The Unavailable Memory of Gold Coin Café

Produced alongside the exhibition Hither and Thither, Kerry Ann Lee's artist publication The Unavailable Memory of Gold Coin Café (2013) investigates the story of 296 Willis Street, the site of the Gold Coin Café: her parent's takeaway and former family home in the 1980s. Her parents followed the tradition of her ancestors in that upon immigrating to New Zealand in the 1940s they helped set up some of the early Chinese restaurants in Wellington. As the building is currently earthquake-stickered and earmarked for destruction, Lee’s installation references her memories and actualities of the space, featuring visual and sonic details to explore the tensions of making a home in the margins. The project is an alternative micro-history of Cantonese migrant legacy and urban settlement in flux in Wellington City over the past 40 years.

Edition of 150

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