An exhibition at the INDEXG SHOWCASE: Leung Ping-kwan's books and his poem "50 Gladstone Avenue" at the inaugural issue of DOUBLE DOUBLE.
Leung Ping-kwan was a poet, writer, educator and a close friend of ours. We saw each other's children grow up to be fine young women and man. In the old Hong Kong days both Ka-sing and I had done covers for his books. Since we moved to Toronto we saw him several times, when he came here to give lectures on poetry (2004) and Hong Kong films (2006). In 2004, we held a poetry reading for PK and Gary M Dault in our gallery inside Candy Factory Loft. In 2006, he was supposed to come to Toronto to celebrate the inauguration of INDEXG, but due to renovation work the opening was delayed for another two months. And he wrote the poem "50 Gladstone Avenue", which was later translated into English by Luo Hui, another good friend of ours. In 2011, we curated the exhibition - "YYZ Dialogues: Seven Toronto artists in response to the poems of Leung Ping-kwan". Due to health situation, he was not able to come to the exhibition. His wife Betty came and his daughter Anwen read some of his poems during the opening. Looking back, we've come a long way since the early days of poetry and images collaborations. "50 Gladstone Avenue" was included in his newly published bilingual book "Fly Heads and Bird Claws" (2012). The poem was also released in the inaugural issue (2006) of DOUBLE DOUBLE, a two-page publication, which serves as a collaboration platform for Lee Ka-sing with other artists. (Holly Lee January, 2013)
