Gayle Chong Kwan
Gayle Chong Kwan is a multidisciplinary artist and researcher who interrogates histories of colonialism, extraction and exploitation in her photographic, installation and participatory art practice. Chong Kwan studied history at the University of Manchester (1994) before later embarking on a Fine Art degree at Central Saint Martins (2000) and completing her practice-based PhD at the Royal College of Art (2022). Chong Kwan’s methods and use of medium is expansive, as she herself has written: ‘I have made landscapes out of rotting food, created an imaginary island that spans the length of a shopping centre, and transformed a concrete underpass into an immersive cave using 20,000 milk bottles, and worked with neuroscientists and taxi drivers to explore how we navigate our memories.’ A key motif in her practice is the creation and management of waste in relation to place, human relationships, and the body, as well as in relation to ecological disaster. Using waste material, food, plastics, and detritus, Chong Kwan creates architectural models, sculptural objects and mise-en-scene landscapes which are photographed and collaged in visually alluring and fantastical ways. Chong Kwan has used archival material and research-intensive methods to explore global histories of diaspora, immigration, and ecological deep time, as well as her own family heritage in Mauritius. In relation to these themes, Chong Kwan creates large-scale stage set-design cut outs from miniature archival photographs, sand sculptures emulating colonial architecture, and collages revealing geological strata, which are often displayed in public settings.
