Friday, May 1, 2026 to Saturday, June 27, 2026
Artspace
The exhibition’s point of departure can be traced to a 2017 New York Times article on the opening of the 228 Memorial Museum in Taipei, Taiwan. The title refers to February 28, 1947, when a pro-democracy protest was met with a public massacre carried out by the authoritarian KMT government. That event marked the beginning of more than five decades of martial law known as the White Terror, a period defined by imprisonment, torture, executions, and the prosecution of so-called “thought crimes” without due process. Following decades of human rights activism in Taiwan and abroad, including in Canada, the regime gradually came to an end, and the 228 Memorial Museum now preserves this history through photographs, letters, and testimonies from victims and their descendants.
The exhibition places that history in dialogue with contemporary questions of truth, memory, and reconciliation. In a Canadian context, it considers how diaspora experience can complicate and deepen conversations around justice, displacement, and belonging. Canada has long served as a place of refuge for immigrant communities and a base of support for democratic movements abroad, even as it continues to grapple with its own ongoing failures to address systemic harms against First Nations and other marginalized communities.
By drawing these histories into relation, the work suggests that the knowledge carried by immigrant and diaspora communities—their experiences of repression, resistance, and democratic struggle—can offer meaningful insight into broader social and political reckonings. Rather than treating these histories as separate, the exhibition invites viewers to look beyond their immediate frame of reference and consider the shared patterns of violence, activism, and accountability that connect struggles across borders.