INFO
| Name | Wai Ching Chan (she/her) |
| Born | 1994 |
| Country of Birth | Hong Kong |
| Place of Residence | Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland |
| Ethnicities | Hong Kong Chinese |
| Artform | Visual arts |
| Decades Active | 2010s, 2020s |
ABOUT
Wai Ching Chan is a Tāmaki-based contemporary artist and arts programmer. Her practice is often driven by collaborative relationships with other artists, and a desire to build and strengthen connections between people, including between tangata whenua and tauiwi. Her collaborators include Arapeta Ashton, with whom she presented an exhibition at the Asian Aotearoa Arts Hui in 2018, and Tessa Ma’auga, whom she met at AAAH 2018.
Chan was born in Hong Kong and moved to Aotearoa in late 2012. Her work carries within it a sense of longing for her family, who live in Hong Kong, and a desire to hold on to connections with them and the country. She often works with the symbolic language of Chinese knots 中国结, forming them from a range of fibres, including harakeke and twine, to allude to bonds and connections between people and people and the land. Chan has described how she came to work with the language of knots:
I was thinking about writing a letter—but how to write a letter without a common language, if I don't speak Māori or if I don't speak English? I was thinking about being a new, fresh off-the-plane migrant. A lot of them are aunties or grandmothers and they don't necessarily have the language to understand how to navigate being tauiwi here, but I see them have a lot of interest in getting to know Te Ao Māori [and make friends with indigenous groups]. I was thinking about this in relation to the Treaty of Waitangi—partnership and mutual respect and friendship; and a lot of key ideas about how to be here. I think that's how everything kind of started.
Knotting workshops are sometimes facilitated by Chan as part of her exhibitions, encouraging conversation among participants and guests, particularly with regard to tauiwi-tangata whenua relationships, while learning to knot.
Beginning in 2018, Chan was the curator, and then director of Fluid Borders 流动的边界, an Asian-led arts festival based out of Tāmaki Makaurau. Taking place across venues such as the Audio Foundation in Tāmaki Makaurau and NU SPACE in Chengdu, the festival connected creatives across disciplines, with a particular focus on experimental music.
Chan studied at Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland, where she also wrote reviews and articles for the student magazine, Craccum, with a focus on community arts projects and artist-run spaces. She completed her degree with first class honours in 2017.
LINKS
Key works / presentations
2022 — Kāpuia ngā aho 單絲不綫, The Physics Room, Ōtautahi, with Tessa Ma’auga
2022 — Te Pō, Te Tuhi, Tāmaki Makaurau, group exhibition
2020 — Ā Mua: New Lineages of Making, The Dowse Art Museum, Te Awakairangi ki Tai, group exhibition
2019 — Wishing Well, Enjoy Contemporary Art Space, Pōneke
2019 — Hold, Window Gallery
2019 — Accept Each Word Spoken with Love, NorthART, Tāmaki Makaurau, group exhibition
2018 — The River Remains; ake tonu atu, Artspace, Tāmaki Makaurau, group exhibition
2018 — A temple, a commons and a cave, MEANWHILE, Pōneke, with Arapeta Ashton
2017 — Rabbit on the moon, Hapori vol. 6, Tāmaki Makaurau, group exhibition
2017 — Protagonist, Projectspace Gallery, Tāmaki Makaurau, group exhibition
2017 — What We Do in the Shadows, TONENTON Artspace, Hamburg, group exhibition
2017 — BITE ME - Decolonising the Diet, Lowtide Studio, Tāmaki Makaurau, group exhibition
Key awards
2018 — RM Gallery: Summer Residency
