Emily Chu [Edmonton]
Emily Chu (she/they) is a Chinese illustrator based on Treaty 6/Edmonton. Emily’s work flows
between commercial illustration, visual arts, community-centred arts engagement projects, and
public art/murals. Emily is passionate about storytelling, preserving heritage and lived
experiences through art-community projects. Her murals can be found at the Edmonton
Chinatown Multi-Cultural Centre, Loblaws Ice District, ATB Edmonton/Red Deer, Millenium
Place, and Spruce Avenue Community Hall, to name a few.
Mural Title
“Capture to Preserve”
Mural Statement
The concept of this work is about memory, healing, and tea as medicines, from my memories that I wish to preserve from childhood. The narrative is light casting in a quiet room, pouring tea into cups, surrounded by plants that represent prosperity, healing, and growth.
The style will be of bolder graphic shapes (sharp edges), to contrast the softness of the scene and soft pastel colours. The soft colours are a representation of nostalgia, memory, grief, and multi-generational traditions. It is an identity piece of third culture – Of diaspora,lost/remembered cultural daily rituals, but also a meaningful act of preservation.
This is from a series of work I hope to make into paintings and murals, titled “capture to preserve”. As I grew up in Calgary, and the Devonian Gardens (in the old TD) was a place I spent with my grandma growing up, I thought this image would be appropriate for me to preserve at this site.
Mural Location
DEVONIAN GARDENS (INSIDE OF THE CORE), 4TH FLOOR, 333 7 AVE SW
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