Artists
Canada
Hera Chan
Cabinet
19.05.14 04.07.14
Working primarily with ceramic objects bought in Buenos Aires, Hera Chan created a video work called Cabinet that tells the narrative of the circulation of art objects – in particular through the exponentially rising Chinese art market. Beginning her residency on her 21st birthday and currently a university student, Hera was one of the youngest artists to have participated in the SUB30 Program. She worked in ´ace for two months developing her proposal, exploring conceptions of “Chineseness” in Buenos Aires, while receiving artistic mentorship from the ´ace team.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Cabinet deals with the identity of the forever changing Chinese body – that can be seen in myself and also the very idea of “Chineseness” that individuals possess- in relationship to the exponentially rising Chinese art market. I worked with these ideas in Buenos Aires. Using the voice of Google Translate to articulate quotations taken from various people I have interviewed here about their everyday interaction with what they perceive to be Chinese, I recreate a one-sided conversation in a stop motion video that only hears the answer of the sounds of a bandoneon. The storyline follows a day in the life of whomever the viewer deems fit to fill the empty ceramic (or shall we call it China?) shoes moving across the screen. All the objects featured in the video work were found in Buenos Aires. I chose the objects based on the potential of their connection to Chineseness I perceived.
The elevation of Chinese art in the market now is reminiscent of how previous generations placed their prized China tea sets and plates in cabinets, creating an erasure of direct contact with that which was Chinese and instead interacting purely with the financial market – the buying and selling of objects. Cabinet is my method of raising questions about how we value art in contemporary society and how the financial value of art influences our perceptions of what can be identified as the Chinese body.
BIO
Hera Chan
1993 | Born in Montreal, Canada
Lives in Hong Kong, China.
STUDIES
Bachelor of Arts in Art History and East Asian Studied in McGill University, Montreal, Canada
EXHIBITIONS
2014 | East Asian Studies Art Exhibition
RESEARCH
2013 | Workshop Co-facilitator,”Manga Essay Workshop” for Professor Thomas Lamarre, Dept. of East Asian Studies, McGill University.
EDITORIAL
Fanzine Editor, Fresh Paint Gallery
Co-founder and Editor-in-chief, Diem Magazine (arts magazine based in Toronto).
MULTIMEDIA
Friday Morning After radio co-host,CKUT 90.3fm
Design and Production Editor,The Veg LIterary Magazine
Photo Editor, The McGillDaily
Related Activities
Exhibitions
Cycles @ Bs As
Group exhibition
20.05.15 22.07.15
By the Law of Periodical Repetition, everything which has happened once must happen again and again and again-and not capriciously, but at regular periods, and each thing in its own period, not another’s, and each obeying its own law…the same Nature which delights in periodical repetition in the skies is the Nature which orders the affairs of the earth. Let us not underrate the value of that hint.
Mark Twain
For the first ’aceNITE of the year, named Memory, an International Project developed during 2014 with the participation of 25 artists from Argentina, Australia, Canada, Spain, USA and New Zealand, called Cycles, was exhibited.
ABOUT [CYCLES]
Cycles was an initiative through which we were able to make spaces available for work in print media to be created, as well as spaces for the interaction among artists from different nationalities. Each of the participants created a print inspired in the idea of [cycles] from their own multiple perspectives, alluding to the idea of movement, rotation, beginning and end, of mythical return of what was and ended, what opens and closed or what is repeated indefinitely leading to multiple visual interpretations.
After this project, 28 portfolios had been made, were 25 of them were donated to the artists, and the rest, were donated to two public collections at Frogman´s Print Workshop in the USA and the Talleres Nacionales de Gráfica in Mexico, as well one portfolio is part of the Fundación ´ace Art Archives.
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ORGANIZER
Alicia Candiani
GUEST ARTISTS
Anne Heyvaert (Spain) | John Hitchock (USA) | Barbara Putnam (USA) | Toni Mosley (New Zealand) | Carlos Scannapieco (Argentina) | Silvana Blasbalg (Argentina)
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS
Carla Beretta (Rosario, Argentina) | Alicia Candiani (Argentina) | Marcela Casals (USA) | Hera Chan (Canadá) | Paola Cohen (Argentina) | Cristina Duro (Argentina) | María Guerreiro (Argentina) | Julie Krone (New Zealand) | Alexandra Leeds (Portland, USA) | Nöel Loeschbor (Argentina) | Nico Mazza (Brooklyn, USA) | Adriana Moracci (Argentina) | Santiago Ocampo (Argentina) | Jennifer Pickering (Canada) | Viviana Sierra (Argentina) | Federico Signorelli (Argentina) | Cristina Solía (Argentina) | Laura Tecce (Argentina) | Norma Villarreal (Argentina)
International Projects
Cycles | Ciclos
Portfolio exchange
06.07.14 31.08.14
[CYCLES] Portfolio exchange – Caja Gráfica is an initiative that seeks to open spaces for the creation of graphic work, the interaction of artists of all nationalities with our neighborhood, the opening of places for exhibition and dissemination of work as well as interact with international artists. In this way [CYCLES] proposes the creation of a graphic portfolio-box with engravings / graphic pieces of each one of the participating artists and guests and offers the opportunity to exhibit that work both in Argentina and abroad.
The selected artists developed a one-week micro residency to develop their work in the Foundation’s ´ace workshop. Each of the artists will have a portfolio box with the work of all the participants at the end of the project. The works carried out and the box-portfolio will be exhibited at the Foundation in 2014. Some boxes will be donated to international collections and will start a traveling exhibition.
———————
For the Royal Spanish Academy [cycle] it is a period of history that is considered finished, the set of phenomena or operations that are repeated in an orderly manner, a group of epic traditions concerning a certain period of time or a series of phases through which a periodic phenomenon happens. On the other hand, the prefix “cycle” means “spins”, “spins”.
All disciplines, from anthropology to engineering, have cycles. As well as the cycles appear as processes that always follow the same phases in the same order. In this project we are inspired by the idea of [cycles] from multiple perspectives, alluding to the idea of movement, of turning, of beginning and end, of mythical return, of what left and ended, of what opens and It flourishes or repeats indefinitely giving rise to multiple visual interpretations. Beginning and end, return, stages, movement … will be some of the possibilities that artists can visually explore in this portfolio.
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ORGANIZER
Alicia Candiani
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS
Silvana Blasbalg (Argentina) | Carla Beretta (Rosario, Argentina) | Alicia Candiani (Argentina) | Marcela Casals (USA) | Hera Chan (Canadá) | Paola Cohen (Argentina) | Cristina Duro (Argentina) | María Guerreiro (Argentina) | Anne Heyvaert (Spain) | John Hitchock (USA) | Julie Krone (New Zealand) | Alexandra Leeds (Portland, USA) | Nöel Loeschbor (Argentina) | Nico Mazza (Brooklyn, USA) | Adriana Moracci (Argentina) | Toni Mosley (New Zealand) | Santiago Ocampo (Argentina) | Jennifer Pickering (Canada) | Barbara Putnam (USA) | Carlos Scannapieco (Argentina) | Viviana Sierra (Argentina) | Federico Signorelli (Argentina) | Cristina Solía (Argentina) | Laura Tecce (Argentina) | Norma Villarreal (Argentina)
Workshops
[CICLES] making of ´ace
Artists in dialogue
20.01.14 23.01.14
The International Project [CYCLES] began with an open international call for artists to participate in a portfolio or graphic box, and in order to produce a dialogue and meeting under the theme “cycles”. A series of video conferences with guest artists and residents in other countries were also scheduled to deepen the multiple views on the subject.
Among the activities, a week of work was carried out at Fundación ´ace. Twenty-five artists were part of [CYCLES] Caja Gráfica and some of the project participants made their editions in the ´ace workshop. Within the working days the matrices were made and the works that made up the Portfolio of 28 signed and numbered copies were edited. Participants developed various printing and graphic techniques; photolithography, woodcut, algraphy, monotypes, frotagge, stencil, chine collé, digital printing, among others.
Once the project is finished, each of the participating artists will keep 1 of the 28 copies in addition to participating in future exhibitions at the international level.
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Master Printer / Workshop assistant
Adriana Moracci / Germán Sandoval Silva
Artists working in ´ace
Carla Beretta | Marcela Casals | Hera Chan | Paola Cohen | Alexandra Leeds | Nico Mazza | Santiago Ocampo | Jennifer Pickering | Viviana Sierra | Federico Signorelli | Laura Tecce
Exhibitions
[CYCLES] @ University of Nebraska, USA
Group exhibition
16.05.16 12.08.16
Cycles Portfolio was selected through an open call for exhibition during Frogman’s 35th Anniversary Print Workshop. The exhibition was featured at the University of Nebraska Omaha’s Weber Fine Arts Building . After the exhibition, the portfolio was donated by Fundación´ace to the Frogman´s Print Workshop collection.
ABOUT FROGMAN´S PRINT WORKSHOP
Frogman’s Print Workshop began humbly back in 1979 when Professor Lloyd Menard led five school teachers from Sioux City, Iowa to the Black Hills of South Dakota, USA, for a drawing class. Prints were first introduced in 1981 and the workshops evolved into the Black Hills Print Symposium which took place at various sites in Western South Dakota, USA.
The Black Hills set an amazingly beautiful backdrop to the workshops, but by 1996, the workshops had outgrown the confines of the Hills and were moved to Beresford, South Dakota, home of Frogman’s Press & Gallery. The workshops would only spend two years based out of Beresford before moving to nearby Vermillion and the University of South Dakota. Frogman’s would call USD home for nearly twenty years.
Later on, in 2016, Frogman’s made the big leap to Nebraska and the University of Nebraska at Omaha, where the Frogman took his first ever print class over 50 years ago. Currently, Frogman is directed by Lloyd Menard´s son, Jeremy Menard who is also University of Nebraska at Omaha as their Curator & Visual Resource Manager.
ABOUT UNO (University of Nebraska)
UNO is Nebraska’s metropolitan university — a university with strong academic values and significant relationships with its community that transforms and improves the lives of those on a local, regional, national, and international level.
UNO is dedicated to the city and state of Nebraska. As the University of Nebraska’s metropolitan university campus, no fences or barriers separate students from the opportunities offered by the greater Omaha area. It addresses real issues, providing relevant learning opportunities that uniquely prepare our graduates as professionals and active members of their community.
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Gallery Talk | July 8, 2016
Artists
Silvana Blasbalg (Argentina) | Carla Beretta (Argentina) | Alicia Candiani (Argentina) | Marcela Casals (USA) | Hera Chan (Canada) | Paola Cohen (Argentina) | Cristina Duro (Argentina) | María Guerreiro (Argentina) | Anne Heyvaert (Spain) | John Hitchock (USA) | Julie Krone (Australia) | Alexandra Leeds (USA) | Nöel Loeschbor (Argentina) | Nico Mazza (USA) | Adriana Moracci (Argentina) | Toni Mosley (New Zealand)| Santiago Ocampo (Argentina) | Jennifer Pickering (Canada) | Barbara Putnam (USA) | Viviana Sierra (Argentina) | Carlos Scannapieco (Argentina) | Federico Signorelli (Argentina) | Cristina Solía (Argentina) | Laura Tecce (Argentina) | Norma Villarreal (Argentina)