Until Either One Closes

Until Either One Closes is an agreement between AKA and Jin Jin Cuisine, the restaurant next door, for all openings and events at the gallery to be catered by Jin Jin Cuisine for the rest of time, until either one of the businesses closes (or moves). The logo of Jin Jin Cuisine is included in the logo block of AKA in their communications, amongst other sponsors and funders. Jin Jin Cuisine has been owned and operated solely by a Chinese couple for the past decade, with the support of the local community.

This relationship exists in opposition to the gentrification and displacement of the Chinatown neighbourhood located on 20th St. W. AKA itself is located within a building that used to house a Chinese restaurant named Toon’s Kitchen. Several other Chinese restaurants and supermarkets continue to operate in the area, amongst the new coffee shops and juice bars. 

Chinatowns in North America were formed by the pressures of legislated racism like the Chinese Exclusion Act, which banned most forms of Chinese immigration to Canada and was not repealed until 1947. After the colonial projects of the transcontinental railroads were complete, restaurant work was often the only available source of employment for Chinese immigrants.

Nearly every Chinatown in Canada and the U.S. has also faced planned destruction through expropriation for state projects like highways and city halls. In Saskatoon, Chinese immigrants initially founded a Chinatown on 19th St. E.; they were forced to move when the city expropriated the land for the Saskatoon Technical Collegiate Institute. Currently, many Chinatowns across North America are organizing to resist displacement from real estate development and speculation.

Against the backdrop of these Chinatown histories and the foundational theft of land from Indigenous peoples, Until Either One Closes points to a possible interdependence between neighbours, for as long as it can last, or as long as it is maintained.

Until Either One Closes was initiated by Life of a Craphead as part of their exhibition Entertaining Every Second, which took place at the gallery in January—February 2019. Life of a Craphead was the collaboration of Amy Lam and Jon McCurley, from 2006 to 2020. Both of the artists’ families have operated restaurants in Toronto and Calgary.