Remnants/ Relics/ Residue - Takming Chuang - Up Late

Takming Chuang

Up Late, 2021

Unfired clay encased in plastic bag, artist’s original c-print from 1996

$1500

Chuang’s studio practice is a personal response to emotions that arise between accepting and rejecting change. Shifts in his body’s physical and emotional states guide experimental processes in sculpture, printmaking, photography, and installation. The subject of conservation is considered yet simultaneously subverted in his work to foreground impermanence. 

His work has been featured in exhibitions and residencies 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.   

Artist Statement:
I am sensitive to the way that my body looks and feels. From adolescence to adulthood, I have intimately witnessed its physical and emotional changes as it dries, hardens, and contracts around memories stored within the folds of its sensing organs. In an effort to remain flexible, supple, and expansive, I make images and objects out of materials that reference or emulate such bodily qualities. Examples include malleable clay, plastic skins, dried organic matter, wet ink, clinical drape sheets, and my personal collection of original 4 x 6 inch c-prints taken in the 90's - early 00's. My process can be likened to a rogue archivist who is interested in preservation and simultaneously destructive in its execution. I wet, warp, rub, and carve into photos from my past to reflect shifts within their present meaning. At times, multiple images and objects are combined to heighten the timescale of a singular lifespan. Through my studio practice, I would like to understand what I can and cannot control and when to hold on and let go. There's a constant negotiation between accepting and rejecting impermanence.