About the exhibition

This display is in a large space of 1,000 square feet with a low ceiling supported by a concrete pillar. 
The entire area is lit by spotlights mounted in the ceiling. The back wall of the gallery is painted an 
olive-green colour. Hanging on it are five colourful framed prints. They are arranged in an eye-level 
horizontal line and share a corner area with a glass exhibition case. The case is in a wall at a right angle 
to the back wall—to the right of the visitor.These prints by artist Ho Tam were made in 2022. They were 
inspired by the symbolic images seen on bank notes. Tam takes images from digital reproductions of bank 
notes and digitally assembles them into colourful and often complicated collages. He creates relationships 
for images that were never meant to be seen together, making them tell new stories.

Tam encourages us to rethink the meanings of stories told on our bank notes. Drawing from fables and fairytales, 
he invents a story for each collage. Knowing that countries put the best of their nation’s history on money, Tam calls 
his tales “the Greatest Stories ever Told.”Each artwork is a rectangular inkjet print 45 by 30 centimeters—four are horizontal, 
one vertical. The paper is a warm white colour, very thin with a fibrous texture. Because the collages are made up of bank 
note illustrations, each image element is essentially a realistic line drawing with patterns of dots or criss-crossing lines that 
create shadow and depth. Most of the elements are each printed in a single, unique tint, making the collages strikingly 
colourful. Each collage is contained within a frame of fine double lines.

Ho Tam is a Canadian mixed media artist living and working in Vancouver, BC. He was born in Hong Kong and studied at 
McMaster University and Bard College, New York.