Stories that write us: Autofictions

Chen Yanyun will be sharing about her works, in particular "Scars that Write Us" (2018) and "Stories of a Woman and her Dowry" (2019-2022), and the third volume of family stories which she is currently researching at NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, under curator Ute Meta Bauer.  These works tap into intergenerational conversations and conflicts, and through the threads connecting personal, social, cultural and state which bound and shape us as people, Yanyun weaves new narratives.  Stories write us just as we write them - through palimpsestic remembering and unconscious imprints and staining. It is these stains infused as patina on material, that carry our stories to the future: teaching us how to live.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Dr. Yanyun Chen (b. 1986, Singapore) is a visual artist who works across drawings, new media, and installation. Her artistic practice unravels fictional and philosophical notions of embodiment exploring how heritage and legacies are grounded in the physicality of human and botanical forms. Her solo exhibitions include Stories of a Woman and Her Dowry, Grey Projects, Singapore (2019) and Scars that write us, part of the President’s Young Talents 2018, Singapore Art Museum (2018). She has participated in group exhibitions such as While She Quivers, Objectifs – Centre for Photography and Film, Singapore (2021); Thailand Biennale, Korat 2021 (2021); Clouds: The 6th International Exhibition on New Media Art 2020, CICA Museum, South Korea (2020); Fiction Non Fiction, Cultural Affairs Bureau, Macau (2019); 2291: Futures Imagined, Art Science Museum, Singapore (2019) among others. Yanyun has received the Young Artist Award in 2020 and the IMPART Art Prize in 2019. Her works were also awarded the Prague International Indie Film Festival Q3 Best Animation Award (2020), National Youth Film Awards Best Art Direction Award (2019), and Singapore Art Museum President’s Young Talents People’s Choice Award (2018). She is currently a Professor of the Practice at SMFA Tufts University, Boston USA.