Oyster shells
The Macao Museum of Art(MAM, from the Portuguese acronym), under the Cultural Affairs Bureau, has been holding the “Macao Arts Window” since 2012, which aims to encourage creativity and develop contemporary art in Macao. The theme of this edition of the “Macao Arts Window” is “Hundred Species – Works of Peggy Chan”, which will be inaugurated on Thursday, 1 June, at 6:30pm, on the third floor of MAM. All are welcome.
The “Macao Arts Window” aims to provide an open and diverse exhibition space and exchange platform, and encourage local artists to explore and express concepts and forms of contemporary art. Born in Macao, Peggy Chan received her Bachelor of Arts (Fine Arts) degree from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, majoring in painting. Inspired by her daily-life experience and imagination, she has created her works in different mediums, including painting, photography and installation; exploring the triangular relationship between individuals, the city and nature. The cyanotype, the traditional photographic printing process, has been Peggy Chan’s favourite medium in her recent works. Relying highly on sunlight and time in the creation process, the works incorporate the uncertainty of nature, and represent a concept that our lives change as the environment changes. Her works have been exhibited worldwide, namely in Beijing, Paris, South Korea, Taiwan, India, Hong Kong and Macao.
The venue for this exhibition was specially designed to become the artist’s “experimental studio”, where visitors can observe various materials and non-natural imageries re-created by the artist, exploring the relationship between man and nature. The artist believes that human activities in the modern society cause ecological damage to the environment due to personal convenience or all kinds of interests, resulting in chaotic structures and in the dysfunctionality of entire ecosystems, or even in total environmental destruction. Changes in the natural environment will lead to systemic and drastic transformations that will bring about the consecutive extinction of one species after another, and ultimately humans may also perish.
Using her favourite medium “cyanotype”, an old photographic technique relying on exposition to sunlight, Peggy Chan creates works that explore the tripartite relationship between individuals, the city and nature, showing magical inter-transformations. Through paradoxical collages, her works register her indirect, perceptive observations of everyday eco-phenomena, as she tries to explore if the laws governing the relationship between living creatures and the environment will or won’t cause a strange evolution.
The exhibition “Hundred Species – Works of Peggy Chan” is open until 13 August 2017. The MAM, located at Avenida Xian Xing Hai, is open daily from 10am to 7pm including on public holidays (no admittance after 6:30pm; closed on Mondays). Admission is free. For more information about the exhibition, please visit MAM’s website at http://www.MAM.gov.mo.
