ARTISTS TALKING

Suki Chan’s life and practice could be described as a dictionary definition of the word ‘peripatetic.’ Born on Hong Kong and raised between there and the UK, Chan now divides her time between London and Manchester.

Starting out

An academic child, Chan also enjoyed drawing and decided to focus on a visual arts education in opposition to the more academic route expected of her. Her fine art Foundation tutor recommended the Textiles BA (Hons) course at Goldsmiths College, University of London as a way of developing her interests. Unusually for a practicing visual artist, Chan chose this course, well known for it’s experimental nature and broad definition of what constitutes ‘textiles’, to develop her interest in materials and materiality. Chan found that the course made her “more open to using materials in a different way”. This interest in ‘materiality’ is still evident in her work today, with its emphasis on patterns and texture and use of materials such as vinyl and rice.

Like many, Chan found the art school environment quite difficult in many ways. However, after graduating in 1999, Chan was approached by an art consultant working for Deutsche Bank and spent months producing a body of work for her consideration. Although this did not lead to Deutsche Bank picking her up in the end, Chan did not see the time spent on it as wasted, as it meant that she averted the ‘post-graduation’ slump many artists experience. Maintaining the momentum for her practice, Chan started applying for opportunities, building contacts that led to future opportunities. a-n Magazine was an important aide at this stage, as Chan found many exhibiting opportunities through open calls to artists.

Maintaining her profile

Chan doesn’t feel as if she has had a ‘big break,’ instead feeling that her ‘career’ as an artist has been a long, accumulative process.

Like many artists, Chan recognises the importance of maintaining a strong mailing list, although she is mindful not to bombard contacts with too many emails. In addition, Chan is pro-active in creating professional development opportunities for herself. At present, she is working towards entering into a mentoring relationship with a curator she greatly respects and investigating future MA options.

International exhibitions

In recent years, Chan has exhibited both in the UK and China, building an international profile. As an artist, she feels connected to both places, yet simultaneously in between both of them, a sensibility that is evident in her work, with its emphasis on fragmentation and liminal space. Chan also feels a desire not to be pigeon holed by labels imposed by others. In a sense one can see this in her work also – using tropes associated with both the East and the West and transforming them into something else.

Interestingly, Chan finds there are often differences in how her work is perceived in China and Europe, with Chinese artists often feeling surprised that her work is ‘very Chinese’ as she is (to them) Western, and Westerners commenting on her (and her works) ‘Chinese-ness’. Chan’s work niftily remains resistant to such binary comparisons, finding it’s own space between the two, using the formal and the material to explore ideas around cultural displacement and difference amongst other things.

Chan has also exhibited as part of the Liverpool Biennale, the ‘When in Rome’ touring exhibition as well as spaces in Canada, Serbia, Thailand, the US and Ireland.

Recurring themes

Recent projects include a vinyl installation (utilising a motif based on rice) for the ‘Sequence and Repetition’ exhibition at Jerwood Space (August – September 2007).

The writer Naseem Khan has stated, in relation to Chan’s use of rice as a material:

“Rice had proved a catalyst for Chan’s work. It carries with it a potent charge. It suggested security, continuity, sustenance, social etiquette, community solidarity.”

Interval a film project funded by a 2006 LAAVA award from Film London is an exploration of the traditional Hakka Chinese Round House, from Chan’s culture of origin. Chan’s interest in the house or home is a recurring motif in her work. A touring exhibition of Interval is currently being planned.

Chan’s multi layered, intricate and thoughtful works are poetic and lyrical in composition, displaying a sense of balance and formal engagement with the materials in harmony with her experimental textiles background.

Other materials used in Chan’s installations include neon signage, dye and video projection. Usually Chan utilises minimal materials to create complex, delicate, intricate, poetic works.

¹ www.sukichan.co.uk/storyofrice.htm

Public Art

In addition to her installation work, Chan has built a reputation for her public art projects. She has also undertaken a number of artists’ residences in the UK, Germany, China and Singapore.

Suki Chan has managed to – slowly and surely – build a reputation for her practice which is based on her ever-growing understanding of her work, its formal and material considerations as well its cultural and conceptual nature. Persistence and dedication are as much part of the story, and evident through her re-working of key ideas. Hers is a quiet practice and one concerned (somewhat unfashionably) with beauty and composition. It is this avoidance of ‘fashion’ – a sign of an artist with a singular mind pursuing her own ideas – that is undoubtedly leading to continued success and opportunity.

Sonya Dyer

Sonya Dyer is a London based artist, arts consultant and writer.