Faculty of Art

Sculpture/Installation

Kristi Chen

To Retrieve A Possible Heirloom

To retrieve a possible heirloom investigates the familial inter-generational loss of knowledge, the process of retrieving the loss and creating the heirloom. Starting with the basket, a skill slowly dwindling away in my father’s village of Shouning, Fujian province intrigued me to start learning. A basket, a carrier of narratives and ideas has exposed ways of learning traditions through digital media and unorthodox methods of sourcing materials. In continuation with the carrier concept of narratives, the decision to create a deer instead of a utilitarian, functional object was more important in supporting the legacy of my maternal great-grandfather Ho Chat Yuen Lingnan style paintings. His way of devising innovation is to “synthesize the East and West, blending the old and new.” As his great-granddaughter, my views on innovation are not looking towards the West, but more towards technology. With our contrasting perspectives, comes collaboration. Knowing there are many archives, images and articles regarding my family’s lineage can create more possibilities in our legacy.

“The journey of this humble basket manifested into a plethora of familial and historical archives that have made many variations of a possible heirloom. Exploring both my maternal and paternal side of my family has revealed a loss of inter-generational knowledge, however, they also showed strength. The narratives passed down to me about my father’s basket weaving experiences and my great-grandfather's resilience in his art career motivated me to create possibilities. During times of COVID-19, there were many unconventional ways of receiving archives and the limitations drove me to create a process and work that is unorthodox. Researching and analyzing my ancestors made me more aware of how different my perspective is in comparison to them. This has allowed me to be more transparent, stating that my works are not intended to be mastered, mimicked, or replicated by the archives. With so many paintings, images and readings that I may or may not have discovered yet leaves room for the potential to continue sharing the knowledge of my ancestors.”