Gaye Chan lives and works in Hawaii, where she is Professor and Chairperson of the Photography Program at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She has exhibited extensively in the U.S. since 1980, with solo shows in Hawaii, Nevada, New York, Oregon and California, and more recently at Articule, Montreal, YYZ, Toronto and Gallery 4A, Sydney. Her photography and web-based work have been included in group exhibitions at the Institute of International Visual Arts, London, The University Gallery at Tasmainia, Australia and her work will be included in a group exhibition at the International Center of Photography, New York in 2003. Chimaera will be her first exhibition in Vancouver.
GAYE CHAN
May 11–June 15, 2002
barely speaking english
we gave ourselves names of presidents
abraham fong
jackson fugimoto
truman sanchez
In the context of Vancouver’s Asian Heritage Month, Artspeak is pleased to present the perspective of an established American artist working with diasporic experience.
Forty three photographic portraits, infused with strong colour, are installed high on the gallery walls and angled down toward the viewer. Penetrating the photographs are drawings made by pin pricks taken from official portraits of American presidents from 1789 to 2002. The pinprick drawings rupture the associations of the private family portrait of Asian American men and women and complicate notions of national identity particular to the U.S. The Chimaera, with its overlapping associations of ‘monsters compounded of incongruous parts’ and ‘an unrealizable dream’, serves as a linchpin for this installation.
Artspeak gratefully acknowledges the support of the Victorian Hotel in Vancouver for this exhibition. (www.victorian-hotel.com / 1-877-681-6369)
Artist Talk
GAYE CHAN
May 21, 2002
In conjunction with “Chimaera”; an exhibition by Gaye Chan running from May 11th – June 15th, 2002 at Artspeak Gallery.