At sea with the stars; Curated by Ana Carolina Ralston
07.31-08.31.2021

At sea with the stars; Curated by Ana Carolina Ralston

Fran Chang 07.31-08.31.2021
"At sea with the stars", by Ana Carolina Ralston

A flight across the sky. Sun rays penetrate the clouds, touch the ground, water, earth. The drops that accumulate in that blue expanse condense, transforming that space. The wind blows and invades the atmosphere inhabited by human beings, but also covered by molecules, which resist and spread. In fact, for a few seconds it is as if we had part of our atoms released in the air, observing this natural spectacle, and suddenly realizing our own  significance in the world – as simple as it is tiny when compared to the immensity that surrounds us.

Words seem to reach only part of what Fran Chang’s painting makes us feel. The works function like windows, through which it is possible to glimpse a fantastic world, mixing the real and the imaginary towards places that we might perhaps come across in the cosmos. A kind of clash between heaven and earth, underwater and stellar landscapes, mirrored in the creation of a new world. The universe serves as the basis for this superhuman leap by the artist towards painting. With a Bachelor in Visual Arts from the University of Fine Arts of São Paulo, Chang completed her course in Astrophysics at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC). This academic education gave her a look that travels light-years, delicately unraveled by the fine bristles of her brush over translucent silk, a prime fabric at her studio.

Of Asian descent, Chang brings more than the physical characteristics of such a relationship with the eastern side of the Earth. Her mother was born in Taiwan and from there she brought habits and teachings organically passed on to her daughter, such as her love for manual techniques, fashion and sewing. Thus, before dedicating herself to painting, Chang wrapped herself in fabrics and followed with her attentive eyes the route of the silk, fabric that she chose to stretch on her chassis. The transparency of the weft is one of the inherent points of her work, allowing the ambient light play its transforming role in each piece. Light is a fundamental part of the artist’s creation, either the one she herself develops through the colors she chooses to compose each painting, but also that which permeates the world we inhabit and highlights specific scenes of the image depicted in front of us.

More than anything, Chang’s work can be read as a free translation of the triad discussed by Plato, which revolves around the good, the beautiful and the truth. Her universe is full of truths. There are no half words in her repertoire, only a bright flash that comes as light directly to the viewer’s eyes. The magic of her production is science, but also poetry. It’s a sea filled with stars.

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