Solo Exhibition: I Wonder How I Wonder Why
Gallery: articule
Address: 6282 St-Hubert,Montréal, Québec, Canada H2S 2M2
Date: November 1 – December 14, 2024
Opening reception: November 1, 5-8pm

Drawing on early encounters with Western culture while growing up in China, Dong uses the song “Lemon Tree”, by the German band Fool’s Garden, as a symbolic, aspirational fantasy of Western life: bright, carefree, and filled with promise. For Dong, this fantasy was shaped through cultural exports like music, media, and fashion, offering an idealized, unattainable version of the West. In this project, Dong bridges the gap between the imagined promises of Western life and the complex realities of growing up in the East, transforming bittersweet childhood memoirs into acts of resistance and empowerment. “I Wonder How I Wonder Why” is a space where East and West, science and imagination, reality and fantasy intersect, inviting reflection on how personal and cultural narratives shape our understanding of ourselves and the world, and how these narratives can open new possibilities for self-expression.