Gayle Chong Kwan
Gayle Chong Kwan's practice features elements of photography, video,
installation and performance. Often sited outside of conventional
gallery spaces, it enables the audience to physically engage with the
work, or can be the result of a process of working with notional
communities. Her work plays with notions of communication,
participation and authorship through utopian ideas, food, culinary
rituals, tourism, trade, memory and the senses.
Chong Kwan (b. 1973, Edinburgh) is a Scottish-Chinese Mauritian
artist. Together with a BA Fine Art from Central Saint Martins College
of Art, she has an MSc in Communications from Stirling University and
a BA in Politics and Modern History from Manchester University. She is
a founding member of the international artists collective SALT and her
work has been exhibited in numerous group shows in the UK, including
Tablet Gallery, 291 Gallery (London), Now (Nottingham), and the
Chinese Art Centre (Manchester). In Europe her work has been shown at
venues including Ecole des Beax Arts (Paris), the Netherlands New
Media Institute (Amsterdam), Gallery Los 29 Enchufes (Madrid).
Recent residencies and exhibitions include the Venice Printmaking
Workshop, Venice and Bolwick Arts, Norwich; Its Going to Get Worse was
a Serpentine Gallery Residency held at Speakers Corner, Hyde Park, and
Mappa Manna a commission and solo show at the Chinese Arts Centre,
Manchester. She took a research trip to the tourist developments and
sugar cane plantations of Mauritius, as part of an Arts Council
England Award.
Work over the last several years has ranged from creating a map of
Leeds made entirely from gathered notations of food memories of a city
by its residents ('Sensus', in Shift, Emerged, Leeds 2004); arranging
for the fictional development of an island in Bolwick Estate as a
paradise retreat by local people, with planning permission pending on
their own properties (Paradise Pending, Residency, Bolwick Arts,
Norfolk 2004); an installation of a 19th-century boudoir made entirely
of vegetables found in the buildings fridges ('Vegetate', in
Accommodation 2, Emerged, Edinburgh 2003); to setting up a
quasi-medical booth for people to taste each others food memories and
record their own ('Memory Tasting Unit', Bow Festival, Space, London
2004).
Gayle was awarded the Map XXL Pepinieres Europeennes Pour Jeunes
Artistes Award 2005 for a four-month residency at Cittadellarte, Italy
(see www.art4eu.net and www.cittadellarte.it).
www.thegardenofearthlydelights.com
Atlantis is a landscape created by Gayle Chong Kwan out of semi-opaque
plastic food packaging that the artist collected from London dwellers.
The project was inspired by the lost city of Atlantis and it is no
coincidence that many of these food containers are often to be found
at the bottom of many bodies of water, forming a new sort of city
created from waste. Climate change, urban planning and communal living
are all themes evoked by this fascinating depiction of the Atlantis we
are creating.
installation and performance. Often sited outside of conventional
gallery spaces, it enables the audience to physically engage with the
work, or can be the result of a process of working with notional
communities. Her work plays with notions of communication,
participation and authorship through utopian ideas, food, culinary
rituals, tourism, trade, memory and the senses.
Chong Kwan (b. 1973, Edinburgh) is a Scottish-Chinese Mauritian
artist. Together with a BA Fine Art from Central Saint Martins College
of Art, she has an MSc in Communications from Stirling University and
a BA in Politics and Modern History from Manchester University. She is
a founding member of the international artists collective SALT and her
work has been exhibited in numerous group shows in the UK, including
Tablet Gallery, 291 Gallery (London), Now (Nottingham), and the
Chinese Art Centre (Manchester). In Europe her work has been shown at
venues including Ecole des Beax Arts (Paris), the Netherlands New
Media Institute (Amsterdam), Gallery Los 29 Enchufes (Madrid).
Recent residencies and exhibitions include the Venice Printmaking
Workshop, Venice and Bolwick Arts, Norwich; Its Going to Get Worse was
a Serpentine Gallery Residency held at Speakers Corner, Hyde Park, and
Mappa Manna a commission and solo show at the Chinese Arts Centre,
Manchester. She took a research trip to the tourist developments and
sugar cane plantations of Mauritius, as part of an Arts Council
England Award.
Work over the last several years has ranged from creating a map of
Leeds made entirely from gathered notations of food memories of a city
by its residents ('Sensus', in Shift, Emerged, Leeds 2004); arranging
for the fictional development of an island in Bolwick Estate as a
paradise retreat by local people, with planning permission pending on
their own properties (Paradise Pending, Residency, Bolwick Arts,
Norfolk 2004); an installation of a 19th-century boudoir made entirely
of vegetables found in the buildings fridges ('Vegetate', in
Accommodation 2, Emerged, Edinburgh 2003); to setting up a
quasi-medical booth for people to taste each others food memories and
record their own ('Memory Tasting Unit', Bow Festival, Space, London
2004).
Gayle was awarded the Map XXL Pepinieres Europeennes Pour Jeunes
Artistes Award 2005 for a four-month residency at Cittadellarte, Italy
(see www.art4eu.net and www.cittadellarte.it).
www.
Atlantis is a landscape created by Gayle Chong Kwan out of semi-opaque
plastic food packaging that the artist collected from London dwellers.
The project was inspired by the lost city of Atlantis and it is no
coincidence that many of these food containers are often to be found
at the bottom of many bodies of water, forming a new sort of city
created from waste. Climate change, urban planning and communal living
are all themes evoked by this fascinating depiction of the Atlantis we
are creating.
