Through his camera lens, Michael Chen sees overlooked corners and offers his unique interpretations of the visible world. His approach is highly individualistic and personal; however, when these photographs become objects to be viewed in the public, they assume a complex identity posited somewhere between the viewer and the viewed. This group of works does not aim to highlight a certain corner or art object, but rather the photographer himself as well as how he sees his subjects through the different perspectives.
When artworks are purposefully displayed in a preconceived exhibition space for public viewing, how does the audience scan the artworks and interact with this designed, man-made space? With a keen photographer’s eye, Chen has captured the fleeting moments when people respond to artworks, turning active viewers in gallery and other spaces into those being scrutinized through his lens. When honing in on this theme, we notice many more intriguing layers regarding the action of viewing—from the artworks that are viewed in the space, to the audience viewed by the photographer in the exhibitions, to the final display of these photographs in a museum, and to the audience being once again given the active role of seeing how the photographer perceives the audience viewing the artworks in a museum. The alternating subjective and objective roles extend the visual meaning of the works through the photographer’s unique selection of the exhibition sites. Such concept originates from the fact that exhibitions and artworks are intrinsically objects meant to be viewed. When the audience step into the exhibition space and are invited to view the artworks, it is possible that they might become the ones being viewed by future audiences in this endless cycle of identity swap. As the active and passive roles alternate between that of viewing and being viewed, the audience’s role also changes between the subjective and the objective. In this constant alternation lies the idea which the photographer hopes to put forth; it differs from what is achievable through other art forms and offers many possible facets for reading.