Ezra Chiu

Contemporary Art Practice (MA)

About

Ezra Chiu is an interdisciplinary artist. He works with sound design, video art, performance, and illustration. Through his practice, he reconciles fantastical and surreal narratives within everyday life, probing at the intersections of different mediums.

By juxtaposing contrasting sensory ideas, he reveals the interactions and relationships that emerge, creating spaces for empathy towards the monstrous and inviting the audience into shared vulnerability.

Abject tenderness is central to Chiu’s work. By playing with self-reflection as a tool for self-repulsion, he reconciles aspects of fractured or lost identities. Drawing from his own experience as a transmasc, second-generation British-Chinese person, Chiu’s art examines into personal and communal identity.

Technically, Chiu’s process involves interweaving mediums. He combines animation and live-action footage with soundscapes made from both found sounds and original compositions. In performance, Chiu uses his body as a doll or prop to explore themes of identity and transformation, often incorporating elements of drag and physical theatre.

Chiu’s work is influenced by Stuart Home’s idea of radical inauthenticity – the idea that the pursuit of authenticity often reinforces elitist practices. He questions the concept that communal truth can be found within individual narratives. He employs gimmicks to sensationalize mundanity, inspired by 80s horror directors such as Cecelia Condit, Shinja Tsukamoto, and Jan Svankmajer, as well as contemporary visual artists like Shintaro Kago and Xue Jiye.

Chiu’s work walks the line between humorous and grotesque. By exposing raw, sometimes unsettling emotions that lie beneath mundane experiences, he recollects the experiences of the day-to-day. He greets the kitsch with sombre earnestness.

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