ABOUT my ART + I
Artist Biography
Sara Hoi Yan Chan is a Calgary based ceramic artist, she was born in Hong Kong. Recently graduated from Alberta University of the Arts with Bachelor of Fine Arts, major in Ceramics and minor in Glass. She received several art scholarships and awards in both Canada and Hong Kong, include: AUArts Scholarships for Research Projects (2020), Barbara and John Poole Family Scholarship (2020), Rondi Lee Johnson Memorial Scholarship (2019 & 2020), Monika Smith Ceramics Award (2019), Jury Prize in “Flip – the 3rd Hong Kong Book Art Festival” (2017), and the Hong Kong Arts Development Fund -Cultural Exchange Project (2016).
Sara's artworks were collected internationally, collectors include Alberta University of the Arts (The President's Art Collection), Hong Kong Arts Development Council, Prototype Art and Miniature Museum Calgary, Hong Kong Miniature Book Association and private collectors. Her artworks were exhibited in different group shows and exhibitions in both Hong Kong and Canada.
Sara is always actively involved in different art-communities. For instant, she was the International Student Representative for the President's Student Advisory Committee and the Show + Sale Ceramics Department Representative of Alberta University of the Arts in 2019-2020, the volunteer helper and member of the Hong Kong Ceramic Research Society in 2015-2018, the volunteer MC for the opening ceremony of “Fresh Trend 2012 Art Graduates Joint Exhibition” and tour guide for the Hong Kong Arts Centre Open House in 2012.
Artist Statement
Most of my arts are in series and present in the form of installations, which composed with ceramic-works, found objects, drawings and videos. Ceramics is my favourite material of making art, due to its nature contains a lot of possibilities and limitations.
“Différance” is the major influence to my creations. It is an idea about to differ and to defer the meanings through interpretation, that was invented by a contemporary philosopher Jacques Derrida. Life is full of decisions. Making decision is difficult to me because I care the feeling and the opinions of the people around me. My thoughts is always swinging in between “yes... no... yes...”. I look into all pros and cons that people suggest, rather than deciding with my own instinct, and then I am trapped into a non-stop struggle and self-contradiction. However, Isobel Armstrong mentions “the experience of contradiction was built into everyday life. And it was a new experience”. My answer “I don't know”, lead me to ceramics. While potter clay and I connect, we reform each other.
My art sometimes is a search for the balance between compromise, control and let go spontaneity. It echoes to the nature of my favourite material -ceramics. I am always inspired by the interaction between the material and the making process. My art and I both grow in between the gaps of mistakes and misunderstandings.
My art sometimes is the starting point of a journey or a question, without a fixed destination or answer. My surroundings are imprinted, trivial discoveries lie on the surface of my works and reveal meanings. However, meanings change over time with deferral and different perceptions, therefore my artworks survive under viewers’ new and changing interpretations.
陳愷恩，陶藝工作者，生於香港，現居加拿大卡加利。2020畢業於亞伯達藝術大學的純藝術學位(主修陶瓷，副修玻璃)，2016年在 BANFF CENTRE 作藝術家駐留，2013-15期間於香港視覺藝術中心完成陶藝專修課程及陶藝深造課程，2012於香港藝術學院修畢高級純藝術高級文憑 (主修繪畫)。曾經從事商業藝術顧問、影片剪輯及藝術教育工作，分別於香港及加拿大參預多個展覽、獲得數個藝術相關獎項及獎學金。
我的創作有時是一個旅程或問題的起點，沒有固定的目的地或答案；有時是跟物料互動的過程中的發現；有時是我生命中的軌跡，記錄著我在製作當時周圍的人、事與物。 然而，意義隨著時間而變化，因此我的作品生也隨著觀眾的新的解讀而活起來。