Selected Exhibitions
|
2017
|
"Discerning Eyes", Group Exhibition, Art Beatus
Gallery, Hong Kong
|
2015
|
"People's Chefs", Solo Exhibition, Art Beatus
Gallery, Hong Kong
|
Awards
|
2013
|
"Last Supper", The Center for Fine Art
Photography, USA, shortlisted
|
|
"Sing Around the World", Prix de le Photographie
Paris, Bronze Award
|
|
"Green Monday", Prix de le Photographie Paris,
Honorable mention
|
|
"People's Chef", Prix de le Photographie Paris,
Honorable mention |
2012
|
"Happy Man", Hong Kong Photo Book Awards,
Honorable mention
|
|
"The Tin Soldier", Multi-Media Photography, Hong
Kong Contemporary Art Awards, shortlisted
|
Artist Statement
People’s Chefs - Photo Works by Pazu Chan
Whenever we think of a chef, we think about gourmet
cuisine, white uniform, tall toque as well as a
scorching kitchen. Yet these symbolic imageries often
are not the true illustrations of a real chef. By
shadowing 18 award-winning master chefs of various
nationalities working in London and Hong Kong, I try to
explore a chef’s identity from a different perspective.
In my exploration, there are no photo works of food,
kitchen or secret recipe. Unveiled through the lenses
are the lesser-known facets of these chefs and their
candid dispositions. I traced their footsteps around
London and Hong Kong, feeling the pulses and beats of
these two metropolis world famous for food and cuisines,
photo-snapping unique cityscapes and vanishing street
corners but most importantly, recording these chefs’
connections to their cities.
A chef’s culinary creativity usually revolves around
their daily life, living environment, personal
encounters and experiences. Set in various distinctive
cityscapes of London and Hong Kong, my photographs
reflect the interactions between these master chefs and
their cities. Through the breaking of the stereotypical
confinement that comes with their profession, I have
amplified the chefs’ personality and identity by staging
them outside the kitchens and presenting them at ease as
integral parts of the communities.
The chefs:
From internationally heralded star chefs to local
legendary culinarians, these 18 award-winning chefs
share the same passion in cooking. Their legendary
journeys in life as well as their sentiments towards
their cities have fuelled their motivation and
persistence to lead in their current achievements.
The cities:
Eighteen chefs explored places outside of their kitchens
and were photographed in their chef’s whites. The
backdrop, be it in a London street or at the Hyde Park,
or a unique street corner of one vanishing cityscape of
Hong Kong, together these emblematic symbols provide
audiences with a different perspective.
The juxtaposition of the chefs and the cities creates a
contrast as well as a harmony, familiar and yet somewhat
unusual. Perhaps without these very individualistic
sentiment and perception towards their respective city,
these chefs would not have become who they are and their
food would not have tasted as they are now.
The People’s Chefs is to realize my concept to record or
to change the interactive relationship between urban
development and people, as well as to explore the human
factors and sentiments behind symbolism.
For further
information, please contact:
Canada: tel: (1) 604.688.2633,
fax: (1) 604.688.2685
|
