Kristy M Chan
Kristy M Chan
A Dream Shoe and the Double-Jointed Arm, 2019
Oil, gold and silver dust and glue on canvas
92 x 94 cm
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About this Work
Chan painted her dream in this work. She dreamt of a shoe becoming a part of her while she had a vision of a flexible arm. As soon as she woke up, she painted this scenario on an old canvas she worked on. The anthropomorphic shoe is painted in a bright pink, transitioning into blue as it metamorphoses into a human nail-like shape. On top of this, we can almost detect the face of a reclining figure, who is covering her/his eyes with a hand.
The important notions of consumerism but also domesticity are explored in a surrealist dream. She had a friend visit her the previous night who showed their double-jointed arms which made her think of the sweeping energy of Cirque de Soleil.
The highly saturated background is abstract, characterised by a juxtaposition of fluid brushwork, drips, blocks of colours, and faded layers. This is probably the result of it being painted on top of a pre-existing work. Many of Chan’s works, in fact, have layers and versions underneath before she decides on a certain imagery creating an incredible strong visual language and narrative.
About Kristy M Chan
Kristy M Chan’s hologram-like work explores notions of humour and displacement. Dense with information and odd depictions of her environment, the work reflects on the artist's upbringing in Hong Kong and the experience of migration. It explores the act of locating “home” and its relationship with its cultural geographies. Each work is the direct result of the process of its own making, perhaps a parallax of reality through irrational conversion, and an intentional analysis of Chan’s identity, diffracted by paint. Chan describes these abstracted spaces as “stolen realities". Her work acts as a visual archive of the mundanity of everyday life where giddy interactions and internal jokes are re-territorialised in a new space, allowing new perspectives. The convergence of these conjectural planes seems peculiar and without notion, but the paintings allude to shape through imagination. These “stolen realities” also ponder on the notion of the present and of the minute events of her everyday life, encouraging an appreciative perspective towards the mundane.
Education
2019 - 2020 MA Contemporary Art, Sotheby’s Institute of Art
2016 - 2019 BFA Fine Art, Slade School of Fine Art, University College London
Residencies
2021 Artist in Residence at CoGalleries, Berlin
2021 Artist in Residence at La Wayaka Current, Chile
2020 Artist in Residence at PILOTENKUECHE, Leipzig
2019 Artist in Residence at the AIR Frosterus, Finland
2018 Artist in Residence at Cheltenham College, United Kingdom
Exhibitions
2021
Femme-Ate, Soho Revue, London, UK
Video Fenster Projekt, Cologne, Germany
It’s All Relative, Artistellar x Four You Gallery (Online)
CADAF, Paris, France (Online)
The X Colab, Stanley Picker Gallery, Kingston Upon Thames, UK
It’s Okay You Can Laugh, Trafalgar Warehouse, Sheffield, UK
Space Shuffler, HART HAUS, Hong Kong
Instructions For Waiting, Liminal Gallery, UK (Online)
New Era, Art Number 23, Greece (Online)
Birthday Party, The Artists Contemporary Atelier, UK (Online)
2020
Lichtspiele Des Westen, Josephstraße, Leipzig, Germany
Big Soft Illusion, Alte Handelsschule, Leipzig, Germany
Herstory, Beauty For Freedom x House2Six (Artnet)
Memeosyne Atlas, Ziferblat London, London, United Kingdom
Recurring Memories, @visualspc (Online)
Delineating Dreams, Kovet.art (Online)
Anti-Freeze, www.antifreezeexhibition.com (Online) Art Still Flourishes, @visualspc (Online)
Bored in the House, @ldn.exhibitions (Online)
2019
Cookhouse Gallery, Chelsea College of Arts, London, United Kingdom
GIFC x Velvet Ropes, Nevven Gallery, Gothenburg, Sweden
GIFC x Velvet Ropes, House of Vans, London, United Kingdom
Haam4 Seoi2 Goeng1, Hong Kong Visual Art Centre, Hong Kong
Pop-up exhibition, ARS Kärsämäki, Kärsämäki, Finland
Set the Borders On Fire!, Exhibition Laboratory, Helsinki, Finland
18/11/1, Curator and exhibitor at the PMQ, Hong Kong
BRIDGE II, Grand Hyatt Regency, Sochi, Russia
NOISE, Crypt Gallery, London, United Kingdom
2018
Clocks to Colours (solo), Long Gallery, Cheltenham, United Kingdom
BRIDGE, IZO Art Gallery, Moscow, Russia
2017
8 OVER 8, Rossi & Rossi, Hong Kong
Progress ;/, Regress, Crypt Gallery, London, United Kingdom