A Hole to the Water

Alison Chen

A Hole to the Water

 

Alison Chen is an artist born in the US. She has been continuously exploring her emotional voyage over the past decade through photography, video and performance, capturing her experiences in romantic relationships, marriage, childbirth, and motherhood. The physical and emotional changes that women experience throughout different life stages are subtle, universal, and often unspoken, even by women themselves. These shifting emotions have all been captured by Alison’s work, including every moment of ecstasy and downfall traced in her intimate relationship with her husband.

 

As Alison continued to explore intimacy, her perspective shifted to focus on "motherhood" after the birth of her two children. During the process of raising her children, Alison also began to reevaluate the influence of intergenerational relationships between herself and the women in her family. Water appears frequently as a metaphor in her work. As a second-generation Chinese-American, the waters represent the physical distance between her and her family's history. Alison's connection to her family's cultural background, experiences, and emotions feels as if she's looking across a vast body of water, unable to fully reach the other side. Water symbolizes both the division across national borders and the biological link between generations, as a baby's first home as an embryo is swimming in the amniotic fluid of the womb. Photography is the tool Alison uses to navigate this vast expanse of water. The archival images in her work point to past events, but through re-photographing, re-interpreting, and interacting with these images, Alison intervenes in these historical moments. The projection onto her family's archival photographs introduces another layer of time, acting as an intervention into the past and a performative gesture by the artist to connect with her family histories and heal the emotional scars frozen in these images.

 

In her work Many Moons, Alison playfully draws lunar phases on her back marked by cupping bruises, symbolizing the monthly waiting and struggle with infertility. Through performing in this way for the photograph, she builds her own memories, opening up the heaviness of the actual emotional experience.

 

The title of the exhibition, A Hole to the Water, reflects a favorite game Alison and her children play at the beach. They try to dig a hole to reach the sea, but no matter how much they dig, they never quite get there. Moments later, seawater seeps in, filling the hole. The sea reaches them in its own way, just as the quiet emotions in Alison's work reminds us of the water-like ebb and flow of our complex emotions and how they color our lives while we strive to bridge our distances and separations.

Alison Chen (she/her b. 1986, New York City) is a visual artist working in photography, video, and performance. Her work addresses the complexities and confusions that surround our most intimate relationships and the areas where our preconceived notions fall short. She received her M.F.A. from Parsons School of Design and her B.F.A. from Cornell University. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at spaces including the Torrance Art Museum (Torrance, CA), the Collarworks (Troy, NY), the CUE Art Foundation (New York, NY), and the Standard Space (Sharon, CT). Her practice has been recognized by fellowships and residencies at the Wassaic Project and Kala Art Institute, and she has had the honor to study under the direction of Magnum photographer Antoine D’Agata. Her work has also been featured in the Society for Photographic Education Film Festival, the Beijing Design Festival, the Pingyao International Photography Festival, and the Dali International Photo Festival. She currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.

 

Gan Yingying, holds a Master's degree from the University for the Creative Arts, Rochester, U.K., specializing in photography. As an independent artist, she resides in Zhujiajiao, where she combines photography, installations, performance arts, and curation to explore the intricate relationship between identity, environment and power. Her creative approaches involve self-exposure and confrontation with her surroundings, aiming to arouse the audience's attention, simulate discussions, and resonate on vital social issues. Her works have been widely exhibited at prestigious venues such as the Peabody Essex Museum, the American Consulate, the Liverpool Biennial, the Incheon Forum, the Shanghai Center of Photography, the 2018 Jimei x Arles International Photo Festival, and Arario Gallery, among others. Gan Yingying received the 2023 Curatorial Award for Photography and Moving Images, the 2019 Photography Expanded Mentorship Program Award by Magnum Foundation, and was a finalist for the 2018 Jimei x Arles-Madame Figaro Award. She also contributed to many art residency projects, including the 2022 Art Field in Fuliang, and co-founded the Zhujiajiao artist platform "Bujism". The exhibitions she has curated have been showcased during photography seasons in museums and photography spaces across China.

 

Zhou Yichen (b. 1986) graduated from Parsons School of Design in New York with a degree in Photography and Related Media. Currently based in Beijing and online, her performance-based work explores the dynamic between individual and collective memory and tries to figure out where she stands as an individual in society. Zhou Yichen’s work has taken part in museums, galleries, and photography festivals internationally. She was nominated for the 2018 Madame Figaro Women Photographer Award and the 2020 Exposure Award in Shanghai PhotoFair, she received the 2019 Alane Fineman New Photography Award in Ballarat International Foto Biennale, the 2022 Material Matters Photography Award from Magnum and Textile Exchange, and the 2023 Curatorial Award for Photography and Moving Images. She co-founded the non-profit art organization MiA Collective Art, wearing dual hats as a curator and artist, orchestrating exhibitions and art-related initiatives.