For Immediate Release

 

A Visual Art Exhibition that explains the connection between arts and human rights movements
The Fade of Human Rights: From Hong Kong to The World

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Toronto, June 29, 2022.  From Uyghur to Hong Kong, and from Taiwan to the world, the Chinese Communist Party has never stopped their abuse of human rights, propaganda, and silencing oppositions. Visual arts played an important part in recording incidents, visualizing encouragements and supports, and often helped victims and their families in grieving. Movements can only be successful with people, and people’s hearts are connected by and motivated by visuals.

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From July 3 to July 10, 2022, a visual art exhibition - The fade of human rights: From Hong Kong to the world, organized by THKAG and SCOPE, will be held at a local gallery in Toronto. The exhibition is aimed to provide a platform for Canadians to realize, what happened to Hong Kong provides a blueprint on the tactics totalitarians can apply to the Westernized world. In fact, it is already happening to some countries in Africa, and also in Australia. The threats that communism is imposing on Canada cannot be ignored.

 

Artists (Bio at footer) and their artworks:

Christie Chan

I Don’t Like My Grandpa - paintings and drawings

Franklin

Black Water - light drawing photography on installation art

Samuel Tam

Dinner with Someone on 26th May 2017, 2019, 2021 - video interviews documented the changes of people and their family who participated in human rights movements in Hong Kong

 

Forums with Artists:

Franklin - Two and a half years later Are we any different from 1984 

July 4, 2022 13:00 & 15:00

Samuel Tam - Can we understand Hong Kong as a nation?

July 6, 2022 14:30 & July 9, 2022 14:30

Speakers (Bio at footer) that you don’t want to miss:

 

• US Activist for Uyghur - Julie Millsap (recently testified in the US congress) will be the exhibition’s opening guest speaker. She will be talking about “Uyghur Genocide & the CCP's War on Humanity”, on July 3 at 18:00.

• Well-known Canadian artist - Ken Lywood will be one of the closing guest speakers of the exhibition, he will address “A quest to see and express” on July 10 at 14:00. 

• Founder of Unpublished Media - James O’Grady will be another closing guest speaker, he will give a talk about “The power of art as political expression”.

 

FREE Admission.

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RSVP is encouraged for the sake of crowd control during COVID, and to avoid line-ups.
All RSVP participants will receive a limited edition designer desktop calendar.

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RSVP at:
https://www.scopeofcanada.org/the-fade-of-human-rights

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For more information and resources, please visit SCOPE of Canada’s website: https://www.scopeofcanada.org/the-fade-of-human-rights or contact us at contact@scopeofcanada.org

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About the Organizers

 

THKAG
Lead by human rights activist Mimi Lee, the Torontonian HongKongers Action Group (THKAG) has been organizing different events since June 2019 in Toronto, to raise awareness and support the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong sparked by the amendment on the extradition to China bill fiasco. A key event that was widely covered by local media, was the handing out of free tees to Toronto Raptor’s audience in 2019.

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SCOPE
Strategic Coalition & Organization of Protection in Equity (SCOPE) is a non-profit organization seeks to provide equitable access and resources to support individuals and communities that are historically marginalized. By connecting to existing civil groups and non-profit organizations, SCOPE hopes to form a strategic coalition in achieving the goal stated. The organization will plan various activities include but not limited to exhibitions, flyers distributions, panel discussions, forums, etc.

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About the Artists

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• Christie Chan - Christie is an aspiring illustrator based in Toronto, Canada. She is an enthusiast of artistic anatomy and children's books. She studied animation at Sheridan College and then illustration at OCAD University, Toronto. (Full Bio here)

• Franklin - Visionary Producer Franklin spent 25 years at the top of the commercial media industry in Hong Kong. Now located in Toronto, Canada. Franklin has brought his skills and expertise to the Canadian market. (Full Bio here)

• Samuel Tam - Samuel is currently a full-time lecturer at the University of the Arts London. He has provided numerous lectures, tutorials and general art tutoring at a number of UK universities. (Full Bio here)

About the Speakers

• Julie Millsap - Julie is the Government Relations Manager at the Uyghur Human Rights Project in the United States, and has worked in the field of Uyghur rights advocacy for several years, recently serving as an expert witness for the Uyghur Tribunal held in London. She previously spent a decade living and working in China, where she had first-hand exposure to the atrocities being carried out by the Chinese Communist Party. She currently resides in the D.C. area.

• Ken Lywood - Originally from Toronto, Canadian artist Ken now plies his trade in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Art came naturally to Ken. He says he’s not sure what came first, breath or art. He came into his own as a post-realist in the 1960’s, “the best of all possible times”, he says. “A golden age of self-expression in Canada”.

• James O’Grady - James is the founder of Unpublished Media Inc., a web and social media company focused on empowering Canadians to actively participate in their democracy. Since 2012, for 10 years now, Unpublished Media and James has fought to make Canada’s democracy more transparent and open to its citizens.