PARKADE PROJECT SPACE
PILOT ASTRONAUTS
RAEANN KIT-YEE CHEUNG
EXHIBITION DATES:
MARCH 29 - JUNE 1, 2024
OPENING RECEPTION:
FRIDAY, MARCH 29 — 7 PM TO 10 PM
Between the 1970s and 1990s, the term “astronaut families” was popularized in Hong Kong and Taiwan, referring to family arrangements in Asia where the fathers remained in their home country to work while the mothers migrated to the west with their children for stability, opportunities, living experiences, and education, and chasing promises of secured and abundant futures. Notwithstanding the perceived good fortune of their circumstance, astronaut mothers commonly faced language and culture barriers, isolation in their new surroundings, marital breakdowns, and a loss of connections back home. Despite the hardships, and in the absence of their husbands, their loneliness was still often permeated with a renewed sense of freedom and autonomy. With 2025 marking the 50th anniversary of International Women’s Year, Pilot Astronauts by Raeann Kit-Yee Cheung celebrates the early astronaut mothers, their strength, and their humanity.
Image courtesy of the artist.
Born in Hong Kong and raised in Canada, Raeann Kit-Yee Cheung is a photographer who leans on a dual heritage to create work that is both personal and universal. Having immigrated almost five decades ago Raeann is resolved in feeling neither Chinese nor Canadian but rather someone who embodies a rich ambiguity that confronts a melded identity. She holds a MA in contemporary photography from Falmouth University where she began her project WE ARE IMMIGRANTS - The Hidden Hardships and Legacy of Early Chinese Canadian Immigrants. Today her work continues to explore the diasporic context. Raeann resides in the traditional territories of Treaty 7 in Southern Alberta.
raeannkityee.ca