We are delighted to present An Gee Chan’s When You’re Not Around, her third solo-show at the gallery.
Since moving back to Hong Kong in 2013, Chan has found it difficult to find a printmaking studio where she can make the large-scale mono screenprints that are particular to her practice. Instead she joined a sculpture class which led to a renewed interest in making ceramic pieces, “I started using ceramics to tell my stories. For most of them I cut a base and built things on top, its like putting down my ideas onto paper.”
The move home after nine years in London provoked a strange and at times jarring mismatch between the past and the present. The show’s title, ‘When You’re Not Around’ refers both to herself not being in London anymore as well as the years when she wasn’t in Hong Kong: “there were loads of things for me to tidy up and look through, old photos, letters, notes and objects that reminded me a lot of when I was here before, but also the people and things that have changed and sometimes the shock of those changes.”
What has been missed can be thought of as a parallel life, which, like an old photographic negative that you stare at but can’t fully make out, remains a mystery …”did I really miss anything? Or is this who I was supposed to be and I haven’t missed anything?”
