trap (disambiguation) showed at The Bows Artist Run Centre in Calgary, Alberta from August 1 – October 11 2025. The show consisted of multiple immersive elements designed to simulate a trap house in a gallery setting. Four light boxes made by Resolve Photo were suspended from the ceiling on display inside of a 12’x13′ cube made of vapour barrier. These are rooms that sensitive things such as the production of drugs are used for. Alongside these photographs were found photographs from markets in Vietnam. Three interviews with ex-gang members played on a loop through a CRT television set to a ‘glitchy’ motif featuring CMYK colours. These interviews discussed a myriad of each person’s experience in and out of gang life. For more information and photographs please see The Bows’ website here. Funding was generously provided by the Canada Council for the Arts.

trap (disambiguation) will be shown again at Gallery Gachet in Vancouver, BC, November 2026.

Foreword below:

Unskilled and Illegal

Have you broken the law? If so, did you feel shame—or necessity?

Economists like to divide employment into skilled and unskilled labour. Danny Luong’s exhibition highlights another division: one between legal and illegal work. What does it mean to be an illegal unskilled labourer? To the capitalist, it sounds like you’re illiterate, clumsy, and inexperienced. It means you deserve the constant presence of anxiety and less than a living wage. Your existence is called into question. You barely deserve to live.

Made in unregistered cannabis and psilocybin farms, Luong’s work reflects a personal journey fostered by close friendships and art. Luong, a worker and witness, had the explicit permission to document the operation during his shifts. These photographs of anonymous workers and makeshift operations, reveal an ingenuity and imagination in using limited resources toward a life worth living.

The vapour barrier in the gallery was installed by members of this community, bringing a private production space into one of leisure. A voyeuristic shock to some, the project is less an underworld to them than as everyday as a construction site.

What if skill isn’t about certification, but survival? What if ingenuity thrives where legitimacy is denied? Trying to normalize something illegal feels impossible, but Luong’s labour as an artist effectively contextualizes a very human and very skilled need to make ends meet.

text by Louie Villanueva

Photo documentation by Stefan Legisa