Susan M B Chen
I paint to investigate the poetics of space. A first-generation
American and a millennial; I use dualities, portals, and
the interior–exterior juxtaposition to touch on themes of
displacement, dissonance, a search for belonging, and anxieties
framed by the digital world. These imaginary, whimsical
escapes situated outside the window suggest a sense of longing:
an “I am here, but I’d rather be there” kind of feeling—much
like Matisse’s window paintings from his time in the south of
France. I am further influenced by the daily postings of “altered
realities” by my peers on social media.
The use of windows as subtle framing devices hints at the
omnipresent laptop monitors that we subconsciously allow
to dominate our everyday lives. We are constantly offered the
potential fulfillment of desires and escapism via windows into
another world. The inside–outside similarly echoes this duality
of space in which my generation exists, one containing both
our online, outer selves and our actual selves beyond the
digital screen.