Your Morning is My Night
chromogenic prints, 2007, each 12" X 18"

Your Morning is My Night is a collaborative photo and video project by Han Xu a native of Beijing, who has been living in Toronto since 2001, and Sara Angelucci of Toronto.  Han and Angelucci began working together in the spring of 2006 with the intention of helping each other to develop their language skills in English (Han) and Mandarin (Angelucci). As artists, their language collaboration soon developed into an artistic collaboration. What became apparent in these language meetings was the desire to not only master pronunciation and vocabulary, but to grasp an understanding of the other’s culture.  As Angelucci was preparing for an artist residency in Shanghai for the fall of 2006, they realized they would soon be living concurrently in the other’s native countries.

Situated on opposite ends of the world and time zones (there is a twelve hour difference between Toronto and Shanghai) Han and Angelucci developed the idea of both critically and literally exploring their perspectives as outsiders, taking photographs simultaneously twice daily at 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. The resulting shots are presented in a series of photographic diptychs.

In addition, as food is a central component of cultural expression and can reveal so much about the characteristics of a culture, Your Morning is My Night also features a video diptych depicting each of the duo ordering and eating a meal; Han experiencing all the fixings of a hearty Canadian breakfast, and Angelucci managing her chopsticks and enjoying dinner in a popular Shanganese restaurant.