Looking for some free things to do around Montreal? Head towards Chinatown and take a look at a couple of exhibits by local artists.

Cheryl Sim

La Cabine d’Essayage (The Fitting Room) by Cheryl Sim is aptly located in a small corner of a shopping mall in Chinatown amid clothing and accessory boutiques.

Sim examines the cheongsam, which according to her, is a dress that has become an internationally recognized symbol of Chinese cultural identity. She asks Canadian-born Chinese women how they feel about the dress and if they have a desire to wear it. You get to listen to their answers through headphones and feel as if you’re a part of their conversation. Also part of the exhibit is a video-sculptural work that evokes the classic Chinese screen on which photos and videos showing the evolution of the cheongsam are displayed, and a transparent, plexi-glass fitting room which projects clips from Hollywood films onto the visitor’s body.

The exhibit is on for another week until June 22nd, from Wednesday to Sunday, 2pm-7pm on the second floor of The Swatow Plaza at 998 Boulevard Saint-Laurent.

A few blocks away on St. Catherine near Bleury, you can catch Karen Tam’s latest exhibit Chinese Fever.  This collection of gold vinyl fabric and paper cutouts that evoke images from Chinese culture and history is a part of the group exhibition “Écho 2 L’histoire à contre-courant / Against the Grain of History.”

It will be on at Galerie Hugues Charbonneau, 372 St. Catherine, Suite 308 from June 7th to July 5th.

Karen Tam and her exhibit “Chinese Fever”