Session 41 | Snack Witch Joni
The Q-y visuals of Bubble Tea from the 80s till today
On May 21, 2026 at 7 pm
90 minutes
In English
Free
Bubble tea sampling will be first-come, first-served.
LIMITED QUANTITIES available: You snooze, you lose!!!
Growing up in the suburbs of Vancouver and Richmond, BC, bubble tea was essential to Snack Witch’s upbringing. Since its debut in the 1980s, this fun and comforting beverage has had an explosive presence in pop culture, shapeshifting from place to place, and connecting generations and families across the Pacific. Looking at the evolution of the beverage’s imagery over the years, the artist will reflect on the ways that East Asian representation and presence have changed in North America.
🔮 Snack Witch Joni Cheung 🍡 is a grateful, uninvited guest born—and knows she wants to die—on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, Stó:lō, and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh peoples. They are a Hong Kong-Chinese queer, neurodivergent, allophone woman living with chronic illnesses, a second generation immigrant, low income, and working class. She is a Certified Sculpture Witch with an MFA from Concordia University (2023) and holds a BFA with Distinction in Visual Art (2018) from the School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University. As a wicked #magicalgirl ✨ who eats art and makes snacks, she has exhibited across Turtle Island and beyond. They love teaching as a sessional professor, albeit under precarious working conditions. Their practice is indebted to the friends, co-conspirators, and peers they've met on the stolen lands of the Kanien’kehá:ka and Mi’kmaq peoples at Concordia and NSCAD University.
A Grant Writing Gremlin, they’ve received numerous awards, including the Individual Arts Grants—Visual Artists: British Columbia Arts Council; Research and Creation Grant: Canada Council for the Arts; and the Dale and Nick Tedeschi Studio Arts Fellowship: Concordia University. She was waitlisted for the SSHRC - Joseph-Armand Bombardier: Canada Graduate Master’s Scholarship. They give back to their communities as an assessor on grant and programming committees for arts councils, galleries, and artist-run-centres.
Aside from art-making, Joni likes wandering down grocery store aisles and drinking bubble tea. 🧋
NOTE: Don’t feed this Mogwai after midnight. 👹
Dazibao thanks the artist for their generous collaboration as well as its advisory committee for their support.
Dazibao receives financial support from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts de Montréal, the ministère de la Culture et des Communications and the Ville de Montréal.
Dazibao acknowledges that it is located on the unceded territory of the Kanien'kehá: ka Nation and that Tiohtiá:ke / Montreal is historically known as a gathering place for many First Nations, and today, is home to a diverse population of Indigenous as well as other peoples. Guided by ethics of respect, listening, and awareness, Dazibao commits to a continued reflection regarding the deep-rooted and systemic challenges tied to accessibility and inclusivity in the arts and beyond, and endeavors to apply such reflections to all aspects of its activities and governance.