Past Exhibition
EnglishABOUT THE ARTIST
Yanyun Chen
(b.1986, Singapore, lives and works in Boston, US)
Yanyun Chen is a Singaporean artist who excels in drawing, new media, and installation
practice. Her works promote the aesthetic, cultural, and technological inheritances on
one's body, unraveling fictional and philosophical notions of embodiment, heritage, and
legacies. These works are grounded in the physicality of human and botanical forms.
She builds two systems of thought throughout her artistic works: on bodies and on
constructs.
In the former, she researches cultural wounds, dowry traditions, hereditary scars, philosophies of nudities, and etymology, and investigates stories as a skin that we wear and conditions of intergenerational pain. In the latter, she questions the disassociating states of representing and memorializing the artifice in artistic endeavors as opposed to being present to the experience of witnessing withering and death of what is outside and within oneself.
With an investigative lens, Chen observes the intricate relationship between art and nudity, particularly the challenges of offense, censorship, and restrictions in Southeast Asia. Her exploration unfolds as an archaeological journey, extrapolating an alternate perspective of nudity in the Western art canon.
Chen's examination of the body extends beyond its role as a material or medium; it becomes a metaphorical tool for application, transmission, and transfer. The sculpting of the body's existence as a linguistic entity in various languages shapes its implications on the living body, altering language use and contributing to the etymology of the word.
In a compelling gesture, Yanyun Chen's work stands in solidarity with Asian artists persevering in their craft amid challenges. Her exploration seeks to understand and appreciate, on their terms, the essence of humanity and the significance of the body. To her, it is a profound journey into the exploration of what it truly means to be human through the intricate exploration of the body.
In the former, she researches cultural wounds, dowry traditions, hereditary scars, philosophies of nudities, and etymology, and investigates stories as a skin that we wear and conditions of intergenerational pain. In the latter, she questions the disassociating states of representing and memorializing the artifice in artistic endeavors as opposed to being present to the experience of witnessing withering and death of what is outside and within oneself.
With an investigative lens, Chen observes the intricate relationship between art and nudity, particularly the challenges of offense, censorship, and restrictions in Southeast Asia. Her exploration unfolds as an archaeological journey, extrapolating an alternate perspective of nudity in the Western art canon.
Chen's examination of the body extends beyond its role as a material or medium; it becomes a metaphorical tool for application, transmission, and transfer. The sculpting of the body's existence as a linguistic entity in various languages shapes its implications on the living body, altering language use and contributing to the etymology of the word.
In a compelling gesture, Yanyun Chen's work stands in solidarity with Asian artists persevering in their craft amid challenges. Her exploration seeks to understand and appreciate, on their terms, the essence of humanity and the significance of the body. To her, it is a profound journey into the exploration of what it truly means to be human through the intricate exploration of the body.
| EDUCATION | |
| 2009 | Bachelor of Fine Arts, Digital Animation (1st Class Honours) Nanyang Technological University, Singapore |
| 2014 | Master of Arts in Communications (Distinction) European Graduate School, Saas Fee, Switzerland |
| 2018 | PhD with Sunma Cum Laude European Graduate School, Saas Fee, Switzerland |
| SOLO EXHIBITIONS | |
| 2022 | Gently Savage, Art Porters, Singapore |
| 2021 | Thailand Biennale, Korat 2021, Thailand |
| 2020 | Biennale de L'image en Mouvement BIM 2020, Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| 2020 | False Truths, S.E.A. Focus, Singapore Art Week 2020, Singapore |
| 2019 | Stories of a woman and her dowry, Grey Projects, Singapore |
| 2019 | Variations and Variables, National University of Singapore Arts Festival, Singapore |
| 2018 | The scars that write us, Presidents Young Talents 2018, Singapore Art Museum 8Q, Singapore |
| 2018 | Flower Flights, Art Porters, Singapore |
| 2016 | 追花 Chasing Flowers, NUSS, Singapore |
| GROUP EXHIBITIONS | |
| 2024 | Departures: Yanyun Chen, Hong Zhu An, Prabhavathi Meppayil, STPI, Singapore |
| 2024 | Translations: Afro-Asian Poetics, The Institutum, Singapore |
| 2024 | Chronic Compulsions, The Private Museum, Singapore |
| 2024 | Martinique Film Festival, Martinique |
| 2023 | Invisible Sound, Art Agenda, Singapore |
| 2023 | Flower Flights, Dublin Art Book Fair, Dublin, Ireland |
| 2023 | In times like these…, Boston Cyberarts Waveforms 2023, Museum of Science, Boston, USA |
| 2023 | Utopia Reimagined, Foundation for the Arts and Social Enterprises, Singapore |
| 2023 | The truth lies in fact, ArtSG FILM, Singapore |
| 2022 | In times like these…, Singapore International Film Festival, Singapore |
| 2022 | In times like these…, FIVARS Festival of International Virtual and Augmented Reality Stories, Canada |
| 2022 | Desirable Body, Hanover Project, University of Central Lancashire, UK |
| 2022 | While She Quivers, Objectifs, Singapore. |
| 2022 | In times like these…, Beyond the Curve International Film Festival, Paris, France |
| 2022 | In times like these…, Berlin Lift-Off Film Festival Online Selection, Berlin, Germany |
| 2021 | Hindsight is 20/20, 2021 International Short Film Festival Canton, Guangzhou, China |
| 2021 | Hindsight is 20/20, Semi-Finalist at AXD Film Festival, Alexandroupolis, Greece |
| 2021 | Grayscale!, Art Porters Gallery, Singapore |
| 2021 | Art Fair Philippines, Philippines |
| 2021 | Mirazur x The Mandala Club, Singapore |
| 2021 | Women in Rage, Moscow Indie Film Festival 2021, Russia |
| 2021 | The Body as a Dream, Art Agenda S.E.A (AASEA), Singapore Art Week 2021, Singapore |
| 2021 | Open to Interpretation, Asian Art Institutum, Singapore Art Week 2021, Singapore |
| 2020 | Biome, Singapore Tyler Print Institute, Singapore |
| 2020 | The thought visits you, Asia Now: Paris Asia Art Fair 2020 Online on Ocula, France |
| 2020 | Streets of Hope, National Arts Council, Singapore |
| 2020 | She/Her, Appetite by Restaurant Nouri, Singapore |
| 2020 | Women in Rage, Los Angeles Animation Festival 2020, USA |
| 2020 | Women in Rage, Montreal International Animation Film Festival 2020 Animaze, Canada |
| 2020 | Women in Rage, Prague International Indie Film Festival, Czech Republic |
| 2020 | Women in Rage, Leiden Shorts (Leiden International Short Film Experience), Netherlands |
| 2020 | Clouds: The 6th International Exhibition on New Media Art 2020, CICA Museum, South Korea |
| 2020 | Nefiltravanae Kino Short Movie Club Film Festival "Unfiltered Cinema", Minsk, Belarus |
| 2019 | FICTION NON FICTION - Reassembling 24 frames of reality through non-narrative film works, Cultural Affairs Bureau, Macau |
| 2019 | 2219: Futures Imagined, Art Science Museum, Singapore |
| 2019 | Remedy for Rage, Objectifs, Singapore |
| 2019 | Singapore Utopia, ChanHori Contemporary, Singapore |
| 2019 | Raw Forms, Coda Culture, Singapore |
| 2018 | Still, Singapore Life, Art Seasons Gallery, Singapore |
| 2018 | Auguries of Modern Innocence, The Arts House, Singapore |
| 2016 | Untapped Emerging, Shophouse 5, Visual Arts Development Association, Singapore |
| 2016 | Spirit of Place, (part of Liao Jiekai's The Drawing Room), Jendela Visual Arts Space, Singapore |
| 2016 | What! Another Exhibition? (collaboration with Singapore Horn Trio's Johannes Brahm Horn Trio op. 40), Esplanade Recital Studio, Singapore |
| 2015 | Studying Life, Artistry, Singapore |
| 2015 | Noise Singapore 2015 Festival Exhibition, Singapore |
| 2015 | Fresh Takes, ChanHampe Gallery, Singapore |
| 2015 | The Mill Destruction & Rebirth, The Mill, Singapore |
| 2014 | Floral Magic x On Pedder, Singapore |
| 2014 | Noise Singapore 2014 Festival Exhibition, Singapore |