Ambivalence

For the newest series, Teresa Chen has shifted from analog photography to a digital camera and process. However, her interest in using photography as a medium to “see” differently as well as to transform the familiar into the foreign remains crucial. The new series Ambivalence still moves in this tension between beauty and transience or mortality, aesthetics and alienation, and leaves the viewer questioning and uncertain. Teresa Chen’s work is a reflection on the alienation and rootlessness or dislocation of people in our contemporary society. Moreover, she is interested in visual perceptions of space through absence and translucence in the pictures.

Because digital photography is often so perfect and flawless, the artist was interested in including individuality and imperfection in the work. She decided to abandon the typical glossy photographic surface and came across wood. Each piece of wood is individual and has a distinct grain and appearance. Although the works are digital collages, the individual image is matched to the wood and thus always unique.

Marion Wild, from the press release for Ambivalence (select “Show Information”)