Africa 

Part of a series of paintings of old women doing mundane tasks in rooms towards the end of their lives.

Women at a table 1. 

This painting is based off of a found photo. The photo depicts what appears to be a man tossing a baby in the air. By painting this moment, the artist brings out a sense of emotional tension and ambiguity, attempting to dive under the surface of the original image.

Baby Being Tossed

Started in 2018, finished in 2023, represents my impressions of a yearly event in our village.

Talk and Dance

Garage bar

El Acto

Mixed media, pencil, charcoal, house paint, oil, wallpaper

Vaticinator

Roadside Magic is an exploration into an imagined reality where the persecution of witches and cunning folk never too place. If history had taken this route, then our modern day might look very different, with herbal medicine, intention and spirituality forming part of everyday life, ingrained in the mundane and the practical. There would be no reason why the mechanic who comes to your aid in a breakdown, would also be versed in shamic practices, herb knowledge and other unknown magic. By inviting the viewer to imagine a reality where the natural world and the spiritual are deeply ingrained into the everyday, I hope to offer a different perspective and question how these elements are given value in our own reality.

Plant Magic Jump Starter

That Sunnyside Pride: Ms. Russell

Untitled002

The project shows the double face typical of love relationship: intimacy and danger. The dilution of a great number of red match heads in water creates a solution capable of dyeing textiles. The colour is a soft pink, but it also has an upsetting shade. When match heads are in water they are totally inoffensive, but when the dilution dries in a fabric, it regains its dangerous flammable property. Therefore, pink pillows seem ready for an idyllic relationship, but they hide the possibility of an explosion.

Till Death Do Us Part

As the restrictions of Covid set in, my work had to be increasing experienced over digital display. I chose to embrace the idea of experiencing a sculpture as an image. This piece was originally a large, laminated wood sculpture almost unseen by anyone. Instead, I used matte paint to remove shadows and placed it on a digital background to highlight it as a 2D image. Its existence as a sculpture is unrecognizable appearing as a computer-generated 3D model. The title brings attention to size and presence. The materials and its construction become obsolete as the viewer experience only the digital image. The importance of the sculpture as a physical object is questioned, as is a desire to see it in person. How we now experience art is in flux. This piece does not limit it as a digital image or a 3D sculpture.

12’ x 8’ x 8’ 

The Dream Universe of J is an ongoing art project that Chen did during her residency in Shanghai and Berlin. One of the videos ‘A Brief Introduction of J’s Dream Universe’ was firstly presented in the exhibition ‘Distilled Revery’ at Untitled Space, Shanghai. It was later developed into an immersive video installation that was presented to popular acclaim in the group exhibition ‘Orphaned Memories’, at SomoS exhibition space as part of the official program of the 2019 municipal 48Hours Neukölln Arts Festival.
  
  
This multi-media installation took the shape of an imaginary crime scene. Deepening her preoccupation with subconscious processes, the audience was invited to psychically follow the clues, ranging from poetic interventions and light/video installations to references to masters of Automatism, Brion Gysin and William S. Burroughs.

The Dream Universe of J

Molt Adherence

**This piece is based on the final sketch my dad made before he passed away. He could barely see and it is unclear what he meant by this drawing but most likely it was a landscape. I expanded his pencil drawing into a large scale abstarct landscape, transferring the lines he made onto the canvas ans adding colour to it. This piece is a collaboration with his soul where I bring him in into present moment.** 

Following your footsteps

He grew up in an African family in a predominantly white environment. From a young age, his friends, environment, and even sometimes his family made it very clear that he wasn’t Black enough, or too white. He was a Black kid trying to survive his own insecurities and problems while under pressure to be someone he wasn’t. Stuck somewhere in between.

  
Later, as a teenager, girls that he wanted to date repeatedly called him a Bounty \[chocolate bar\], white inside and black outside. That statement was hurtful. He was failing at being himself.

This changed his relationship with Black women. He always felt like he was failing them. So he tried to avoid them as much as possible.

  
It also changed his relationships with Black men.

  
As a teenager, he never really understood the concept of community. He didn’t have one. He had his family and his friends. His friends came from all different backgrounds.

One day, he was with who he thought were his friends. They had met another group of teenagers on a neighbourhood soccer field to play. They started arguing about who was going to play next and things escalated quickly. A fight was inevitable. Most of the kids there were white or brown. There were only two Black kids. One in each group.

  
One of his friends yelled to everyone that the two Black kids should fight to decide who was going to take the field. They physically pushed them toward each other. They fought. He won, but left. He went home and cried. He had no idea why he was crying.

  
Now he knows. Racism is not only about discrimination against Black people, it also teaches us to hate each other. It took him years to not see other Black men as threats but as people to be interested in, to talk to and to love.

  
Now that he’s older he wants to reclaim that past he never had. He’s trying to reimagine his memories with acceptance by the community. But memory is a tricky one... There might be some glitches and bugs.

  
And starting to dig the past always brings up unexpected things.

The Mother Lode. Domestic Attraction - The Eraser, 2020.

Soap Ground with Open Bite

The art piece made with many colorful layers of high-quality oil paint on canvas in a unique technique.

  
The series “Chasing Rainbows” is about the perception of the world of feelings. No one feels exactly the one emotion at the time, it’s always the crazy waterfall with undertones of sensations. And this rainbow of feelings Van Lanigh interprets in her works by running away from the real world of colours to the imaginary universe of impressions.

The Art of Happiness

"La Jaula" is an open cage. This series is born from the emotional and psychological trauma caused by the male body stereotype shared throughout Puerto Rico's conservative culture. The project focuses on black-and-white nude self-portraits that explore how the body communicates psychological shifts.

  
I began to develop "La Jaula" to cope with insecurities and understand whose body this was. I started by shielding myself, and once I felt comfortable enough, I removed motion and objects that hid my skin. After connecting with the project, I was curious to explore this new state of comfort in my homeland. It resulted in a new connection represented by nudity, a sense of belonging, and a clear contrast between my mental health state on colonist grounds vs. Puerto Rico. The project intends to have meaningful conversations across generations about relevant and timely topics, such as colonized bodies, repressed feelings, oppression, and the patriarchal hold over men's vulnerability. I wish to engage in decolonizing and anti-patriarchal conversations that hopefully help men realize the cage they live in due to our society's gender roles. 

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