This month's artwork is by Kayn Chen, a Taiwanese, Taipei-based, multidisciplinary visual artist whose visceral, personal and mind-bending work ranges from fashion to graphic design, with a unique personality that's rooted in his culture and environment.
A bit of jogging and yoga will be better.
Where are you from, and where are you based?
I'm from Taiwan and currently based in Taipei.
What were your first creative experiences, and how did you arrive at your current creative practice?
I can’t clearly remember my very first creative experiences, but I’ve always been drawn to exploring art and music. I do a lot of research to develop the visual language I need, and I embrace every experience and emotion in my daily life to shape my own perspective.
What is your connection to electronic music? How is the scene where you are?
My connection to electronic music began with a few nights dancing at Koner (Taipei) with my best friend. Back then, I would always take their free flyers back to my studio and dive deep into researching them. The club scene in Taipei seems to be going through some changes lately — more and more niche collectives are starting to throw their own parties.
In my practice, I try to let different mediums respond to the environment I live in, the era I grew up in, and the people I interact with. Through this approach, I aim to make the thinking behind my work—and the meaning it carries—a kind of language that speaks for the land I come from.
Are there themes that you would say frequently come through your work? If so, what are they, and why?
Like I mentioned earlier, local culture and daily life have always been a big part of what I try to express. Besides being a creator, I kind of see myself as a social observer too—sharing what life in Taiwan looks like through my own lens.
Your work has a really distinctive sense of personality. How much of yourself do you put into what you do?
It really depends on the type of project. If it's a commercial collaboration, the client’s needs usually shape how much of myself I put into it. But for personal projects, I try to be honest with my emotions, work through them, and then fully dedicate myself to the piece.
I feel like the freedom here in Asia isn’t that high right now, since visual art still isn’t a mainstream experience. Most people probably don’t fully get abstract visual languages yet. But with the rise of AI-generated images, I think the public's understanding of visuals is definitely improving.
Finally, can you tell us a bit about the artwork you made for us?
The initial version of this piece was created when I first started accumulating visual works. At the time, I was still working at a large fashion company and felt bored and drained every day. The power struggles and hidden conflicts within the organization disgusted me, so I secretly created this sketch of the internal politics of big corporations when no one was watching. The lines used to divide the image were inspired by a motorcycle brand called Kymco, as I was riding one to work at the time. This led me to conduct a lot of research on Taiwan's motorcycles. Overall, it’s a sketch of a motorcycle-riding office worker’s perspective on the company.