Artist Research: David Chan

One of my ideas I want to try is that of combining animals and humans to create a hybrid. Below are images from Chan's recent exhibition "Hybrid Society -- Schizophrenia". Within this he has created works combining both animals and humans in various pieces. David Chan works to explore the "unpredictable nature" of human behaviour, and uses the animals as a sort of metaphor for this. This is an interesting message which can be interpreted in various ways. Chan himself says that he is inspired by well-composed stories from novels to films, to again this can be where the ideas of having a message can develop from. The idea of hybrids comes from the idea of genetic engineering, and the articles he would read. Chan says that it is "precisely this diverse combination of human personalities that make it an ideal form of representation." (David Chan, 2009, CNNGo.com)

 

The paintings here show the combination of the human and animal, but share characteristics with each other. The face of the eagle matches that of the position that it the human body is in, sort of annoyance. The same is to be said with the other images. 


The sculptures to the right are also part of his exhibition. They are quite large pieces that again merge the idea of hybrids together. The lions in these are reflective of a stereotypical family group. The man seems to be bringing back food, whilst the woman holds the baby. 


The idea of merging the positions and moods of the animals within the human posture or the expressions is something I would like to try and achieve within my photographs. Obviously, with painting and sculpture achieving something when you are in creation of the mood the face can have is easier than making an animal pose in a particular way. Therefore digital, or film, manipulation is necessary in order for the photos to look like one image as opposed to two combined. Also, there must be an order in which to take the separate images, with the unpredictable animal to be taken first, before working the human model around this. Taking into account the idea of double exposure employed by Uelsmann, I can experiment with the same shots as I have tried with digital on film, broadening the experimental level of my development, trying out new things I haven't tried in previous Photography ideas.