Profile: Ciel Dong

Ciel (Shi) Dong is a curatorial postdoctoral fellow with Past Wrongs, Future Choices, bringing a background combining art and cross-cultural study to her work with the Museums and Exhibitions cluster, as well as PWFC’s project office. As Ciel puts it, she sees herself first as an artist, and that her curatorial experience has “naturally grown from being an artist” and a desire to do meaningful work for and with other people.

Prior to joining Past Wrongs, Future Choices, Ciel received her PhD from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Her PhD research was mainly a cross-cultural study of Japanese art looking at parallels and influences in contemporary art and abstract artists by revisiting Ancient Zen philosophies. She was interested in how revisiting Ancient Zen ideas can contribute to the art world, and the world in general, with a major focus on art meditation. In addition to this, Ciel did curatorial work for companies and organizations. She was passionate about joining the project because of the ability to apply her background and experience to social justice issues and history she wasn’t as familiar with in her own research, and the opportunity to learn.

“I had a background that maybe fit for this project. Their main purpose for this curatorial postdoc is to find someone that can curate a show on this internment camp history and art. So they want someone familiar with knowledge of Nikkei art. […] When you’re an artist and a curator, you know what artists do and what they prefer, so it makes that easier.”

Although Ciel confesses that ‘history’ often feels like a “new world” to her, Ciel’s artistic and curatorial background makes her a natural fit for the transnational and artistic dimensions of Past Wrongs, Future Choices. As Ciel explains, “historians, artists, and all different kinds of performers and scholars, some who are not academics, and some who are engaging with family history” all come together on the project. Ciel’s own background weaves together studies in philosophy, fine art, social injustices and rights, universal design, and curatorial experience working with galleries and organizations.

Project partners see multiple sides of Ciel’s curatorial and artistic talents. On the one hand, she’s working on a showcase for artists on the project, and works with many PWFC project partners and artists on installations, showcases, exhibitions and events. On the other hand, she’s regularly connecting with project members all over the globe as a member of the project office, orchestrating PWFC’s newsletter, digital communications and designing posters and other print materials.

Ciel is currently working with Past Wrongs, Future Choices from Melbourne after spending almost a year working with the project in Victoria, British Columbia. Ciel’s year in Victoria was filled with a lot of learning. While there was some necessary learning from books recommended by her supervisors on the project, she explains that this year was memorably filled with learning from “real project members and people” as well. Ciel had the opportunity to join the fall 2023 cohort of artists and scholars in residence for many events and performances, and PWFC bus tours to sites including the Tashme Internment Camp and the Nikkei National Museum and Cultural Centre—experiences Ciel explains as valuable opportunities to learn directly from “museums, people and conversations.”

“I’m learning more from experience. I love learning from hearing stories and talking with people in person, because you can react to what they said immediately. The most precious thing—I bet many people on the trips would agree with me—is that it’s not about a ‘tour’ itself, but more about the people you met on the tour. […] To me, being on this project and I’m not Japanese and I’m not Canadian, I need to be sensitive. I need to be really careful about people’s feelings. I love to be a good listener. The bus tour is very interesting because there are several members just like me, but we’re good listeners. And sometimes good listeners are good healers too. Everyday on the bus we sit next to a different person, because we want to communicate with different people and share stories. So everyday I heard new personal stories, and it’s really amazing. You could hear some really emotional and traumatic stories from a stranger that you just met. But you could have a deep kind of conversation, or sharing of traumatic feelings, so it feels like something beyond books, resources, or archival things, because it feels so alive.”

“I met someone on our bus tour to Hastings Park. He saw my LA Dodgers hat, and came to me, and we talked about baseball. And the conversation just started. He told me he was in Hastings Park when he was very young. He told me about things he remembered as a small kid. So, to me, I feel like it’s very valuable and emotional. When you hear the story from a person that has been there, it felt sort of ‘out of history’. To me, I think that’s the value of the tour and being able to learn this way.”

Following the learning opportunities from the last year, Ciel is in the process of moving more into curatorial-focused work with the project, including the upcoming Banff showcase. “It’s not a formal exhibition, but rather a showcase for all the previous artists in residence. […] We plan to create a poster for each of them, and some artists will perform.”

Ciel’s experiences on Past Wrongs, Future Choices—especially being able to meet different scholars, artists and people, and hear their stories—has also been inspiring for Ciel in thinking about her own art and artistic research. “I’m interested in social issues and social justice, but I haven’t really stepped into it in my own work. But doing this project, I’m learning how the artist can do something with history. And it’s really blowing my mind and giving me so many inspirations like what I can do as an artist too.”

This article was written by Sarah Stilwell from a July 2024 interview with Ciel Dong. All photos are courtesy of Ciel.