Ss1 — CLOISTRAL with Kelcy Timmons Chan
Balancing communality and isolation within the pop art vernacular
Throughout January, Studio Sessions explores the balancing act between isolation and community with a series entitled CLOISTRAL
WORDS BY CASSANDRA HENRY
ART BY KELCY TIMMONS CHAN
When one thinks of the words “community” or “togetherness,” the feeling evoked is that of being seen, heard, and understood. But Kelcy Timmons Chan’s understanding of these words includes the juxtaposition that feeling heard and seen cannot come without the opposite experience. A Cantonese-Canadian muralist, painter, and illustrator, Chan’s website describes them as “mixed raced, mixed gendered, and often very mixed up.” So you’ll find it quite appropriate that their approach to the work they do focuses on the expression of balancing “isolation and community.”
A passing glance at some of Chan’s paintings might elicit a thought or two about the extroverted usage of colours and patterns, but a closer, longer look reveals a vividly introspective artistry. Chan conceives of these dualities, between isolation and community, availability and introversion, as a vital flexibility in queer culture. In a system of self-expression that often incentivizes people to adapt rigid modes of being and relating, Chan’s oeuvre embraces a malleability that allows viewers to look both within and without for the places they belong, and within those spaces, celebrate the individualities they each hold.
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