Kev Liang

Kev Liang is an artist based in Edmonton, AB, Treaty 6 territory, originally from secluded rural Alberta. Graduating with a BFA in Intermedia and Printmaking at the University of Alberta, Kev uses photographic and videographic means with a DSLR camera to create narratives in the form of print media as well as digital film, put into a contextual space that all encapsulates his feelings and grasp of “identity”. He is interested in tackling existential anxieties of feeling lonely and minuscule, thoughts that are particularly fueled by being present within modular, homogenized, systematic, urban spaces and having an anthropocentric outlook on everything. After growing up in a very secluded and rural environment, Kev attempts to dissect the different cultural and philosophical aspects of his gay, second generation Chinese-Canadian identity as a means to try and understand why he necessarily has those existential fears. With the use of photo and video, he hopes to showcase his perspective of what he is FEELING, as well as what he is DOING in the present as a way of coping. By taking into consideration the traditional, cultural, and philosophical Chinese expectation of continuing one’s family lineage and Kev’s inability to do so as a queer body, as well as the idea of Chinese-Canadian immigrants relying on labor and prosperity as a means of survival and presence, Kev asks himself and others: How much is at stake in terms of ensuring a long term presence or settled lineage for queer and diasporic identities? Will someone like himself ever find their own sense of kinship or family? Where do these certain individuals lie within an incredibly labor and wealth focused society?