Liu Chen

Bio.

Liu Chen is a self-taught multidisciplinary artist from Vietnam. Through the novel lens of the youth, her project hopes to exploit the materials from the Japanese drama of Kabuki with a softer and subtler approach from the narrative point of Okuni - a woman who provoked the world’s cultural heritage to shed light on the human values and the pure yet hidden altruism. 

Each photograph from the collection is a progressive stage in Okuni’s emotions: from the blooming hope during the early days of recognition, the bitter humiliation of blasphemy, to the soothing cure when she realized she could make fruitful contributions to the country. Neither Okuni nor the Onnagatas has taken precedence of their egos over the welfare of the nation, highlighting the unique feature of the Kabuki from the Land of the Rising Sun. Kabuki is also the reflecting image of who created it: a true artist having undergone a maturing process with many obstacles starting with an ordinary type of street entertainment that was criticized and banned irrationally. Yet, throughout the formation and existence of Kabuki, such inhibitions are perhaps essential to fabricating today’s courageous Kabuki.