Shades of an Island, Shadow of a Land 

Yantong Li and Beichen Zhang






Archival print on Hahnemühle photo rag
19 x 11 in



This limited edition archival print emerges from The Untethered Ashes, a part of Yantong Li and Zhang Beichen’s ongoing research into the trans-Pacific coolie trade during the First World War—a largely suppressed history that moved thousands of labourers from Shandong Peninsula across Canada, and onward to Europe in service of the British and French frontlines.

The image returns to the ports that structured this passage: sites of departure and homecoming, extraction and erasure. In the distance, cranes rise off the coast of Qingdao—an echo of archival photographs held in the BC Archives, where the geometry of industrial progress frames the bodies it once displaced. The artists reprinted stills from their film and re-shot them under studio lighting, casting staged shadows across these landscapes. Architectural remnants gathered from their filming sites are layered into the composition, while colour-flipped light subtly unsettles the image.

Rather than illustrating history directly, Li and Zhang construct a poetic disturbance. The work invites viewers to look again at the spaces of commerce and transit that press against diasporic bodies; to see what remains (in)visible, and to consider whose movements built the foundations of contemporary global exchange.

Shades of an Island, Shadow of a Land  was produced by the artists during Yantong Li’s Spring 2026 Residency, with all proceeds directly supporting the artists and SITE’s onward programming and administrative costs. 

Prints are sold unframed but please be in touch if you need assistance with framing. 



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