Suki Chan is a moving image and installation artist. Using meticulously crafted processes and by abstracting familiar materials and objects, Chan creates uncanny narratives that probe the boundaries between private and public space.
Chan’s films are notable for their dream-like aesthetic. Shifting between the micro and the macro, she draws the viewer into a cinematic ‘elsewhere’. Sleep Walk Sleep Talk a two-screen installation piece, an impressionistic study of contemporary London at night probes the delicate balance of freedoms and restrictions in an urban metropolis.
Chan’s haunting film Interval II resonates with ideas about migration and transition and how space becomes place. Threaded through her work is an elegiac tracking of the footprints of human narrative, the fables and relics embedded in time and place.
In recent years she has undertaken ambitious, research based projects linking science and art: Lucida (2016), investigates the human eye, vision and the brain, bringing the perceptual process – including its flaws, imperfections and assumptions – to the forefront
Chan is currently in receipt of a Developing Your Creative Practice Arts Award from the Arts Council of England to develop Conscious, a project exploring the future of our individual and collective consciousness.
In 2017 Chan was selected for New Approaches, a development programme run by Film London Artists’ Moving Image Network (FLAMIN), and in 2020 she was one of the three recipients of FLAMIN Production’s Development Award 2020 for her project Fog in My Head.
Born in Hong Kong in 1977
Lives and works in London
Education
2008 MA Fine Art, Chelsea School of Art, London
1996 – 1999 BA (Hons), Goldsmiths’ College, London
Solo Exhibitions
2022
Conscious, Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool
Conscious, Danielle Arnuad Gallery, London
Still Point, screened at The Gymnasium Gallery, Berwick upon Tweed
2021
Hallucinations, screened as part of the Cambridge Festival, 2021
2019
Commissioned by Somerset Art Works to make a short film Memory
2017
Lucida, Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art (CFCCA), Manchester, UK
2016
Lucida Tintype, London, UK
2015
A Light Shines in Darkness FVU touring project: Still Point in St Catherine’s Chapel, Norwich Cathedral & St Werburgh’s Church, Derby, UK
2012
A Hundred Seas Rising Aspex Gallery, Quay Arts, Isle of Wight
A Hundred Seas Rising Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth
Still Point The Lightbox, Woking
Still Point Sidney Cooper Gallery, Canterbury
2011
Sleep Walk Sleep Talk Commission for the Dickens in London exhibition at The Museum of London
Undiscovered Landscapes The Wapping Project, London
Sleep Walk Sleep Talk Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan
2010
Utopia on the Horizon Tintype, London
Sleep Walk Sleep Talk NAE, Nottingham
2009
Sleep Walk Sleep Talk A-Foundation, London
Sleep Walk Sleep Talk 198 Gallery, London
Interval II Mid Pennine Arts, Burnley
2008
Interval II Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester
2007
Story of Rice 4 El Tanque, Canary Islands, Spain
2006
Story of Rice 3 Leicester New Walk Museum
2004
Shadows Old Seager Distillery, Deptford X, London
2003
The Story of Rice Upriver Loft, Kunming, China
2003 – 2001
Shadow Songs Bluecoats Art Centre, Liverpool Biennale
2002
Little Rituals Turnpike Gallery, Manchester
2001
Midsummer’s Daydream Plastique Kinetic Worms, Singapore
2000
Seeing: Out of Time Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester
Group Exhibitions/Screenings
2020
SEEING, Science Gallery, London, UK
UN(REAL), Science Gallery Rotterdam, The Netherlands
B3 Bienniale of the Moving Image 2020
2019
Circadian Rhythms, The Glucksman, University College Cork, Ireland
More Gravy!, Tintype, London, UK
2018
SEEING, Espacio Fundación Telefónica, Lima, Peru.
London Nights, Museum of London, UK.
Presence: A Window into Chinese Contemporary Chinese Art, St George’s Hall, Liverpool UK
2017
SEEING, Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, Portland, USA
SEEING, Frost Science Museum, Miami, USA. 2016
SEEING, Science Gallery, Dublin, Ireland.
Videotage booth, Art Basel Hong Kong, China.
The Ingram Collection: Not all Contemporary Art is Rubbish!, The Lightbox, Woking, UK.
Mothership, Art Factory, Bruton, UK
Suki Chan’s Still Point was part of a three-day moving image event in Liverpool 28 – 30 September focusing on films by artists based in Asia and its diaspora. misty clouds scattered colours is organised by Edouard Malingue Gallery and supported by key organisations in the North West.
2016
Mothership,
SEEING, Science Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
Videotage booth, Art Basel Hong Kong, China
The Ingram Collection: Not all Contemporary Art is Rubbish, The Lightbox, Woking, UK
2015
Still Point – shown as part of A Light Shines in the Darkness, FVU touring exhibition in which six artists’ films travel to churches and cathedrals around the UK
A Personal Passion, Hestercombe Gallery, Taunton, UK
Drifting Dérive Asia House, London
Obscura part of Essex Road, eight artists – eight films, Tintype, London
2014
Video Art Dr. Bhau Daji Museum, Mumbai, India
Show Motion UAL Showroom, London
Bridge Museum of London, London
2013
Cooperation Territory, 16thLINE Gallery, Rostov-on-Don, Russia
Dalston House Screenings: There and Here, The Barbican, London
(b)orders, orders, (dis)orders, dna Projects, Sydney, Australia
Plural, WW Gallery, London
Still Point, Deepam Cinema, Seychelles
Still Point, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London
2012
(b)orders, orders, (dis)orders, Raf Gallery, Tehran, Iran
Lightness, Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray, Ireland
The City in the City, Art on the Underground, London
Curator’s Egg Altera Pars Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London
Sinopticon Plymouth Arts Centre, Plymouth
2011
English Education Dan Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
The Shape of Things Ferrate Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
China Through the Looking Glass Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Smokefall Tintype, London
Spritz Simons Muirhead & Burton, London
2010
The Ingram Collection Lightbox, Woking, UK.
El Ritmo De la Luz TEA, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
Concrete and Glass 20 Hoxton Square, London, UK
For the Sake of the Image Jerwood Space, London
Minutiae Roscommon Arts Centre, Ireland.
2009
Eniminminimos II Esplanade, Singapore
Pathways Profeti Disarmati Gallery, Toronto, Canada
Floating WALL, London
Don’t Raise the Bridge, Lower the River Saatchi Gallery, London
Kiss of a lifetime Bearspace, London
Interval II ArtProjx, Prince Charles Cinema, London
Interval II Evolution Festival, Lumens, Leeds
Propeller Island Brompton Design District, London
2008
Futuremap 08 David Roberts Art Foundation Fitzrovia, London
Cantilever Collyer & Bristow Gallery, London
13th International Arts and Digital Cultures Festival Gran Canaria, Spain 007 Sequence and Repetition 3 Bridge Art Fair, London
Sequence and Repetition Jerwood Space, London
Sequence and Repetition Beldam Gallery, London
Reversing Horizons Shanghai Museum of Modern Art
House Project Kiliney Hill, Dublin, Ireland
2006
Bracket This Liverpool Biennale
Utopias Eigse, Carlow, Ireland
Fantasy Landscapes Asia House, London
Close Distance Plymouth Arts Centre
2005
Fascinations Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong
2003 – 2005
When in Rome Lewisham Art House, London Toured to:
Spacex Exeter; Castlefield Gallery, Manchester; MAC, Birmingham, + Third Floor Arts Centre, Portsmouth
2003 – 2004
CODEC/X – Zion Arts Centre, Manchester Toured to:
Send + Receive: A Festival of Sound Winnipeg, Canada. Florida Moving Image Archive, Miami.
Kinokaze, Cinema Rex, Belgrade, Serbia
Cinema Vortex, Wolfsonian Museum, Miami. Switch Media Art Festival, Chiang Mai, Thailand.
WORM @ Zaal de Unie, Rotterdam. New Media space, 24hr art, Northern Territories Centre for
Contemporary Art, Darwin, Australia
2003
We go Round and Round Comme Ca Art NY, USA
Thermo The Lowry, Salford Pattern Crazy Crafts Council, London
2002
Big Screen in Little China, GMI screen, Leicester Sq, London
2001
Shanghai Art Fair, China
Public Art Commissions
2009
Imagining Raindrops III, Ridgewood School
2008
Imagining Raindrops II, LIME
2007
Imagining Raindrops, MPA
2006
Imagine (space above our heads), OCC, Manchester
2005
Story of Rice 2, CAS, London , Timeless Journeys, GMPTE Flight, LIME
Artist Residencies
2004 – 2006 OCC, Manchester
2004 King’s School, Gutersloh, Germany
2003 Artist residency/research project, Upriver Loft, Kunming, China
2001 – 2003 Turnpike Gallery, Manchester
2002 Artist residency, PKW, Singapore
Awards/Grants
2021
Suki Chan selected for BFI Network & BAFTA Crew 2021, a year long development programme
2020
FLAMIN Productions, Suki Chan is one of the three recipients of FLAMIN Production’s Development Award 2020 for her project Fog in My Head.
2019
Project Grant, Arts Council England
2018
Developing Your Creative Practice Award, Arts Council England
2017
Suki Chan was selected for Film London Artists’ Moving Image Network (FLAMIN)’s development programme, New Approaches, to develop Conscious, a feature length film for both gallery presentation and theatrical distribution.
2015
Small Arts Award, Wellcome Trust
Grants for the Arts Award, Arts council England
2008
Development award, Film and Video Umbrella
2007
Grant for the Arts award, Arts Council of England
LAFVA production award, Film London
2003
Artist Links Award, British Council & Arts Council
Cultural Diversity Award, Arts Council & AGMA
2002
Individual Artists Award, Arts Council
Cultural Diversity Award, Arts Council & AGMA
2001
Individual Artists Award, Arts Council
Public & Private Collections
Museum of London, UK
David Roberts Art Foundation, London
University of the Arts Art Collection, UK
University of Salford Art Collection, UK
EA Byrne Contemporary Art Collection, London
Ingram Collection, London
Esplanade, Singapore
The Celebrity Art Collection on Solstice Cruise Ship
Private collections in the UK and USA
Texts
Art Monthly, no 457, June 2022
Profile of Suki Chan by Maria Walsh
Interalia Magazine, April 2022
Review of Conscious by Dr Marius Kwint
Publications
Lucida, 2016, Contributors: Colin Blakemore, Marius Kwint, Richard Wingate, Piers Masterson and Gareth Evans.
Still Point, 2012, Chan’s production diary as she navigates filming in contested sacred spaces, with commissioned texts by Gareth Evans and Brian Dillon
A Hundred Seas Rising, 2012, Published to coincide with the commissioned installation at Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth. Contributors include the late MP Tony Benn, artist Richard Wentworth and author Dreda Say Mitchell.
Island is Land, Hong Kong Eye, 2012, showcasing the best of contemporary Hong Kong art
For the Sake of the Image, Jerwood catalogue 2010
Utopia on the Horizon by Suki Chan, Tintype, London 2011
