YI-CHIAO CHEN
ARTIST
My art practice explores the classical religious iconography of mother and child. Yet, I hate separation. I paint both separation and connection because as a mother, my children are living in a different country. So I reference the idea of mother and child about tenderness; loss, joy, and sadness, emotions which mixed in together. Even, then being able to access your family, what that means, and what it means to be a mother in the 21st century.
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'Whether an audience can achieve an emotional or spiritual connection through art? '. As a mother, during my process of getting pregnant and raising two children, I felt the fragility and preciousness of human life. Therefore, I discuss the relationship between the mother and child to explore the emotional and spiritual connection through art. So I would put something along the lines of through careful photoshopping of images taken thousands of miles apart. I recreate but question this bond between mother and child. The feeling of mother and child revealed through artistic creation and imagination to paint my self-portrait, my daughter, and my son.
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​From past and nowadays, the fact that the Madonna is always a while European. Despite the fact Christian that has permeated the entire planet. Yet, the Christian is pervaded in Taiwan and influencing my life. So I use western religious Christian, iconography and challenging that. As Taiwanese mother in this generation, I want to create the Madonna and child with the Asian style, exploring the gaze and background to discuss the relationship the mother and child. Therefore, I use the concept of "transformation "and "hybridization" to explore the idea of race, gender, cultural identity to reflect the complexity of the image in the 21st contemporary world.