Yanyun Chen
Yanyun Chen (Chinese: 陈彦云; pinyin: Chén Yànyún; born 1986) is a Singaporean artist who works with charcoal drawings, animation and installation. Her works feature intergenerational family stories and cultural wounds, which explore tenuous relationships with traditions and scars that live in language.[1][2][3]
Early life and education
Chen was born in Singapore. She attended Nanyang Technological University and received a BFA (first class honours) in Digital Animation in 2009.[4] Following that, she completed a MA in Communications in 2012 and Phd in Philosophy, Art and Critical Theory in 2018 at European Graduate School in Switzerland.[5]
Career
Chen taught at Yale-NUS College from 2015-2022.[6][1] At the College, she received the Georgette Chen Fellowship in 2020.[7] In 2021, she received the Andreas Teoh Contemporary Asian Art Program Fellowship.[8] She held the role of Professor of the Practice at the School of the Museum of Fine Art, Tufts University, in Boston, USA since 2023.[9]
Works
The scars that write us
Commissioned and mentored by Singapore Art Museum for the President's Young Talent 2018,The scars that write us is a series of scar portraits welded and drawn on mild steel.[10] The exhibition adopts the keloid scar as its reference and offers a narrative on wounds and scars, and those that bear them.[11] In an interview with art writer Ian Tee, he shares that "Chen speaks of "the scars that live in language", texturing the physical-psychological wounds on skin with trauma inflicted by a welding gun."[3]
Stories of a Woman and her Dowry
Stories of a Woman and Her Dowry was the first solo exhibition at Grey Projects in 2019 after Chen's successful outing at the Singapore Art Museum's President's Young Talents (PYT) showcase. It highlights the signature narrativity of her installations.[12][13]
The epilogue of the exhibition "Stories of a Woman and her Dowry - Three Dawns" was exhibited at Objectifs Centre for Photography and Film in 2022.[14] Curator Kimberley Shen describes "navigate the precarities of the cultural tropes and expectations of Asian women, in a palpable reclamation of tenderness and strength embedded in the feminine narrative and identity".[15] Chen shares that stories derived from intergenerational trauma can just as much be an intergenerational gift, "It’s the gift of independence, the gift of courage, the gift of being able to express when they can’t express or they didn’t have the opportunity or the choice to."[15]
Awards
Chen was awarded the People's Choice Award[16] at the President's Young Talents award for her work, The scars that write us, presented at Singapore Art Museum in 2018.[11] Chen was awarded the Art Outreach IMPART Award in 2019.[17][18] She was awarded Best Art Direction at National Youth Film Awards for stop-motion short film "Automatonomy", directed by Mark Wee and Jerold Chong of Finding Pictures.[19][20]
In 2020, Chen was awarded the National Arts Council Singapore Young Artist Award, Singapore's highest award for young arts practitioners, aged 35 and below.[21][22][23]
References
- ^ a b Wong, Joshua (15 December 2020). "Yale-NUS lecturer Dr Yanyun Chen wins prestigious Young Artist Award 2020". www.yale-nus.edu.sg. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
- ^ Pereira, Keenan (1 January 2022). "Thriving in the Unknown". www.nus.edu.sg. Archived from the original on 1 June 2023. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ a b Tee, Ian (2 October 2018). "President's Young Talent 2018: Five Singaporean Artists to Watch". Art & Market. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
- ^ Chan, Yin Wan; Chong, Sara Shuzhen (2009). "Moonchild". School of Art, Design and Media ADM Student Reports (FYP/IA/PA/PI).
- ^ "Yanyun Chen". The European Graduate School. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
- ^ Pang, Ethel (1 October 2021). "Yale-NUS lecturer Dr Yanyun Chen's and alumnus Chia Yaim Chong's video collaboration was nominated for the National Youth Film Awards". www.yale-nus.edu.sg. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
- ^ Ong, Jermayne (27 March 2020). "J Y Pillay and Georgette Chen Fellowships support Arts and Humanities professors' research". www.yale-nus.edu.sg. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
- ^ Ong, Salome (31 July 2021). "New Andreas Teoh Contemporary Asian Art Programme promotes study and appreciation of Asian art". www.yale-nus.edu.sg. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
- ^ "Meet the New Professors of the Practice at SMFA Joining in Fall 2022 | School of the Museum of Fine Arts | Tufts University". smfa.tufts.edu. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
- ^ "Of Soil & Scars: The President's Young Talents Finalists 2018". The Artling. 4 October 2018. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
- ^ ISSN 0585-3923. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
- ^ "Stories of a Woman and Her Dowry by Yanyun Chen [2019]". Grey Projects. 27 April 2019. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
- ^ "陈彦云个展： 两代嫁妆 三代女人的故事 | 联合早报". www.zaobao.com.sg (in Simplified Chinese). Retrieved 25 February 2024.
- ^ "女艺术家拒绝"消失" 突破局限 创作不辍 | 联合早报". www.zaobao.com.sg (in Simplified Chinese). Retrieved 25 February 2024.
- ^ a b Shen, Kimberly (10 February 2022). "While She Quivers" (PDF). kanchanagupta.com. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
- ^ Singapore Art Museum (29 November 2018). "Weixin Quek Chong wins the Grand Prize and Yanyun Chen the People's Choice Award at the President's Young Talents 2018" (PDF). Singapore Art Museum Press Release. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
- ^ "Impactful work wins visual art award". Impactful work wins visual art award. 13 February 2019. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
- ^ Wan, Colin (7 October 2020). "Catch-up with 2019 IMPART Awards Winners". Art Outreach SG. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
- ISSN 0585-3923. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
- ISSN 0585-3923. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
- ISSN 0585-3923. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
- ^ "Artistic triumph". Hey! Magazine. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
- ^ Nurjuwita, Dewi (10 December 2020). "Sarkasi Said and Dr. Vincent Leow are the 2020 Cultural Medallion recipients". Time Out Singapore. Retrieved 25 February 2024.