Emerging Artists in Residence – Winter Window Showcase

From December 22, 2021 to January 22, 2022, SNAP will be showcasing some works by SNAP Emerging Artists in Residence in a Winter Window Showcase.

SNAP will be closed for a winter break, but you can enjoy these works by Emerging Artists in Residence Taryn Walker, Nicholas Hertz, Kev Liang, and Xi Jin up in the window space. Read more about these works below:

Taryn Walker
Sentiments of a Swarm – Installation Component
Ink Drawing & Linocut
2019

“Sentiments of a Swarm”, explores our relationships between image and language, body and nature, the known and the unknown, and the tangible and indescribable. This artwork combines elements from both my drawing and installation practices emphasizing the ongoing dialogue between the two.

For many years I have used flies to balance compositions. They have become a key symbol in my personal iconography. The meaning changes from drawing to drawing, but I like the idea of the flies being an invasive, incessant swarm. I continually explore ideas of metamorphosis and cycles within my work and use flies as a tool to cue these themes.

Nicholas Hertz
The lamp by the bed is still broken
2021
60×32 inches
Digital print on satin cloth

Nicholas Hertz (he//they) holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Alberta. Through print media, performance and writing he explores the objectification of the queer body and the anthropomorphizing of environments. Driven by a misuse of space and image; the work attempts to deconstruct the viewer’s own understanding of the relationship between body and space.

Kev Liang
Jiā yóu
2021
6x8ft (tarp)
silkscreen on polyethylene tarp and digital film.

Using photographic and videographic means, I hope to create narratives in the form of print media and digital film, put into a contextual space that all encapsulates my feelings and grasp of my queer, diasporic, 2nd-generation Chinese-Canadian identity. I’ve been interested in tackling existential anxieties of feeling minuscule, insignificant, and/or lonely. These feelings are heightened and fuelled by being present within modular and systematic urban spaces and having an anthropocentric outlook on contemporary life. Drifting through fast-paced urban time and space after growing up in a very secluded and rural environment, I attempt to dissect the different cultural and philosophical aspects of my gay, 2nd-gen Chinese-Canadian identity as a means to try and understand why I have these existential fears. I hope to showcase my perspective and what I am feeling, as well as what I am doing in the present as a way of coping. By taking into consideration the traditional, cultural, and philosophical Chinese expectation of continuing your blood lineage and my inability to do so as a queer body, as well as the idea of Chinese-Canadian immigrants relying on labor and prosperity as a means of survival and presence, I ask myself and others: How much is at stake in terms of ensuring a long term presence or settled lineage for queer and diasporic identities like myself? How can I, or will I ever, find my own sense of kinship or family? Where do individuals like myself lie within an incredibly labor and wealth focused society?