Deep Ecology: New Work by Ying Kit Chan

The University of Louisville Hite Art Institute is pleased to present Deep Ecology: New Work by Ying Kit Chan. The exhibition will open to the public October 3, 2014 coinciding with the First Friday Trolley Hop.

This faculty project signifies a new conceptual development in Ying Kit Chan’s more than three decades of art making. The exhibition title is a direct reference to the writings of the contemporary environmental movement, which celebrates the richness and diversity of all life forms. The works on display include images of deteriorating industrial landscapes and environmental disasters alongside plant life, revealing the artist’s understanding of the built environment and the natural world as a volatile system compelled to evolve cohesively.

This turn towards a holistic interpretation of the dynamic relationship between humankind and the environment is organized by his effort as a translator of ideas and language. Chan translates ecological comments written by John Muir, Henry Thoreau, Rachel Carson into Chinese, and excerpts Taoist and Buddhist philosophical texts. The manifestation of this process in the forms of acrylic drawings, mono-prints, photography and mixed media, declare his commitment to intellectual inquiry and the creation of paths to knowledge that evolve through the expression, transmission, interpretation and re-interpretation of ideas and perceptions.

The majority of work in Deep Ecology was produced during Chan’s sabbatical from the University of Louisville, where he is Professor and Chair of the Department of Fine Arts. This project was funded in part by an Intramural Research Incentive Grant (IRIG) from the Office of the Executive Vice President for Research and Innovation at the University of Louisville. In conjunction with University of Louisville’s 2014 Translation and the Global Humanities Symposium sponsored by the Liberal Studies Project and the Humanities Ph.D. Program, Ying Kit Chan will give a gallery talk on Thursday, October 16, 6:00 pm.