No Sweat

Good morning towels, wash label, text, clothing line, plastic clips

Size and dimension variable.

2023

Images from Exhibition View in The Curator’s Sauna, at Canton-Sardine Gallery, Vancouver, Canada.

No Sweat is an installation of hanging Good Morning face towels sourced from Chinatown shops, hung on clotheslines with colourful plastic clips, and available for visitors to purchase and for immediate use at the Sauna. 

Good morning face towels are the signature product from the first Chinese towel factory in history, established in 1912. They were once a common household item all over mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Singapore. Popular among the working class and lower-income families, the cultural iconic towel soaks up sweat from an honest day’s work. 

This work is developed as part of Chinatown Recreation Mall, an on-going multi-stage project that looks at objects of diaspora from Vancouver’s Chinatown— objects that transcend the boundaries of geographical and time distance, or harbour one’s sense of belongings, or more literally, has moved across oceans and mountains in waves of immigration. 

This artwork was made possible with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.