Anne Chan MFA

Brief bio:

Born in New York, NY and raised in Baltimore,Anne Chan received her MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2006 and her BA in Studio Art from Washington College in Chestertown, MD in 2000. Her work has been exhibited at Lamar Dodd Art Center, LaGrange, GA; Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, VA; Maryland Art Place, Baltimore, MD and most recently in WPA’s 2007 OPTIONS Biennial in DC. She was selected as a So-Hamiltonian Artist Fellow for 2008-2009. Currently she is a studio artist at School 33 Art Center.

Artist’s statement:

Staples are inherently utilitarian. They are made with a specific function and task at hand. Stiff, cold and metallic, staples are a common product of a corporate cubicle world. Symbolizing the human condition, I question whether we have become so regimented in our routine as to be lifeless. Are we on automatic? In the age of technology have we become inhuman? Experimenting with size and scale I create a representative world of my own. To alter and control the viewer’s perspective of the object, I produce photographs almost cinema-graphically under controlled lighting. Would you want to live here? Are we currently living in such a confining society?

I began this series of photographs and installations as a social commentary on cubicle-farm life, highlighting a corporate culture that is monotonous, hierarchal, micromanaging, non-creative, inflexible, and even inhumane (the phrase “chained to a desk”comes to mind). I’m inspired by the work of photographers, Andreas Gursky, James Casebere, Thomas Demand and Edward Burtynsky, along with installation artists such as Do Ho Suh, whose work can be both subtle and powerful. As I continue to think about society as a whole, I’m also inspired by architecture and urban life. I continue to contemplate the idea of “work” and how one can be weighed down by the mundane tasks of their daily life.
 

www.annechanenterprises.com