Introducing 2024 Barker Fairley Distinguished Visitor Richard Fung
Award-winning artist, writer and educator Richard Fung is UC’s 2024 Barker Fairley Distinguished Visitor. Born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, Fung lives and works in Toronto. His work comprises challenging videos on subjects ranging from Caribbean foodways to the role of the Asian male in gay pornography, refugee rights, police racism, HIV/AIDS, justice in Palestine, and his own family history rooted in indentureship.
His single-channel and installation works, which include Orientations: Lesbian and Gay Asians (1984) and its redux Re:Orientations (2016), My Mother’s Place (1990), Out of the Blue (1991), Sea in the Blood (2000), Jehad in Motion (2007), and Dal Puri Diaspora (2012), have been widely screened and collected internationally at institutions such as the Institute of Contemporary Art in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the National Gallery of Art in Ottawa as well as at many community venues.
Fung's essays have been published in numerous journals and anthologies, and he is the co-author with Monika Kin Gagnon of 13: Conversations on Art and Cultural Race Politics. Fung sat on the first Racial Equality Committee of the Canada Council for the Arts and on the Toronto Arts Council. In 1980, he co-founded Gay Asians Toronto, the first organization for racialized LGBTQ+ people in Canada.
Fung is Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Art at OCAD University. Career honours include the Bell Canada Award for outstanding achievement in video art (2000), the Toronto Arts Award for Media Art (2001), the Kessler Award from CLAGS: Center for LGBTQ Studies at the City University of New York, and the Bonham Centre Award from Sexual Diversity Studies at the University of Toronto for distinguished contribution to the public understanding of sexual diversity in Canada.
On the evening of Wednesday,October 23, 2024, Fung will screen his new film, The Enigma of Harold Sonny Ladoo (2024), to be followed by a panel discussion. The event is free and all are welcome. Please save-the-date—more information will be circulated soon.
The Barker Fairley Distinguished Visitorship in Canadian Culture was established in 1985 to enhance links between the University of Toronto and Canada’s prominent cultural figures by inviting them to enter into the intellectual and social life of the college. The Barker Fairley Distinguished Visitor acts as a writer-in-residence, participating in UC (University College) events and meeting with students for one-on-one mentoring sessions related to all forms of writing. The establishment of the visitorship commemorates the achievements of one of the college’s most distinguished faculty members, Barker Fairley (May 12, 1887 – October 11, 1986). Fung’s residency will start September 1st, 2024.