It’s a heaven over there is the first solo exhibition in Canada by celebrated Hong Kong artist Samson Young. Situated in a cavernous gallery in a pink walled, neon-lit, 1980s era shopping mall in Vancouver’s ever gentrifying Chinatown, this multimedia installation originates from Young’s archival research on Won Alexander Cumyow, the first person of Chinese descent born in Canada, and mobilizes Centre A’s location in a former retail mall to stage a double vision of global retrotopianism.

In this exhibition, the contemporary retrotopian impulse that remembers once-vibrant mall fountain courts as town squares becomes an entryway into the poetics of the diasporic imagination. It’s a heaven over there continues Young’s interest in shifting topologies, the modern nation-state, and cosmopolitan social imaginaries, and will feature a new body of works on paper, an animated music video, and archival materials.