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Kai Chan - Profile
Kai Chan is an artist who avoids being categorized. Always pushing the boundaries of his craft, Chan uses innovative techniques and materials that surprise and provoke, while conjuring sublime beauty from simple everyday materials. Chan is internationally recognised for his experimental approach to the art of textiles.
Originally from Sichuan, China, Chan was born in 1940 during the China-Japan war. His family moved to Hong Kong when he was nine and Chan recalls that because of the colonial nature of Hong Kong at the time, there were not many Chinese artefacts to look at. Chan's initial studies were in science, rather than art. He attended Chung Chi College in Hong Kong and received a diploma in Biology in 1963.
Kai Chan immigrated to Canada in 1966, and became a Canadian citizen in 1972. He attributes the strong sense of design that is apparent in his work to the training he received at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto, where he graduated from the Interior Design program in 1970. Prior to his graduation, Chan visited the Museum of Modern Art, in New York, in 1969, and was deeply moved by an exhibition of large format textile wall hangings by such artists as Polish textile pioneer Magdalene Abakanowicz and American textile artist Sheila Hicks. The huge woven pieces, by these artists and others in the exhibition, were a type of art form that Chan had never experienced before and he was hooked.
When he started out, Chan had no training as a textile artist and no technique to speak of. What he did have was a burning desire to create something that would be unique. The more he studied (taking courses at the Textile Interchange Program at The Banff Centre) and the more he became familiar with the work and techniques of other textile artists (working for a time in Sheila Hicks' studio), the more Chan became convinced that he wanted to create pieces that abandoned technique. "Making a warp is the only part of weaving that I know." says Chan. "I often feel overburdened by technique. I want to de-emphasize it."
Chan's explorations in textile forms and constructions have evolved over the years from experimentation with body adornments to more recent contemporary sculpture. His work has straddled many craft genres and has been exhibited and described as jewellery, basketry, tapestry, fashion, bookwork, fibrework, toy, contemporary art and sculpture.
Curator Sarah Quinton noted that "Kai Chan is a bit of a pack-rat with a sensibility that leans towards the kitchen, the workbench, the sewing room and the backyard." Chan says it has more to do with drawing his inspiration from everyday life and using the materials that reflect those moments in time. Chan's works have included twigs, balsa wood, cardboard, cinnamon sticks, garlic stems, bamboo, wire, plywood, pins, cloth, tissue paper, buttons and string. "I like to avoid working with machinery, even though sometimes it is necessary," says Chan. He also continues to create a special series of works with toothpicks.
"I started using toothpicks quite by accident," says Chan. "I was working on a maquette for a larger piece and had used toothpicks in the construction. It struck me when I was finished the model that the work had taken on a life of its own, because of the inherent qualities of the toothpicks themselves." Chan's toothpick and string constructions have become one of his artistic signatures. The compositions suggest calligraphy, ambiguous space, musical notations, vast exteriors... like fields of grass, and more intimate spaces... like hair follicles being parted on someone's head.
Chan admits that the body fascinates him, it's structure and anatomy. Throughout his career he has not only developed his textile works, but has also created body sculptures and jewellery that have earned him international acclaim. The jewellery work started quite innocently, in 1981, when Chan created a necklace of twigs and cinnamon sticks for a party gift for one of his colleagues. So taken were his guests by the creation that they encouraged him to enter the piece in a juried avant-guard jewellery exhibit that was coming up the following year in Britain. Not only was Chan's work accepted in the British Crafts Centre show, 3 years later, he had a one man show of his unusual jewellery creations at Galerie Ra in Amsterdam, considered one of the top contemporary jewellery galleries in the world.
Chan has exhibited extensively across Canada and has been recognized internationally with shows in Austria, Australia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. In 2001, The Art Gallery of Mississauga, Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery and the Museum London in London, Ontario, mounted a major solo exhibition of Chan's work Kai Chan: Rainbow Lakes which will continue to tour across Canada in 2002-2003.
Kai Chan was the recipient of the Jean A. Chalmers National Craft Award in 1998 and that same year, he was commissioned to create an original work of public art as a Mayoral Recognition for the Living Art Centre in Mississauga. For Chan, his greatest challenge as an artist is "creating something I have never seen before and hopefully that no one else has either." He says he also finds that his various explorations in one series of work can lead to new directions in other areas of his textile, jewellery and public art creations.
Chan's work is represented in numerous private and public collections, including the Canada Council Art Bank, Canadian Museum of Civilization, Ontario Crafts Council, Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum, Trondheim, Norway, and the Art Gallery of Szombathely, Hungary.
Kai Chan has conducted workshops across Canada throughout his career. Since 1984, he has taught children in the Artist-in-Education program run by the Ontario Arts Council and for the last three years he has taught in public schools in Toronto, through the Royal Conservatory of Music's "Learning through the Arts" program which integrates arts with school curriculum. Chan has also been a part-time instructor at the Ontario College of Art and Design. Chan enjoys teaching because it helps him clarify his own feelings and theories about his work, plus he says students sometimes inspire him.
"One belief that I have always had," says Chan, "is wanting to always abandon the rules in my chosen form of artistic expression. I have had the conviction to stay on this path and while it has not always been easy, it has forced me to constantly challenge myself, which in turn has resulted in my unique body of work."
Kai Chan lives and maintains a studio in Toronto.
Saidye Bronfman Award Recipients 1977-2002 | Saidye Bronfman Award
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