Natalie Chen
Self-Portrait
They said the language you speak can affect the way you think. I was born in Taiwan and moved to California at the age of 17. I was away from family, and I was very aware of the cultural barriers and felt quite alienated. Ever since I was bouncing between my culture and the American culture and couldn’t figure out a safe place to stand. There is a lack of consensus about what is appropriate to my parents and how to survive under high school peer pressure in America. When I was 22, I learned that cultural confusion plays a key role in developing depression. Photography allowed me to create a sense of poetry that counteracted with the struggle of psychological chaos I felt inside. Often I reflect on my past; I ruminate over my experiences as a daughter and a sister, my cultural identity, and my memories with my family and friends. I want to create personal work to resonate minds. I use food as the main ingredient in my work. It represents cultures and regions, creates emotions and stories, and connects my Eastern and Western cultures. I also create imagery with a sense of familiarity in life, using daily objects to set the story and incorporating sensual fabrics and textures to set the canvas for my imaginations. While I am embracing my Western culture more every day, the memories of the homemade dishes, little items from childhood and the images of being surrounded by my family are slowly becoming more and more unfamiliar to me. This is why I was eager to create images of my past. I follow the concept of Maximalism - more is more, less is bore - living in this rapidly changing material world, I believe that putting more elements in the photographs would let the artwork speak to the viewers and reflect on their minds. The meanings of my photographs can be elusive. It builds upon the emotional and psychological journey between the images and the viewers. This intention makes looking at my photographs a storytelling, silent motion picture. I hope that the viewers walk away with a strong sense of emotion from my work.