Christian Vistan works across paintings and writing, and often in collaboration, to translate experiences of distance and diaspora into hybrid and poetic forms. Their work folds together elements of memory, place, poetry, and abstraction.
In October 2023, Christian and Kiyoshi Whitley performed Rice Cooker at Boombox, responding to the site as a shipping container converted into a performance space. Their collaboration intertwined themes of labour, transit, and cohabitation with those embedded in the histories and lives of the shipping container.
During their 221A Fellowship, Christian assembled photographs of the 2023 performance with Kiyoshi, documented by Natasha Katedralis, into their limited edition, 700-page book, Rice Cooker. Christian describes Rice Cooker as a “cinematic object” as they interrogate what it means to translate the passages of time, darkness, and light in the performance into a tangible object, to be held and witnessed by viewers. The book is accompanied by a paratextual essay by Hamish Hardie.
On August 8, 2026, the limited edition book, Rice Cooker, was available for guests to flip through and also as a sculptural display, submerged in an aquarium of water containing materials from English Bay.
In addition, Christian presented a new work in collaboration with Kiyoshi, titled A Brighter Summer Day. Christian and Kiyoshi transformed 221A’s Project Space into a camera obscura exploring the photographic, cinematic, and site-specific potential of this optical apparatus. The room-sized, light-tight camera was activated with a performance by Kiyoshi, followed by a reading by Christian against the backdrop of the highly built and newly developed environment that surrounds the Project Space as it was projected and inverted inside.
The works, as photographed by Dennis Ha, are seen below:
- Rice Cooker, 2024-2026. Toner, various papers, glue, wood. Installation view.
- Rice Cooker, 2024-2026. Toner, various papers, glue, seawater and other materials from English Bay, aquarium, quilt, wood, dolly. Installation view.
- A Brighter Summer Day, 2026. Camera obscura. Exterior installation view
Photography and videography of the performance was not permitted.
Programming:
- 12:30PM Doors open
- 1:00PM Remarks
- 1:30PM A Brighter Summer Day Performances & Installation
- 2:00PM Reception & Rice Cooker on Display and Sale
Refreshments were provided by kind-pot catering by Artist Ron Tran.
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