In a time when distinguishing truth from fiction is increasingly difficult, and when the grotesque is embellished with spectacle, what is the responsibility of the image creator? For more than a decade, Toronto-based artist and historian Tong Lam has utilized his lens-based work to uncover hidden evidence of state- and capital-precipitated violence—both fast and slow—across various contexts. His research-based visual projects particularly delve into the intersection between technology and military violence, as well as the landscapes of industrial and postindustrial ruination. His most recent project focuses extensively on the material evidence of Cold War mobilizations globally, along with their environmental and social consequences. Concurrently, his other ongoing projects systematically dissect China’s rapid growth amidst the country’s departure from its socialist past.
Beyond archives and ethnography, his visual practice encompasses photography, cinematography, and other multimedia methods. In so doing, he also strives to initiate a dialogue between art and scholarship. He is an associate professor of history at the University of Toronto, engaging in research projects related to infrastructure, environmental justice, and the politics of information and data. On the scholarly front, his current book-length study employs lenses of media studies, environmentalism, and science and technology studies (STS) to examine the politics and poetics of mobilization in China’s special zones in the socialist and postsocialist eras.
Growing up at the margins and intersections of various worlds, he continues to traverse conceptual, disciplinary, and physical boundaries in his research and visual practices. He has exhibited, presented, and published his creative and scholarly works internationally.
