Kent Chan is an artist, curator and filmmaker based in Netherlands and Singapore.
2023 Biennial Year Find out more
His practice revolves around our encounters with art, fiction and cinema that form a triumvirate of practices porous in form, content and context. He holds particular interest in the tropical imaginary, the past and future relationships between heat and art, and contestations to the legacies of modernity as the epistemology par excellence. The works and practices of others often form the locus of his works, which have taken the form of film, text, conversations and exhibitions.
He is an upcoming resident at Medialab Matadero and a former resident of Gasworks (2022) and Jan van Eyck Academie (2019/20). He has held solo and two-person presentations at Kunstinstituut Melly, de Appel, Bonnefanten Museum and Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst.
Liverpool Biennial 2023
'Hot House' (2020-ongoing)
‘Hot House’ is an installation and project space which forms part of Chan’s ongoing research into climate, history, culture, and the tropics as an imaginary region. Heat and humidity are at the centre of encounters with art objects in the Hot House, in a process akin to fermentation. The Hot House positions the process of fermentation as a vehicle to explore historic narratives and future imaginations.
In their journals, colonisers often referenced the intense heat of the tropics. ‘Hot House’ works through and against these colonial narratives, questioning the cool, temperature-controlled museum conditions which are used for the conservation of objects and artefacts and, instead, presents these collections and storage solutions as manifesting ideals of the superiority of one climate and
‘Hot House’ is an installation and project space which forms part of Chan’s ongoing research into climate, history, culture, and the tropics as an imaginary region. Heat and humidity are at the centre of encounters with art objects in the Hot House, in a process akin to fermentation. The Hot House positions the process of fermentation as a vehicle to explore historic narratives and future imaginations. In their journals, colonisers often referenced the intense heat of the tropics. ‘Hot House’ works through and against these colonial narratives, questioning the cool, temperature-controlled museum conditions which are used for the conservation of objects and artefacts and, instead, presents these collections and storage solutions as manifesting ideals of the superiority of one climate and culture over another. Here, Chan has engaged with artworks and artefacts of tropical provenance from the Global Cultures collections of National Museums Liverpool, World Museum to create a new series of three videos and an installation. The work opens a discussion as to how these objects are viewed and why they have historically found their way into institutions far away from their home countries, where the climatic conditions are often very different. Each of the three videos is accompanied by a group of three objects displayed on warehouse trolleys – at specific moments during the exhibition, the objects are wheeled in and out of the Hot House. The videos provide a fictionalised narrative through which the objects contemplate how they have come to be in a museum collection in Liverpool. As we continue to experience the increasing impact of the climate crisis, Chan uses the current abundance of heat and humidity as a space for thought, dialogue, reflection, imagination and play. He asks us to consider the original purpose and intended life span of these objects, and what it means to have them eternally conserved. Supported by Mondriaan Fund and National Arts Council Singapore
'Hot House' (2020-ongoing)
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Kent Chan, ‘Hot House’ 2020-ongoing. Liverpool Biennial 2023 at The Bluecoat. Courtesy of Liverpool Biennial. Photography by Mark McNulty
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Kent Chan, ‘Hot House’ 2020-ongoing. Liverpool Biennial 2023 at The Bluecoat. Courtesy of Liverpool Biennial. Photography by Stuart Whipps
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Kent Chan, ‘Hot House’ 2020-ongoing. Liverpool Biennial 2023 at The Bluecoat. Courtesy of Liverpool Biennial. Photography by Stuart Whipps
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Kent Chan, ‘Hot House’ 2020-ongoing. Liverpool Biennial 2023 at The Bluecoat. Courtesy of Liverpool Biennial. Photography by Stuart Whipps
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Kent Chan, ‘Hot House’ 2020-ongoing. Liverpool Biennial 2023 at The Bluecoat. Courtesy of Liverpool Biennial. Photography by Stuart Whipps
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Liverpool Biennial 2023, uMoya: The Sacred Return of Lost Things. Instillation at Bluecoat Liverpool, Photography by Mark McNulty
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Kent Chan, ‘Hot House’ 2020-ongoing. Liverpool Biennial 2023 at The Bluecoat. Courtesy of Liverpool Biennial. Photography by Mark McNulty
