Statement
At my studio, I habitually shuffle stacks of 4" x 6" c-prints like tarot cards to decipher the nature of impermanence. Everyday images, printed from color negatives of my adolescence and digital files of my adulthood, hold both distant and immediate memories of people and places. Some photographs are set aside to be embalmed in clay while others are excised to produce high-contrast ink rubbings on clinical drape sheets. Installations, arranged on shelves or drying racks, lend context to these discrete objects, suggesting in-between states. More recently, a series of bisque fired, porous receptacles structurally support earlier sculptures of unfired clay across various states of change. They were designed to foreground temporal qualities inherent in life: breakage, disintegration, and decay. These image-modifying processes, moving between 2D and 3D, result from a desire to handle malleable memories in the round. It is a practice about holding on and letting go.
Bio
Takming Chuang is a multidisciplinary artist who explores the interplay between preservation and impermanence. His prints, photographs, sculptures, and installations have been featured in exhibitions at SculptureCenter NY, White Columns NY, Hessel Museum of Art NY, Camden Arts Centre UK, Headlands Center for the Arts CA, the Berkeley Art Museum CA, among others. He received an MFA from UC Berkeley (2017) and a BA in Economics (2000) from SUNY Binghamton. Born in New York City (1978), Chuang lives in San Francisco and works in Oakland.
Contact
tak@takmingchuang.com