Michelle Chan Wan Chee is a relational artist who works primarily in photography, using various collaborative methods to create her artworks. Currently, her artistic practice is expanding, focusing on creating rituals and experiences of looking, using image-based materials for self-care as a form of meditation, and fostering familial and community care through conversation and connection. Art-making, becomes a form of deep listening to what home is—to what our connection is with ourselves, with each other, with space, and the passage of time—drawing meaning and inspiration from her roots in Chinese beliefs and philosophies.
Her work has been exhibited in Hong Kong and internationally, including the Angkor Photo Festival 2019, Singapore International Photography Festival 2020 and Objectifs’ Women in Film and Photography 2021 (Singapore). She was awarded laureate at the International Women Photography Award in 2019 for her series, Crab Seniors. In 2021, she received the Prince Claus Seed Awards for her ongoing project, Kaufu. It was presented at the M+ Talks: "Miniature as Method? Vanishing Acts in Trans-scalar Hong Kong". Its Part 2 was open to public's participation, as a solo exhibition at the Hong Kong International Photo Festival 2022.
Alongside her individual artistic practice, she is dedicated to working with photozines and photobooks, specifically, as medium to create relations and community engagements. She founded Phoboko, a platform for bringing people together through photobooks and the topics they contain. Through regular meetings, photobooks are used as “social objects” for dialogues and knowledge exchange between participants. She also initiated 1:1 studio, an independent experimental space dedicated for 1 photobook, 1 exhibition project. The project is about unfolding a photobook into a three-dimensional space and vice versa encapsulating what’s displayed in the space to that very photobook, realising her vision of “dedicating a 100ft² space to creating the world of one photobook”. She began mapping Hong Kong photobooks via interviews with the photobook authors. She also teaches photography to children, teens, and adults, using photozines as a medium to narrate individual stories, build relationships with others and connect to their communities.
陳韻芝是一位以攝影為首要創作媒介的關係藝術家，透過多樣的協作方式來創作她的藝術作品。目前，她的藝術實踐不斷延展，專注於以影像創造儀式和觀看體驗，為自我關懷的一種冥想形式，同時透過對話和連結來關懷家人及社區。創作藝術成為一種深邃聆聽「家」的意義——探索我們與自己、彼此、空間以及時間流逝的聯繫——從她植根的中國信仰與哲學汲取意義和靈感。
她的作品曾在香港和國際間展出，包括2019年吳哥攝影節、2020年新加坡國際攝影節，和2021年新加坡Objectifs的女性電影和攝影展。她憑藉《蟹伯樂園》系列，在2019年國際女性攝影獎中獲得獎項殊榮。2021年，她憑藉正在進行中的企劃《舅父》，獲得Prince Claus Seed Awards。這一作品亦在 M+講座「取法微型作品？從跨尺度世界尋找消失的香港」中展示。然後，它的第二部分也在2022年香港國際攝影節以個展形式邀請公眾的參與。
除了她的個人藝術實踐以外，她致力從事與攝影小誌和攝影書的創作，視它們為媒介與人建立連繫及促進社區參與。她創立了《閾限谷》，這一個通過攝影書及其所蘊含的各類主題以將人們匯聚、交流的平台。透過定期舉辦的攝影交流聚會，攝影書被用作參與者之間對話和知識交流的「社交」媒介，充盈各人的知識流通與交流。她也發起了 《1:1 工作室》，一個為「一書一展覽」企劃而設立的獨立實驗空間。這是一個將一本攝影書展開成三維空間，並將空間中展示的內容扣連至該本攝影書，以實踐「100呎的空間造就一本攝影書的世界」這理念的實驗企劃。此外，她開始透過採訪攝影書作者來繪製香港攝影書的地圖，也向兒童、青少年和成人教授攝影，以攝影誌作媒介講述個人故事，與他人建立關係並與其社群建立聯繫。
translated by Clementine Cheung Hei Man
