Artist Statement:

In this work, I revisited the histories of my female elders where I recreated scenes from the lives of four generations of women in my family and represented this narrative in a dramatically vivid way. By introducing a private interpretation of historical events and family traumas, and adding photographic intervention, I created a new degree of reality, a potentially more plausible, yet fictional world.

 

   By using photographic interventions, I want the audience to be aware that there is an “I” beyond the camera. What role do I play? As a victim of intergenerational trauma, I pass on this damage between women, but my existence is also a reflection of social progress and female empowerment. Extending the photograph beyond the camera and emphasizing “I” as part of the photograph is essential to my work. My very existence can be one of the meanings of this project.

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Biography:

 

Shuyuan Zhou (she/her, b. 2001) is a lens-based artist and poet currently based in Chicago. Her work critically examines patriarchal structures in East Asian societies, engaging with themes such as intergenerational trauma and domestic violence. Her recent projects explore nostalgia, immigrant identity, and the emotional residue of familial and cultural displacement.

 

   Born and raised in China, Zhou holds a B.A. from Duke University. She is currently pursuing her MFA in Photography at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has been exhibited at EXPO CHICAGO, Atlanta Photography Group, and the Center for Photographic Art, among others. She was named one of the Top 25 in the 2024 Lenscratch Student Prize and is also a recipient of the Shirley Graham and W.E.B. Du Bois Award.

 

Price: $200