We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Chenhung Chen. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Chenhung below.

Chenhung, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally?

One of my first happy memories was when I was drawing and painting on a large sheet of paper pinned on the backwall of a third-grade classroom. I remember it was a group project which the other kids did not care for very much, but I diligently insisted on making it perfect and beautiful. All my life, I have been involved with creativity alongside the heavy burden of school and college entrance exam preparation. Art and artmaking have given me a sense of beauty, relief, and purpose.

In my teenage years, I went through many varied after-school programs including Chinese calligraphy, Chinese ink painting, watercolor, as well as various other drawing mediums. I indulged in oil painting, acrylic painting, print making, and sculpture during my college years. I thoroughly enjoyed each of them. The time I spent among my creative peers, during my college years, was very eye-opening. I remember that, after one winter break, we came back to school from a long Chinese New Year celebration. One of my classmates decided to spray a thick pink line on the back of a white neighborhood stray dog. He set it loose, and everyone then watched the pink line it created moving around from a distance. This classmate, who was honestly a little crazy, was able think outside the constraints of morality to fuel his creativity and amusement. I wouldn’t be able to think along the same lines as my madman classmate (I wouldn’t want to take advantage of a poor stray) but I did learn from the experience all the same. Thankfully the dog did make it through the experience, but it did not want to ever go near my classmate afterwards. I didn’t (and still don’t) approve of my old classmate’s behavior, but I must admit his creativity was not burdened by sanity.

Against all odds, I landed in New York city for my graduate school education. I did this despite culture shock, a language barrier, and my lack of American societal understanding. If I were to simplify how I felt, it would be with “everything is different, even the Chinese food they serve.” During my graduate school study, I remember one day I was in my studio tinkering with materials. I suddenly felt creative energy well up within me and surge through my hands. That day I made something incredible. I produced work which made me feel that I had superseded my mundane life. I lost the work to time and travel, but the feeling it founded within me has never left. That moment was when I knew I wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Chenhung Chen, I am a Los Angeles-based visual artist whose mixed media drawings, photography, sculptures, and installations navigate modernity through my transforming of mainly found industrial materials. My work investigates physical, social, and spiritual structures and how they intersect in contemporary culture.

Born in Taiwan, I have lived and worked in Taipei, Taiwan, New York, N.Y., and Los Angeles, CA. I received a BA from the Chinese Cultural University, Taipei, and an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

For me, it is both “process” and “expression”.

I weave, bind, and crochet with industrial waste byproducts including cable, zip ties, electrical components, and purchased wire, to produce large scale sculptures, reliefs and installations which engages “weavings” of all elements into voluminous, interconnected, and sprawling forms. Crocheting is a skill I learned while growing up. While we learned it for utilitarian purposes, the repeating of the simple movements with my hands became a form of meditation: focusing on one single task and staying away from the looping mind. It is in this motion of addition, subtraction, and repetition through needlework that I work to portray something intangible.

I weave the thread of dichotomies like concord and dissonance, order and chaos, the subtle and the powerful. From these dichotomies, I’m working to make forms that deal with balance and portraying man’s unstoppable nature – the driving force that is bringing about this information age. However, even with all this technology, man still must grapple with the consequences of his human condition; one’s social structures, faulty institutional ideologies, and one’s inability to see oneself in others. Technology not only influences our lives, but also in some ways changes our humanity and disconnects us from each other.

Growing up in a Taiwanese society where Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism fused together harmoniously, the influence I absorbed causes me to put all these theories to test during the challenging times that we live in. My day-to-day practice is to search and experiment between theory and practice. And the process-oriented practices aim to find poetic essence in daily interaction with materials and nature. My work engages Taoist concepts of “Chi” and co-existence with opposing forces, as visually represented in its ancient craft traditions and culture, and that continues to inform notions of a modern Taiwanese American identity.

I repurpose wire and electrical conduits as symbolic representations for the life force (“Chi”) that flows through all of us. Their fluid movement throughout my work draws a parallel with the experience of energy/Chi within myself. In this body of work, the crocheted wires indicate delicate and subtle qualities while the electrical conduits appear to be bold and powerful. This contrast parallels with the distinction of Yin and Yang, Female and Male.

Rooted in the belief of the universal nature of human beings and drawing from my connections with the urban environment and ancient craft traditions, my work negotiates spaces of cultural, environmental, psychological, and temporal change. By using an array of commonplace objects, my art seeks to discover the link between one’s personal narrative and our collective humanity.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

The ability to express the creative impulse brings me joy and purpose. I grew up writing calligraphy, and as such the influence of the “Chinese scholar” has been a major driving influence in my artistic goals. The jump from calligraphic line to cable and wire has allowed me to extend that portion of my life into the current contemporary world. It contains experiences and emotions that I must express. I want to leave an impact on art history.

Contact Info:

• Website: chenhungchen.com
• Instagram: chenhungchenart

Image Credits

Lance Bolton, Chenhung Chen