumption imperative to human survival; it is the fundament, the rudimentary, and the grass root.

Bagua Artist Association 八卦藝術家協會 is an artist duo (Katharine Meng-Yuan Yi and Sean Cao) living and working on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ Nations (Vancouver, Canada). Yi holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of British Columbia, and Cao holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Emily Carr University of Art + Design. Formed in 2018, Bagua’s multidisciplinary practice explores the duo’s common interest and shared lived experience as first-generation immigrant settlers. Bagua’s research-based and socially engaged practice examines the quotidian, popular culture and folk arts through a migratory lens and re-envisions traditions and current phenomena with a focus on contemporary Chinese diaspora discourse.  

Bagua Artist Association has exhibited in Canada and China. The duo have been awarded grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, and their public artworks have been commissioned by the City of Vancouver and the City of Richmond. Bagua has initiated and organized numerous participatory projects based in Vancouver’s Chinatown community.