Jenny Chan
Words by Gabriela Cruzado Obiacoro
Over the past two months, Norman Rea Gallery, together with York Anti-Racist Collective Society, has been running a campaign to increase awareness and support diversity in the art community, specifically within the University’s Art Collection. The fundraiser aims to represent the diversity of York and to make the Art Collection more representative of its students, with currently only 2.2% of the whole collection being artworks by POC artists. We are very lucky that a unique and expressive artist decided to be involved with the fundraiser by donating a piece of her artwork to the University Art Collection.
Perfect situated on the Right of the Image
Jenny Chan was born in Hong Kong and was raised mostly on the small, remote island of Nauru in Micronesia. There were limited distractions in her upbringing, encouraging Jenny to tinker with her creativity. Jenny first used art as a way to alleviate the anxiety and isolation of being a new immigrant – having only moved to the UK six years ago. It wasn’t until much later when Jenny’s artistic career really flourished. With reflective craftsmanship, Jenny tells stories through each of her figurative sculptures.
Perfect is a ceramic culture that displays a ‘perfect’ huge bottom. Created by stoneware clay and high fired to 1240C, this special sculpture emphasizes the imperfections on our body, through the wonky boobs and bum being shown on the same side.
Throughout this campaign, we have been putting lots of emphasis on representation. The image of a “perfect” body in our modern world is usually not a great representation of the different types of normal bodies. This leads to an unrealistic comparison that affects the mental health and thoughts of individuals. This sculpture expresses the diversity of our physical looks, and encourages people to appreciate the beauty of having different body types. I think this sculpture adds a distinctive touch of representation to the collection. The perfect sculpture by Jenny Chan succeeds in telling a story to everyone who looks at it that what you believe are imperfections in your body, is actually a work of art.
