Harvest Garden X Bread & Butter

One Sheet Risograph Zine, Bright Red & Kelly Green on Ivory Paper, Printed by Quentin Mitchell, Vide Press.

OCAD U Illustration Thesis Piece 2021

The idiom "Bread & Butter" manifests as a fictional takeout menu for “Harvest Garden Chinese Restaurant”, acting as a physical veil between the surface level perception of American-Chinese food & the reality: necessary survival and assimilation in a foreign land.

Inspired by the phrase 懂得付出，才有收获, often repeated by Chinese restaurant workers translating to “have to pay the harvest” “no pain, no gain”.

The first two print runs of Harvest Garden acted as a fundraiser in response to the 2021 Georgia Spa Shootings, a hate crime against Asian American women. Over $1,100 CAD was donated between three organizations:

• Butterfly - based in Toronto, this organization provides support to, and advocates for, the rights of Asian and migrant sex workers. The organization is founded upon the belief that sex workers are entitled to respect and basic human rights.

• Red Canary Song - based in Flushing, NYC, a grassroots Chinese massage parlour worker coalition in the U.S.

• Advancing Justice Atlanta - a nonprofit legal advocacy organization dedicated to protecting the civil rights of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (AANHPI) in Georgia and the Southeast.