Recent 93rd Annual Print Center exhibition finalist Chinn Wang cuts up and recasts her family’s photos to make sense of their missing pieces.
It’s like the classic riddle: what casts a shadow but cannot be seen? In Soaking Up Local Color, Chinn Wang’s solo show at Philadelphia’s Print Center, the answer might be something like “the past” or “history” or “family heritage.” The child of immigrant parents who purposefully chose to focus on their American future instead of sharing their family histories with their daughter, Wang addresses this gap in knowledge and representation in a haunting visual manner. The works on display are screen-printed enlargements of photographs of Wang’s mother, newly on American soil soon after she immigrated from Hong Kong in the 1960s in a variety of settings: a field of flowers by a mountain, the gravel of a parking lot, the manicured grass of a lawn.
Exhibition Review by Deborah Krieger
I first encountered poet Philip Matthews and photographer David Johnson at Chicago's Filter Photo Festival in late 2018. Though our portfolio review was a brief 20 minutes, it was immediately clear that their collaborative effort Wig Heavier than a Boot was a fulsome, even revelatory experience. The project, which will debut as a book published by Kris Graves Projects in October 2019, reveals a rich creative relationship between Matthews, Johnson and Petal, a drag persona who acts as the artists’ muse and teacher.
In advance of their talk at SPE this coming Saturday March 9th, we spoke about the project's origin and evolution, the nature of collaboration, and matters of gender and representation in a photo- and art historical context.
Roula Seikaly in conversation with Philip Matthews and David Johnson
Embodiment: Salvaging A Self is Stone’s ongoing response to being diagnosed with a mysterious autoimmune condition that threatens her mobility. Rather than making literal, documentary photographs of her experience, she pairs self-portraits with sculptural objects – both found and fabricated in her studio – as metaphors for her feeling of disorientation from her body. Pins, glue, tape, and other materials hold her sculptures together while muted self-portraits depict her 5'10" subtly slouching frame. These simple pairings capture the emotional weight of trying to hold herself up.
I spoke with Stone to learn more about her process, ideas, and how she’s doing.
Jon Feinstein conversation with Sue Palmer Stone
Loss is a universal experience that transcends class, culture, age, and history. We all deal with it at some point in life, whether it's the death of a loved one, a breakup, or an indescribable feeling of lack or emptiness. It can also go beyond straightforward representation and into the degradation of images as a metaphor for personal loss or something more abstract.
For Humble's next online exhibition, as a followup to our 2018 show "On Death," we're partnering with photographer, writer, and founder of the Too Tired Project Tara Wray to curate an exhibition about these many forms of loss. Think wide, wild, metaphoric and introspective.
As an added "bonus" at least one submission will be considered for Tara Wray's Too Tired Project book, to be published by Yoffy Press in 2020.
Deadline: March 20th, 2019
SF Camerawork’s diverse group show uses photography, film, and performance to examine the in-limbo experience of immigrants straddling cultures.
Exhibition review by Roula Seikaly