Holly Chang

I am an interdisciplinary artist working across photography, ceramics, textiles, sculpture, natural dyeing, collage and installation. In particular, I am drawn to found and discarded textile materials, archives, and images which I repurpose and transform - I am fascinated in how forming and reforming can construct new narratives around identity. I am focused on the transformation of materials and processes of making as a way to explore hybridity - between myself and the mediums I engage with. I am a queer mixed-race artist from Toronto, Canada and these experiences inform my approach to material practice - investigating the intersections and parallels between alternative ways of existing. I often look at these topics through the lens of nature, ecologies, and history. Craft is a significant focus of my work as a site of beauty, slowness, and as something that has been historically regarded as lesser than other fine arts – craft is a space that offers affirmation; what does it mean to subvert the space of craft to investigate race and gender? I adopt a wide range of craft traditions to unpack the layered emotional nuances that are present with the anxieties surrounding a hybrid identity which manifest as feeling like an outsider. I often work to transform craft into my exhibitions and installations where I attempt to dissolve the boundaries between the viewer and the work - I look towards installation as a way to live inside of something. I maintain a pedagogical practice and contribute to community-based engagement and facilitation work, where I engage with community for inspiration, ways of retelling stories, and how I can give back through teaching.